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POPS"Climate Gate" Development: CEI Files Notice of Intent to Sue NASA successor treaty, "cap-and-trade" legislation and the EPA's threatened regulatory campaign to impose similar measures through the back door. CEI sought the following documents, among others, NASA's failure to provide which within thirty days will prompt CEI to file suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia: - internal discussions about NASA's quiet correction of its false historical U.S. temperature records after *two Canadian researchers discovered a key statistical error, specifically discussion about whether and why to correct certain records, how to do so, the impact or wisdom or potential (or real) fallout therefrom or reaction to doing so (requested August 2007); - internal discussions relating to the emails sent to James Hansen and/or Reto A. Ruedy from Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre calling their attention to the errors in NASA/GISS online temperature data (August 2007);
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POPSChina's Blunt Talk for Obama Before heading to China, Obama underscored the urgency of his agenda on Iran by joining Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in warning Tehran that “we are now running out of time.” The trip has already had some hiccups. Wrangling between the administration and Beijing over Obama’s town hall meeting with university students in Shanghai on Monday was intense, with China wanting to screen the audience and its questions, and the U.S. wanting a freer exchange.
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POPSObama's Czars You will need to read the article at the site to see "why they qualified".
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POPSThe Science Behind Global Warming Is Settled. Sadly, It's Also Been Incinerated
The Dog Ate Global Warming, by Patrick J. Michaels @NRO Imagine if there were no reliable records of global surface temperature. Raucous policy debates such as cap-and-trade would have no scientific basis, Al Gore would at this point be little more than a historical footnote, and President Obama would not be spending this U.N. session talking up a (likely unattainable) international climate deal in Copenhagen in December. Steel yourself for the new reality, because the data needed to verify the gloom-and-doom warming forecasts have disappeared. Or so it seems. Apparently, they were either lost or purged from some discarded computer. Only a very few people know what really happened, and they aren’t talking much. And what little they are saying makes no sense. In the early 1980s, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, scientists at the United Kingdom’s University of East Anglia established the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) to produce . .
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POPS Rick Perry Explains How It’s Done Or, you can do things the Obama/Schwarzeneggar way: Raise taxes high, regulate the hell out of everything in sight, bend over for the plaintiff’s bar, siphon off billions in taxes for unions and other special interest groups, drive skilled workers to lower tax states, and otherwise meddle in the economy in every conceivable way.
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POPS Thug Ed Markey (D-MA) Tried to Launch Investigation on Climate Bill Opponent! … Our witnesses… have every right to expect that in exchange for their honesty with us, they will not be subjected to sanction, retribution and vengeance simply because the facts and opinions they offer do not square with those of the Committee’s members. Exercising the power of the Majority requires a special responsibility to protect witnesses. … As the hearing was still under way, however, Mr. Sokol and his company became the focus of apparent intimidation when Chairman Markey by letter dated the day of the hearing, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to answer specific questions about investment and transmission-related activities of MidAmerican Energy and its parent, investor Warren Buffett… … An after-the-fact rationalization, however, does not change the appearance that Chairman Markey’s June 9 letter to FERC was intended to badger and harass a witness whose offense was merely daring to disagree with Mr. Markey
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POPS Stifling Innovation ~ Legal Abuse as has already been demonstrated in the area of innovative pharmaceuticals. The Association of Trial Lawyers of America has lately refashioned itself as the "American Association for Justice," and its membership would have you believe they are now merely simple seekers of Truth and Justice -- but this tiger has not changed its stripes. The trial lawyers' concern with "the rule of law," which they claim motivates their new campaign against preemption, goes exactly as far as strategically necessary to produce big damage awards or settlements -- wrung from jury-fearing, meek corporate bottom-liners. Add to this that Justice Souter, a relative moderate on many regulatory issues, will soon be replaced by the more "empathic" and lawsuit friendly Sonia Sotomayor, and we have a formula for even more trouble ahead.
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POPSMore Czars Than There are in the Russian Section of Hell The Obama Administration is not the first administration to appoint someone with broad powers to oversee a function. You know. A “czar.” So, why stop at 25-30 czars? Why not appoint a bunch more: * Gaffe Czar: Joe Biden. Sure, he’s vice-president, but he’s already doing the job of Gaffe Czar; why not make it official? * News Czar: Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. You knew him as “Baghdad Bob.” He’d fit right in with this Administration. And it would give Robert Gibbs a break from having to make up explanations for things all by himself. * Anti-semitism Czar: Jeremiah Wright. He’s already promoting anti-semitism as much as anyone is this country. This would give him a larger platform. * Fashion Czar: Michelle Obama. Remember Jackie Kennedy? Michelle Obama is equally qualified. Except for having poor taste in clothes. And men. Previously, we’ve had Drug Czars, Energy Czars, and so on. But, Barack Obama has gone Czar crazy.
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POPSMemo Exposes Global Warming Dispute ~ EPA Science Called 'Stretch' An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal review process, said the comments challenging the science came from a single office, the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy. "The disclosure of this OMB memo suggests that a political decision was made to put special interests ahead of middle-class families and small businesses struggling in this recession," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. "It is unacceptable that this critical information was withheld and the regulatory process was abused in this fashion." The office, an independent arm of the administration whose current chief was named by President George W. Bush, is charged with looking out for small-business interests as the federal government writes rules and regulations. The memo was first reported by Dow Jones Newswire, and the intra-administration dispute could give opponents ammunition for a legal challenge to EPA's finding.
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POPSBragging on the Texas Economy Thank you Gov. Perry for staying out of the way. For the third straight year, the nation’s leading executives rank Texas as the best state in which to do business, applauding the state for controlling taxes and spending as well as for its positive regulatory burden, quality of life and infrastructure. (Chief Executive Magazine, January 2008) This ranking is significant because it is not based solely on arbitrary economic indicators. Instead, it reflects the sentiment not of CEOs and decision makers throughout the nation. Voicing the positive sentiment of many respondents, Charles Hannabarger, President and CEO of PSI Associates, said, "Texas has a strong economy with a diversified economic base. The cost of living is low and the quality of life is very good. The attitude and capabilities of the workforce are outstanding!”
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POPSIs Joe Biden Really the President? After the Gridiron dinner, Obama sent Biden to do another of the President’s more prominent ceremonial roles -- throwing out the first pitch to start baseball season. In fact, so treasured a role is it for Presidents, Biden became the first Vice President ever to throw out the first pitch. Meanwhile, Barack Obama was in Europe apologizing for the United States being arrogant. Then he was off to Turkey to clear up any misconceptions that the United States is a Christian nation.
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POPSBubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble Warns "Friends of The Earth" A cap-and-trade plan would create a huge new market in emissions permits at a time when Wall Street and Washington have their hands full figuring out how to police existing markets. One key element in all the climate proposals floated so far is the use of “offsets,” or the ability to purchase emissions reductions made somewhere else. As Friends of the Earth says in a new report, “Subprime Carbon”: Given the lack of proven mechanisms to govern commodities, it is imprudent to so hastily create the largest derivatives market in the world and foist it upon a new and untested regulatory regime. One possible side effect of the financial-market fallout and concerns about more toxic assets? Growing support for a straight carbon tax, rather than a complicated cap-and-trade plan.
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POPSAmong the Global Warming Skeptics Klaus confessed that he was puzzled by the environmentalist ideologues' approach to technological progress. They oppose the technological progress that free unregulated markets make possible. On the other hand, environmentalists want to mandate what they call clean technologies. "They want to operate technologies that have only one defect," said Klaus. "They have not been invented." Klaus added, "There is no known and economically feasible a way for an economy to survive on expensive unreliable clean green energy."
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POPSMcCain Totally Trashes George Bush!
This, just 11 days before the election, is astounding. IMO, and many others think that if McCain had talked like this -- and focuses his criticism on Barack Obama's lack of military experience and thus a poor choice for the president's role as Commander-in-Chief -- he could have won. His list of criticism and emphatically also the list of many Democrats criticisms (except the war) and also spelled out a list of many Republican dissatisfactions about Bush (esp. big government, spending too much money). It also shows off his real 'maverick' streak.which has a lot of appeal to Independents (one-third the electorate). Yup...appeal to Democrats by echoing some of their gripes, appeal to Republican gripes, appeal to Independents, point to himself as better Commander-in-Chief -- it was a path to victory. But no...he made ridiculous smears to link Obama to terrorist; he made empty accusations of voter fraud, he talked 'Joe the Plumber," he picked Palin for VP -- it was like a c
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POPSThe Best States For Business Forbes Annual Listing In Forbes' annual ranking of the Best States for Business, Virginia finished first for the third straight year. But Georgia is the real story, moving from 15th to fifth place. Georgia finished in the top 10 in four of the six categories we examined (economic climate, growth prospects, labor supply and regulatory environment). Just two other states, Virginia and third-ranked Washington, managed this feat. Our rankings measure states on six main areas of importance: business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. Business costs are weighted the most, but low costs were not enough to keep Louisiana and West Virginia from being the bottom two in our ranking. We look at a total of 32 data points to compile rankings of the six main categories.
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POPSThe Pickens Plan For Wind-Powered Energy Joseph Romm raises interesting questions about what wind power should replace, as well as the efficiency of natural gas in transportation. So does FuturePundit. # I believe more domestic production of oil is a marginally useful thing, but a long-term solution probably requires (short term) diversified energy sources - more plausible as technological progress allows us to capture, e.g., wind and solar energy more efficiently and to increase battery storage capacity - and (long term) nuclear energy. # I believe the lack of fueling infrastructure is a significant barrier to using natural gas for transportation. # I believe the scientific evidence that anthropogenic climate change is occurring is solid. # I believe the cost of oil is significantly higher than the price of oil and the negative externalities of our oil-driven economy are a problem that needs to be resolved. # I believe regulatory solutions to environmental problems are likely to result in path
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POPSEmail The Senate: Vote NO on the Climate Security Act! S. 3036 significantly grows the government by giving more power to bureaucrats, such as requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a greenhouse gas (GHG) registry You will soon be voting on S. 3036, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008. This legislation is a cap-and-trade plan that will attempt to impose a limit on greenhouse gas emissions. But what it really will do is place severe regulatory burdens on domestic industry, impede trade, and harm the nation's economy. Cap-and-trade is nothing more than a hidden tax, as the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this bill would raise costs on energy use to $1.13 trillion by 2018. I urge you to oppose this bill and the dramatic increase in the government's control over my daily life!
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POPSThe U.S Is Heading Towards Water Crisis Yesterday, I clipped an article which said that companies are now racing to build a new generation of nuclear power plants which run hotter than the current plants and presumably need more water cooling. See http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/5B26C257-ADD3-4612-B223-68AD4FAF8A8A/
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POPSFree Market Solutions to G.W. "The most important thing we can do is not to impede production of wealth...People in the developing world desperately need prosperity. Blocking their development on the flimsy promise of climate "fixes" will only make hard lives harder. Their primitive environments are killing them."
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POPSTo succeed We Must Change Strategies An excellent article on a growing problem...we need to adapt to the times to be effective in changing people's minds and getting corporations to be accountable for pollution.
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POPSGlobal Warming Goes to Court
"Beneath the statutory and standing questions, this is a case about how seriously the government takes global warming. The E.P.A.’s decision was based in part on its poorly reasoned conclusion that there was too much “scientific uncertainty” about global warming to worry about it. The government’s claim that the states lack standing also scoffs at global warming, by failing to acknowledge that the states have a strong interest in protecting their land and citizens against coastal flooding and the other kinds of damage that are being projected. In a friend-of-the-court brief, climate scientists from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Stanford University and other respected institutions warn that “the scientific evidence of the risks, long time lags and irreversibility of climate change argue persuasively for prompt regulatory action.” The Supreme Court can strike an important blow in defense of the planet simply by ruling that the E.P.A. must start following the law."
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