New research suggests that soot in the atmosphere is playing a far greater role in global warming than previously understood.

If that science holds up, this could be extraordinarily good news. Removing soot is quick, easy, cheap and yields enormous health benefits.

We’ll still have to go after CO2 and methane, but damn. This is some tasty low hanging fruit.

In yet another debate sponsored by Big Coal.

The Los Angeles Times has a nice piece out today showing that EPA Chief Johnson overruled virtually his entire staff in rejecting California’s bid to regulate Greenhouse emissions.

The ruling, the Times points out, came just days after Dick Cheney met with executives from the auto industry:

“California met every criteria on the merits” one top staffer told the Times. “The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers.”

I’m late to point out this exhaustive report on climate manipulation by the Bush administration:

Report Describes Systematic White House Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science :: Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

The Nobel Peace Prize-sharing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their Summary for Policy Makers over the weekend.

It’s worth reading in full. But this tid-bit jumped out at me:

There is high agreement and much evidence that mitigation actions can result in near-term co-benefits (e.g. improved health due to reduced air pollution) that may offset a substantial fraction of mitigation costs.

Addressing global warming is not just good for the planet, it’s good for our health.

Um. Wow. OK. I’m nearly speechless.

The candidate who previously talked up clean coal and ethanol and said only that we need to “begin to try” to do something about global warming has put out an Energy and Climate Plan that looks like Al Gore wrote it.

I’m still poring over the .PDF, but at first glance this looks like the Full Monty: 55 mpg fuel efficiency by 2030, 80% greenhouse reduction from 1990 levels by 2050, a cap-and-trade emissions system kickstarted by a carbon auction with no grandfathering for dirty industries, a Connie Mae-styled energy efficiency lending program for lower income homeowners, Green Bonds, emissions-free federal buildings, climate risk filings with the SEC…

This is heady stuff. And incredibly more ambitious than the plan Hillary laid out in a “chat” just a few months ago…

Raising the question: What was Hillary’s come-to-Jesus climate moment?

So in addition to telling America last week that Global Warming is good for you, Presidential spokesperson Dana Perino insisted that the White-House’s edits to the Senate testimony of CDC Chief Julie Gerberding had not “watered down” the facts.

As we can see from the unedited version, that’s true. The document wasn’t watered down, it was water-boarded… until it rendered the version of facts the White House wants you to hear.

Let’s take a look at a few of the inconvenient truths that the censors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue found too objectionable to include:

Global warming will cause Katrina-like storms:

Catastrophic weather events such as heat waves and hurricanes are expected to become more frequent, severe, and costly.

Global warming will bring malaria and dengue to the states:

Climate change is likely to alter the current geographic distribution of some vector-borne and zoonotic diseases… such as plague, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, malaria, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and dengue fever; some may become more frequent, widespread, and outbreaks could last longer

Global warming might kill grandpa:

The United States is expected to see an increase in the severity, duration, and frequency of extreme heat waves. This, coupled with an aging population, increases the likelihood of higher mortality as the elderly are more vulnerable to dying from exposure to excessive heat. Midwestern and northeastern cities are at greatest risk.

Global warming makes more smog, lung disease:

Higher surface temperatures, especially in urban areas, encourage the formation of ground-level ozone. Ozone can irritate the respiratory system, reduce lung function, aggravate asthma, and inflame and damage cells that line the lungs. In addition, it may cause permanent lung damage and aggravate chronic lung diseases.

Global warming means water-shortages in the West:

The west coast of the United States is expected to experience significant strains on water supplies as regional precipitation declines and mountain snowpacks are depleted.

And — particularly inconvenient given the current so-Cal conflagrations — global warming means more wild fires!

Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency, severity, distribution, and duration.

It’s hard to be shocked anymore by the administration’s bald contempt for science and human health. But this what happens when you outsource global warming policy to Dick Cheney.

Think Progress is taking Dana Perino to task for talking up the health benefits of global warming.

But we shouldn’t be surprised. How do you think Perino got this spin job in the first place.

Perino cut her teeth in the White House’s global warming denial unit as director of communications for the Council on Environmental Quality.

It was Perino, don’t forget, who told America that Phil Cooney, the infamous neuterer of federal global warming docs, “did a great job.”

The FOIA record also reveals Perino seeking friendship and enviro-tutelage at the arch-denialist think tank CEI. As well as forwarding talking points to Cooney from the denial group George C. Marshall Institute. And coordinating with Scott McClellan how to limit damage from a New York Times article on climate change censorship.

This is just Dana doing what Dana does best.