CEI's Sam Kazman and Myron Ebell are featured in two new videos exploring energy issues.  Check them out at CEI's website:

 

"Yes We Can"

Myron Ebell, Director of Energy Policy, explains how we CAN drill ourselves out of the energy crisis.

 

"Stop Kvetching about Exxon"

 

 

Terence P Jeffrey, Washington Times, 15 August 2008

 

Michelle Malkin, Washington Times, 15 August 2008

 

Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 15 August 2008

 

Alan Caruba, Canada Free Press, 15 August 2008

 

Ken Belson, New York Times, 14 August 2008

 

Jon Utley, Reason Online, 14 August 2008

 

Robert Samuelson, Washington Post, 13 August 2008

 

Sam Kazman, Spectator, 12 August 2008

 

Indur Goklany & Jerry Taylor, LA Times, 11 August 2008

 

Washington Post, 11 August 2008

 

Mark Newgent, D.C. Examiner, 11 August 2008

 

Human Events, 11 August 2008

 

John McClaughry, Ethan Allen Institute, August 2008

 

John Shadegg, National Review Online, 11 August 2008

 

William Balgord, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 8 August 2008

 

According to Dr. Nina Pierpont of Malone, N.Y., living within two miles of a wind turbine causes serious health problems, including headaches; difficulty sleeping; tinnitus, or ringing in the ears; learning and mood disorders; panic attacks; irritability; disruption of equilibrium, concentration and memory; and childhood behavior problems. Dr. Pierpont has coined the phrase "wind turbine syndrome" to describe these effects, which are caused by the low-frequency noise and vibration generated by wind machines.

 

 

With Congress out all month, not much is happening in Washington, which is always a good thing.  But the debate is shifting noticeably.  For evidence, read this editorial in the Washington Post.  The Post has not said anything reasonable or even factually correct on energy for over a decade (they used to support oil production in ANWR).  In this editorial, however, the Post corrects ads being run by the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund on three key points about offshore oil production.  This is remarkable and to my knowledge unprecedented.  It isn’t an earthquake yet, but you can see the ground moving.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, requiring reductions in the State’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The bill includes tough penalties, with fines of as much as $25,000 a day for violations. The Act requires the Department of Environmental Protection to formulate an emissions reduction strategy by January 1, 2009. Governor Patrick also signed the Green Jobs Act, which allocates $68 million over five years to grow the clean energy sector.

 

A California court rejected a proposal to build a controversial luxury resort and golf course in Desert Hot Springs because the project's environmental study failed to analyze the project's greenhouse gas emissions. The lawsuit, which was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, challenged the development based on AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. AB 32 did not address emissions analysis as part of the California Environmental Quality Act, but the California Legislature passed SB 97 last year, requiring the Office of Planning and Research to develop regulations on how emissions should be addressed in CEQ documents no later than July 1, 2009. The court’s decision is the first legal interpretation of how to incorporate emissions analysis into CEQ documents until the OPR releases its regulations.

 

The Kansas Energy Council, which advises the Governor and the Legislature on energy policy, is considering a recommendation to lower the state speed limit from 70mph to 65 mph as a way to reduce the state's emissions of carbon dioxide.

 

Watch this “We Can Solve It” video and see if you see a glaring error in their reasoning. We Can Solve It ad (the challenge may be to pick only one!) Here is their caption with the video:

 

“There's been a lot of pressure lately to open up protected areas for oil drilling. But common sense says drilling is not the answer. Switching is.

 

Switching to 100% clean, renewable electricity within 10 years.”

 

What jumped out at me was this: they talk about the challenges of high gas prices and dependence on foreign oil, but their solutions—wind and solar—are sources of electricity.  You can’t put them in your gas tank; they are not interchangeable.