After an outcry of objections, the California Energy Commission withdrew its proposal to require new buildings in the state to have radio-controlled thermostats that, in a power emergency, could be used to override customers’ temperature settings. Instead of making the proposal part of new state building requirements, the commissioners will discuss the use of the “programmable communicating thermostats” when considering how to manage electrical loads — with the understanding that customers would have the right to refuse to allow the state to override their wishes.
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The mantra is repeated daily. There is consensus on climate change. Global warming is real. It will be a disaster. Humans are to blame. We have to do something – immediately.
Huge energy price increases account for almost all of terrible new inflation numbers that came out yesterday, and federal lawmakers deserve much of the blame. The Labor Department said wholesale prices rose 6.3 percent in 2007, the largest jump in 26 years. “Core” inflation (excluding food and energy) rose just 2 percent, but a whopping 18.4 percent jump in energy prices pushed the overall rate sky-high.
I would never want to shoot a polar bear with anything more deadly than a tranquiliser dart. And yet I find myself on the side of Canadian Inuit in a stand-off with US greens on precisely that issue.
Companies and private consumers will continue paying an annual DKK 2.6 billion in greenhouse gas taxes despite already paying a similar levy to the EU.
Amid harsh criticism from businesses, private consumers and government ally the Danish People's Party, Kristian Jensen, the tax minister, openly admitted that the greenhouse gas levy was a source of income for the state and no longer an environmental measure.
In a sign of growing concern about the impact of supposedly “green” policies, European Union officials will propose a ban on imports of certain biofuels, according to a draft law to be unveiled next week.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
Today the Associated Press examines how environmental activists are engaged in an unprecedented push to prevent utilities from building new coal-fired power plants, because of the threat from global warming:
The offensive against coal is emerging as a pivotal front in the global warming debate as environmental groups file lawsuits and administrative appeals against the companies and put lobbying pressure on federal and state regulators….
"Our goal is to oppose these projects at each and every stage, from zoning and air and water permits, to their mining permits and new coal railroads," said Bruce Nilles, a Sierra Club lawyer who directs the group's national coal campaign. "They know they don't have an answer to global warming, so they're fighting for their life."
Undoubtedly removing such "railroads" and trying to replace them with inefficient and insufficient sources of generation, when demand for power will only increase, will lead to a train wreck:
Industry representatives say the environmentalists' actions threaten to undermine the country's fragile power grid, setting the stage for high-priced electricity and uncontrollable blackouts.
"These projects won't be denied, but they can be delayed by those who oppose any new energy projects," said Vic Svec, vice president of the mining and power company Peabody Energy….
Environmental groups cite 59 canceled, delayed or blocked plants as evidence that they are turning back the "coal rush." That stacks up against 22 new plants under construction in 14 states — the most in two decades.
And they're not stopping there:
Nilles said the Sierra Club spent about $1 million on such efforts in 2007 and hopes to ratchet that figure up to $10 million this year.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
My absurd battle with the Maryland Department of the Environment persists, after requesting way back in September all their records related to their dealings with the Center for Climate Strategies. Maryland has been uniquely obstructionist and ornery in their handling of my inquiry, far more so than any of the other 20 or so states I've dealt with so far.
Today, after several back-and-forth exchanges in which the department first alleged their documents were privileged; then did not exist; then did exist but were only 12-pages long, I now have gotten the real answer, sort of: There are 3700 pages responsive to my request, but it is going to cost me $1,381.40 cents to obtain them. This is the answer Red Maryland blogger Mark Newgent got a while back, so now I guess I finally rate the equivalent of an in-stater (I'm in North Carolina).
Knowing there were many records, I requested explicitly at least twice that the documents be provided in electronic form, most likely on a CD. So especially of note is a worksheet MDE attached to their response, which shows how they reached their estimate for putting together these public documents. They said the cost for their time in researching, reviewing and compiling was $44, but the "duplication costs" account for $1,337.40.
That must be a solid gold, diamond-studded disk. I'm sure they only want the best for Maryland taxpayers!
Leaders of Canada's Arctic Inuit people denounced U.S. environmentalists on Monday for pushing Washington to declare the polar bear a threatened species, saying the move was unnecessary and would hurt the local economy.
Scientists have long envisioned the Cretaceous "super-greenhouse" period, the era some 90 million years ago when crocodiles roamed the Arctic and the temperature of tropical oceans soared to 98 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees warmer than they are today), as a sort of anti-Ice Age. Yet my research reveals a dramatic drop in the sea level during those years — a telltale sign that glaciers were forming somewhere on the planet.
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