Around the end of December, the American Consumer Institute, which appears to be a fly-by-night anti-regulation group, posted a poll about The Pickens Plan on their website.

The official Pickens Plan account at the Ning Social Network page immediately posted a link to the poll, practically begging the (175,000+) members of the group to show their support by voting.

The American Consumer Institute is hosting a poll asking the public if they support Pickens Plan.

This is an excellent opportunity to show that we do!

Please take a moment and participate in the poll. You can add your vote by clicking here.

Thank you!

Three weeks later, when the results came in, there weren’t many surprises:

Over the last couple of weeks, we asked our readers whether they supported the Pickens Plan to achieve energy independence. And, here are the final results:

* 95% YES (902 votes)
* <1% NO (8 votes)
* 4% Partially Support (34 votes)
* <1% Undecided (2 votes)

Based on these results, our readers overwhelmingly support the Pickens Plan.

Imagine that. Not to be outdone, the flacks at the Pickens blog followed up immediately with American Consumers’ Support for the Pickens Plan: Overwhelming!:

The organization “The American Consumer” did a survey to test support for the Pickens Plan. According to its website, 95% of those responding said they supported the Pickens plan in full.

Another four percent support portions of the Pickens plan.

Just one percent of those responding disagreed with the Pickens Plan or were undecided

This is intentionally misleading. Pickens has a bad habit of intentionally misleading people about the nature of his plan. Here are a few examples:

Encouraging new data (pdf) from the Federal Highway Administration:

Travel on all roads and streets changed by -5.3% (-12.9 billion vehicle miles) for November 2008 as compared with November 2007. Travel for the month is estimated to be 230.4 billion vehicle miles.

This is the type of trend I like to see:

Mark Perry explains:

The thirteen consecutive monthly declines (November 2007 through November 2008) in miles driven compared to the same month in the previous year represents one of the most significant adjustments to driving behavior in American history.

Unfortunately, the house stimulus draft floating around seems likely to reverse this trend:

Under the current proposal, new construction could consume three times as much funding as public transportation. The environmental groups hope more public transit money will be added when lawmakers make changes to the proposal in committee, an amendment process which began Wednesday afternoon.

“At a time of erratic energy prices, Congress should use this opportunity to move America away from highways and toward railways and mass transit,” said Karen Wayland, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “The transportation component of the stimulus package underfunds mass transit in deference to highways and bridges.”

Via this scathing economist article. Here is the money quote:

It is not all his fault. But for the most part, good policy repeatedly took a back seat to Mr Bush’s overweening political ambition. Both the country and, ultimately, the Republican Party are left the worse for it.

About 48 hours to go…

Nirmal is too busy trying to talk his way into elite villager parties to do his world famous link roundup this weekend, so I’m filling in.

Twinaguration is a neat new site that follows the inauguration in real-time, pulling in content from Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Del.icio.us, Youtube, blogs and more.

Change.org has the ten worst LGBT moments of Bush’s Presidency. My favorite? Comparing unethicial politicians to same sex marriage supporters.

The future of journalism is here and it is very cool. Using storytlr, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Vimeo, Almighty link was able to lifestream the “miracle on the Hudson”. Tremayne at OpenLeft attributes the miracle to big city values. The coast guard has now released video footage of the crash.

Speaking of the future of journalism, Glenn Greenwald interviewed Jay Rosen the other day. They talked about how artificial consensus is created among the insulated world of beltway journalists, and what sorts of problems it can cause. Nirmal pointed out how backwards the village is, where people who were wrong about Iraq were rewarded while many who were right are still not taken seriously.

Chris Edelson reminds us that bipartisanship is a bad joke, and Democrats are the butt of it.

Paul Krugman thinks Obama is wrong to let George W. Bush off the hook for his systematic politicization of the federal government. I agree wholeheartedly. If the criminals in the executive branch are not held accountable the rule of law in this country will be forever diminished. Impeaching or holding accountable future Presidents may prove to be impossible due to the embarrassing precedent Obama is about to set with Bush.

Fox News thinks Bush inherited the 9/11 attacks from Clinton. Seriously.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (a public agency), doesn’t want to hear from concerned citizens anymore. TVA was already caught on video ticketing activists who were visiting the spill to take water samples. If the Tennessee Valley Authority wants to be considered a good-faith partner in renewed efforts to regulate and clean up the coal industry, they better start acting like it.

Only in the coal industry: DeSmogBlog got a hold of a lobbyist’s memo bragging about manipulating both Republicans and Democrats. Climate Progress uncovered the industry’s new propaganda campaign for clean coal, which is eerily similar to Joe Camel. I hope they enjoy it while it lasts because their time will soon be up.

Thereisnospoon is right, Olbermann’s eight years in eight minutes review of the Bush administration is phenomenal. Keith even stopped by and left a comment, passing the praise on to his producer, who wrote the segment. Jane Hamsher did eight years in 20 minutes on C-Span.

I’m about to head down to the big concert at the Lincoln Memorial (pictures later). Any other good links this weekend? Leave them in the comments.

Consumption of natural gas in the united states has remained relatively stable for the past 35 years.

But natural gas imports in the United States have more than quadrupled in the past 20 years.

And the price we pay for imported natural gas has more than tripled in the past 15 years.

This probably has something to do with the fact that production of Natural Gas in the United States peaked about 35 years ago, in 1973.

Recent enthusiasm for natural gas is due in large part to drastically increased shale gas production, particularly in the Barnett Shale. But the production process for shale gas, which includes fracturing the shale rock with water mixed with toxic metals and chemicals, is already polluting drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Russia, Iran and Qatar have about 55% of the world’s known natural gas reserves. They are planning to create a cartel for natural gas, much like OPEC. Russia has already shown how far they are willing to go to manipulate prices. Natural gas proponents in the United States like to point to the fact that natural gas is, for the most part, not a fungible commodity. This is true because compressed natural gas is very difficult and expensive to transport, especially over long distances. But this is only true for compressed natural gas. The rapidly growing market for liquified natural gas, which can be transported relatively inexpensively, changes the equation quite a bit.

This is a dangerous path we are heading down. We have been increasing natural gas imports and expenditures at a healthy clip for the past several decades, while domestic production has struggled to remain flat. Industry points to new domestic production potential, but the potential costs include access to clean drinking water for millions of Americans in the surrounding areas. Meanwhile, a handful of countries control a majority of the world’s reserves, and are planning to organize a cartel to manipulate prices. Their ability to do so is likely to increase in the coming years, due to market realities (increasing fungibility).

While replacing coal-fired power plants and drastically reducing oil consumption remain the two key components of transitioning to a sustainable energy policy, those who are interested in long-term solutions must look beyond natural gas as well. Yes, natural gas will play some role as a “bridge fuel”. It is clear that we will continue to use it in power generation for years and years to come. And I’ll grudgingly admit, the percentage of vehicles running on natural gas will almost certainly go up before it goes down. But we should be very cautious and smart about how we produce our natural gas, how quickly we use our reserves, and how we can use them most effectively. Above all we must begin thinking about how we will prevent the global power dynamics behind the oil trade from being replicated with yet another finite fossil fuel. I’m sure even T. Boone Pickens would agree with that.

Three more days.

Update: Iceberg Slim has photos of the Wilmington stop.

Update Two: Wilmington video below.

The row over European natural gas supplies from Russia continues to intensify, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel flatly stating that Moscow’s credibility is on the line. Last week I wrote about the fact that many Europeans are now being forced to cook their food and heat their homes with coal, due to the gas supply disruption. It looks like the situation has gotten worse over the past eight days. The BBC is collecting comments from readers who have been affected, including this one, from a University student is Sarajevo:

People are now using more coal, wood and fuel oil and it has made a difference to the air. After spending a while outside my hair and clothes get a bad smell.

We have a smog alert, which happens every year, as Sarajevo lies in a valley, but apparently this year is much worse.

People here are reminded of the siege, when they didn’t have heating, electricity and hot water. So this situation brings up bad memories.

An AP article confirms:

A thick cloak of smog choked the capitals of Serbia, Bosnia and Hungary this week as residents and businesses resorted to burning oil, wood and coal — anything that might help them ward off the midwinter chill amid a natural gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has cut off supplies to Europe.

The gas disruptions are also exacerbating an already dire economic situation in places like Zagreb, Croatia, where this battery factory shut down yesterday because it doesn’t have the gas it needs to operate.

See also this map (via BBC) of countries impacted by the crises. All European countries are facing some shortage, with Eastern European countries hit especially hard.

Supporters of T. Boone Pickens keep telling me that he has modified his plan, that he has given up on the idea of converting all cars to natural gas. They tell me that he has wised up, and is willing to shift his focus on natural gas entirely to semi trucks and other large vehicles. This is not the case.

Consider this morning’s Austin-American Statesman article on Pickens (emphasis mine):

Pickens used the opportunity to promote his plan for using wind power to generate electricity, replacing natural gas that now generates more than 20 percent of the country’s electrical power.

Natural gas, he said, should be used instead to fuel cars and trucks, which would, he contends, slash the nation’s dependence on foreign oil by more than a third.

Or consider his new TV advertisement, which clearly shows a natural gas vehicle while touting the jobs his plan could create.

Or you could consider the plan itself, which prominently displays a picture of a natural gas vehicle.

Finally, if you still aren’t convinced, read the man’s book, The First Billion is the Hardest. If you do so, please consider checking it out from the library. In his book he makes it perfectly clear that regardless of political and financial setbacks, he will not give up until a majority of the vehicles in the United States are fueled by natural gas. He may be willing to pivot to a trucks only approach temporarily for political purposes, but he will never give up on his fatally flawed idea.

I’ve written about how much of a relief it is that adults have been put back in charge of our energy policy. Perhaps I was caught up in the excitement of the appointments, but I neglected to mention Congressman Ed Markey, who chairs the select committee on energy independence and global warming. Senator Markey is a great ally on many issues I’m passionate about, but on energy policy in particular, he is likely the very best person for the job. Fortunately, he is now the chair of the energy and environment subcommittee as well. Advocates of a sustainable energy policy are very much looking forward to working with Congressman Markey to move green legislation quickly in the 111th Congress.

To that end, Markey has provided us with a preview of what is to come by inviting noted green collar economy educator/activist Van Jones to testify before the select committee this afternoon.

Some highlights of Jones’ inspiring testimony and video of his opening remarks, are below.

I’m not sure a House staffer has ever had this much freedom to blog publicly. This is an excellent model of how house staffers should be tapping into the netroots for support, and substantive help, on policy issues.

I’m working for Congressman Alan Grayson as his senior policy advisor.

Congressman Alan Grayson needs your help to find $1.2 trillion of Federal Reserve money. Since September 1, 2008, the Federal Reserve balance sheet has expanded from $800 billion to $2 trillion, or $4000 for every man, woman, and child in America. Where did this money go? No one except Fed officials know.

Now, one of the neat things about being a Congressman on the Financial Services Committee is that you get to ask Fed officials questions. And yesterday, Donald Kohn, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors testified before the House Financial Services Committee and refused to tell my boss where the Fed has put $1.2 trillion of Federal Reserve money. Watch this grilling.

We need your help. About a half hour after this hearing, I got a call from the VP of Public Policy for a major bank, who assured me that they have taken no capital aside from ordinary discount window financing from the Fed.

Where do you think this money went? What kinds of questions should we pursue?

The post generated over 400 comments, and quite a bit of good will among the Daily Kos community for the blogger’s boss. Kudos to Stoller for kicking down yet another door. Hopefully other house staffers are able to use this as an example, and convince their bosses to let them engage in the blogosphere in a similar way.