Cooler Heads Digest 17 September 2010

In the News

Fixing the Global Warming Establishment with New Lipstick
Shikha Dalmia, Reason.com, 17 September 2010

Journalist’s Truthful Climate Reporting Gets Him Fired
Paul Chesser, American Spectator, 17 September 2010

Coal Miners Rally in Washington
Stephen Power, Wall Street Journal, 16 September 2010

Tragedy of the Commons Redux
Sterling Burnett, Planet Gore, 16 September 2010

Inconvenient Truths
Bjorn Lomborg, Wall Street Journal, 15 September 2010

Stand up to the EPA Power Grab
Phil Kerpen, Fox Forum, 14 September 2010

Wind Power on the Firing Line
Jon Boone, MasterResource.org, 13 September 2010

News You Can Use

Ineffective Stimulus

According to an audit issued Thursday by Los Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel, the city has created just 55 jobs with $111 million from the 2009 stimulus.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

EPA Climate Regulations under Assault

There was a fair amount of maneuvering this week on delaying the implementation of EPA’s regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

On Capitol Hill, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, cancelled a full committee vote on her subcommittee’s appropriations bill because of the threat that an amendment to delay implementation of EPA’s regulation of stationary sources would pass.  Feinstein said that the committee may not vote on the bill at all this year.  Instead, Interior and EPA appropriations would be rolled into an omnibus spending bill.

Feinstein’s move was quickly countered by Senator Christopher Bond (R-Mo.), whose office let it be known that he might try to attach an amendment to a Defense appropriations bill.  Politico’s Morning Energy quotes an e-mail from a Bond staffer: “Bond believes the Defense authorization bill is the wrong place for a campaign wish list, but we’ll have to see whether Democrats go through with plans to load on extra issues and whether that opens the door to other things.”

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) chimed in that he was still expecting a vote on the Senate floor before the end of the 111th Congress on his bill to delay EPA greenhouse gas regulations for two years.  Rockefeller told Environment and Energy News that he has 53 votes and expects to get to the 60 required by the time of the vote.  If there is a vote, it will likely occur in a lame duck session after the November 2 congressional elections.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland sent a letter http this week to his state’s congressional delegation urging them to support a two-year delay.  This would be quite a surprise were not the liberal Democrat trailing in his campaign for re-election.  The Business Roundtable also sent a letter asking for a two-year delay.  This is significant because many companies that belong to the big business lobbying association support cap-and-trade.

Finally, three separate motions were filed in the federal D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to delay implementation of EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations until the court rules on the lawsuit seeking to overturn the Endangerment Finding upon which the regulations are based.  One motion was filed by the State of Texas; another (Greenwire subscription req’d) was filed by several non-profit policy and legal groups; and the third (Greenwire subscription req’d) was filed by three industry trade associations.

Across the States

California

By a 4 to 1 vote, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution supporting Proposition 23, the California ballot initiative to suspend AB 32, the State’s global warming law, until unemployment decreases to 5.5 %. Supervisor John Benoit, who authored a resolution, told the Desert Sun, “AB 32 is a very open law that’s left to the bureaucracy to make the rules. I don’t think we need to be the greenest Third World economy in the world. I’m afraid of where this leads us.” On August 18th, Regional Council of Rural Counties, a coalition of supervisors from northern California counties, voted 21 to 0 to support Proposition 23.

In Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, James Kellogg, a prominent union leader, wrote a stirring endorsement of Proposition 23, titled “Like Having a Job? You’ll Love Prop 23.”

Around the World

China

In order to meet a pledge to reduce energy use per unit of economic output by 20 per cent over the five years ending this December, the Chinese government has ordered energy rationing, resulting in rolling blackouts across the country. More than 2,000 energy intensive industries have been ordered  to close. Despite these extreme measures, China is unlikely to meet the target.

The Cooler Heads Digest is the weekly e-mail publication of the Cooler Heads Coalition. For the latest news and commentary, check out the Coalition’s website, www.globalwarming.org.