The war against oil is finally engaged

ClimateGate is politics. It is not science.

It brings no new data. It claims a grand conspiracy among scientists is keeping "the truth" from coming out.

That's nonsense. No conspiracy, on such a scale, could hope to succeed.

Someone would bring evidence to light, data designed to prove a scientific case. There is no such data because there is no such case.

There is, however, a political cause, and on this 68th anniversary of Pearl Harbor the Administration seems to finally have admitted the new political war and responded.

The cameras will be rolling on former Vice President Al Gore, who wants stronger action than that expected at Copenhagen to fight climate change. He will get a chance to make his case for the evening news.

This comes a month after a meeting of Nobel Laureates, in Berlin, that called for action. Gore has a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, Obama gets his for changing American foreign policy on Thursday, so the symbolism of today's meeting is obvious.

More important is an EPA finding that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases are in fact dangerous, which will enable it to issue rules limiting pollution. The finding has been in the works since the 2007 Supreme Court ruling requiring it to look at the possible dangers.

The usual suspects are crying foul, including the American Petroleum Institute and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with their media allies such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.

It is good, at times of trial like this, to know who the enemy is, to have them come out in the open and give battle.

Enough shadowboxing. The war against oil has finally been declared.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com