What makes a scientific expert? Congressional Democrats offer a shocking answer

What makes a scientific expert? Knowledge? Expertise? Accomplishment? Respect of one’s colleagues? A new bill introduced in Congress has a shocking new answer. Continue reading What makes a scientific expert? Congressional Democrats offer a shocking answer

Update: High extinction risk from climate change?

When last we left Ilya Maclean’s claim that ongoing climate change represented a major threat to biodiversity, our probe had been put off by an autoresponder e-mail from Maclean:

I am out of office until Tuesday 12th July.

But true to his word, Maclean got back to me this morning: Continue reading Update: High extinction risk from climate change?

Study: Taxpayers subsidize rich enviro groups to sue feds

A new study in the Journal of Forestry reports that the U.S. Forest Service paid $6.1 million in attorney’s fees to enviro groups that sued it between 1999 to 2005. During the same period, the enviro group recipients had $116 million in revenues. The study concludes that “Frequent [Equal Access to Justice Act] claimants often possess considerable financial resources calling into question how the purposes of the law have evolved in the last 20 years.”

High extinction risk from climate change?

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims to “provide strong empirical support for the assertion that anthropogenic climate change is now a major threat to global biodiversity”… just don’t ask for an example. Continue reading High extinction risk from climate change?

Climate alarmism downgraded from Michael Mann's 'near-certainty' to Michael Mann's 'hypothesis'

It’s been almost a week since the publication of Michael L. Mann’s new climate study and everyone has missed the only notable part of it. Continue reading Climate alarmism downgraded from Michael Mann's 'near-certainty' to Michael Mann's 'hypothesis'

Wheeling Intelligencer: Stop Vendetta Against Coal

“Assuming Obama and the EPA are determined to wreck the coal industry — as they are — could they not have waited a few years until after unemployment created by the Great Recession had eased? Apparently not.” Read the full editorial in The Intelligencer (Wheeling, WV).

Memo to Hal Rogers: 'Hope' is not a strategy for dealing with EPA

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said that the proposed 18 cut in the FY2012 budget for EPA “sends a very strong message” to rein in EPA’s actions. Rogers then added, “I am hopeful that these provisions are sufficient to prod EPA in the right direction.”

But we’ve been down this path before. The EPA doesn’t generally respond to such “messages.” The EPA knows that the Democrat-controlled Senate will reject the House budget cuts and the Republicans will then fold like a cheap suit. If Rogers wants to get the EPA’s attention, he’ll need to turn the agency’s lights off for awhile — that will require an Alamo-like stand to deep cuts in the EPA budget.

Rogers may view the proposed 18% budget cuts as deep, but we view them as approving of 82% of what the EPA does.

Mercury from CFL debris: Above 'safe' levels and long-lasting, says study

Of course what these researchers fail to grasp is that the mercury in CFLs is a special non-toxic isotope of mercury called HgPC. Continue reading Mercury from CFL debris: Above 'safe' levels and long-lasting, says study

Fred Upton: All talk and no action

No doubt the EPA is trembling (or snickering?) at the sight of House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton’s media release about the EPA’s so-called “Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.” Continue reading Fred Upton: All talk and no action

New green con: 'Pinkwashing'

From an Environmental Justice press release: “Companies that try to increase sales of their products by adopting the color pink and pink ribbons to imply that they support breast cancer research—a practice called pinkwashing—but at the same time permit the use of chemicals shown to cause cancer are committing a form of social injustice against women, according to a thought-provoking article in Environmental Justice, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.”

Of course, since no chemicals in consumer products have been shown to cause breast cancer, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. may want to get some new peer-reviewers.