A couple of Texas oilmen carrying carpetbags full of cash are being met at the California border by a couple of powerful Republicans who don't like what they're up to.

And what those fossil-fueled rascals are up to is killing California's burgeoning green economy.

The oilmen and others of their ilk are trying to buy enough votes in the November election to suspend a state law that sets limits on greenhouse gas emissions from refineries in the state. A ballot measure, Proposition 23, that is funded by oil interests, would put those limits on hold until California achieves an unemployment level above 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. Unemployment now hovers about 12 percent.

California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger is furious at this blatant attempt to do to his state what oil interests did to the nation: smother energy policies that would start shifting consumers to clean energy alternatives.

Pres. Obama with co-chairs of Oil Spill Commission, former Sen. Bob Graham, left, and former EPA Administrator William Reilly

<Update:  AP reports that Florida State University professor Ian MacDonald "is gratified" by today's oil spill commission report. He has been at odds with government estimates of oil spilled and had this to say to AP:

From the beginning, there was "a contradiction between discoveries and concerns by academic scientists and statements by NOAA," MacDonald said in an interview with the AP at the oil spill conference.

And he said it is still going on. MacDonald and Georgia Tech scientist Joseph Montoya said NOAA is at it again with statements saying there is no oil in ocean floor sediments. A University of Georgia science cruise, which Montoya was on, found ample evidence of oil on the Gulf floor.>

Public confidence was among the victims of the BP oil spill because the government underestimated how much oil actually was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, and then underestimated how much oil remained after the well was plugged, according to reports from President Obama's oil spill commission.

Official over-optimism may also have hampered efforts to shut down the well and clean up oil from it, the reports said. The spill started April 20 when BP's drill rig exploded, killing 11 workers and starting a flow that was at least 40 times greater than the government first estimated. It wasn't until the end of May that the government finally got wise and greatly increased its clean-up effort, the reports noted.

As the Washington Post reports today:

What's the chance that President Obama was inspired by Tom Turner's blog item a few weeks ago, in which Tom noted that Obama's folks refused to re-install solar panels on the White House? Put up by President Jimmy Carter, the panels were promptly taken down when President Ronald Reagan took office.

Now there's news that solar power will again come to the White House roof—both passive and active. The announcement by Energy Sec. Stephen Chu included a re-statement of the administration's commitment to solar energy development:

This project reflects President Obama's strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home. Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.

Oil in Gulf of Mexico marshes

Cancer-causing substances have been discovered in the waters and air of the Gulf of Mexico near the BP oil spill area, at levels much greater than before the spill occurred, according to researchers from Oregon State University.

Increased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs—some of which are known carcinogens—were found along the coastlines of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, but the greatest increase was off Louisiana, where levels measured 40-times greater than before the spill. Ominously, the substances are available to be taken into the food chain.

The measurements were recorded in May and June, during the height of the BP oil spill, when hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf each day. New measurements are now being taken to see if degradation of the PAHs is taking place.

News out of Cuba and the U.S., today, combine to create an interesting dilemma over the future of deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Prodded by the disastrous BP oil spill, our country's Department of Interior today issued new regulations designed to force oil companies to operate under much more stringent requirements than BP was operating under when it's well blew out last April, leading to the worst spill in U.S. history. BP, whose well was 40 miles off the U.S. coastline, had no workable plan to handle such a spill, and its blowout prevention device failed. 

But, no matter how strict the U.S. gets, it has no power over drilling plans just announced by Cuba - in deepwater only 50 miles off the Florida keys in Cuban waters.

Health organizations across the country are urging President Obama and Congress to recognize the damaging public health effects of climate change and to take measures that will reduce its impacts and the causes of climate change itself.

In a letter signed by many organizations, including the Lung Association and American Medical Assocation, the groups underscored how climate change harms the public:

As temperatures rise, more Americans will be exposed to conditions that can result in illness and death due to respiratory illness, heat- and weather-related stress and disease carried by insects. These health issues are likely to have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable communities, including children, older adults, those with serious health conditions and the most economically disadvantaged.

The letter greatly emphasized the need to protect the EPA in its mission to protect the public's health:

So, now, President Obama—in a surprising interview with Rolling Stone magazine—says he will again push for climate change legislation in 2011, despite his inability this year to make it happen in the halls of Congress. Here's the telling quote:

One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our overreliance on fossil fuels. We may end up having to do it in chunks, as opposed to some sort of comprehensive omnibus legislation. But we're going to stay on this because it is good for our economy, it's good for our national security and, ultimately, it's good for our environment.

Politico dug into the interview and came up with this thought:

Yesterday, in a report on the government's oil spill commission hearing, we wrote of the mounting scientific evidence that a bunch of spilled, toxic oil still haunts the Gulf and may  be resistant to degradation. Today, we revisit the testimony and empasize some very strong conclusions offered by hearing witnesses.

The commission's co-chair, former senator Bob Graham, compared BP's oil spill plan to how General George Custer prepared for his last campaign: overestimation of the fighting capability, underestimation of the foe, and a heavy resulting price to be paid.

An article by US News and World Report offers a particularly concise look at two of the most persuasive witnesses: oceanographer Samantha Joye from the University of Georgia, and scientist Ian MacDonald from Florida State University. The full story is worth reading, but here are the two key takeaways:

Planes prays dispersant on Gulf oil spill

Here, in a one-sentence assessment by a U.S. Coast Guard commander, is what went right and wrong with the Gulf-oil spill clean up. As reported by the Wall Street Journal:

"My personal philosophy is, it is like a war and you have to respond with everything you have—overwhelmingly."

We were fortunate to have the Coast Guard at hand when BP's well exploded and the company was found ill-prepared to react. The Guard is nothing if not prepared and, as a branch of the military, attacked the spill as a foe trying to invade our homeland. They did, indeed, throw everything they had at it, including, unfortunately, a weapon with untested side effects: dispersants.

<Update 8/19: The chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment said today that BP gets a failing grade for its cleanup efforts in the Gulf. He also castigated federal authorities for grossly underestimating how much oil remains from the BP spill.>

<Update 8/19: Quoting Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute researchers, The Washington Post reports that a 21-mile plume of oil stretches underwater from the BP oil spill site in the Gulf. A similar report was put out by The New York Times.>

<Update 8/19: An oceanographer, from the Florida university whose scientists report that most oil from the Gulf spill still remains in the Gulf, is expected to tell a House subcommittee today that the federal government has underestimated impacts of that oil.>

Although initially slow to rush into Gulf waters and lead the clean-up of BP's oil spill, President Obama and his agencies are showing no hesitancy in rushing to clean up the public relations image of what that oil is doing to Gulf fishing and recreation. In the last few days, we've seen:

* Obama swimming along the Florida shoreline with his daughter to show just how clean and fun it is.

* EPA announcing that ¾'s of the 200 million gallons of crude have evaporated into thin air or into the tummies of hungry microbes.

* Various government authorities insisting that Gulf seafood is safe to eat—an insistence that accompanies the opening of shrimp season off the Louisiana coast on Monday.

Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it—many scientists aren't jumping on the Happy-Days-Are-Here-Again bandwagon.