DIESEL-TIMELINE

4/15/04, morning: Gregg Easterbrook congratulates Bush for taking the initiative in protecting the environment, saying that Bush...

"...has already imposed much stricter antipollution standards for diesel fuel and diesel engines...and the media simply pretend these advances don't exist, in order to sustain the preferred script of Bush "undoing" clean-air policy."

4/15/04, afternoon: After reading this Kevin Drum is quick to note that

But as Easterbrook must well know, these "stricter antipollution standards for diesel fuel and diesel engines" were implemented by the Clinton administration. Bush's only contribution was that he didn't overturn them.

A few days pass.

4/19/04, afternoon/evening: David Brooks sits down to write a new column on Bush's environmental record, ignores the reality pointed out by Drum, and parrots Easterbrook anyway:

The administration's biggest success has been its regulation of diesel fuels. In the face of fierce industry hostility, the Bush crowd decided that the benefits of diesel regulation far outweighed the costs. The Bush initiatives were applauded by even its most ardent critics. An official from the Natural Resources Defense Council called the diesel emissions regulations "the most significant public health proposal in decades."

Not that Brooks hasn't used Easterbrook before: Last fall Brooks devoted an entire column to Easterbrook's book The Progress Paradox. Anyway, hackery all around on Easterbrook and Brooks' parts.