Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) released an updated 923-page version of the Kerry-Boxer global warming legislation late last night with new details on emissions allocations, which are similar to Waxman-Markey.
Here are the:
What will President Obama’s “smart grid” bring our way? Consider this excerpt from today’s ClimateWire:
Michael Godorov, PPL’s manager of smart meter operations, said that a real-time pricing strategy requires a big differential between peak and off-peak prices to be effective. “It has to be painful enough for a customer to want to save money,” he said. “If you leave it to the consumer, you definitely have to put in enough incentives. The market has to make it imperative for customers to manage their use.”
“How do we get people to care enough about this?” asked David Mohler, chief technology officer of Duke Energy, at a conference in Washington last month.
If millions of motorists with plug-in hybrids were to arrive home at 5 p.m. on the hottest day of the year and want to do a quick recharge on a 220-volt appliance circuit, the electricity grid would have severe problems handling the load, Mohler said.
“We should have an ability to differentially price that,” he said. The fast-charge price could be equivalent to $20 for a gallon of gasoline, he suggested. Motorists content to charge overnight, when power prices are lowest, might have to pay the equivalent of 75 cents a gallon — a bargain price. “Until we can give them a way to painlessly respond to that price signal, I don’t know how we get to where we need to go,” he said.
Companies like Dallas-based Oncor that have committed to smart grid and dynamic pricing strategies believe most consumers will come along. Oncor has outfitted a truck trailer with a mini-classroom to show customers how its smart grid would work, and more than 22,000 people have taken a look since last year.
“We’ve had some people say, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t want this meter.’ They don’t understand it,” said Oncor CEO Bob Shapard. “They don’t like people coming in their backyard to change it. ‘What’s the matter with the meter I’ve already got?'” they say. “You get some of that pushback. The lion’s share of our customers, though, takes the other approach. Virtually all the customers that have been coming through the education center are asking, ‘When can I get my meter?'”
Here’s what you need to know about the smart grid and smart meters:
Smart = Consumer (gouging plus pain)
“Smart” is the new “stupid.”
Levi Strauss & Co. is so worried about CO2 emissions that it quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in protest over the Chamber’s opposition to climate legislation.
But if Levi Strauss were really concerned about CO2 levels, it would also go out of business.
According to the company’s own analysis, a typical pair of the company’s jeans is responsible for about:
About 450 million pairs of jeans are sold in the U.S. annually. Of this amount, about one-third are sold by Levi Strauss.
Simple math indicates, therefore, that Levi Strauss annual sales of jeans are responsible for about:
To help Levi Strauss save the planet, then, the answer is clear: we should go naked and it should go broke.
Where have you gone Joe Wilson-iaggio? President Obama is fibbing (again).
As reported by Energy and Environment Daily:
President Obama gave a nod yesterday to a budding bipartisan Senate effort on energy and climate legislation during a New Orleans town hall meeting where he also pledged to push for the bill’s passage once Congress finishes its work on health care.
“What I think we need to do is increase our domestic energy production,” Obama said in response to a question about environmental policy from an audience member. “I’m in favor of finding environmentally sound ways to tap our oil and our natural gas.”
Obama also mentioned his support for nuclear energy, one of two key points of possible Senate compromise as lawmakers look to pass a comprehensive energy and global warming bill in the coming months.
“There’s no reason why technologically we can’t employ nuclear energy in a safe and effective way,” Obama said. “Japan does it and France does it and it doesn’t have greenhouse gas emissions, so it would be stupid for us not to do that in a much more effective way.”
Actions, however, tell the tale.
The New York Times reported last week that:
The Department of the Interior has frozen oil and gas development on 60 of 77 contested drilling sites in Utah…
… alleging…
… the process of leasing the land was rushed and badly flawed… including possible damage to the habitat of sage grouse, which is being considered for endangered species protection, and to avoid the dust and noise pollution associated with drilling operations.
Sounds pretty lame to us…
With respect to nuclear, President Pinocchio’s friends in the environmental movement yesterday sent this letter to Senators asking them to reject streamlining the licensing process for nuclear plants. Apparently, they like the status quo — no new nuke plants have been built in more than 30 years.
While President Pinocchio postures by saying that he is for drilling and nukes, he knows his administration minions and political allies will kill both.
Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee
The United Nations says in a new report that unless we (meaning U.S. taxpayers and consumers) cough up $10 trillion to the world’s renewable energy rentseekers and carbon abatement scamsters, the planet will be destroyed by UN-fabricated global warming.
Click here for Wall Street Journal coverage.
… it would leave China, not the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Apple told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its resignation letter:
“Apple is committed to protecting the environment and the communities we operate in around the world. We strongly object to the Chamber’s recent comments opposing the EPA’s efforts to limit greenhouse gases. We would prefer the Chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis. However, because the Chamber’s position differs so sharply with Apple’s, we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately.”
So when will Apple pressure the Chinese government to adopt the Clean Air Act? Isn’t actual air pollution in China much worse than the invisible, if not debatable/mythical, problem of U.S. CO2 emissions?
We doubt that Apple has any answers to those questions as Al I-need-cap-and-trade-to-become-the-first-carbon-billionaire Gore sits on its board of directors and, no doubt, cheerled Apple’s resignation from the U.S. Chamber.
Everyday seems to bring new revelations about federal stimulus money earmarked for the Obama-blessed General Electric. Yesterday it was smart meters, today’s scheme involves water heaters.
GE will be selling water heaters that, as described by SmartGridToday,
…lets utilities regulate the use by sending signals wirelessly to them from smart meters.
According to the GE press release,
Additionally, the smart appliance qualifies for Energy Star rebate programs… In July, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the availability of nearly $300 million in funding for state-run Energy Star rebate programs as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus plan.
The Obama-Immelt Pact (rentseeking-for-lobbying) is corrupt enough but it’s made positively execrable by its ends — allowing the government (through regulated utilities) to control our water heaters.
Everyday seems to bring new revelations about federal stimulus money earmarked for the Obama-blessed General Electric. Yesterday it was smart meters, today’s scheme involves water heaters.
GE will be selling water heaters that, as described by SmartGridToday,
…lets utilities regulate the use by sending signals wirelessly to them from smart meters.
According to the GE press release,
Additionally, the smart appliance qualifies for Energy Star rebate programs… In July, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the availability of nearly $300 million in funding for state-run Energy Star rebate programs as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus plan.
The Obama-Immelt Pact (rentseeking-for-lobbying) is corrupt enough but it’s made positively execrable by its ends — allowing the government (through regulated utilities) to control our water heaters.
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt must be channeling SNL’s Chico Escuela these days as:
Obama stimulus been berry, berry good to GE.
GE announced today that utility giant American Electric Power (AEP) will purchase 110,000 smart meters from GE. And just how is AEP managing to buy all these smart meters? President Obama and Congress are making us pay for them.
On Sep. 1, AEP applied to the Department of Energy for $75 million in federal stimulus money for the smart meter purchase.
It’s a good thing that GE’s Immelt sits on Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board — how else would the Department of Energy know to direct smart meter purchases to GE?
Of course, AEP isn’t the only conduit for sending federal stimulus money to GE. So far about 50 utilities have applied to DOE for a piece of the almost $4 billion in stimulus money earmarked for smart meter projects. Did we mention:
Obama stimulus been berry, berry good to GE.
BTW, the $75 million will create about 500 jobs over a three year period, says AEP — why that’s only $150,000 per job in Ohio where the average income is slightly less than $48,000.
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt must be channeling SNL’s Chico Escuela these days as:
Obama stimulus been berry, berry good to GE.
GE announced today that utility giant American Electric Power (AEP) will purchase 110,000 smart meters from GE. And just how is AEP managing to buy all these smart meters? President Obama and Congress are making us pay for them.
On Sep. 1, AEP applied to the Department of Energy for $75 million in federal stimulus money for the smart meter purchase.
It’s a good thing that GE’s Immelt sits on Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board — how else would the Department of Energy know to direct smart meter purchases to GE?
Of course, AEP isn’t the only conduit for sending federal stimulus money to GE. So far about 50 utilities have applied to DOE for a piece of the almost $4 billion in stimulus money earmarked for smart meter projects. Did we mention:
Obama stimulus been berry, berry good to GE.
BTW, the $75 million will create about 500 jobs over a three year period, says AEP — why that’s only $150,000 per job in Ohio where the average income is slightly less than $48,000.
The House passed Waxman-Markey climate bill was co-authored by California’s Rep. Henry Waxman and Massachusetts’ Rep. Ed Markey.
The just-introduced Kerry Boxer climate bill was co-authored by California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer and Massachusetts’ Sen. John Kerry.
What do California and Massachusetts have against the rest of America?