Greens work to sabotage renewable projects

From the Associated Press (via FoxNews.com):

A westward dash to power electricity-hungry cities by cashing in on the desert’s most abundant resource — sunshine — is clashing with efforts to protect the tiny pupfish and desert tortoise and stinginess over the region’s rarest resource: water.

Water is the cooling agent for what traditionally has been the most cost-efficient type of large-scale solar plants…

The solar hopefuls are encountering overtaxed aquifers and a legendary legacy of Western water wars and legal and regulatory scuffles. Some are moving to more costly air-cooled technology — which uses 90 percent less water — for solar plants that will employ miles of sun-reflecting mirrors across the Western deserts. Others see market advantages in solar dish or photovoltaic technologies that don’t require steam engines and cooling water and that are becoming more economically competitive.

The National Park Service is worried about environmental consequences of solar proposals on government lands that are administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It says it supports the solar push but is warning against water drawdowns, especially in southern Nevada. In the Amargosa Valley, the endangered, electric-blue pupfish lives in a hot water, aquifer-fed limestone cavern called Devil’s Hole…

Green TEA party: EPA seeks public input on proposed CO2 ‘endangerment’ finding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking comment on its proposed finding that greenhouse gases threaten the public welfare. The agency will be accepting comments from the public for 60 days.

Click here for the EPA proposal.

Take action:

It’s time for a green TEA party. Tell the EPA that you are taxed-enough-already and that you oppose the agency’s use of junk science to tax and regulate you even more.

Click here for information on submitting your comments to the EPA.

Ideological child abuse: EPA climate campaign

The EPA announced today that,

With Earth Day only a few days away, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is kicking off the 2009 “Change the World, Start with Energy Star” campaign to educate kids and their families about how to save money and fight climate change through energy efficiency.

“People of every age have a part to play in confronting climate change,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Using Energy Star to cut electricity usage and costs, and educating young people and their families to make a difference — big or small — is how we make real progress.”

But even Consumer Reports says Energy Star is a dubious program. In September 2008, the consumer watchdog spotlighted flaws in the program including that product qualifying standards are lax ─ for example, until recently, 92 percent of dishwashers qualified. If all virtually all dishwashers are “efficient,” is anyone really saving any money on energy use?

Consumer Reports also reported that the product testing programs are out-of-date and companies are responsible for testing their own products ─ without any independent verification. When testing an LG-brand French-door refrigerator that was labeled as using an Energy Star compliant 547 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, Consumer Reports found that the actual energy use was twice what was advertised. Apparently the government testing procedures call for refrigerators to be tested with their icemakers turn off. That, of course, is probably not how most people use their refrigerator.

Energy efficiency advocates routinely overpromise and under-deliver, according a report from the Congressional Research Service. While numerous private and government sources have claimed that 25- to 30-percent gains in efficiency are possible over a 5- to 15-year time horizon, according to the CRS, “the diffuse nature of efficiency opportunity and the economic complexity of decision making” has historically made moving beyond the 5 percent to 7 percent electricity savings range “a persistent challenge to conservation proponents.” Although more aggressive policies could be attempted, the CRS says, there is “little track record upon which to base projections of future effectiveness.”

Government brainwashing kids with dubious politically-based ideas isn’t education; it’s a form of child abuse.

Planet Dog: Stay home, don’t travel

Dog supply purveyor Planet Dog issued a media release today touting its virtual trade show as a way for retailers to reduce their “carbon pawprint.”

Company president Stephanie Volo said,

“We’ve been working on ways to reduce our carbon pawprint and less travel is one solution. We’re making some of the industry’s most eco-friendly products and running our company with that same mentality.”

A few thoughts:

  • Since when is traveling a crime/sin? Many people enjoy travel.
  • What about all the people whose jobs depend on travel?
  • I guess Dog Planet doesn’t want to sell to many of its pet travel products.

Dream on: Obama’s high-speed rail lines

CNN reports,

President Obama unveiled his administration’s blueprint for a new national network of high-speed passenger rail lines Thursday, saying such an investment is necessary to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment.

The greens oppose transmission lines for renewable energy projects. So let’s just say that I’m a tad skeptical of them allowing new rail lines to be constructed. Remember, the greens don’t want you traveling; they want you locked in your planned community box. And remember the green whose idea of travel was staying home and exploring yourself?

Video: Polar bear v. Milloy smackdown!

Check out this YouTube video of a polar bear activist challenging Steve Milloy at his April 13 Heritage Foundation presentation of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them.

Video courtesy of the Komrade Sarah Karlin of Campus Oppression and the Center for Anti-American Progress.

New climate victims: Road and bridges?

Carbon Control News reports that:

The Department of Transportation is developing a risk assessment tool for local planners to estimate the vulnerability of roads and bridges to climate change effects as well as steps policymakers can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While bad weather can certainly impact roads and bridges, “climate change” is most certainly a stretch.

The money line is:

The risk analysis will be included in an upcoming study that will likely be used by local highway officials to argue the need for federal [greenhouse gas] standards… and to establish a new $100 million Transportation and Land use program to plan for future growth and reduce energy consumption.

Bottom line: The Obama administration will be paying budget-hungry local highway bureaucrats for their support in enslaving us with greenhouse gas regulation.

Wind CEO’s Worry: ‘Birds breathing CO2’

In response to concerns that wind farms will chop up migratory birds, Ditlev Engel, the CEO of Danish wind-energy company Vestas, told the Washington Post that

… anecdotal evidence about birds being caught in turbine blades and other environmental horror stories do not usually hold up under scrutiny.

Engel then added:

“Do people think it’s better all those birds are breathing CO2? I’m not a scientist, but I doubt it.”

No, Engel is not a scientist — I’m not even sure he’s a person with basic knowledge about breathing.

Green-speak: ‘Paradox’ is the new ‘hypocrisy’

Today’s Washington Post article, “Renewable Energy’s Environmental Paradox” tries to buff green hypocrisy into a “paradox.”

A few notable points from the article:

  • The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management is now run by Ned Farquhar, a former Natural Resources Defense Council staffer — so look for more land to be put out of reach of development.
  • The Nature Conservancy is preparing a study that will enable the greens to attack renewables based on their land-use footprint:

    A team of scientists, several of whom work for the Nature Conservancy, has written a paper that will appear in the journal PLoS One showing that it can take 300 times as much land to produce a given amount of energy from soy biodiesel as from a nuclear power plant. Regardless of the climate policy the nation adopts, the paper predicts that by 2030, energy production will occupy an additional 79,537 square miles of land.

    The impact will be “substantial,” said Jimmie Powell, the Nature Conservancy’s national energy leader and one of the paper’s co-authors. “It’s important to know where the footprint is going to be.”

  • Ditlev Engel, the CEO of the Danish wind-energy company Vestas, said that anecdotal evidence about birds being caught in turbine blades and other environmental horror stories do not usually hold up under scrutiny. Unfortunately, he then followed up this comment with,

    “Do people think it’s better all those birds are breathing CO2? I’m not a scientist, but I doubt it.”

    Engel then tried to rebound from this depth of ignorance with,

    “Let’s get the facts on the table and not the feelings. The fact is, these are not issues.”

Here are the take-home messages:

  • Like green is the new red, “paradox” is the new “hypocrisy.”
  • Key slots in the federal government are manned by greens.
  • Ditlev Engel shows that ignorance, not knowledge, is wind power.

Lawsuit won’t succeed against EPA on CO2

In advance of Thursday’s expected announcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that carbon dioxide from automobiles is a threat to public health and welfare and, therefore, is subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act — the so-called “endangerment” finding — rumors are flyign around town that businesses may sue the agency.

This is a loser strategy that will accomplish nothing other than to make Beltway lawyers richer.

The Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that EPA can regulate CO2 if it finds that it is a hazard to public health and welfare.

As long as the EPA is not “arbitrary and capricious” in deciding that CO2 is such a threat, the agency will win in federal court.

The “arbitrary and capricious” standard of the Administrative Procedures Act is a notoriously lax (i.e., pro-agency) standard. It’s really a non-standard that essentially allows federal agencies to get away with regulatory murder. As long as the EPA can point to some (any) rationale for CO2 being a threat — however ludicrous in the real world, even the UN reports — the agency will win.

An appeal to the current (and likely future) Supremes won’t succeed as the tie-breaking vote between the four conservative justices (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito) and the four liberal justices (Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter and Breyer) is Anthony Kennedy — a pseudo-conservative who, enjoying swing-vote status, voted for Massachusetts (and against the Bush administration) in the earlier case.

Industry should instead fight back on a political level — the 2010 elections. A bill to block the EPA from acting on its finding should be introduced immediately. It should be made clear to any politician opposing such a bill that his job is at stake. The bill effort should be backed-up by CO2 TEA parties.

Our hero: Anadarko CEO attacks green policies

Anadarko CEO James Hackett displayed this week the courage that more U.S. CEOs need to muster against the greens. According to Reuters:

Washington’s energy and environmental policy risks plunging the United States into an economic tailspin that could make it “the world’s cleanest third world country,” a top U.S. oil executive was reported as saying by the Financial Times newspaper.

“The histrionic and maniacal focus on carbon dioxide is intellectually repugnant to me,” FT reported James Hackett, chairman and chief executive of independent oil and gas company Anadarko (APC.N), as saying in an interview.

Our Hero:

James Hackett, CEO, Anadarko Petroleum
James Hackett, CEO, Anadarko Petroleum