Cooler Heads Digest 9 April 2009

Announcements

The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) has launched a new global warming website, Climate Depot, run by Marc Morano, former communications director for the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. To visit the site, click here.

In the News

Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign
Leslie Kaufman, New York Times, 10 April 2009

Climate Bill Could Trigger Lawsuit Landslide
Tom Lobianco, Washington Times, 10 April 2009

A Dangerous New Global Warming Law
Alan Caruba, Warning Signs, 10 April 2009

The U.N.’s Global Green Raw Deal
Patrick Michaels, Planet Gore, 9 April 2009

Waxman-Markey Litigation Shell Game
Marlo Lewis, OpenMarket.org, 9 April 2009

Alarmists Get Their Wish
Paul Chesser, GlobalWarming.org, 9 April 2009

Wind Power Is a Complete Disaster
Michael J. Trebilcock, Financial Post, 8 April 2009

Can Renewables Meet America’s Energy Needs?
Mary Hutzler, MasterResource.org, 7 April 2009

Outrageous: Waxman-Markey’s Energy Tax
Amy Ridenour, National Center for Public Policy Research, 6 April 2009

Obama Proposes Cap Growth
Donald Lambro, Washington Times, 6 April 2009

News You Can Use

Wind Power Is Not the Answer

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar this week in New Jersey said that windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace all the coal-fired power in the United States. In response, Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, told the D.C. Examiner that, “Secretary Salazar is living in Fantasy Land.” According to Pyle, “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.”

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

New Study Shows Costs of Canada’s Climate Plans

I was in Toronto, Kingston, and Ottawa this week to enjoy the snow. The way the climate is warming so rapidly it might be the last snow we see for quite awhile-maybe not until December. While I was there, the Ontario Conservative Party released a study that estimates that electric bills will increase by up to $780 per household if the Liberal Party government’s Green Energy Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is passed by the Ontario Parliament. Energy Minister George Smitherman immediately disputed the study’s findings.  He said that electric bills would go up only one percent per year because the higher rates would create a “culture of conservation.”  It’s nice to see that Canadians can be just as loopy as Californians.

It’s Too Late for Obama To Hedge on Climate

Here in Washington, White House Science Adviser John P. Holdren gave interesting interviews to Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post and to Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press. He confirmed to Eilperin something that President Barack Obama seemed to say several weeks ago. The Administration would be open to a cap-and-trade bill, such as the Waxman-Markey draft (which I wrote about last week), that gives away some of the ration coupons to emitting industries. Obama favors auctioning 100% of the coupons, but clearly he and his top advisers recognize that the only way to gain the support of big business special interests is to give them some of the coupons they need to stay in business.

The problem is that the Administration and many Members of Congress have already made plans for spending all the revenue that would be raised by auctioning the coupons.  It may be solved if the revenues generated are much higher in the first eight years of a cap-and-trade regime than the $646 billion estimate in President Obama’s budget submission to Congress. A White House official, Jason Furman, was quoted as saying that they thought the revenues could be two to three times their estimate, or $1.3 to 1.9 trillion. That sounds like enough money to pay off big business and vastly increase federal spending at the same time. However, if the economy remains weak, which it may well do given the policies being pursued by the Congress and the Administration, then there may be a glut of coupons and the auction price may be low.  Cap-and-trade will siphon a lot of money out of the economy while at the same time putting a governor on the economy limiting the upper end of growth to perhaps one or two percent per year. As people’s incomes stagnate and decline, federal revenues are going to drop off a cliff without major tax increases.

Dr. Doom

Dr. Holdren told Borenstein that the Administration was actively considering geo-engineering solutions to stop global warming because the situation is so desperate. It’s relevant here to remember that the first time anyone said we had only ten years left to begin reducing emissions was about seven years ago. Geo-engineering is of course anathema to most global warming alarmists. For them, the only way to save us is to cripple the economy. Therefore, it was no surprise that environmental pressure groups came out swinging against Holdren’s comments. Holdren then quickly sent around an e-mail saying that his remarks had been taken out of context. I mention this story because the idea that Dr. Holdren could be put in charge of engineering the perfect climate is the most frightening thing I’ve heard for many years. Michael Crichton, may he rest in peace, could have written his scariest novel based closely on the real-life ravings of John P. Holdren.

Around the World

Bonn Conference Ends in Failure

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bonn ended this week. It was the latest round of negotiations to pave the way for the fifteenth Conference of the Parties this December in Copenhagen, where member nations have pledged to conclude negotiations on a successor agreement to the failed Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.

There was no progress on the most important issue-legally binding emissions cuts. The head of the UNFCCC, Yvo de Boer, said that the numbers discussed for emissions targets for industrialized countries were “well short” of the 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The U.S. delegation spent most of the Bonn talks trying to dampen expectations. European member countries bemoaned the lack of “leadership,” an implicit attack on American inaction. And developing countries continued to reject emissions targets of any kind, while at the same time demanding hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for clean energy technologies and adaptation. Environmentalists were sorely disappointed.

Predictably, the only thing the negotiators agreed upon was the need for more negotiations on top of those already scheduled for Bonn in June and Bangkok in October. They agreed to meet in Bonn again in August, and at an undisclosed location in November, presumably somewhere tropical. These jet-setting diplomats have a tough job-endless, inconclusive meetings at five-star resorts all over the world.