A large amount of toxic coal ash containing heavy metals fell into Lake Michigan, fouling the waters that serve as a public resource for Gwen Moore’s constituents. So, what is Gwen Moore telling the voters of Wisconsin’s 4th district tonight about why she voted to prevent tough standards for coal ash disposal from going into effect?

Yesterday, Bob Latta introduced H.R. 3185, legislation that would provide a special exemption that would allow electric power plants to violate pollution standards in order to keep more money in their accounts. It strains credulity to assert that it’s only a coincidence that Latta’s top sources of money would profit from Latta’s proposed new law.

Representatives and senators will all offer conspicuous memorials of the relatively small number of deaths from terrorist attack, because those deaths fit nicely within their chosen political frame: The idea that Americans have to fear evil foreigners, and spend huge amounts of money on military machines to provide for defense.

To confront the much more dangerous threat from smog is less convenient to their political agendas. To reduce the threat of smog would, after all, require Americans to look at their own behaviors, and for powerful corporate donors to restrain their impulse to seize profit regardless of the consequences.

Why is the caucus refusing to confront Barack Obama’s anti-progressive agenda on these two issues? Is it because the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are Democrats, and Barack Obama is also a Democrat? The caucus appears to be using its Progressive Promise as a partisan tool to use when it benefits the Democratic Party, and to ignore when it becomes politically inconvenient.

A list of the top Republican recipients of money from the Communist-colluding ConocoPhillips, which spilled huge amounts of crude oil into Bohai Bay this week, and gives its workers a mere pittance compared to its cash hog CEO James Mulva.

Tom Carper intends to hold Obama Administration officials accountable for the President’s embrace of pro-smog policies. Carper will hold a hearing of the Clean Air Subcommittee about the decision to abandon anti-ozone regulations, at which Obama White House officials will be forced to testify.

With her weak statement on Obama’s capitulation to the American Petroleum Institute, Barbara Boxer took a step toward sacrificing environmental needs on the altar of partisan loyalty. If she is to retain the trust of American environmentalists, Senator Barbara Boxer needs to stop making excuses for Barack Obama, and denounce with clarity the Obama Administration’s abandonment of environmental responsibility and scientific integrity.

Thanks for American Electric Power and and FirstEnergy, the State of Ohio has more coal-fired generating capacity than any other state in the nation. Ohio’s electric sector also has the ignominious honor of ranking FIRST in the amount of toxic air pollution it emitted in 2009, emitting more than 44.5 million pounds of harmful chemicals, which accounted for 65% of the state’s pollution and 12% of toxic pollution from all U.S. power plants.

H.R. 1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act, would enable a pipeline to snake down from Canada into the United States, threatening a huge range of America’s sensitive ecosystems along the way. The pipeline would run through the Ogllala Aquifer, endangering a huge supply of clean water. What’s more, the oil would come from Alberta’s tar sands, which yield commercially usable oil only through an extremely expensive and inefficient process that creates a massive amount of pollution.

Not one Republican voted in favor of Kathy Hochul’s spending cuts to bring accountability to the Bureau of Land Management. As much as the House Republicans talk about bringing spending under control, they chose to block action on Hochul’s spending reduction amendment.