Greenwashing city hall

Near the end of his term as mayor, I reminded Matt Neely that he had yet to do much to promote energy efficiency, one of the goals he had outlined in an interview before he took the post. (Child care and housing issues, which were to be his other major pushes, were different stories).

For some reason, Neely to this day believes I reminded him that he had said he was interested in issues of class. This week, the LATC quotes him as saying, "I hope to keep talking about poverty and race."

I know I haven't been at every minute of every council meeting, but I don't know if I've ever heard him talk about it, besides in conversations with me about how he wants to talk about it more. The implication here is not that Matt Neely is a liar.

Rather, I think we ought to demand slightly more action from people before we allow them to claim the mantle of environmentalism. Corporations, for example oil and car companies, spend millions advertising their environmental credentials to people who'll never question them -- a little trick called "greenwashing." Why shouldn't politicians?

Interestingly enough, when it was time Nick Galiotto's turn to get fellated in the press, he said the same thing about making energy efficiency a goal.

(By the way, just because I respect someone, doesn't mean I don't hold a deep and abiding grudge for that person telling me I have no integrity because I wouldn't snitch on my friends, and then later orchestrating the CENSORSHIP OF MY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER. It doesn't necessarily mean that I do hold a grudge, it just doesn't mean that I don't.)