More Tony Snow

Instead of just leaving it at implying that Tony Snow is from Mars, it's worth pointing out, as Matt Stoller did in comments, that Snow is basing his statement on the fact that U.S. carbon emissions dropped 1.3 percent last year--which is better than Europe did. One data point totally out of context. Grist provided that context a few days back when the numbers first came out:

In spite of the fact that Bush has actually gutted programs aimed at the promoting clean energy technologies, last year's emissions dropped because of

1. higher gasoline prices,
2. a sharp drop  in heating demand from an unusually warm winter, which helped bring  about
3. a decline in natural gas prices (and hence more use of this  clean fuel for electricity generation).

Hmm. An unusually warm winter -- wonder what caused that. And high gasoline prices -- maybe the president does deserve credit after all.