The State Supreme Court dealt a reality check to Seattle City Light, and a win to Seattle Customers.

City Light ratepayers can’t be billed for city’s emissions reduction efforts

Seattle’s effort to cut greenhouse gases was dealt a blow by the state Supreme Court today, in a ruling that says Seattle City Light can’t bill ratepayers for work to offset its contributions to global warming.

In a divided 5 to 4 ruling, the court rejected the utility’s program, which was a linchpin to its effort to be the first major utility in the country with no negative impact on climate change through the production of gases like carbon dioxide.

It’s also an important part of Mayor Greg Nickel’s much-publicized bid to get Seattle to meet the goals of the international Kyoto climate change treaty.

A pause to laugh.  Kyoto was a friggin joke, a scientific farce.  Thank you.  Continuing…

Seattle City Light declared itself "carbon neutral" in 2005 — which means the utility had completely cancelled out its emissions of greenhouse gases. But the utility still gets some of its electricity from sources that spew these gases, such as a natural gas-fired power plant in Oregon.

I wonder it Seattle understands that this is feel good legislation at its best?

To overcome that, the utility relied on paying other polluters, such as King County, the state and DuPont, to pollute less. Those payments were tacked onto customers electric bills.

These payments were used to make up for the utility’s own pollution. Seattle City Light has paid King County’s bus system and the state ferry system hundreds of thousands of dollars to use biodiesel, a plant-based fuel. The utility also paid DuPont $650,000 to cut its emissions of a greenhouse gas.

Wait, aren’t they just a utility company?  Why isn’t the city or the county or even the state taking that action and paying those payments?  The Ferry System in particular is state funded, not a property of the utility.  All of this is outside the scope of the responsibility of a utility company.

My initial reaction is "boo friggin hoo."

Muslims Upset Over ‘24′ Portrayal 

Two years ago, Muslim groups protested when the plot of the hit Fox drama ‘24′ cast Islamic terrorists as the villains who launched a stolen nuclear missile in an attack on America.

Now, after a one-year respite during which Russian separatists played the bad guys on the critically acclaimed series, Muslims are back in the evil spotlight. Unlike last time, when agent Jack Bauer saved the day, the terrorists this time have already succeeded in detonating a nuclear bomb in a Los Angeles suburb.

Being portrayed again as the heartless wrongdoers has drawn renewed protests from Muslim groups, including one that had a meeting with Fox executives two years ago over the issue.

24 points out they have other classes of villains.

"Over the past several seasons, the villains have included shadowy Anglo businessmen, Baltic Europeans, Germans, Russians, Islamic fundamentalists, and even the (Anglo-American) president of the United States," the network said. "The show has made a concerted effort to show ethnic, religious and political groups as multidimensional, and political issues are debated from multiple viewpoints."

The current season began with Muslim terrorists waging an 11-week campaign of suicide bombings across America, culminating in the detonation of a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb in Valencia, Calif., about 26 miles north of Los Angeles. Estimated death toll: 12,000.

12,000 is bloody generous of a body count for even a small suitcase nuke considering the populatoin density in LA.

Sohail Mohammed, a New Jersey immigration lawyer who represented scores of detainees caught up in the post Sept. 11, 2001 dragnet, watched the episode depicting the nuclear attack with an Associated Press reporter.

"I was shocked," he said. "Somewhere, some lunatic out there watching this will do something to an innocent American Muslim because he believes what he saw on TV."

Look I will not be the one to say he is completely wrong.  There are ignorant people out there.