Global Warming No Pleasure Cruise, No Trip to the Beach

We have to hand it to Energy Secretary Steven Chu... he tells it like it is. Many would call his propensity for eye-opening commentary "indelicate" or "undiplomatic," probably just as many see him as "plain-spoken" and "refreshingly candid." As a follow-up to his referring a couple of weeks ago to a carbon tarriff as a "weapon" to be used against the United States' trading partners, yesterday he called the threat of global warming the "Titanic."

The Los Angeles Times chose another word to describe global warming: "Australia."

The Times has a piece on what the future of global warming will look like: the Australian Outback, replete with wildfires, heat waves, species extinctions, and mosquito borne illnesses. Not pretty.

One thing is for sure, if ethanol is part of the solution to curbing carbon emissions and preventing Sacramento from turning into Mugwump Flats, Australia, then the solution is about to get a smidge harder because Pacific Ethanol appears to be about to bite the dust.

The company has been struggling big time and the Sacramento Bee reports it just fired its CFO. It can't be good when you fire the guy whose job it is to go out and put together financing for the company.