Gore-bot installed at Energy Department

President Obama announced on March 27 that he would nominate Cathy Zoi to become Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy.

Zoi is a Gore-bot of the first order.

In January 2007, she became the Alliance for Climate Protection’s founding CEO. The Alliance is Al Gore’s non-profit front for advancing his personal wealth-building agenda. He is a foudning partner in the UK-based investment company, Generation Investment Management, and a partner with the U.S. based ventuire capital firm of Kleiner Perkins.

Beyond buffalo-ing America about global warming, Zoi’s has a passion for smart-metering — that is, enabling local utilities to ration your electricity.

Zoi was the chief of staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton-Gore administration, where she managed the team working on environmental and energy issues (1993-95). She was also a manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she pioneered the Energy Star Program.

In a March 30 op-ed in Roll Call, Zoi wrote,

We stand at the verge of a major opportunity for leadership that can take our economy in a new direction…

I guess that means what wealth doesn’t go down the toilet will go into Al Gore’s pockets.

WAR! Utility sues New York over CO2 regulation

War has been declared in New York over global warming regulation!

Indeck Corinth L.P., which operates the Corinth Generating Station, an electric power plant in Corinth, NY, sued New York state on January 29, 2009 claiming that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Northeast U.S. is illegal.

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Rhode Island have signed on to the RGGI agreement.

Indeck Corinth claims that New York’s involvement with RGGI,

  • Is ultra vires and violates the state constitution;
  • Imposes an impermissible tax not authorized by the state legislature;
  • Is arbitrary and capricious as implemented by New York;
  • Is pre-epmted by state and federal regulations;
  • Violates the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution; and
  • Violates Indeck Corinth’s dues process and equal protection rights

Click here for a copy of Indeck Corinth’s complaint.

Indeck Corinth and New York State are now arguing over the venue for the suit. Indeck Corinth wants the suit heard in Saratoga County where it is a major employer. New York wants the suit heard in Albany County where it has homefield advantage.

Congrats to Indeck Corinth for having the courage to challenge green aggression, oppression and regression!

Washington Times reviews ‘Green Hell’

I don’t want to spoil the Washington Times review of Steve Milloy’s new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, but former White House speechwriter John R. Coyne, Jr. describes Green Hell as:

strongly written and well-documented… convincing

Check out Coyne’s review and then rush off to Amazon.com to get your copy of Green Hell!

If you think of it, get an extra copy for a friend, colleague or family member who needs to be wised up on the green threat!

‘Green’ NBC saves $2 million; Execs go thirsty

NBC Universal announced today that it saved $2 million in 2008 by going green — that is, reducing power use and reducing bottled water consumption by executives.

So how much water do NBC execs drink? And how do we know that NBC’s power savings aren’t more appropriately attributed to 2008’s poor business climate.

Of course, NBC Universal had 2008 revenues of almost $17 billion — so the alleged savings, if they’re even true, hardly qualify for significant digit status.

A more effective cost-saving strategy for NBC’s parent company, the global warming-lobbying General Electric, saved $12 million by forcing its disastrous-for-shareholders CEO Jeff Immelt to waive his 2008 bonus.

$8,000 for a 200-year green door?

From an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle entitled, “Not enough green for green living,”

… “So how much do [the eco-friendly windows] cost?” I asked, while Barry gave me an overview of the various windows that she sells, often at trade shows on green building.

“A lot,” Barry said in her lilting South African accent, demonstrating how one particular brand of window makes a complete seal when closed.

“OK, how much?”

“Well, like this big sliding glass door costs $8,000,” she said, slowly sliding a massive glass and wood door shut. One can buy a cheap door in similar dimensions at Home Depot for $500.” I raised my eyebrow.

“The wood is Forest Stewardship Council certified,” she added. “It was made to last 200 years!”

Green dishwasher soap doesn’t work; Encourages soap smuggling

The Associated Press reports that,

The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don’t work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

More…

Real estate agent Patti Marcotte of Spokane stocks up on detergent at a Costco in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and doesn’t care who knows it.

“Yes, I am a smuggler,” she said. “I’m taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot live with.”

(In truth, the ban applies to the sale of phosphate detergent — not its use or possession — so Marcotte is not in any legal trouble.)

Marcotte said she tried every green brand in her dishwasher and found none would remove grease and pieces of food. Everybody she knows buys dishwasher detergent in Idaho, she said.

Supporters of the ban acknowledge it is not very popular.

“I’m not hearing a lot of positive feedback,” conceded Shannon Brattebo of the Washington Lake Protection Association, a prime mover of the ban. “I think people are driving to Idaho.”

As the American Thinker put it,

It’s not easy being green.

From the dishwasher soap industry,

“We’ve tried to market no-phosphate dishwasher detergents, but consumers flatly rejected them.”

Cap-and-Trade War

From today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page:

One of President Obama’s applause lines is that his climate tax policies will create new green jobs “that can’t be outsourced.” But if that’s true, why is his main energy adviser floating a new carbon tariff on imports? Welcome to the coming cap and trade war.

Click here for the full column.

Obama backs off Bush mileage standards

Citing economic concerns, the Obama administration has issued federal gas mileage standards that are less stringent that those proposed by the Bush administration.

As reported by Carbon Control News,

The combined standard for vehicles and light trucks will be set at 27.3 miles per gallon (mpg) and the passenger vehicle standard is expected to be set at 30.2 mpg. The Obama administration standard will strengthen the combined vehicle and light truck standard from the current 25.3 mpg, as well as the current passenger vehicle standard of 27.5 mpg. But the final standard is weaker than what the Bush administration proposed last year—a combined 2011 CAFE standard of 27.8 mpg and a passenger car standard of 31.2 mpg.

Carbon Control News reports that the greens are unhappy with the decision but that they have

refrained from faulting the decision too harshly.

A spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists told Carbon Control News that,

“The Obama administration had its hands tied. The 2011 rule is based on fundamentally flawed methodology and data held over from the Bush administration, so it’s no surprise that it isn’t that much of a boost.”

The greens hope that Obama will issue a “more robust” standard in future years.

Click here for the final rule.

Citigroup challenged for stigmatizing coal

The Free Enterprise Action Fund has challenged Citigroup regarding the bank’s support for the so-called “Carbon Principles” — a green-inspired effort to deny financing to the coal industry and electric utilities that burn coal.

The Fund’s challenge is in the form of a shareholder proposal that appears in Citigroup’s 2009 proxy statement and that will be voted on at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on April 21. The proposal requests that Citigroup,

… describe the environmental impacts of its implementation of the Carbon Principles so that shareholders can determine for themselves whether such impacts are worth the reputational damage being inflicted on the source of 50 percent of the
U.S. electricity supply.

Take action:

1. Shareholders of Citigroup should vote “FOR” Proposal 9.

2. Attend the Citigroup meeting in New York City so that you can personally tell CEO Vikram Pandit that America needs coal-fired electricity not green oppression.

Greens attack NY Times over skeptic article

The ever-intolerant greens attacked the New York Times Magazine for daring to publish a cover story about eminent Princeton physicist and global warming skeptic Freeman Dyson.

Media Matters criticized the Times for sending a “sports and music writer to do a science writer’s job.” The self-proclaimed media watchdog apparently feels that someone like NY Times climate propagandist Andrew Revkin would have been a better choice to write the sort of hatchet job on Dyson that it seems to have wanted.

It’s been quite a weekend for the New York Times. First there was Saturday’s front-page story trashing CFLs and then the Dyson cover piece on Sunday.

Maybe it’s dawning on Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. that there is no future in being the mouthpiece-of-record for the Loony Left.

The real lesson from the firing of GM’s CEO

The firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner by President Obama provides an object lesson for all CEOs: a CEO’s failure to combat green can only lead to disaster.

GM and the other car companies have thrived for the last 30 years, despite heavy union burdens, because of SUV sales — popular and high-margin products.

But SUV sales depended on cheap gas. Did any car CEO do anything to ensure cheap gas, say by promoting increased oil drilling and gasoline refining, and challenging greens that blocked those policies? No.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner didn’t call for more drilling until September 12, 2008 — two months after gasoline prices peaked last summer. By then, of course, it was all over for the SUV and car companies.

Ford CEO Bill Ford and Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli still haven’t figured out the need for cheap gas.

Surprise: NY Times trashes CFLs on front page

The New York Times has finally caught up to what Steve Milloy has been saying for the past two years about compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), including with respect to the greens doing a U-turn on the bulbs.

In a front-page story entitled, “Do New Bulbs Save Energy If They Don’t Work,” the New York Times pretty much trashed current CFLs:

Some experts who study the issue blame the government for the quality problems, saying an intensive federal push to lower the price essentially backfired by encouraging manufacturers to use cheap components.

“In the pursuit of the holy grail, we stepped on the consumer,” said Michael Siminovitch, director of a lighting center at the University of California, Davis.

More…

In California, where bulbs have been heavily encouraged, utilities have concluded that they will not be able to persuade a majority of consumers to switch until compact fluorescents get better.That is prompting them to develop specifications for a better bulb.

The effort aims to address the most consumer complaints: poor dimming, slow warm-up times, shortened bulb life because of high temperatures inside enclosed fixtures, and dissatisfaction with the color of the light.

Finally,

Consumers are supposed to be able to protect themselves by buying bulbs certified under the government’s Energy Star program. But experts and some environmental groups complain that Energy Star standards are weak, permitting low-quality bulbs with too high a level of mercury, a toxic metal contained in all compact fluorescents. [Emphasis added]

Steve Milloy predicted the greens would do an about-face on the mercury in CFLs more than a year ago in this February 21, 2008 FoxNews.com column entitled, “Looming Lightbulb Liability.”

For more Steve Milloy predictions about our green future (and how to prevent it), get a copy of his new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them.

Unlike buying a CFL, you won’t regret it.