Oil Slick.

Here’s Dubya’s head-in-the-sand environmental policy in a nutshell: The NYT discovers the White House has Philip Cooney, a former oil industry hack, rewriting climate reports to cast doubt on global warming. “Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the ‘climate team leader’ and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he has no scientific training.

The Mythical Maverick.

Content to play the iconoclast again now that election 2004 is over, John McCain calls out the Bush administration on global warming. Too little, too late, Mr. Senator…given the water you carried for the Bushies this last cycle, your free-fall on the Murphometer at this point looks permanent.

Skipping the Middleman

They may be forced to put up with his budget-busting economic proposals, but they’re drawing the line on global warming. A number of Northeastern states – including several led by Republican governors – break with Dubya and prepare to pass greenhouse-gas emission caps that accord with the Kyoto treaty.