Plots, Politics, and Predetermined Outcomes at the National Academies of Science
by Iain Murray
16 March 2010 @ 2:39 pm
For many years, the climate alarmist movement pushed the development of corn ethanol as the “fuel of the future” on the grounds that it would decrease fossil fuel emissions. As I detail in my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, massive efforts were devoted to promoting this technology, with a textbook baptist-bootlegger alliance between green groups and Big Corn (most notably Archer Daniels Midland). Politicians joined in happily, with Al Gore stumping for Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar because of her support for ethanol and countless Presidential candidates in Iowa talking up the fuel.
The result of that push has, it seems, been an increase in fossil fuels. For the latest on this, see Corned grief: biofuels may increase CO2 at Watts Up…
by Iain Murray
16 March 2010 @ 2:39 pm
For many years, the climate alarmist movement pushed the development of corn ethanol as the “fuel of the future” on the grounds that it would decrease fossil fuel emissions. As I detail in my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, massive efforts were devoted to promoting this technology, with a textbook baptist-bootlegger alliance between green groups and Big Corn (most notably Archer Daniels Midland). Politicians joined in happily, with Al Gore stumping for Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar because of her support for ethanol and countless Presidential candidates in Iowa talking up the fuel.
The result of that push has, it seems, been an increase in fossil fuels. For the latest on this, see Corned grief: biofuels may increase CO2 at Watts Up…
by Charles Huang
12 March 2010 @ 2:32 pm
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the Weekly newsletter is a brief description of CEI’s weekly podcast and a feature on a major CEI breakthrough made during the week. To sign up for CEI Weekly, go to http://cei.org/newsletters.
CEI Weekly
March 12, 2010
>>CEI Against Climate Change Policy
>>On Tuesday, the two articles on the front page of the Washington Times’ Commentary section were written by CEI analysts William Yeatman and Chris Horner, both criticizing proposed funding of green jobs by the Obama administration.
>>Additionally, CEI’s Chris Horner also appeared on Fox’s America’s Newsroom, to debate the US’ role in the IMF’s Climate Fund which would pay for climate programs.
>>Shaping the Debate
Real Competition…
by Paul Chesser, Heartland Institute Correspondent
11 March 2010 @ 6:34 pm
Imagine lobbyists for the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Nature Conservancy controlled an EPA rulemaking panel that would decide whether a petition to cap greenhouse gas emissions sponsored by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership — an alliance that includes all three aforementioned environoia groups — would become law. Wouldn’t every activist with a cause love to have such an arrangement?
The equivalent of that is what’s transpiring in New Mexico, where the state Environmental Improvement Board is considering a rule that would cap CO2 emissions at 25 percent of 1990 levels. As New Mexico Watchdog reporter Jim Scarantino has written in a series of articles, the majority of EIB members — including (and especially) its chairman, Gregory Green — have conflicts of…
by Marlo Lewis
11 March 2010 @ 3:37 pm
Gallup’s annual update of Americans’ attitudes on things environmental found that 48% of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009, and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first posed the question.
Similarly, the percentage of those who believe global warming is going to affect them or their way of life in their lifetimes has dropped from 40% in 2008 to 32% today.
Among the causes for these changes in opinion, Gallup mentions, “publicity surrounding allegations of scientific fraud relating to global warming evidence.” I’d like to propose another, related factor: humor.
by Paul Chesser, Heartland Institute Correspondent
11 March 2010 @ 3:32 pm
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a state legislator go toe-to-toe on the climate change issue with an alarmist, but the Fox News affiliate in Salt Lake City caught that very thing on camera this week. On Wednesday after a student-led global warming rally at the legislature, State Rep. Mike Noel, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, found himself in the same room with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Here’s the full discussion, in which the skeptic Noel is surrounded by environoiacs, including one who kept trying to butt in.
You might recall last month the Utah legislature passed a few measures in opposition to placing limits on greenhouse gas emissions, including a recommendation to Gov. Gary Herbert that…
by Marlo Lewis
11 March 2010 @ 12:38 pm
My colleague Julie Walsh flags a funny statement by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), quoted earlier this week (Mar. 9) in Greenwire (subscription required). Although Lieberman, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) want to include cap-and-trade in their draft climate and energy legislation, they are reluctant to use the term.
Greenwire reports:
Lieberman also downplayed the use of the term “cap and trade” when it comes to limiting emissions, even though that is generally the plan with their bill. “We don’t use that term anymore,” he said. “We’ll have pollution reduction targets. Remember the Artist Previously Known as Prince?”
According to earlier reports, Graham et al. may propose to combine an electric utility sector cap-and-trade program with carbon taxes on transportation fuels. If so, then Kyotoism is truly dead.…
by Christine Hall
11 March 2010 @ 12:02 pm
Did Karl Lagerfeld jump the shark with his fall-winter 2010-11 ready-to-wear collection for Chanel? The collection - by one of the most famous and historic design houses in the world - was described by the AP as global warming in theme, and subsequently scorned on Newsbusters. The show featured icebergs reportedly flown in from Sweden (whoa! with the carbon footprint!) and some extreme costume elements - like an antler-and-ear headdress - that would only appeal as street-wear to a Lady Gaga or Bjork. Ridiculous and unwearable? Certainly. Likely to be available for purchase in Saks Fifth Avenue? Fear not.
The interesting aspect of Mr. Lagerfeld’s theatrical show is that the mastermind himself seems to show little concern, much less panic, over the…
by Marlo Lewis
09 March 2010 @ 7:44 pm
That’s the topic of this week’s National Journal energy blog. In my contribution, I argue that EPA has been playing a mischievous game that endangers democracy, and that Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s legislation to veto the agency’s endangerment finding would remove this threat.
In a Feb. 22 letter to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson warns that enactment of the Murkowski legislation would scuttle the joint EPA/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) greenhouse gas/fuel economy rulemaking, which in turn would compel the struggling auto industry to operate under a “patchwork quilt” of state-level fuel-economy regulations.
Ms. Jackson neglects to mention that the patchwork threat exists only because she, reversing Bush EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson’s decision, granted California a waiverto implement its own GHG/fuel economy program. Had Jackson reaffirmed Johnson’s denial, there would be no danger…
by Myron Ebell
05 March 2010 @ 10:23 pm
[This is a slightly-edited version of a blog first posted on Fox News Forum.]
The New York Times published a doozy of a front-page story by John M. Broder on Wednesday on the Climate-gate scientific fraud scandal. Those who have been lambasting our national “paper of record” for months for largely ignoring the scandal, while every London paper has run multiple big stories full of juicy new revelations, can now relax. The wise and good Grey Lady has finally taken notice.
Well, not exactly. Broder’s story, headlined “Scientists Take Steps to Defend Climate Work,” is all about how the climate science establishment have realized that they “have to fight back” against critics who have used the Climategate revelations to call into question the…
by William Yeatman
05 March 2010 @ 11:42 am
In the News
The New York Times Strikes Back
Myron Ebell, Fox Forum, 5 March 2010
Bullies Waxman & Markey Promote “Endangerment” of Economy, Democracy
Marlo Lewis, BigGovernment.com, 5 March 2010
Carbon Caps through the Backdoor
Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2010
Joe Romm, Where Art Thou?
Michael Lynch, MasterResource.org, 5 March 2010
Green Jobs Fantasy
Iain Murray, National Review Online, 4 March 2010
Democratic Senators Move To Stop Wind Subsidies in Stimulus
Dan Eggen, Washington Post, 4 March 2010
“Anti-Lobbyist” Obama Administration Recruits “Green” Lobbyists To Sell Subsidies
Chris Horner, Pajamas Media, 3 March 2010
The Mainstream Media’s New Favorite Republican
Myron Ebell, Pajamas Media, 3 March 2010
Gore Still Hot on His Doomsday Rhetoric
Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 3 March 2010
Media Fails Public on Climate Coverage
Walter Russell Mead, American Interest, 3 March 2010
by Michael Fumento
05 March 2010 @ 10:37 am
Some global warming skeptics have been using the remarkably cold winter and record snowfalls to attack the idea of global warming. Believers are crying foul. “You’re confusing weather with climate!” they insist.
And they’re right. But they invented the game a long time ago and have been deftly playing it ever since.
Among the complainers is Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, “The Earth is really, really big,” he condescendingly but correctly observes in a nationally syndicated column. “It’s so big that it can be cold here and warm elsewhere - and this is the key concept - at the same time. Even if it were unusually cold throughout the continental U.S., that still represents less than 2% of the Earth’s…
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