Weekly Mulch: White House Relents on Solar Panels; Why Congressional Inaction Hasn’t Stopped Green Building

The President’s National Oil Spill Commission released preliminary findings from its investigation into BP’s oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Read about how the White House hid the truth on the spill.

Despite disaster after disaster, Big Oil continues reckless drilling projects in the Arctic and around the globe. It’s time to move beyond oil once and for all. Here’s what we’re doing about it.

We keep hearing from right-wing pretenders to the progressive label that the left doesn’t organize or offer ideas. Let’s prove them wrong.

Green MassGov Candidate Jill Stein Speaks at Marijuana Rally in Boston Today, In The Face Of The Machine — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

After losing the race to represent the Democrats in a special US Senate election, former Democratic politician (and arguably, institution as far as West Virginia is concerned) Ken Hechler has endorsed Jesse Johnson. Johnson is the nominee for US Senate of the Mountain Party, West Virginia’s affiliate of the Green Party.

For those of you who’ve been disenchanted with the Democratic Party, consider these options for the 2010 Midterm elections.

My letter to the White House this week:

Dear Ms. Browner,

During the week of August 4, 2010, you served as the administration’s principle spokesperson appearing on multiple national television programs, including NBC’s Meet the Press and ABC’s Good Morning America, to report findings from the interagency BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Budget. You stated repeatedly that “the vast majority of the oil appears to be gone.”

This week, multiple independent scientists have released calculations and investigations that show quite the opposite:

* from the University of Georgia that upwards of seventy nine percent of the spilled oil still remains in the Gulf

* from the University of South Florida oil found on the bottom of the ocean in a vast area of subsea canyons some 40 miles from the Florida panhandle

* and from the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution, published today in Science, new mapping of the disputed massive underwater plumes of oil.

FREE ORGANIC COMPOST for your garden in San Francisco! Come and get it! Except — it’s toxic sewage sludge from San Francisco and 8 other counties, “composted” at the Carlyle Group’s Synagro plant in Merced, contaminated with dioxins, flame retardants, and thousands of other chemical and biological contaminants. What goes down the drains ends up in the sludge, and then in your garden.

A photo slideshow of the past 11 weeks of oil.