Climate Change Claims Melt Away - Investors.com

Climate Change Claims Melt Away - Investors.com

In 2007, the U.N. said the Himalayan glaciers will be gone by 2035 due to man-made global warming. Yet four years later, some are advancing. What's retreating is the global warming narrative. Global warming alarmists felt a tingle in their legs when the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report claiming "Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of their disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the earth keeps warming at the current rate." The announcement was enough to set off celebrations by greenshirts everywhere. Turns out, though, that the claim was nonsense. It was not based on scientific research but on one scientist's guesswork, which was lifted from a telephone interview. It was carelessly — or intentionally? — included in the report. Despite its mistakes and clear political bias, the IPCC survives.

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Obama ready to deploy executive powers against GOP Hill | Washington Examiner

Obama ready to deploy executive powers against GOP Hill | Washington Examiner: "President Obama challenged congressional Republicans to embrace the 'shared responsibility' of governance even as the White House appears ready to use unilateral executive powers to battle Capitol Hill. With Republicans taking over the House and increasing their number in the Senate, Obama faces the possibility of having his agenda stalled with limited room to maneuver -- making for tough sledding in the two years leading up to his 2012 re-election bid.

In response, Obama is expected to make more frequent use of executive orders, vetoes, signing statements and policy initiatives that originate within the federal agencies to maneuver around congressional Republicans who are threatening to derail initiatives he has already put in place, including health care reforms, and to launch serial investigations into his administration's spending.

'There is going to be an effort on the president's part to use [executive powers] to satisfy his base and institutionalize what he can,' said John Kenneth White, professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency begins regulating greenhouse gas emissions at some energy plants and factories -- a move Obama pushed for after his cap-and-trade environmental legislation stalled in Congress.

The move angered many Republicans, who are vowing to block the new regulations they say threatens the nation's fragile economic recovery and who objected to an end-run around the legislative process.

'It's unclear what recourse Republicans have, but I think you will see a lot of battles where Obama's nominees are held up over regulatory decisions that are not directly related,' said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist and former Senate staffer. 'The legislative branch really feels they should control the laws that affect people.'

Obama said during his 2008 campaign that he wouldn't use signing statements, codicils presidents can attach to bills challenging

or refusing to enforce parts of a law, the way his predecessor, President George W. Bush, did. But since taking office, Obama issued signing statements on budgetary matters, foreign aid, commission appointments and more -- along with a memorandum promising to use 'restraint' whenever exercising that power.

The administration defended Obama's use of such powers, including making recess appointments, as a proper exercise of his authority and often as a response to Republican obstructionism. On signing statements, press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama used them to highlight 'what problems might be inherent in a piece of legislation, without asking that the federal government disallow or ignore congressional intent.'

Obama also hasn't hesitated to make policy through executive order, including freezing federal workers' pay, launching an investigation of the BP oil spill and cracking down on Somali outlaws.

'He is the manager in chief, and things like signing statements and however you thwart the will of Congress, sure -- there are lots of things that go on other than passing new laws and giving out money that are all part of managing this incredible enterprise,' said Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution expert on the presidency.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Kiss your 100-watt lightbulb goodbye - San Jose Mercury News

Kiss your 100-watt lightbulb goodbye - San Jose Mercury News: "Californians can start saying goodbye to traditional 100-watt incandescent light bulbs now that the state has become the first in the country to require a new standard for the screw-base bulbs.

Experts say the new rules, which took effect New Year's Day, will save residents money and energy. California is already the nation's leader in energy-efficiency standards.

As of Saturday, what used to be a 100-watt light bulb manufactured and sold in California will have to use 72 watts or less. The 72-watt replacement bulb, also called an energy-saving halogen light, will provide the same amount of light, called lumens, for lower energy cost.

Similar new standards for traditional 75-watt, 60-watt and 40-watt incandescent bulbs will go into effect in California over the next few years, with wattages reduced to 53, 43 and 29 respectively.

The new rule does not ban incandescent light bulbs; it just requires those bulbs to be 25 to 30 percent more efficient. And it only affects incandescent light bulbs manufactured in 2011 or later, not those already in use or on store shelves.

The new lights are comparably priced to the regular incandescent lights. A two-bulb package of 100-watt incandescent bulbs is about $4.32 at Lowe's, while a four-bulb package of new 72-watt halogen bulbs is $8.66, or $4.33 for two. By contrast, a two-bulb package of energy-saving compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) is $11.28.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Gas up $1 a gallon on Obama's watch - Washington Times

Gas up $1 a gallon on Obama's watch - Washington Times: "Gas prices have risen $1 since just after President Obama took office in January 2009 and are now closing in on the $3 mark, prompting an evaluation of the administration's energy record and calls for the White House to open more U.S. land for oil exploration.

The average price per gallon across the U.S. hit $2.81 this week, according to the Energy Information Administration. That was up from $1.81 the week of Jan. 26, 2009, just after the inauguration, and marks the highest price since Oct. 20, 2008.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Obama Made ‘Big Mistake’ on Climate Bill, Turner Says - Bloomberg

Obama Made ‘Big Mistake’ on Climate Bill, Turner Says - Bloomberg: "U.S. President Barack Obama made a “big mistake” in pushing health-care legislation before climate change, billionaire Ted Turner said today.

“We would have an energy climate change bill in the United States if President Obama had made that his top priority and brought that to the American people and Congress first rather than the health-care bill,” Turner, founder of Time Warner Inc.’s CNN, said today at a conference in Cancun, Mexico. “But he didn’t, and I think it was a big mistake.”

Obama, who campaigned on a promise to fight climate change, made the economy, health care, energy and education his top priorities after taking office. Health-care legislation was signed into law earlier this year after contentious debate while a “cap-and-trade” bill to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions stalled in the Senate. Obama now says he doubts such a measure can win passage until 2013 at the earliest.

“The climate bill is much more important than health care because the climate situation is about life and death whereas the health-care bill was much more limited,” Turner, 72, said.

A bill creating a cap-and-trade program to reduce emissions and establish a market in pollution allowances passed the House of Representatives last year. The Senate dropped the measure earlier this year amid claims that an emissions-trading system would boost energy prices and hurt the economy.

Skepticism Rises

U.S. skepticism about whether humans are causing climate change has increased, polls show. Congressional elections in November will bring into office in January almost four dozen new lawmakers who question global warming, according to ThinkProgress, an arm of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington research group allied with Democrats.

Turner, who also spoke in Cancun yesterday, said more needs to be done to raise public awareness of the threat.

“We have to convince the majority of people in the world that we are right and get them motivated,” he said. “That’s a big job, but hopefully we can do it.”

Turned noted humans only began burning the fossil fuels linked to climate change about 200 years ago. “Now we are being asked to completely change our energy system in a quick period of time,” he said. “It’s hard for us. It’s something we really have to do if we want to survive.”

Climate Summit

Turner spoke this weekend at the World Climate Summit, a conference focused on how businesses can help combat climate change. The gathering is timed to coincide with United Nations- led climate change treaty talks in Cancun.

Negotiators from about 190 countries are debating the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and terms for a new accord that includes all major polluters. The U.S., the second-biggest greenhouse-gas emitter after China, is the only industrialized nation not bound by the Kyoto treaty.

Japan, Russia and Canada have refused to sign up for a second round of emissions reductions once the current ones written into Kyoto expire in 2012.

Emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil, are pushing for the developed countries to agree on a new commitment period. Discord over Kyoto threatens to take attention away from talks for a new global climate agreement that includes the U.S., UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said yesterday.

The Obama administration is limited in what it can commit to in the talks because the U.S. doesn’t have a national law capping emissions by a certain percentage. Obama’s lead climate negotiator, Todd Stern, says the U.S. will stick to its pledge of cutting greenhouse gases about 17 percent by 2020.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to start regulating carbon from power plants and oil refiners starting in January.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Hydrogen Powered Cars: Impractical Because Of Hydrogen's Cost To Produce, Low Energy Density | Markets | Minyanville.com

Hydrogen Powered Cars: Impractical Because Of Hydrogen's Cost To Produce, Low Energy Density | Markets | Minyanville.com: "[In May 2009], the Department of Energy (DOE) finally conceded that hydrogen won't be a part of the near-term solution to global warming, the peak oil crisis, or anything else you can think of. They're cutting back funding dramatically on hydrogen research. This is a triumph of physics over policy. In the long run, physics will always win, but we have way too many policy wonks in Washington without a clue about how the physical world works.
Even if hydrogen could be produced cheaply, it has another problem that makes it impractical as a fuel for transportation. Even when highly compressed, the energy density per liter or gallon is very low compared to gasoline or diesel fuel. Think about the size of the fuel tanks on the trucks that deliver gasoline to a station compared to the size of the tank on the truck. The ratio is about 90 to 1. That’s an efficient delivery system. If a hydrogen delivery truck had to burn hydrogen, the size of the fuel tank for the engine would be about one-quarter of the size of the delivery tank!

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord | Environment | The Guardian

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord | Environment | The Guardian: "Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.

The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial 'Copenhagen accord', the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.

Negotiating a climate treaty is a high-stakes game, not just because of the danger warming poses to civilisation but also because re-engineering the global economy to a low-carbon model will see the flow of billions of dollars redirected.

Seeking negotiating chips, the US state department sent a secret cable on 31 July 2009 seeking human intelligence from UN diplomats across a range of issues, including climate change. The request originated with the CIA. As well as countries' negotiating positions for Copenhagen, diplomats were asked to provide evidence of UN environmental 'treaty circumvention' and deals between nations.

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Bill Clinton: Iran Poses 'Suitcase Nuke' Threat

Bill Clinton: Iran Poses 'Suitcase Nuke' Threat

The key nuclear threat that Iran poses to the world, according to former President Bill Clinton, is the risk that it may sell dangerous materials that could be used in suitcase bombs.

the Clean up in the Gulf

Michele Bachmann: The Truth on the Cleanup Congresswoman Bachmann joined Sean on the show to discuss the latest in the Gulf spill. Congresswoman Bachmann was harsh on the Obama administration saying, "The Obama administration has been focused more on BP and the money than on capping the oil well." She continued, "This money should be used for legitimate claims for legitimate victims and not money that should be tapped by the Federal government."