Month: July 2009

Enviros sap military: Mission = green?

Move over national defense, being green is now part of the U.S. military’s mission.

Tad Davis, the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for environment, safety amd occupational health told ClimateWire that,

“What we can’t allow us to become is a bunch of well-meaning, well-intended, well-educated environmental folks sitting around the fireplace singing ‘Kumbaya,'” he said. “If we are really going to be successful, it has to be embedded in our mission.”

But according to ClimateWire,

… many officers will want solid proof that “greener” fuels and equipment are reliable and perform just as well. Glenn Schmitt, environmental director at a Navy fleet fuel depot on Puget Sound, got a waiver to go back to jet fuel when he realized that biodiesel was clogging his engine filters, for example…

You can almost hear the battlefield conversation:

Tank commander: Put this thing in gear and let’s get out of here!

Tank driver: I can’t sir. It’s stuck in carbon neutral!

Shouldn’t the military just focus on its core mission — which is already difficult enough — without worrying about solving imaginary problems that have costly and performance hampering solutions?

Besides, Al Gore doesn’t worry about his carbon footprint, so why should Sgt. Fury?

C'mon men. Charge... but no footprints!
C'mon men. Charge... but no footprints!

Enviros sap military: Mission = green?

Move over national defense, being green is now part of the U.S. military’s mission.

Tad Davis, the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for environment, safety amd occupational health told ClimateWire that,

“What we can’t allow us to become is a bunch of well-meaning, well-intended, well-educated environmental folks sitting around the fireplace singing ‘Kumbaya,'” he said. “If we are really going to be successful, it has to be embedded in our mission.”

But according to ClimateWire,

… many officers will want solid proof that “greener” fuels and equipment are reliable and perform just as well. Glenn Schmitt, environmental director at a Navy fleet fuel depot on Puget Sound, got a waiver to go back to jet fuel when he realized that biodiesel was clogging his engine filters, for example…

You can almost hear the battlefield conversation:

Tank commander: Put this thing in gear and let’s get out of here!

Tank driver: I can’t sir. It’s stuck in carbon neutral!

Shouldn’t the military just focus on its core mission — which is already difficult enough — without worrying about solving imaginary problems that have costly and performance hampering solutions?

Besides, Al Gore doesn’t worry about his carbon footprint, so why should Sgt. Fury?

C'mon men. Charge... but no footprints!
C'mon men. Charge... but no footprints!

John Kerry: Darfur caused by CO2

At a Council of Foreign Relations meeting last month, Sen. John Kerry (D-Teresa’s skirt) said, according to ClimateWire:

“Almost indescribable, catastrophic things can happen” should concentrations of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere exceed the “tipping point” of 450 parts per million, Kerry said at the meeting. “The crisis in Darfur, Sudan, is but one example of how climate change can contribute to a more dangerous world.“

Also according to the report,

Kerry noted that so-called “environmentally displaced persons” may soon outnumber war refugees but added that the United States faces other climate-related security risks beyond refugee crises.

Earth to Sen. Kerry: Drought is a weather event, not climate change. The Darfur crisis involves civil war not carbon dioxide.

BTW, let’s not forget that Sen. Kerry previously said that the Waxman-Markey bill won’t work.

John Kerry: Darfur caused by CO2

At a Council of Foreign Relations meeting last month, Sen. John Kerry (D-Teresa’s skirt) said, according to ClimateWire:

“Almost indescribable, catastrophic things can happen” should concentrations of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere exceed the “tipping point” of 450 parts per million, Kerry said at the meeting. “The crisis in Darfur, Sudan, is but one example of how climate change can contribute to a more dangerous world.“

Also according to the report,

Kerry noted that so-called “environmentally displaced persons” may soon outnumber war refugees but added that the United States faces other climate-related security risks beyond refugee crises.

Earth to Sen. Kerry: Drought is a weather event, not climate change. The Darfur crisis involves civil war not carbon dioxide.

BTW, let’s not forget that Sen. Kerry previously said that the Waxman-Markey bill won’t work.

Four governors (1 Republican) to testify for raising taxes on families

The following governors and mayors will testify tomorrow before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in favor of the Waxman-Markey bill:

  • Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Col)
  • Gov. Chris Gregoire (D-Wash)
  • Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ)
  • Gov. John Hoeven (R-ND)
  • Mayor Robert Kiss, Progressive, Burlington, VT
  • Mayor William Euille, Democrat, Alexandria, VA
  • Mayor Douglas Palmer, Democrat, Trenton, NJ

Waxman-Markey represents an unearned multi-trillion dollar transfer of wealth from consumers and taxpayers to special interests including Al Gore and Goldman Sachs.

If you live in one of these states or cities, let these officials know that you don’t want to be taxed so that Al Gore and Goldman Sachs can laugh all the way to the bank with their ill-gotten profits.

Four governors (1 Republican) to testify for raising taxes on families

The following governors and mayors will testify tomorrow before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in favor of the Waxman-Markey bill:

  • Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Col)
  • Gov. Chris Gregoire (D-Wash)
  • Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ)
  • Gov. John Hoeven (R-ND)
  • Mayor Robert Kiss, Progressive, Burlington, VT
  • Mayor William Euille, Democrat, Alexandria, VA
  • Mayor Douglas Palmer, Democrat, Trenton, NJ

Waxman-Markey represents an unearned multi-trillion dollar transfer of wealth from consumers and taxpayers to special interests including Al Gore and Goldman Sachs.

If you live in one of these states or cities, let these officials know that you don’t want to be taxed so that Al Gore and Goldman Sachs can laugh all the way to the bank with their ill-gotten profits.

Manufacturers go Judas: 1.5% of allowances is the new ’30 pieces of silver’

American manufacturers are ready to sell America down the river if they can get an extra 1.5 percent of the CO2 emission allowances allocated in the Waxman-Markey bill.

In a July 15 letter, the American Materials Manufacturing Alliance (comprised of the Aluminum Association, American Chemistry Council, American Forest & Paper Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute) asked Sen.  Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to increase the free allowances allocated to energy-intensive manufacturers from 13.5% to 15% percent — a modification “valued at billions of dollars over the life of the program.”

Beyond the “30 pieces of silver” nature of the manufacturers’ request, granting it would mean that some other special interests would have to lose 1.5% of free allowances — so look for an intensified struggle among  the rent-seeking thieves for the free taxpayer money that free allowances represent. Over the life of Waxman-Markey, Congress would issue $9 trillion worth of allowances.

Here are the Judases that are willing to betray America to the Marxist-Socialists for an extra 1.5% of Waxman-Markey’s free allowances:

Steel's Tom Gibson
Steel's Tom Gibson
Aluminum's Steve Larkin
Aluminum's Steve Larkin
AFPA's Donna Harman
AFPA's Donna Harman
Chemical's Cal Dooley
Cal Dooley: Willing to screw America for Waxman-markey lite

Hillary Clinton: Ugly American?

During her visit to India to persuade that country to join in a new global warming treaty, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stopped at the undistinguished brick-and-sandstone headquarters of the hotel division of Indian tobacco giant ITC Ltd. The building’s L-shaped design maximizes natural lighting which reduces energy use and makes the building “green.”

As the Washington Post reported,

Clinton likened the squat, plain-looking building — which was constructed with U.S. assistance — to a new version of the Taj Mahal, grandly declaring it was “a monument to the future.”

But if Hillary thinks that this…

ITC-green-centre

… is the new this…

taj-mahal

… then it’s no wonder that the India rejected her pleas to reduce its emissions and forego improvement in its standard of living.

Ad Space: The New Frontier in Washington Post Pay-to-Play?

Just because the Washington Post‘s sponsored salon concept failed to launch doesn’t mean that pay-to-play journalism is dead at the newspaper.

Sunday’s Outlook section, the opinion/book review section of the newspaper, features three front-page articles which, essentially, are advocacy pieces for increased funding of NASA.

In addition to the self-explanatory “Let’s Reach for the Stars Again” and “Return to the Heavens, for the Sake of the Earth,” Outlook’s front-page spotlights a book review (“We Used to Call Them Space Cowboys“) that concludes by observing that manned space exploration “was the kind of thing that great nations do.”

Inside the Outlook section is another article touting robots in space (“Robots With the Right Stuff“), a piece taunting Americans with the notion that a living hot-air balloon like Richard Branson may out-compete NASA (“Rocketing Past NASA“) and a final article (“You’re Not the Center of the Universe, You Know“) opining that we can overcome our “infinitesimal place” in space by being clever enough to figure out the universe’s master plan.

You may agree or disagree with articles’ general implication — that U.S. taxpayers should step-up funding of space exploration — but what’s more interesting is that the Outlook section this week seems to have been sponsored by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, federal contractors that would no doubt like to nurse off the taxpayers via NASA contracts.

Both Lockheed Martin and Boeing took out full-page advertisements in the Outlook sections — which probably cost about $125,000 each.

So has the Post replaced the aborted $250,000 salons with $250,000 worth of advertising for pro-whatever articles in the Outlook section? Will the Outlook section next feature a series of pro-climate bill articles accompanied by full-page ads from climate bill rentseekers like Exelon, General Electric, Goldman Sachs and others?

Hey Washington Post ombudsman, inquiring minds want to know.

The real energy crisis…

This excerpt from a ClimateWire story (“Carbon Capture: Consultants help companies tap into stimulus dollars,” July 17) describes the real energy crisis:

Take the case of Joe Tondu, president of Tondu Corp., an independent power generator looking to construct new plants.

Tondu said his firm couldn’t build coal plants because no one would approve its permits, and it couldn’t build carbon-capturing coal plants because their costs remain too high.

When the company struck out to invest in renewables, it met another roadblock: To get stimulus funds from the Department of Energy, Tondu would have to get an environmental impact review for each project. That would have offered local interests “a huge opportunity to stall your project for years and years and years,” he argued, and it ultimately derailed the company’s plan.

“It’s almost unbelievably easy to slow down … it created another hurdle we just couldn’t get through,” he said

We’re not running out of energy. The crisis is being caused by the government and greens who have choke-holds on the ability of businesses to produce energy.

Smart Democrat of the day: Sen. Byron Dorgan

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) rails against the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill and all the opportunities created therein for carbon market speculation in a July 16 Senate floor speech.

Sure, Dorgan is misinformed on the need for a cap on carbon emissions, but first things first: the Senate version of Waxman-Markey neededs to be defeated and then we can move on to re-educating those who have been deceived by Al Gore and the greens.

Dorgan should be congratulated — at least so far — for his courageous stand in favor of taxpayers and consumers and against the likes of the morally bankrupt Al Gore, Goldman Sachs and others who would sell our country down the river in order to profit from cap-and-charade.

Utility con of the day: Pepco’s Thomas Graham

Commenting on Washington, D.C.-based utility Pepco’s application to the Obama administration for $254 million in federal stimulus grants to upgrade its grid, Pepco region president Thomas Graham said in a statement,

“Every dollar we obtain from the federal government offsets the cost customers would otherwise pay to make these important improvements to the system.”

While this is technically true, it overlooks the fact that Pepco customers will be paying for the improvements through taxes.

Moreover, since virtually all utilities plan on tapping into the taxpayer honeypot, all ratepayers and taxpayers will be paying for all the money utilities obtain from the Obama stimulus ATM.

To paraphrase Milton Friedman, there is no such thing as a “free grid improvement.”

If Graham doesn’t know that, then Pepco needs to hire smarter executives. If Graham did know that, then Pepco needs to hire more honest executives.