Roger Ailes Fox News Chief - Pronuclear & Antirenewable

[kristopher]

Roger Ailes Bio Reveals Just How Anti-Science, Anti-Clean Energy The Fox News Chief Is
BY JOE ROMM ON JANUARY 15, 2014 AT 5:42 PM

A new biography of Fox News Chief (and founding CEO) Roger Ailes suggests that he actually believes a lot of the anti-science, anti-clean energy nonsense he puts on the air. Ailes didn’t just drink the Kool Aid, he apparently mixed it himself.
The book, “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” explains that Ailes would rail against Obama to his neighbors in upstate New York with bizarre arguments, claiming for instance:

… climate change was a “worldwide conspiracy” spun by ”foreign nations” to gain control of America’s resources.

...candidates like Former Utah Governor Huntsman would have to pass the Roger Ailes anti-science litmus test:

In a meeting at Fox news, Ailes flatly told Huntsman, “You are not of our orthodoxy,” citing his stance on climate change. (“To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy,” Huntsman had tweeted)

...

Consider Fox News’ drumbeat attacks on federal support for solar energy, one of the most popular government programs in the country across the political spectrum. A book excerpt on TPM explains why Ailes pushed the attacks during the 2012 campaign, which saw more than 600 Fox appearances by GOP presidential candidates in 2011 alone:

But as Fox’s pundits and anchors pushed the candidates into the conspiracy swamps of … Solyndra, the bankrupt solar panel company, Fox risked alienating independent viewers—and voters.
It was a case of Ailes being unable to put his party’s goal of winning independents ahead of his personal views. “He doesn’t like green energy—period,” a senior producer said. “He says all the time that no one in America has died from nuclear power, but fifteen people have been chopped up by those damn windmills.”

....

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/15/3164221/roger-ailes-bio-fox-news-anti-science/

[kristopher]

1. Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules

Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules
BY RYAN KORONOWSKI ON JANUARY 17, 2014 AT 4:55 PM

The top Republican in the Senate is looking at unprecedented legislative tactics to try to stop the EPA from regulating carbon pollution from coal plants.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor on Thursday (video here) to tell his colleagues about a letter he had just written to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The letter asks if McConnell and 41 Republican cosponsors can use the Congressional Review Act to reverse a proposed regulation — a rule that is not final — setting carbon standards for new power plants.

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows Congress to repeal a final rule issued by the Executive Branch within 60 legislative days of being published in the Federal Register. The proposed rule on carbon standards was published in the Federal Register last week. No senator has filed a CRA challenge to a rule that is not yet final. And even for finalized rules, the CRA has only succeeded once since its creation in 1996.

“We believe the EPA regulation in question clearly meets the definition for Congressional Review under this statute,” McConnell argued on the Senate floor. Essentially he claims that coal plant construction that starts after the proposed rule is published would be liable under the standard — this is what the GAO will have to consider. Chuck Young, Managing Director of Public Affairs at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told Climate Progress that the agency had received the request. What happens next is that it will go through the same process that all Congressional requests go through before any decisions get made — that process takes a “couple weeks.”

The resolution will first go to the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, chaired by Senator Barbara Boxer, and though she likely will not act on it, McConnell can ....

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/17/3173161/mcconnell-tactic-reverse-carbon-pollution-rules/

But he loves nuclear and 'clean coal' - after all the Republicans are all about cleaning up the environment, don'cha know.