Day: March 27, 2009

Celebrate Human Achievement, Not Earth Hour on March 28

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has initiated the celebration of ‘Human Achievement Hour’ (HAH) between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on March 28, 2009 in response to and coinciding with Earth Hour, a period during which governments, individuals, and corporations have agreed to dim or shut off lights in an effort to draw attention to climate change.

Unlike Earth Hour, the purpose Human Achievement Hour is to salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible. Many organizations and average folks around the world will show their support for human achievement by simply going about their daily lives.

The celebration of Human Achievement Hour has already garnered sneers and criticism from some of those supporting Earth Hour—they have even had the HAH Wikipedia entry deleted. In spite of all this, we believe that it is important that people around the world participate with us in acknowledging the achievements accomplished by the human race.

Please check out these links to the great new video and other info below, and help us spread the word about HAH–and let’s utilize the social web to do so!

UN climate plan: Trillions for new world economy

FoxNews.com reports today that,

A United Nations document on “climate change” that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes — all under the supervision of the world body.

Click here for the 16-page document.

Gaslighted: Pickens reveals actual scheme

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens revealed on Wednesday that his much-vaunted Pickens Plan is nothing more than a sell-more-natural-gas-to-make-Pickens-richer plan.

At an energy forum in Ohio, Pickens stated,

I don’t want to replace natural gas with wind. I want to add wind to natural gas is what I want to do.

But the core of the Pickens Plan has always been to replace the natural gas used to produce electricity with wind power so that the gas could then be used in transportation to reduce our reliance on imported oil.

According to Pickens’ statement at the forum, the Pickens Plan is nothing more than a ruse to increase the overall use of natural gas. Pickens has significant natural gas-related investments, including in the largest seller of natural gas for transportation.

Click here for the audio recording of the relevant part of the Q&A session with Pickens.

Click here for Tom Stacy’s write-up of the event. Stacy asked the question that elicited Pickens’ frank response about his scheme.

Steve Milloy’s new book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them spotlights how green scamsters like Pickens plan to get richer while making you poorer.

Tesla Motors: Sporty green welfare queen?

Tesla Motors is expecting $700 million in loans from taxpayers so that it can sell its pricey electric cars to the public: a $109,000 Roadster sports car and a $49,900 sporty sedan (Model S). The actual price of the Model S is $57.400, but taxpayers will be paying an additional $7,500 per car (over and above the loans) to reduce the price to under $50,000.

Tesla Motors, of course, will have to sell tens of thousands of these cars to pay back taxpayers. So far, only 300 of the Roadsters are on the road.

The Model S will “only” take 45 minutes to recharge enough to provide 300 miles of driving — and, depending on the source of the electric power, with more CO2 emissions than from conventional gasoline.

What’s not to like?

Click here for the New York Times report on these sporty “green” welfare machines.