Although the Bush administration is only 7 years old, I would still hope it would act more mature than my 6 year-old. After reading the administration's 588 page response to the Supreme Court's order that it consider whether greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare, however, I'm thinking my son has the edge.

First we had the skeptics, the nay-sayers, who denied that the climate is heating up, or, if it is, it's natural and not our fault. Rush Limbaugh still spouts this line, as does Senator Jim Inhofe, but their ranks are dwindling, have in fact dwindled to insignificance.

So now the next wave, as in this piece on a New York Times blog, borrowed from a piece on the Wired magazine blog, which argues that much environmental orthodoxy must be turned on its head.

To wit:
LIVE IN CITIES: Urban Living Is Kinder to the Planet Than the Suburban Lifestyle
No problem here; we've known this for a long time.

A/C IS OK: Air-Conditioning Actually Emits Less C02 Than Heating
Just because something contributes less carbon than something else doesn't make it OK. The surge in demand for electricity on hot days puts enormous strain on the grid. Insulate!

We are strictly nonpartisan and apolitical here at Tom's Turn, so we will be naming no names today.

Let's put it this way. Two powerful and influential figures with overweening political ambition have suggested that the federal government should suspend federal gasoline taxes between Memorial Day and Labor Day this year to provide some relief to people suffering from soaring prices.

A brilliant idea it is, for sure. The figure I heard as I rode to work this morning (on my bike, ain't I noble) was that this magnificent gesture will save the average American driver just under $30, which isn't even a whole tank of gas. And here I thought the whole idea these days was to discourage the burning of gasoline and other fossil fuels, which are warming us up and driving us broke.

I'm personally of the opinion (this is just me; don't holler at Earthjustice please) that gas should be at least $10 a gallon, with most of the money diverted to support mass transit and other good public purposes. I'm also inclined to suggest looking into a way to stop Big Oil from bleeding the public with obscene profits going to their executives and shareholders.