Day: March 11, 2009

Kerry: Climate delay is a ‘mutual suicide pact’

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said today that deferring potentially costly actions to combat climate change because of the global economic slump amounted to “a mutual suicide pact,” according to an Agence France Presse report.

Just last week, Kerry said that the most stringent CO2 regulation proposed so far wouldn’t work.

Who knows what Kerry will say next week?

Although it is unfortunate that billionaire T. Boone Pickens seems to have lost his mind since 2004, at least he had it long enough to help make sure that Kerry didn’t become president.

Corporate greenwashing of the day

In a March 5 presentation to investment analysts, ExxonMobil stated that,

We continue to take steps to reduce hydrocarbon flaring in our Upstream operations, and our 2008 performance represents significant improvement in this area. In 2008, flaring was about 30% lower than in 2007, and we expect to further reduce our Upstream hydrocarbon flaring volume from 2008 levels by over 20% in the next few years as planned projects are implemented.

Actions like these taken since 2005 resulted in reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of more than 7 million tonnes in the year 2008. This is equivalent to taking 1.4 million cars off the roads in the United States. In our current operations and in the development of projects for the future, we are working to Protect Tomorrow. Today. [Emphasis added]

Unless ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson really thinks that CO2 emissions threaten “Tomorrow” — in which case he should cease company operations “Today” — he should knock off the corny, over-the-top greenwash.

Such nonsensical language does not inform shareholders so much as it deceives into believing that the company is being run by capable and competent executives. Such language simply plays into the hands of the greens and possibly trial lawyers — after all, isn’t ExxonMobil essentially admitting that its operations endanger us?

Last week, we cheered ExxonMobil for committing $150 billion over the next five years to oil and gas exploration. So based on the ExxonMobil statement, would that be $150 billion invested to release even more CO2 into the atmosphere?

C’mon Rex. The greens are out to destroy your industry. As long as you and fellow CEOs insist on pretending that global warming is about the environment rather than a direct attack on our free enterprise system and individual liberties, my money is on the greens winning.

You can click here to listen to Steve Milloy trying to defend ExxonMobil at the company’s 2008 annual meeting of shareholders.

Steve Milloy’s new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them spotlights how CEO cowardice permits the greens to use capitalism against capitalism.

Green building rip-off?

The Village of Homer Glen, a Chicago suburb, recently held a meeting to sell “green building” to local builders.

The local news article covering the event was titled, “Going green could equal more green for builders” — a title that ought to given you an idea of who the only beneficiaries of green building are. The article reported,

Homes built with “green” and energy-efficient products are more likely to receive LEED certification and thus become more attractive to potential buyers, Homer Glen Chief Building Official Steve Wydeveld told roughly 30 builders at the meeting.

“It might cost a little more money to [use energy-saving products and have your home] become LEED certified, but I really think buyers look at efficiency when choosing a home,” Wydeveld said. “Down the road you will be saving them money and helping the environment.”

But there’s really no evidence that green building saves money on any sort of reasonable time scale. There’s also no evidence that green building helps the environment in any meaningful way.

The only thing that’s not illusory about “green” building is that it is just another marketing scam.

Steve Milloy’s new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them discusses how green is all pain and no gain.

‘Greening the ghetto’ activist joins Obama admin

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that,

Bay Area environmental activist and author Van Jones will join the Obama administration as adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation, the White House Council on Environmental Quality announced Tuesday.

Jones is touted as having “rock-star status with the green jobs movement” for advocating “greening the ghetto.”

Check out what Rich Sweeney had to say about “greening the ghetto” at the Common Tragedies blog.

Green-supported LOST torpedoes U.S Navy

The Wall Street Journal editorialized today that the recent Chinese harassment of an unarmed U.S. Navy ship demonstrates how the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) threatens U.S. national security.

While President Reagan “sank” the treaty, as the WSJ notes, President Obama wants to sign it. President Obama has apparently decided that the time has come for the sea to “give up her dead.”

Steve Milloy’s new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them spotlights the LOST and green support for it.

Utility investors already hurt by Obama CO2 plans

Utility investors don’t need to wait for CO2 regulation to be implemented to be harmed — the specter of CO2 regulation by the Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress is already reducing dividend payments and harming stock prices.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the only sector performing worse in the stock market than the banking sector is the utilities sector. The WSJ reported,

Strategists point to concerns about the Obama administration’s efforts to limit carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade program that would tax offenders, including many utility companies, along with concerns about higher financing costs and reduced demand.

These concerns contributed to recent 30% and 50% dividend cuts by Ameren Corp and Great Plains Energy, respectively, and declines in the share prices of stocks like Duke Energy and Consolidated Edison.

The WSJ noted that,

Utilities were hardly standouts in 2008; the sector fell nearly 32%, but that was third best among the 10 industry sectors and short of the S&P’s 39% decline. The stocks weren’t particularly weak in the early part of the year, but as expectations for climate-control legislation have risen, so too has investor concern, because of the potential cost for utility companies.

In commentary last week, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Hugh Wynne noted that climate-control legislation is high on the list of priorities of Democrats in the House and Senate. He said a bill that was moving through Congress last year may be resuscitated, one that he said was “guided in large part by the need to establish support for climate change legislation among coal state Democrats and affected industries.”

Steve Milloy’s new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, discusses how green policies will make it more difficult to invest for retirement, college and other long-term financial needs.

Anti-gasoline jihad makes key chemical scarce

The Financial Times reported this morning that,

The crisis in the car industry has led to a global shortage of a chemical solvent used for everything from checking the mould level in a chocolate bar to making sure a tablet of aspirin is safe.

The solvent, acetonitrile, is a by-product of the process used to make acrylic carpets and plastic parts for the car industry, and as demand for cars has plunged in the global financial crisis, so have supplies of acetonitrile.

That is alarming, say some observers, because the substance is used to break down products such as food or pharmaceuticals into their component parts to check their safety or efficacy, a process known as chromatography. “This is very serious,” said the head of procurement at a large European pharmaceuticals group. “If you cannot test products you cannot sell them.” And, “in many cases, you cannot even make them”.

What’s this got to do with the greens?

The looming-demise of the Big Three automakers can easily be traced back to the green choke-hold on our gasoline supply. The ongoing financial crisis has certainly intensified the Big Three’s problems, but rising gas prices was the root problem.

Steve Milloy discusses in his new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them how green policies pose a threat to your safety and standard of living.

California car futility

California’s bid to compel carmakers to make special “California cars” with lower CO2 emissions is shaping up to be an exercise in futility.

As U.S. car sales dipped in February to a rate of about 750,000 vehicles per month, Chinese car sales rose 24 percent last month to 607,300 and cars sales in India rose 22% to 115,386 vehicles.

None of the cars sold in China and India are “California” cars.

Along with a large existing auto fleet and slowing auto turnover slowing in the U.S., rapidly increasing automobile ownership in the developing world is sure to overwhelm whatever environmental impact California cars could possibly have.

Steve Milloy discusses in his new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them how the greens are trying to turn America into a car-less society.