Note: You might want to start at the Barack
Obama Index Page, especially
if you arrived here by using a search engine.
President Barack H. Obama was elected with the help of a number of "special interest groups" such as
the labor unions, the teachers' unions, Hollywood celebrities, homosexual activists, immigration activists,
and environmentalists. Their efforts were successful. Now it's payback time, and President Obama
is unleashing the environmental extremists and undertaking a "green" transformation of America.
Environmentalists abhor capitalism, and apparently so does Barack Obama. Environmentalists say they
want to save the earth from the abuses inflicted by mankind, but the bottom line is this: Environmentalists
oppose every practical source of energy. It is
because of the environmentalists that 1.6-gallon toilets are mandatory, ordinary light bulbs have
been outlawed, and plastic bags are frowned
upon (or unavailable) at some grocery stores.
No sane person wants to intentionally pollute the air, poison the lakes, or throw garbage in the rivers.
But environmental extremism is another matter altogether. Radical environmentalism is more about
expanding and strengthening the federal government than it is about protecting the air and water
and plants and animals. Air and water pollution in the U.S. has been drastically reduced since the
1960's. For example, between 1980 and 2005, airborne lead was reduced by
96 percent.* According to EPA figures, six
common air pollutants have been reduced by 60% since
1970.* The poorest countries
in the world are the ones with the worst pollution. For a country with such abundant energy, ours is
very clean. If we can keep the air as clean as it is today, our air pollution problems have been solved.
In the past, environmentalists have issued a
number of false alarms about everything from
acid rain and chlorine and radon to stratospheric ozone depletion. The greatest of these false alarms
is the global
warming
hoax. Environmentalists have been known to
push a number of supposedly brilliant ideas that
have turned out to be boondoggles. Examples include solar power, electric
cars, windmills, and more
recently, "green" jobs.
People who want to endure hardships to "save the earth" should be free to pursue their goals -- provided
they do so with their own money.
Highest Cost Generating Plant Comes On Line
in Florida to Obama Fanfare. Florida Power & Light (FPL) has built a 25 megawatt
photovoltaic power plant in Southern Florida that will supply power to 3000 homes and businesses —
a small fraction of the company's over 4 million customers. ... FPL spent $152 million building the
plant, which amounts to $6,080 per kilowatt — a figure substantiated by the Energy Information
Administration, who ranks photovoltaic solar the highest cost technology of a potential slate of 20 possible
future generating technologies.
Environmental Swine. So
the problem is complex. But the solution begins with a call for the White House to take the lead on reversing federally
mandated use of corn to produce ethanol fuel. Imagine how many jobs we could save if we turned away from ethanol
mandates and towards drilling in ANWR. But don't hold your breath waiting for help from this White House. Out
in California, water has been diverted from the San Joaquin Valley in order to save the two-inch hypomesus transpacificus
fish — also known as the delta smelt. This has caused a severe drought in the area with some farming towns
like Mendota seeing unemployment numbers of 40%.
Too
much, too soon, too far left. Death by a thousand cuts. Or in the case of the efficiency of the U.S.
economy, by at least four: Energy policy, health care policy, trade union resurgence, and fiscal madness.
Start with energy. Barack Obama says our entire energy sector needs a makeover. Never mind that we are
fortunate to live in a country in which inexpensive energy has produced the world's most productive agriculture, a
population capable of navigating America's huge spaces in air-conditioned comfort, and permitted the substitution of
energy-plus-brain-power for back-breaking labor. Obama is going to fix it with wind that sometimes blows, solar
power where the sun sometimes shines, and perhaps even nuclear power. Cost is no object.
Climate assumptions from another planet.
As the 821-page Kerry-Boxer climate bill gets fast-tracked in the Senate, as a companion to the 1427-page House
bill, it is critical that we reexamine the assumptions behind cap-tax-and-trade legislation. The Environmental
Protection Agency, Energy Information Administration and other optimistic analysts claim America can limit and tax
hydrocarbon use, and switch to "ecologically friendly" renewable energy, with minimal harm to families, businesses and
jobs. Their low-ball cost estimates are based on assumptions that can only have come from another planet.
Climate Change Will Be Its Highest Priority, Says U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. Over the next five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
plans to make climate change its "highest priority." According to its new "Action Plan" released last
month, the branch of the U.S. Department of Interior charged with protecting fish, wildlife and plants will
focus first and foremost on the global weather.
Foolishly Choosing Bears Over
Barrels. [Al] Gore is just plain wrong. Yet the myth he perpetuates has dealt a
critical blow to our hopes for true energy independence. Despite ever-increasing numbers and demonstrated
adaptability, the famous Knut the polar bear and his kind are still said to be endangered. That in turn
has prompted the federal government to designate 200,541 square miles off the coast of Alaska as critical
habitat for polar bears, effectively killing hopes to exploit the vast energy riches of the American
Arctic. The world polar bear population is at a modern high and growing.
All Falling Down... [Scroll
down] While Obama was right to stiffen efficiency standards and promote alternate energies, he is
neglecting the only mechanisms that can tide us over for the next 20 years — more natural gas,
domestic oil, shale, tar sands, clean coal, and nuclear energy. We should be on a dash to build nuclear
plants for the coming demand from plug in hybrids and spikes in electricity usage. We should be
leasing as much natural gas lands as possible, to gain the supplies to run energy plants and to power
vehicles. There is plenty of oil in the Dakotas, California, Texas and in the Gulf and we should be
drilling there like mad. Sorry, even Santa Barbara should either ban SUVs or have oil derricks on the
horizon.
The EPA is choking
democracy. One of the most important events of our lifetimes may have just transpired. A federal agency
has decided that it has the power to regulate everything, including the air you breathe.
Green world government.
Environmental alarmism is being exploited to chip away at national sovereignty. The latest threat to American
liberties may be found in the innocuous sounding Copenhagen Climate Treaty, which will be discussed at the United Nations
climate-change conference in mid-December. ... The treaty's text is not yet finalized but its principles are aimed at
regulating all economic activity in the name of climate security, with a side effect that billions of dollars would be
transferred from productive countries to the unproductive.
A
Secret White House Power Grab Is In Full Swing. It's one thing for President Obama to surround
himself with the advisers he'd like to have, but it's another to bestow on them sweeping powers to broker secret
negotiations and push forward vast new regulations that could cost American families thousands of dollars. ... Driving
the push for this massive power grab and circumvention of the elected branches is a key White House official who
avoided Senate confirmation by being installed not as EPA director, but instead as White House Climate Czar:
Carol Browner.
Energy Sec. Chu claims he knows 'what the future will
be 100 years from now'. President Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu is at it
again. Fresh off his declarations in May claiming computer model predictions as evidence of
a certain climate catastrophe, he has now gotten more bold, confidently predicting a certain climate
catastrophe by the year 2109. (When he and everyone who hears his warning today will be unable
to verify his predictions because they will be conveniently DEAD!)
Bypassing all elected officials...
E.P.A. Moves to Curtail Greenhouse
Gas Emissions. Unwilling to wait for Congress to act, the Obama administration announced on
Wednesday [9/30/2009] that it was moving forward on new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from
hundreds of power plants and large industrial facilities.
EPA
Overreach. President Obama has promised the world the United States will take definitive
action on carbon emissions and he needs to have something to show for this promise at the looming global
climate conference in Copenhagen. One problem, the American people hate greenhouse gas regulations and
they've been talking to their representatives in Congress — that's why cap-and-trade is stalled
in the Senate. That's where the Environmental Protection Agency comes in. The Obama administration
is so desperate to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that they are willing to illegally rewrite statutes
without authorization from Congress.
Energy
Czar Raises Possibility Of EPA Implementing Cap-And-Trade. There's more than one way to get cap-and-trade,
President Obama's energy czar said today [10/2/2009]. Carol Browner, the former Environmental Protection
Administration (EPA) administrator who now serves in the Obama administration's newly created role of energy czar,
floated the possibility today of the EPA implementing cap-and-trade energy policies, during an interview at The
Atlantic's First Draft of History symposium in Washington, DC.
Will
Obama bypass Congress on climate rules? If Congress won't get the job done on climate change,
President Obama has a way to do it himself. But is he strong-arming the legislative branch? It
certainly looks that way as a series of new environmental regulations, released over the past two weeks by
the EPA, are putting legislators on notice and executives on edge.
Overheated White House
Environmental Campaigns. [President Obama] has said on global warming, "The science is beyond
dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen
record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."
Fortunately for the world, not a single one of those claims is accurate.
After Global Warming:
[Scroll down] The current administration is risking America's economic future on "green" energy in an
effort to solve an unproven crisis. The cap and trade legislation is moving ahead in spite of the fact
that the United States is already one of the leading nations in curtailing CO2 output. Other countries,
which are rapidly expanding their manufacturing base, are doing exactly the opposite. China, for example,
now uses more coal for producing power than the US, Europe, and Japan combined. President Obama,
on the other hand, has openly called for the destruction of the coal industry in the United States.
EPA
Suppresses Internal Global Warming Study, CEI Says. Scientific findings at odds with the Obama
Administration's views on carbon dioxide and climate change are being suppressed as a result of political
pressure, officials at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) charge. "This suppression of valid
science for political reasons is beyond belief," said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. "EPA's conduct is
even more outlandish because it flies in the face of the president's widely-touted claim that 'the days of
science taking a back seat to ideology are over.'"
US nuclear recycling faces the axe.
Earlier this week, the administration of President Barack Obama quietly cancelled plans for a large-scale facility
to recycle nuclear fuel. The move may prove a fatal blow to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP)
set up by previous president George W. Bush.
Obama's Green Snake
Oil: As he did during his campaign, Obama presented his plan to ameliorate global warming as a
way of stimulating the economy, with the first steps — money for weatherizing buildings, boosting
alternative energy production and improving power transmission — incorporated into his American
Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. Thus he continues to ignore the enormous cost of dramatically reducing
carbon dioxide emissions, falsely portraying the economic burden as a boon.
Obama blocks
some of Bush's last-minute environmental decisions. With a short memo on Inauguration Day,
President Obama blocked plans to loosen some air quality standards and to remove the gray wolf from the
endangered species list. But he did not stop several other controversial, late-term environmental
regulations issued by the Bush administration — at least not yet.
Barack Obama promises to lead world on climate change. A
week after taking office, the new Democratic president drew another sharp contrast with his predecessor George W
Bush, who only thought that man had a limited effect on climate change. In the course of a ten-minute
announcement at the White House, Mr Obama became the first American president to put cleaner energy at the
heart of his domestic agenda and to envision environmentalism as a creator of jobs on a large scale and as a
boon to the nation's defence.
The Editor says...
But if Bush was right, then Obama is throwing money into a pit for no reason.
Another Tale of
Two Headlines! Combating an illusory beast like Manmade Global Warming™ is a perfect task
for this administration: it produces the necessary Green Vibrations to soothe liberal anxieties and —
the really important thing — it is incredibly expensive. Indeed, Manmade Global
Warming™ is the ultimate Democratic boondoggle, potentially even more costly than nationalized
health care.
Mileage
Standards: Not the Way to Energy Independence. Fuel economy mandates to save gas?
That's like fighting obesity by requiring clothing manufacturers to make only slender sizes.
Environmentalist
dreams collide with economic reality. During the campaign and the transition Joe Biden promised
that there would be no more coal plants built in the United States; greener-than-green Henry Waxman wrested
the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from the sensible John Dingell; Carol Browner,
"an acolyte of former Vice President Al Gore", according to the New York Times, was named White House
coordinator of energy and climate policy (aka "czar"); ... There are others, all of this green persuasion,
all able, all darlings of the environmental movement, all expected to favor sun and wind over nuclear and
coal. So far, so green.
'Santa' Klaus Takes on Global
Warming. [Scroll down] Enter the Barack Obama administration. Between new "Climate Czar" Carole
Browner and Science Advisor John Holdren, the True Believers are now taking over Federal policy on energy and the
weather. (The weather? Yes! We are now blessed with an official bureaucracy tasked to change the
weather. It includes NASA Goddard Space Center's James Hanson, who believes that CEOs of energy companies "should
be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature" if they spread foul skepticism about global warming.)
Obama's newest energy focus: appliances.
Eager to show action on energy savings for consumers and reduced warming emissions for the planet, President
Barack Obama on Thursday ordered quicker, and in some cases new, efforts to make many appliances much more
energy efficient.
The Editor says...
This means higher prices, fewer choices, and less freedom for the consumer, all in the name of "saving
the planet" from a problem it doesn't really have.
Environmentalists
Press Democrats With 'Non-Negotiable Demands'. Environmentalists want Congress to cap
greenhouse-gas emissions, a proposal meeting resistance from companies such as General Motors Corp. because
of its cost. They're pushing for laws to force public utilities to buy 15 percent of their power
from renewable energy sources, an idea opposed by Southern Co. and American Electric Power Co. And they
want tougher energy- efficiency standards for cars, buildings and appliances.
War On Fossil Fuels.
The new administration has wasted no time in reversing a decision by the Bush White House that let gas and oil
companies explore for new resources. Keep this in mind the next time pump prices take off.
Obama's 'Extreme Team' On Energy.
One of them wanted to see Americans paying $8 a gallon for gasoline. Another tried to block access to
domestic oil reserves that could one day exceed those in Saudi Arabia. Another thinks global warming is
a dire crisis justifying a massive crackdown on energy — decades after saying the same thing about
global cooling. Yet another had a position in the one of the world's top socialist organizations.
Meet the Obama administration's energy team.
President Obama Taps Anti-Hunting, Animal
Rights Extremist for Regulatory Czar. President Obama has appointed his old friend and
colleague, University of Chicago Professor Cass Sunstein, to run the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs. Sunstein is a rabid enemy of Americans' Second Amendment freedom, and harbors radical ideas
about animal rights that only the most ardent PETA activist would love. Now he will run the federal
office that oversees all government regulations.
This article reeks with pro-Obama bias:
Why Obama's Energy
Savings Estimate May Be Skewed. When he ordered the Energy Department on Thursday to set new,
mandatory efficiency standards for a variety of household appliances, President Obama projected how much
electricity would be saved. "We'll save through these simple steps over the next 30 years the amount of
energy produced over a two-year period by all the coal-fired power plants in America," Mr. Obama said.
But two audits of a prominent 17-year-old program to conserve electricity used in consumer goods, a voluntary
effort called Energy Star, have found that such estimates, however rosy, are not completely reliable.
Two federal agencies
settle global warming lawsuit. The federal government on Friday settled a lawsuit that accused
two U.S. agencies of financing energy projects overseas without considering their impacts on global warming.
Obama package focuses mainly on
alternative power sources. "There's not a lot of oil and gas" money in the stimulus bill, said
Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston. Instead, President Barack Obama's package focuses most of its attention, and
an expected $54 billion or more in energy spending, on renewable and alternative power sources, not on
the fossil fuel production of Houston's major oil companies.
Dr. Doom. Thursday afternoon I received an e-mail
from someone up on the Hill regarding the confirmation hearing for environmental activist and longtime (spectacularly
failed) prognosticator of disaster, Dr. John Holdren. ... The email I received noted that Louisiana Senator David Vitter had
a difficult time simply rolling over for the notion that this guy should stroll into regular access to the president without
having to remind everyone, for the record, of just what a Moonbat he really is. Per my correspondent: "Vitter
got Holdren to admit (three times) that he thinks 1 billion people will die from Global Warming by 2020."
A global warming scam:
Years of improved engine efficiencies have reduced emissions per ton-mile, but now the only practical way to
further reduce carbon dioxide emissions is to push motorists into ever smaller vehicles that use less fuel
per mile, or expensive hybrids and other exotic vehicles powered by fuel cells, compressed air, or
batteries. ... [This] will mean that about six years from now many Vermonters registering a new car will have
to pay more — probably a lot more — for an exotic upscale hybrid, or cram themselves
into a smaller and less crashworthy car, van or truck.
War Over The Climate Heats Up Even As Climate
Itself Cools Down. Get ready for a three-ring circus. In one corner you find those concerned with the
recovery of the economy, in the second corner those concerned about threats to national security and in the third corner
global warmers who agonize about catastrophic climate change. ... The global warmers will be led by energy-climate czarina
Carol Browner, EPA chief during the Clinton years, and by science adviser John Holdren, who testified that a billion people
might die by 2020 unless greenhouse-gas emissions are sharply reduced.
Is the Obama
Administration Marching to the Tune of the Animal-Agenda Army? When the Humane Society of the United
States endorsed then-nominee Barack Obama for president, those analysts who track the animal-liberation lobby were
put on high alert. Despite now-president Obama's claim that his policies will be driven by science, not politics,
recent events have only reinforced the fear that sound wildlife management and progress in human health and medical
research will be thrown under the bus as payback to his radical animal-rights supporters.
EPA Expected
to Regulate Carbon Dioxide for First Time. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the
first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, The New York Times reported on Wednesday [2/18/2009], citing senior
Obama administration officials. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has asked her staff to review the latest scientific
evidence and prepare documentation for a finding that greenhouse gas pollution endangers public health and welfare, the
newspaper said. There is wide expectation that Jackson will act by April 2, the second anniversary of a Supreme
Court decision that found that EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse pollution under the U.S. Clean Air Act.
Please note that
Carbon Dioxide is Not a Pollutant.
Truth and Reality Exiting Stage Left. Ignoring
the environment, especially climate change, is not only sensible at first glance, it is completely sensible because CO2 is
not a problem. Obama must know if he doesn't fix the economy anything else he does becomes madness. So hopefully
he will have sanity about climate change forced upon him.
Politics in the Guise of Pure Science.
Why, since President Obama promised to "restore science to its rightful place" in Washington, do some things feel not quite
right? First there was Steven Chu, the physicist and new energy secretary, warning The Los Angeles Times that climate
change could make water so scarce by century's end that "there's no more agriculture in California" and no way to keep the
state's cities going, either. Then there was the hearing in the Senate to confirm another physicist, John Holdren,
to be the president's science adviser. Dr. Holdren was asked about some of his gloomy neo-Malthusian warnings in the
past, like his calculation in the 1980s that famines due to climate change could leave a billion people dead by 2020.
The Doomsday Bias: In his inaugural
address, President Barack Obama took a dig at his backward predecessor by promising to "restore science to its rightful
place" in America. So why, days before he was sworn in, did Obama choose a failed prophet of the apocalypse to
become his most influential scientist? ... [Dr. John P.] Holdren's particular brand of science is infected
by what we can only call a doomsday bias. Over the past 40 years, he has warned of population-growth induced
"ecocide," "global cooling," global warming due to heat dissipation from power plants, nuclear Armageddon,
and — this week — "climate disruption" caused by increased concentrations of atmospheric
greenhouse gases.
Obama's Biggest
Radical. When Barack Obama nominated John P. Holdren as his Science Adviser last December 20,
the president-elect stated "promoting science isn't just about providing resources" but "ensuring that facts and evidence
are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology." In nominating John Holdren, his words could scarcely have
taken a more Orwellian ring. Some critics have noted Holdren's penchant for making apocalyptic predictions that
never come to pass, and categorizing all criticism of his alarmist views as not only wrong but dangerous.
Obama lied; the
economy died. Our president shares a fascinating idea about energy with most of what used
to be known as the "small is beautiful" crowd. It is a curious phenomenon that one needs a very big
government to enforce the beauty of small. As Mr. Obama's energy secretary, Steven Chu, said last
year: The price of electricity in America is "anomalously low." You see how much smarter that
Nobel prize winner is than you. You probably thought you were already spending enough on electricity
and fuel.
Update on the "Chu
Effect". One month ago, Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu warned of apocalyptic drought in
California. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And,
he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going" either." USA today warned:
"Calif. facing worst drought in modern history"[.] Almost immediately after Dr. Chu's pronouncement,
the rain and snow started in earnest. As of today, all California Snowtel stations report normal snow
depth and water content, as do all stations in Colorado where California gets much of their water from.
Cap-and-trade
plan will sink Michigan. President Barack Obama's proposed cap-and-trade system on greenhouse
gas emissions is a giant economic dagger aimed at the nation's heartland — particularly Michigan.
It is a multibillion-dollar tax hike on everything that Michigan does, including making things, driving cars
and burning coal. The president is asking for a system of government limits on carbon emissions.
The right to emit carbon would be auctioned off to generate revenue for more government spending programs.
Dems' Climate Change Power Grab Hidden in
Spending Bill. Using a massive $410 billion spending bill as a cloak, Democrat leaders in
Congress have been caught attempting to create almost limitless new federal powers to regulate climate change
without any public notice, public comment, or public debate. The provision slipped into this bill would
allow the Department of Interior to regulate all greenhouse gas emissions across the entire country based on
the listing of the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Obama's energy policy will
increase dependence on foreign oil. Ethanol subsidies began in 1979. Ethanol has had 30 years
of taxpayer-assisted experience. Ethanol is the only "feasible" alternative renewable biofuel in the competition.
All other biofuels lack the production potential that ethanol has. According to the latest data from the Renewable
Fuels Association, ethanol production is currently averaging 0.60 million barrels per day. At the subsidy of
51¢ per gallon, this amount of ethanol production costs taxpayers over $4 Billion in 2008. The ethanol
future looks much worse. The "Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007" required maximum ethanol production
of 2.35 million barrels per day by 2022. But, this amount of ethanol production will require the entire corn
crop in the US, every kernel of corn.
Obama climate
plan could cost $2 trillion. President Obama's climate plan could cost industry close to $2 trillion,
nearly three times the White House's initial estimate of the so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation, according to Senate
staffers who were briefed by the White House.
Kerry, Boxer: U.S. 'Needs'
Cap-and-Trade on Carbon Emissions Even if Energy Costs Rise. Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Barbara
Boxer told CNSNews.com that the nation must adopt the Obama administration's cap-and-trade proposal to reduce carbon emissions, even if it results in massive
increases in gasoline and electricity prices.
Did
someone mention cap and trade?
Obama's science adviser starts job. [Scroll down]
The Senate also confirmed former Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco to head the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, which oversees ocean and atmospheric research and the National Weather Service. Lubchenco,
who specialized in overfishing and climate change at Oregon State University, is the first woman to head NOAA. A
member of the Pew Oceans Commission, Lubchenco has recommended steps to overcome crippling damage to the world's oceans
from overfishing and pollution and had expressed optimism for change after George W. Bush's presidency.
An obvious power grab:
EPA:
Global Warming Threatens Public Health, Welfare. The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposal to the
White House on Friday [3/20/2009] finding that global warming is endangering the public's health and welfare, according to
several sources, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the nation's economy and environment.
EPA moving toward carbon regulation.
Taking another step toward regulating emissions of greenhouse gases, the Obama administration's Environmental Protection
Agency is declaring that global warming poses a threat to public health.
Consensus or censorship?
The Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a "finding" to the White House Office of Management and Budget
that will force the Obama administration to decide whether to limit greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean
Air Act. If adopted, new laws and regulations will likely follow that have the potential to change our
lifestyles and limit our freedoms. None of these laws and regulations will be preceded by debate.
They will be imposed on us by fundamentalist politicians and scientists who have swallowed the Kool-Aid and
declared global warming as fact — end of discussion.
The article above was also posted
under "Silencing the Skeptics in the Global Warming
Debate."
Government Should Compel Consumers
to Use Alternative Energy, Congressman Says. Government policy should be crafted to raise the price
of carbon-emitting energy sources so consumers are compelled to choose alternative energy, House Democratic
Conference Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) told CNSNews.com on Thursday. Larson agreed that such a policy
would likely result in higher electricity prices for consumers but said this is needed to protect the environment
from the possible "catastrophic results" of not implementing a pro-green energy policy.
The Editor says...
What exactly are the "catastrophic results" which we must pay to prevent? Where is the proof that
catastrophe will result, and that it can be prevented, and that the government has any goal other
than expansion of government?
The Greens Hate Energy, America,
and You. "There's nothing like a fresh start. On his first day in office, President Obama could
make four decisions that would start 2009 with a 'clean slate' of energy policies," said Friends of the
Earth[. A]t the same time, the Sierra Club announced its own "Clean Slate Energy Agenda"
that — surprise — was the same. The focus of both is on energy use and
accessibility. Both want a lot LESS energy use. Along with all other environmental
organizations both use the bogeyman of "global warming" to demand huge reductions in "emissions." ... This
is the objective of one of President Obama's earliest executive orders. Driving up the cost of owning
and operating a car directly strikes at the ability of Americans to be mobile and independent. Justifying
it as necessary to reduce global warming is just a big fat lie.
A Cooling Trend Toward Global
Warming. Over the past several years, it appeared that our society was doomed to succumb to
what Weather Channel founder John Coleman has described as "the greatest scam in history": anthropogenic
(human caused) global warming (AGW). For two decades there has been an incessant drumbeat of propaganda
attributing every weather-related event to an increase in carbon dioxide caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
With the election of a president who is solidly in the global-warming-alarmist camp ... the passage of legislation
causing some form of economy-crippling energy taxation seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
Going to Cuba is okay but...
US
wants limits on Antarctic tourism. The Obama administration is pushing to protect Antarctica's
fragile environment by imposing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships sailing there and the number of
passengers they bring ashore.
Climate bill could
trigger lawsuit landslide. Self-proclaimed victims of global warming or those who "expect to suffer" from
it — from beachfront property owners to asthmatics — for the first time would be able to sue the
federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under a little-noticed provision slipped into the
House climate bill. Environmentalists say the measure was narrowly crafted to give citizens the unusual standing to
sue the U.S. government as a way to force action on curbing emissions. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees a new
cottage industry for lawyers.
Instead
of drilling for oil, Obama tilts at windmills. [Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar claims wind turbines off the
Atlantic can produce enough electricity to replace the 1 million megawatts currently being generated by coal, natural
gas, nuclear, biomass and other energy sources. "Secretary Salazar is living in fantasy land," Thomas Pyle, president
of the Institute for Energy Research, told The Examiner. The wind currently generates less than 1 percent of our
electricity needs, he said, adding that "we would need to install 309,587 giant turbines — about 172 turbines per mile
of coast — and hope the wind blows 24 hours a day, seven days a week," while paying twice as much for electricity
as we do now. This is the road to economic ruin.
Messing
with Mother Nature: [Scroll down] So, today I am reading my local paper and see an article
where the President's science advisor, John Holdren, has an idea about getting the temperature back down.
He says we should shoot a bunch of dirt into the upper atmosphere. I don't want anyone to get the wrong
idea, I am not anti-science. I like science. But I like my science to have been field tested and
verified by the scientific method.
Deeper In Red From Going Green.
The administration tells the country it can revive the economy with a "green" stimulus. But, like
government-provided universal health care, where it's been tried in another nation, it hasn't worked.
Obama
administration declares greenhouse gases a threat to public health. Environmentalists are
celebrating the so-called "endangerment finding" as the biggest statement yet that the federal government,
after years of downplaying the dangers of climate change under the Bush administration, is now preparing to
act boldly to combat it. This is a "landmark moment in environmental history," Frank O'Donnell,
president of the environmental group Clean Air Watch, said in a press release anticipating the decision.
Obama's
Energy Policy Driven by Ideology, not Reason. What Obama lacks in leadership, substance and management skills,
he more than makes up for with rhetoric and ideological zeal. Time and again Obama shows he will use his power to
drive the left-wing agenda without regard to economic consequences or loss of liberty. Moreover, with the liberal
holy grail of penalizing fossil fuel use in his grasp, it's doubtful Obama will shy away.
Obama Says High-Speed Rail Will
Foster Energy Independence. President Barack Obama called Thursday for the country to move swiftly to
a system of high-speed rail travel, saying it will relieve congestion, help clean the air and save on energy.
Energy
Secretary Offers Dire Global Warming Prediction. Caribbean nations face "very, very scary" rises
in sea level and intensifying hurricanes, and Florida, Louisiana and even northern California could be overrun
with rising water levels due to global warming triggered by carbon-based greenhouse gases, Energy Secretary
Steven Chu said Saturday [4/18/2009]. Chu's comments followed meetings with environmental ministers
attending the fifth Summit of the Americas. He did not shy away from the most perilous predictions
about the potential effects of global warming.
Obama flunks Global Warming 101 on Fargo.
President Obama used recent flooding in Fargo, North Dakota to push his misguided belief in global warming. His
comment, "If you look at the flooding that's going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, 'If you see an
increase of two degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?'" is speculative and completely wrong.
Global Warming Overreach.
Cap and trade was already going to be a brawl, but the two [Waxman and Pelosi] upped the ante by including
tougher targets and restrictions. If that weren't enough, they rolled in every other item on the green
wish list: a renewable electricity standard; a low-carbon fuel standard; a broader renewable fuels
policy; new efficiency standards. Any one of these is a monumental fight on its own. Put together
they risk an intra-party committee mutiny.
On Earth Day, Obama
pushes ambitious climate agenda. President Bill Clinton marked Earth Day in 1994 by promising to "green" the
White House from its landscaping to its copy machines. But President Barack Obama and his supporters pledged
themselves to a far more ambitious goal on Tuesday — combating climate change all over the world.
Energy
Sec. now admits he was 'Silly' to call for $8 per gallon gas in U.S.. REP. STEARNS: No. But
somehow, your statement, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the ($8 a gallon) levels in
Europe," doesn't that sound a little bit silly in retrospect for you to say that? SEC. STEVEN CHU: Yes.
'Green'
Obama wants us to pay. For all Barack Obama's talk about rejecting new trade barriers, there is an
increasing awareness around the world that the United States is planning to introduce climate-change legislation
that amounts to little more than green protectionism.
It's Not Easy Being Green.
In Barack Obama's America, there are no costs and benefits. There are only "false choices" that must be
avoided lest we fall into the dangerous trap of old thinking. We can increase deficit spending and
improve budgetary discipline, expand health care funding and reduce costs, and pay for social programs
unimagined by LBJ with the tax rates of Bill Clinton. ... Unfortunately, the laws of economics cannot
simply be repealed and benefits still do come at a cost.
The Great Government CO2 Power Grab. The inevitable has
happened. The Obama government has declared CO2 — a nutrient required by plants to live,
and a gas exhaled with your every breath — a pollutant. Let there be rejoicing in the ranks of
activists. Do what we say! Now, when I say that what occurred was "inevitable" it means that there was
nothing anybody could have done to stop the government from doing what it lusted to do. No facts would have
stopped them, no arguments, no evidence, no sober quantifications of uncertainty. This was going to happen
as soon as Obama was elected. Control is what was wanted and control is what was had.
Obama
wants to make America more like Europe. Top of the president's change list is the way we consume energy.
He believes our use of carbon-based fuels is causing the globe to heat up, with all the dire consequences conjured up by
Al Gore as he sits in the library of his home, probably the largest single consumer of energy of any private residence
in America. By one means or another, the president will make the use of oil, natural gas and especially coal so
expensive that consumers will be forced to use less energy, and rely more for the energy we do use on costly wind and
solar power, paid for with tax-funded subsidies or higher utility bills.
Obama sounds death
knell for nuclear power. Under the guise of cutting wasteful spending, President Obama is
terminating support for the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository in Nevada. While not unexpected,
this development means that there will be no place to store nuclear waste, probably for decades, other than at
temporary storage locations at each of the nation's nuclear power plants.
Obama nukes nuclear
storage. For more than two decades, the Congress, the president and the sprawling federal bureaucracy
have worked to find a safe place to store the waste of nuclear reactors. Yucca Mountain, a remote formation in
the deserts of Nevada, was the chosen site. Now President Obama, bowing to the demands of a fraction of
anti-nuclear activists, has thrown 22 years of hard work up in the air.
Penny-Wise And Megawatt
Foolish. Among the Lilliputian cuts in the budget is the termination of the nuclear waste
repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Thus, a "shovel ready" renewable resource that emits no greenhouse
gases is shoved aside.
Keep Yucca Mountain
project alive. While President Barack Obama's newly proposed budget would finally allow Nevada
to rid itself of a nuclear waste dump planned to be buried in tunnels deep under Yucca Mountain, it would
leave Illinois with the shaft. Obama's decision to zero out the Nevada nuclear waste repository is a
betrayal of his Illinois constituents, forcing nuclear power plants here to continue to "temporarily" store
more than 7,000 tons of dangerous, radioactive waste — more than any other state — in
cooling ponds near rivers and Lake Michigan.
More
about Yucca Mountain.
Global
Warming Scam To Cost Americans Trillions. This proposed global warming tax-and-spend scam
would be one of the biggest financial assaults ever perpetrated against a free people. Forgetting
for a moment that the whole anthropogenic global warming myth is the biggest fraud ever sold to a free
people, the plans the Obama Administration has to lighten the pockets of the American people is truly
staggering.
Obama budget
rescinds oil, gas industry tax breaks. The oil and gas industry is taking a hard hit
in President Barack Obama's proposed budget. According to details released Thursday about the
2010 budget, the plan would rescind tax breaks at a cost to the industry of $52.4 billion over
the next 10 years.
Obama and the Alternative Energy Fiasco:
It's only a matter of time before President Barack Obama's vast popularity runs aground on his energy policies.
In the name of saving the planet from global warming, he has delayed new oil drilling, an action that will have
major political repercussions once the world economy recovers. Instead of using some the stimulus billions
to produce more gas and oil, Obama's wild-eyed supporters dream of "renewable" energy derived from corn, wind,
sunshine, and even grass. With the appointment of extremists like climate czar Carol Browner and science
adviser John Holdren, Obama has placed his administration's environmental policy in the hands of radicals.
Cracks in the Facade: Obama is
ignoring the potential of coal, nuclear, gas, and oil, intent on cap-and-trade, and pie-in-the-sky present-day
Gore-ish wind and solar. The result will be that our energy bills will skyrocket. Our vulnerability
will increase. Our overt enemies will gain leverage, and covert ones will keep using coal and nuclear for
economic advantage. This is a disastrous energy policy and apparently has been outsourced to the Al Gore
cadres. We have a rendezvous with real trouble when the global economy rebounds and demands more oil and gas.
The Green Wind Of Destruction.
To say we're skeptical of the administration's claim that green jobs will bolster economic recovery is putting it
mildly. It's much easier to believe that needless environmental rules will cause widespread job losses.
Environmentalists happy with Obama; industry less
so. In the nearly four months since taking office, the Obama administration has moved quickly,
relentlessly and without apology to roll back the natural resource and public lands policies of its predecessor.
Though they have yet to lay out their own vision in detail, Salazar and other administration officials have left no doubt
that they consider the Bush approach misguided and unfairly weighted toward timber, mining, oil and other interests.
Obama administration trying to make unequal things
equal. Human production of CO2 causing global warming or climate change is the biggest deception in
history. Previously this statement met with incredulity. How could the entire world or a majority of
scientists be fooled? Now after the almost complete collapse of the global financial system people understand.
The Obama government is fooled because it doesn't want to understand and it suits their political agenda. They
ignore facts and abandon logic to produce policies guaranteed to continue US economic decline.
Yucca
Mountain, Though on Hold, Would Be Very Safe. President Barack Obama has proposed a budget that
would eliminate funding for the nearly completed Yucca Mountain storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
Proponents vow not to abandon the plan, and they have strong scientific reasons to support it. Yucca
Mountain was selected as the nation's first repository for high-level nuclear waste because of its many
natural barriers preventing the escape of radioactive particles. These include the mountain's surface
soils, its overall physical shape, the thick rock layers above and below the levels used for storage, and the
very impermeable materials located below the area's deep water table.
Obama
Budget Abandons Yucca Mountain. In a significant energy policy redirection, the Obama administration
appears poised to pull the plug on funds for permanent nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
President Barack Obama's recently unveiled budget eliminates funding for the Yucca Mountain geologic
repository, in spite of years of planning and almost $8 billion invested in the project.
Obama's European Energy
Vacation. Obama is absolutely right that we can learn a lot from the European approach to energy. But
he is dead wrong on what those lessons are. We should study what the Europeans are doing with regard to energy and the
environment, and then generally do the opposite.
Save the
Planet — Paint the Roof. The other day, the current Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu was
speaking at the "St James's Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium" in London which, if it is not the most
pretentiously named meeting on the planet, it must be among the top five, told his laureateal colleagues
that we should paint much of the world white to reflect heat back up into space and, thus, cure global
warming. I am not making this up.
Greens Want Black
and White. Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared at noted climatologist Prince Charles' symposium in London
today [5/26/2009], and expressed the Obama administration's support for painting roofs white and cars black in order to
reflect energy and fight global warming. ... This is the kind of dictatorial looniness that might awaken the general
public to the fact that greens are stark-raving mad. In fact, the public is already awake in California.
You
Will Wear White and You Will Like It. If we would just inflate our tires and get regular
tune-ups, drilling for oil would be unnecessary. Now one of the many czars of the Oz-bama Regime has
blithely suggested we should all be ordered to paint the roofs of our houses white — that doing so
would equal taking every car on the planet off the roads for eleven years. I wonder if whatever he's
smoking is negatively affecting climate change. But why stop there? If white roofs are such an
energy conservation miracle, surely making all cars white would help a lot too, and since we are soon to have
only Oz-bama Motors achieving the impossible 35-miles-per-gallon average, it'll be easy to issue the little
eggs with wheels in one color.
Levelized
Cost of New Electricity Generating Technologies. Analysis shows wind and solar power are ridiculously
expensive, compared to natural gas, coal and nuclear power.
No Energy from this
Executive. "As I've often said, in the short term, as we transition to renewable energy," President
Obama stated in April, "we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. ... We still
need more oil, we still need more gas. If we've got some here in the United States that we can use, we
should find it and do so in an environmentally sustainable way." Does anyone believe Obama was serious
about this? Given his practice of misdirection — saying one thing, doing another — no one
should have. Now, nearly five months into the Obama presidency, it's clear he didn't mean a
word of it. His administration is impeding, not promoting, increased production of oil and gas,
as it is of coal and nuclear power.
America's Nuclear Power Lag: While
President Barack Obama welcomed the "peaceful development" of nuclear power plants in Iran and other countries which
do not see themselves as friends of the United States, he and his liberal Democratic colleagues seem intent on killing
off the remnants of the nuclear power industry in the United States. Although candidate Obama said he would
consider nuclear power use if a reasonable solution can be found to storing nuclear waste, President Obama has taken
absolutely no action in developing civilian nuclear power. The comprehensive energy program of the Democratic
Congress, the Waxman-Markey bill does not even mention nuclear power.
FutureGen 'Clean Coal' Project Scaled Back by
Obama. The scope of the stalled FutureGen "clean coal" project in central Illinois is being scaled back by
the Obama administration in an effort to revive the plans for a coal-fired power plant that spews fewer gases into the
air. The U.S. Energy Department said today [6/12/2009] it will support a modified version of the proposal, seeking to
build a plant in Mattoon, Illinois, that can capture and bury 60 percent of its carbon emissions. The Bush
administration had crafted the original idea for a plant that could trap almost 100 percent of emissions, and then
canceled it after costs exceeded estimates.
What
Europeanization Will Really Mean: Since Mr. Obama and his friends would like us to be more like Europeans,
my wife and I recently went on a great explore to find out what life is really like in Europe and what changes
we should expect. Get out your bike because you will soon be riding it everywhere. That means you
too, Grandma — no exceptions. The best way to cut down on that nasty CO2 is to chuck your
cars and get on a two-wheeler. Of course, after a couple years with the government running two of our
three major car companies, a bicycle may become an attractive alternative.
White House Sounds Alarm On
Climate Change. Harmful effects from global warming are already here and worsening, warns the
first climate report from Barack Obama's presidency in the strongest language on climate change ever to come
out of the White House.
Watermelon
Environmentalism, Green on the Outside, Red on the Inside. President Obama, who wants to
emphasize science, has chosen Carol Browner for his "Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate
Change," a new post being dubbed the "Climate Czar." Browner's recent career will be of interest to
Americans struggling with a weak economy and cold weather. Carol Browner is not a climate scientist
but an attorney and bureaucrat who ran the EPA during both terms of the Clinton Administration, so she
does not exactly represent "change." She also put in a stint with the Socialist International, "the
worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labour parties.
Obama
Budget Abandons Yucca Mountain. In a significant energy policy redirection, the Obama
administration appears poised to pull the plug on funds for permanent nuclear waste storage at Yucca
Mountain in Nevada. President Barack Obama's recently unveiled budget eliminates funding for the Yucca
Mountain geologic repository, in spite of years of planning and almost $8 billion invested in the
project. Yucca Mountain may be in limbo, but it is not the only option available for dealing with
spent nuclear fuel.
Strong
words on climate change. Global warming has already caused more heavy downpours, the rise of temperatures and
sea levels, rapidly retreating glaciers, and altered river flows, according to the document released yesterday by the White
House science adviser and other top officials.
Government Study Warns of
Climate Change Effects. The impact of a changing climate is already being felt across the United States,
like shifting migration patterns of butterflies in the West and heavier downpours in the Midwest and East, according
to a government study to be released on Tuesday [6/16/2009]. Even if the nation takes significant steps to slow
emissions of heat-trapping gases, the impact of global warming is expected to become more severe in coming years, the
report says, affecting farms and forests, coastlines and floodplains, water and energy supplies, transportation and
human health.
Here's the rebuttal:
U.S. Climate Report Assailed.
The new federal report on climate change gets a withering critique from Roger Pielke Jr., who says that it misrepresents
his own research and that it wrongly concludes that climate change is already responsible for an increase in damages from
natural disasters.
Time to
Laugh at Obama and Company. How many Americans does it take to screw in a light bulb? According
to President-elect Barack Obama, 2.5 million. Obama has a new plan, he says, to save or create at
least 2.5 million jobs. "We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems
and installing efficient light bulbs," Obama said. "That won't just save you, the American taxpayer,
billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work." This is inherently hilarious.
The president-elect of the United States actually believes that screwing in energy-efficient light bulbs will
save or create millions of jobs.
Did
someone mention fluorescent bulbs?
Obama's Mine Shaft: Barack
Obama's plan to bankrupt anyone building a new coal plant prioritizes global warming myths over U.S. energy independence.
It also wields government power punitively and will hurt the economy.
Obama's
anti-oil team. The president-elect is poised to hand environmental policy to people who want to punish
petroleum.
NASA's
Hansen to Obama: Use Global Warming to Redistribute Wealth. Climate realists around the world have
contended for years that the real goal of alarmists such as Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his followers is to use the fear
of man-made global warming to redistribute wealth.
NASA's James Hansen to the
Rescue! NASA's James Hansen has written a personal letter to President-elect Obama outlining his plans for
saving the planet from global warming. Hansen has been wrong so many times about the "inevitability" of global
warming that most of us have lost count. But it is hard to be wrong — when it feels so right.
NASA tells Barack
Obama Australia is destroying earth with coal emissions. Australia's use of coal and carbon
emissions policies are guaranteeing the "destruction of much of the life on the planet", a leading NASA
scientist has written in a letter to Barack Obama. The head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space
Studies, Professor James Hansen, has written an open letter to Barack Obama calling for a moratorium on
coal-fired power stations and the use of next-generation nuclear power.
Bailing Out Wind. Obama
announces his energy team without mentioning a green source of renewable energy that could create jobs, reduce carbon
emissions and reinvigorate a vital manufacturing sector — nuclear power.
Energy squad to wean US
off oil addiction. Barack Obama intends to round out his environmental and natural resources
team with a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and three former Environmental Protection Agency officials from the
Clinton administration. The president-elect's energy policy team will be responsible for implementing a
far-reaching plan to wean the US off Middle Eastern oil and bolster the economy by increasing energy
efficiency and building renewable energy plants.
The Editor says...
If you like paying $8 a gallon for gasoline, you should be in hog heaven by the time Obama implements
his harebrained schemes. He will appease the environmentalists, but no one else.
Environmentalists
draft bold roadmap for Obama. The [environmental] groups call for cutting funding for nuclear energy,
reinstating a moratorium on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and reconsidering recent oil and gas leases
in some parts of Alaska. The bold outline from groups working to protect oceans, increase park space and reduce
pollution shows that the environmental community is going on the offensive, after eight years of playing defense.
Obama Pledges to 'Skyrocket' Electricity
Prices. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to force electricity prices to "skyrocket" and
to "bankrupt" any new coal-fired power plants in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to an
interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that surfaced November 2. With the planned
imposition of strict limits on carbon dioxide emissions, electricity providers would have to purchase prohibitively
expensive alternative power from sources such as wind and solar. Obama pledged he would not allow electricity
providers to use less-expensive nuclear power or clean coal technology any time in the near future.
The Warm Turns. In a speech at
Harvard last November, Harvard physicist John Holden, President-elect Obama's choice to be his science adviser as director
of the White House Office of Science and Technology, presented a "top 10" list of warming solutions. Topping the list
was "limiting population," as if man was a plague upon the earth. This is a major tenet of green dogma that bemoans
the fact that the pestilence called mankind comes with cars, factories and overconsumption of fossil fuels and other
resources.
'Santa' Klaus Takes on Global
Warming. [Scroll down] Enter the Barack Obama administration. Between new "Climate Czar" Carole
Browner and Science Advisor John Holdren, the True Believers are now taking over Federal policy on energy and the
weather. (The weather? Yes! We are now blessed with an official bureaucracy tasked to change the
weather. It includes NASA Goddard Space Center's James Hanson, who believes that CEOs of energy companies "should
be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature" if they spread foul skepticism about global warming.)
Advocates
for Action on Global Warming Chosen as Obama's Top Science Advisers. President-elect Barack
Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate
change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources, sending the strongest signal yet that
he will reverse Bush administration policies on energy and global warming.
NOAA's Ark. President-elect
Obama chooses as his science adviser and head of our weather research agency two global warming activists who believe your
SUV is driving us over a climate cliff. ... He nominated Harvard physicist John Holden to be his science adviser as director
of the White House Office of Science and Technology, and marine biologist Jane Lubchenco to head to head the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both are global warming true believers.
Climate
czar left no electronic trail. Don't bother looking for any electronic records of Carol Browner's
first stint as a federal government executive. The soon-to-be Obama administration climate czar intentionally
didn't keep many. In sworn testimony obtained by The Washington Times, Ms. Browner disclosed that she
refused to use e-mail when she served as President Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency chief in the
1990s for fear of leaving a digital trail.
Hot air from Obama:
In one of his first public policy statements as America's president-elect, Barack Obama focused on climate
change, and clearly stated both his priorities and the facts on which these priorities rest.
Unfortunately, both are weak, or even wrong. ... Obama went on to say why he wants to prioritise global
warming policies: "The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising.
Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing
stronger with each passing hurricane season." ... These statements are — however eloquent —
seriously wrong or misleading. Sea levels are rising, but they have been rising at least since the
early 1800s.
Less Power To Him. Barack
Obama's apparent choice for Energy secretary is physicist Steven Chu. ... He has criticized "free market forces" for
not cutting carbon dioxide emissions and supports "a combination of fiscal policies and downright regulations" for
controlling CO2. He claims coal — which today fuels hundreds of power plants — is an "obstacle
to progress," and has said "coal is my worst nightmare." And he shows an alarmist's fear of global
warming. Chu is also a zealous advocate of alternative energy, using his position as director of the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in California to push policymakers to remake the facility into a center for researching
biofuels and solar energy. An opponent of coal who happens to be a global warming reactionary is not suitable to
be in charge of the nation's energy policy.
Global Warming's Poor, Huddled
Masses. Barack Obama doesn't have a mandate for his global warming policies. He doesn't even have a
mandate from his most fervent supporters. ... Obama's America wouldn't just welcome your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses: It would create them. It's highly doubtful Americans are willing to make this sacrifice.
Obama's Carbon Busters. After
the selection of a largely centrist economic team, liberals have been asking when President-elect Obama would give
them a seat at the table. Well, now we know, and Americans should strap themselves in. Mr. Obama is
stocking his energy shop with the greenest of greens who want to move fast on a very aggressive climate agenda.
Here come the carbon busters.
Obama's Energy Policy: Al Gore's Pipe
Dream. Obama also pledges to put a million "plug-in hybrid cars" on the road by 2015 — by
offering a $7,000 tax credit to anyone who buys one. Of course, Obama's energy proposals haven't won
him friends in the coal industry, which he has essentially vowed to shut down.
Obama climate pledge "very
positive" — UN official. Barack Obama's pledge to work to reduce emissions
sharply by 2020 is a "huge signal" of encouragement to countries negotiating a new climate pact, the
head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Wednesday [11/19/2008]. The U.S. president-elect
said on Tuesday the United States would engage vigorously in climate change talks when he is president,
and he pledged to work to reduce emissions sharply by 2020, despite the financial crisis.
The New Landlord. Get
ready for national park access by mass transit in order to minimize automobile usage. Yosemite, Zion,
and Grand Canyon have already instituted shuttle bus services, with Yosemite boasting nine routes. Nothing
scares the Chambers of Commerce of "Gateway communities" around Yellowstone more than the idea of having to
tell tourists they can't drive on the Park's extensive highway system. But the green dream calls for
car-free national parks. [No snowmobiles, RVs, or motorcycles.]
Climate first for Obama transition team.
After eight years out in the cold, Democrats in Washington DC are rushing to warm themselves by the White House
fireplace. And although research advocates may have to wait to see major science-policy positions in the
new administration filled, a sense of the next president's priorities and style of governance is starting to
emerge.
What can we expect from the Obama
Administration? [#5] [Expect an] end to almost all new drilling, new nuclear power stations,
and a vast slowdown if not a stop on coal-fired power stations. Expect California-style blackouts
within two or three years, rolling across the nation, to be used as the excuse for rationing of energy,
including fuel and electricity.
Obama's First 100 Days. World peace will
probably be first on the agenda. Obama, as president, will give all those dictators a good talking
to. ... Once Obama has shown these bad boys the error of their ways, he'll be ready to tackle his next big
job — saving the earth from melting. Of course, this will require a temporary halt to capitalism but
hey, ya gotta break a few eggs, right? The bright side is, Obama will actually be able to deliver on a
campaign promise — the promise to bankrupt the coal industry.
Green herring. Mr.
Obama wants to "implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent
by 2050." That is even more ambitious than the goal of a cap-and-trade bill that the Department of Energy
estimates would cost between $444 billion and $1.3 trillion in reduced economic growth over two
decades. ... Like a carbon tax, which achieves the same result more explicitly, a cap-and-trade system works
only if it makes energy use (and the emissions associated with it) more expensive.
Second thoughts on
warming: President-elect Barack Obama wants to phase out coal-based electricity generation,
switch to renewable energy and follow Europe's lead on climate change. That could prove difficult.
Coal generates half of all U.S. electricity. Wind provides less than 2 percent of all electricity
and cannot be relied on when it's needed. Europe's lead can't even be defined, much less followed.
Obama's Grand Experiment: Global Warming Cap-and-Trade Policy.
The prospect that President-elect Barack Obama may keep the Bush tax cuts until 2011 has some clinging to hope
he will postpone his liberal ideas for the economy's sake. There's little chance of that when it comes
to global warming, however, an issue on which Obama puts his ideology first and the nation's economic growth
second.
An Explosion of Green Lies. As the
Obama administration makes ready to assume power, the Greens are going crazy with campaigns denouncing coal as
"dirty" and demanding an end to the use of all plastic bottles, claiming that a life-threatening component exists.
If this is so, don't you think we would know about it by now? Plastic, of course, is made from oil and that
too has been stigmatized for decades by the Greens.
Obama is the star pupil in the School of Climate
Change. Bernard Baruch said, "Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."
Barack Obama promised a great deal. He was rarely specific, but his generalities were interpreted to mean he would
deal with each voter's specific concerns. His promise of change was nothing new, but people believed it was different
than any thing seen before in Washington. He is not President yet, but already he has demonstrated an inability to
satisfy the expectations raised by his eloquence and vagueness.
President-elect
Barack Obama proposes economic suicide for US. [Obama] talks blithely of allowing only "clean"
coal-fired power plants, using "carbon capture" — burying the CO2 in holes in the ground —
which would double the price of electricity, but the technology for which hasn't even yet been developed.
He then babbles on about "generating five million new green jobs". This will presumably consist of hiring
millions of Americans to generate power by running around on treadmills, to replace all those "dirty" coal-fired
power stations which currently supply the US with half its electricity. If this sounds like an elaborate
economic suicide note, for what is still the earth's richest nation, it is still not enough for many
environmentalists.
Obama to Declare
Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant. Barack Obama will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous
pollutant that can be regulated should he win the presidential election on Nov. 4, opening the way for
new rules on greenhouse gas emissions. The Democratic senator from Illinois will tell the Environmental
Protection Agency that it may use the 1990 Clean Air Act to set emissions limits on power plants and
manufacturers, his energy adviser, Jason Grumet, said in an interview.
Hey kids! Let's create an
International Court for the Environment! Obama's election is really bringing them out of the woodwork,
isn't it? Every liberal kook in the world now feels enabled to advance any cockamamie idea they can come up
with. Try this one; a court to try nation's and companies that contribute too much to global warming.
Obama
Out-Gores Gore at Climate Summit'. The President-elect appeared to the green faithful on
Tuesday [11/18/2008] in the form of a mammoth video image, and opened his pre-recorded pledge to "take
the lead" in addressing global warming with these eerily familiar words: "Few challenges facing
America — and the world — are more urgent than combating climate change. The
science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are
shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger
with each passing hurricane season."
[The article goes on to pick Obama's argument apart, point by point, and show how each claim is false.]
Obama
Embraces 'Green Path' in Economic Stimulus Plan. President-elect Barack Obama is considering a stimulus
package that will include a heavy dose of spending on environmentally friendly projects aimed at creating "green-collar
jobs" and saving energy.
Economists raise
doubts about alternative-energy spending. Prompted by public concern over the economy and energy costs,
President-elect Barack Obama and Democrats in control of Congress are touting a two-for-one solution: spending
billions of dollars on alternative-energy programs to create jobs and help lift the nation out of recession.
The Editor says...
Note to Mr. Obama: The economy doesn't work that way. Government is parasitic — it does not
create jobs or anything else. It does not have money of its own to spend on half-baked ideas like yours.
The old Democrat tax-and-spend cycle never has lifted the nation out of anything.
Radical environmentalism is not just a hobby
for tree-hugging Earth-worshiping hippies, as you can learn
from this page.
Do you like paying $5.00 a gallon for gasoline? The Democrat-controlled Congress has been
obstructing the flow of oil for years.
Waxman to
Push Global Warming Bill. Comprehensive global warming legislation will be sent to the House
floor by Memorial Day, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) announced Thursday
[1/15/2009]. "Our committee will be acting quickly and decisively to reduce global warming and end our
dependence on foreign oil," Waxman said.
The Editor says...
First of all, neither Mr. Waxman nor anyone else can affect global temperatures, since he would be competing
with sunspots, volcanoes and other natural forces that are far more powerful than he. Secondly, the
only way to "end our dependence on foreign oil" would be to eliminate the internal combustion engine and
build dozens of new nuclear power plants. The Democrat Party is practically owned by environmental
lobbyists who consistently oppose nuclear power,
so that's out. And considering how Mr. Waxman and the other Democrats have been so protective of the
auto industry lately — or at least
the UAW — I'd say the internal combustion
engine is safe for now. Therefore Mr. Waxman appears to be wasting his breath on shallow and
meaningless rhetoric.
Shovel-Ready Nukes. Amazingly,
with all the talk of shoveling money into infrastructure projects, no mention has been made of our energy needs, the jobs
that can be created by expanding our energy infrastructure and the jobs that can be created with the additional energy
provided. To be sure, vast sums are planned for alternative energy sources such as wind farms and solar plants, but
like the current stimulus packages they will take too long to affect the economy in any significant way. Nuclear
energy is a different matter.
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