Last Week in D. C.

by William Yeatman on June 23, 2008

President George W. Bush took a bold halfway step Wednesday to support more oil and natural gas production in the United States.  He urged Congress to pass legislation that would open the 85% of federal offshore waters that are closed to exploration.  Currently these areas are closed by congressional moratoria and by presidential executive order.  The President wants the Congress to act, but he didn’t rescind his father’s 1990 executive order, which was extended by President Clinton to 2012.  So forgive me if I’m under whelmed.

When the House in 2006 passed a bill to open up the Outer Continental Shelf, the Bush Administration was a lot less than helpful.  That bill would have given States veto power over oil production off their coasts and it would have shared federal royalties equally with the States that allowed production.  It was a good bill, but didn’t go anywhere in the Senate.  The Democratic-controlled 110th Congress isn’t going to touch it.

That is, unless it’s forced to take it up.  Rep. John Peterson (R-Penna.) is trying to offer an amendment to the Department of Interior Appropriations bill that would allow offshore exploration.  His amendment was defeated in subcommittee on a straight 6 to 9 party-line vote earlier, but when he tried to offer it again on Wednesday at full committee markup, the bill mark up was cancelled.  Apparently, the Democratic leadership is fearful that some Democratic Members are wavering.  Peterson has clearly picked up support since last year among Republicans.  His amendment was defeated then by a 29 to 37 vote, with six Democrats voting yes and six Republicans voting no.

The main obstacle has been the Florida delegation.  Even though the 2006 bill provided a 125-mile buffer zone off Florida’s coasts, it wasn’t enough for most Florida Members or for Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).  Now, Florida Republican House Members are changing their minds.

So has Senator John McCain (R-Az).  As part of his presidential campaign, this week he came out in favor of more offshore oil and gas production as long as the affected States have veto power.  But he still opposes drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in Alaska.

The environmental pressure groups repeat over and over that “we can’t drill our way out of the problem”.  That supposedly is because the U. S. has only three percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, but uses twenty percent of the world’s oil.  True, but that’s because we haven’t explored 85% of our Outer Continental Shelf or ANWR or quite a few other federal lands in the Rocky Mountains and Alaska, including the National Petroleum Reserve.  Yes, that’s right, oil exploration has been blocked by lawsuits in most of the National PETROLEUM Reserve.  It’s too environmentally sensitive and ecologically unique. 

CBS, MSNBC, AP Fooled by Climate Science Hoax

by William Yeatman on June 23, 2008

CBS and MSNBC last week carried an Associated Press story on groundbreaking new research suggesting that earthquakes are getting worse because of rising temperatures caused by climate change.

It turns out that the “research” in question was performed by Dr. T. J. Chalko, a huckster who has claimed that global warming will cause the world to explode.

CBS, MSNBC, and the Associated Press are three of the largest, most respected sources of journalism in the world. What does the Chalko debacle tell you about the state of science reporting in America? A simple Google search would have revealed Chalko’s wacky fraudulence in ten seconds. Yet none was performed; instead, an easily identifiable hoax was passed as the truth. 

So next time you read an alarmist headline, remember the name “T. J. Chalko”.

No Hot Air Balloon at Gore’s Place

by Paul Chesser, Heartland Institute Correspondent on June 20, 2008

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

Americans for Prosperity has been conducting a state-by-state "Hot Air Tour" to draw attention to the dramatic economic harm that would be caused by global warming alarmists' "solutions." Today they were scheduled to launch their attention-getting hot-air balloon over Al Gore's home near Nashville, after getting their permits all lined up, but I just got this message from AFP director of policy Phil Kerpen:

The Nashville Parks Department is denying us permission to launch the balloon, citing the fact that our permit says balloon rides but not specifically the word "launch."  This despite the fact that we have explained to them on the phone multiple times our precise flight plan and before today there was no indication that there was a problem or any defect in our permit.  Clearly, Gore is calling in favors to stop the embarrassing visual and negative coverage surrounding our event and ratcheting up the beating he is taking over his home energy use.

Yes, clearly this would represent too much embarrassment in one week for the former veep.

UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: From Phil Kerpen, and AFP's blog,

UPDATE 3:00 pm Eastern time: Roy Wilson at the  Nashville Parks Department must not have liked our earlier post, since he  just completely revoked our permit — even though his department's own  rules state that he can't do that unless we break a law or one of the  department's rules, which we haven't done and have no intention of  doing.  Then he hung up on our legal counsel.   In the meantime, good news to report — we've secured a private  location for this afternoon's event.  We'll be in a field at the  corner of Sneed and Vaughn Roads — just about a mile and a half from the original event location.

Sounds like lawsuit potential. Meanwhile, Nashville Parks Dept. Contact info:

http://www.nashville.gov/parks/administration.htm

Centennial Park Office
Nashville, TN 37201
Phone: (615) 862-8400
Fax: (615) 862-8414

UPDATE 4:00 P.M.:

Per a phone conversation I had with AFP's Phil Kerpen, he explained that AFP acknowledged a defect in the permit application to Nashville Parks Dept. So AFP agreed to limit its activity in the park to what it outlined in its application, not fully launch a hot-air balloon, and keep it to tethered rides, and let the event go on. That was not good enough for the Parks Dept., who refused to permit AFP at all to hold an event, and demanded that they leave. Kerpen said the Parks Dept. knew all along what AFP was going to do, to the point that they were asking for insurance information for the balloon rides yesterday afternoon.

Why? Curt Garrigan of the Nashville Parks Dept. told me, "they did not submit an application for the event that was accurate. For that reason we did not issue a permit for the event." So I asked him, why not still issue the permit if they were willing to comply with the guidelines they laid out in their application. Garrigan's answer: "They sent out a media release to the public that said they were launching from that site."

So, apparently the Parks Dept. refused to allow AFP to hold any event at all based upon what they perceived to be public deception. Great public servants at work here: upending a well-publicized event in which they knew all the details, but dismissed on a technicality.

Cross-posted at American Spectator.

McCain’s Energy Plan at Odds with His Climate Plan

by William Yeatman on June 20, 2008

in Blog

Sen. John McCain caps his weeklong push for U.S. energy independence with a trip Friday to Canada, but his own environmental plan discourages use of Canadian oil and drastically increases American reliance on oil from the Middle East and other potentially unfriendly places.

Al Gore’s Epic Hypocrisy

by William Yeatman on June 20, 2008

A year after the Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposed Gore’s prodigious personal use of electricity at his Nashville mansion (20 times the national average), the center reported this week that Gore’s personal electricity consumption during the past year actually increased by 10 percent.

The Marxist Roots of Global Warming Alarmism

by William Yeatman on June 19, 2008

in Blog

The late Natalie Grant Wraga once wrote, "Protection of the environment has become the principal tool for attack against the West and all it stands for. Protection of the environment may be used as a pretext to adopt a series of measures designed to undermine the industrial base of developed nations. It may also serve to introduce malaise by lowering their standard of living and implanting communist values."

Congress Cannot Deflect Blame

by William Yeatman on June 19, 2008

in Blog

In this presidential election year, the Democrats really do seem to think they can fool most of the people all of the time. Gasoline prices have reached well over $4 in much of the country, but instead of fulfilling the duties given to them by the voters in 2006 and allowing access to more domestic sources of oil and gas, Democrats have thrown a new headline-grabbing smear at Big Oil.

Energy Crisis: New Battleground in the Race for U. S. President

by William Yeatman on June 19, 2008

With gas prices rising and billions of additional dollars flowing to the Middle East to buy oil, energy policy is turning into a battleground in the race for President. On June 17, the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, laid down the gauntlet with a speech in Houston, talking about his vision "to free America once and for all from our strategic dependence on foreign oil."

Empty Climate Policies Advance in New York, New Hampshire

by William Yeatman on June 19, 2008

In New York last week, Senator Thomas Morahan (R-Rockland) introduced S. 8390, the “Greenhouse Gas Pollution Control Act,” which calls for an 80 percent reduction in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. An identical version of the bill already was passed by the State Assembly. Like similar climate laws passed in California and Washington, the “Greenhouse Gas Pollution Control Act” omits real policy, and instead delegates the task of planning future emissions reductions to state regulators.

 

New Hampshire Governor John Lynch (D) signed a bill that makes the Granite State the newest party to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state cap-and-trade climate change program in the Northeast. Experts say that RGGI is guaranteed to raise utility bills. However, they are not sure if it will decrease emissions, because it only applies to a portion of electricity generating units in the region. As a result, demand is likely to increase for electricity from unregulated, cheaper, more carbon-intensive wholesale sellers of power, a phenomenon known as “emissions leakage.”

Environmental Movement Suddenly Finds Itself on the Defensive

by William Yeatman on June 19, 2008

in Blog

The environmental movement, only recently poised for major advances on global warming and other issues, has suddenly found itself on the defensive as high gasoline prices shift the political climate nationwide and trigger defections by longtime supporters.

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