I made it back to a computer in time today to get a copy of the State of the Union address, here are the relevant passages about climate:
“Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.
One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories that use natural gas. I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas. My administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and job growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, and our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.
It’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar, too. Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don’t need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of the future that do.
And even as we’ve increased energy production, we’ve partnered with businesses, builders, and local communities to reduce the energy we consume. When we rescued our automakers, for example, we worked with them to set higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars. In the coming months, I’ll build on that success by setting new standards for our trucks, so we can keep driving down oil imports and what we pay at the pump.
Taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.”
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“But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.”
Well, that says it all, I guess…[sigh]
Zero substance, all rhetoric. Fact free bloviation.
The climate remarks and all the rest have the above ingredients.
Climate change has always been a fact… what debate?
If that is the totality of his references to climate, climate science, climate change, global warming or extreme events. It is clear, we are truly winning the war.
>I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.
Heard that ‘future generations’ stuff all my life. Maybe this current crop, this millenial generation, being hit full in the face by 50 years of old-hipster neo-socialist economic self-destruction, will be that future generation that will need to tap in to every resource we have left to get themselves and this country back on its feet.
“Get out of my way!” -John Galt
Glad he is yours. We dumped our own shrieking violets last September in our Federal election here in Australia. Patience people, the worm will turn.
“Mostly harmless.”
He’s all excited about natural gas and wants us to power our cars and trucks with it … but he’s going to protect our pristine federal lands. Anybody can read anything they want into this speech.
Sounds like T Boone has snuggled up to the One.
Climate change is a fact, but man has NOTHING to do with it.
Let’s not forget that der Fuehrer’s meme isn’t about climate, or CO2, or man’s activities and their effect on climate – it is his pretext for regulating and taxing everything to death. It is his justification for asserting dictatorial power to achieve his Marxist agenda, take the fruits of our labor, put an end to liberty, and destroy the middle class – the bourgeois class enemy.
He repeats all the usual superstitions about “carbon pollution” and “renewable” energy.
He glosses over the 1,500,000 jobs that will be lost because of his war on coal (i.e., his reinstitution of the Salem witch trials of 1693), and the additional 800,000 jobs to be lost because of his denial of the Keystone pipeline – all of which will have exactly ZERO effect on climate.
The reptiles, mendacity knows no bounds.
” Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye…”
…they’ll wonder why a guy with a carbon footprint estimated at 41,000 tons, who sends his family and dogs off on separate flights for vacations in far off ritzy spots, who takes crosscountry flights to give 30 minute speeches, who keeps the White House at a toasty 77F, and who goes to the golf course every couple of weeks in a 17 vehicle motorcade has the cajones to lecture anyone.
Climate change is a fact. But the causes of that change are speculative and more often political.
So carbon, the basis of life, is a pollutant. The idiocy of our politicians seems to know no bounds.
Quote “stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries”. Is this Orwellian newspeak for the difference between what we could confiscate and what we actually do? What we let you keep is a gift since you didn’t earn that.
Ah, but did he mention that regardless of whether AGW is fact as he claims, did he mention what Agenda21 is doing to us world wide? The same solutions designed to break the economy and more.
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
(see what agenda21 is doing to my city!)
How does that guy sleep at night anyway?
Well, at least he didn’t promise billions for help the countries that are about to be washed away or blown away. And he didn’t point out that today’s cold weather is proof of global warming.
The President makes a truly brilliant announcement regarding climate change in his state of the union speech. He proudly proclaims that “Climate change is a fact”. I’m overwhelmed,
Listenening to it live over here in Sydney. Hussein is stuffed without the teleprompter. Loved his despotic excutive order that all government contractors wont get work unless they pay staff $10.10/hour. What a fascist. He’ll do anything to bypass Congress.
Then he says schhool access wont cost a dime. What about lower tax revenue from telcos who are giving it out for free.
Where are these “buildings with solar panels being installed every four minutes”? And who is paying for them?
He really needs to keep up. It isn’t ‘climate change’ anymore, it’s ‘Climate Disruption’.
Not sure how a drought in the west can be called ‘a changing climate’? seems to me that drought has always been part of the climate in the west.
But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.
The Climate Chooom Gang agrees with their Dear Leader……
You really have to admire the chutzpah of a math and science illiterate lecturing anyone about the veracity of ‘climate change’ science.
Notice he is taking credit for the increase of natural gas production and the decrease of CO2 emissions, neither of which he should rightly get credit for except for the slowing of economic activity. He gets that the laborer that installs a solar panel is a non-outsourced worker but says nothing about the high cost of subsides (in the true meaning of the term). Then mentions the $4 B to fossil fuel industries that is not a subsidy, but rather investment incentives via tax breaks.** The higher fuel standard (54.5 mpg) is unlikely to be met unless they somehow cheat, say by burning coal to make electricity to power vehicles either full or part time. Look for exemptions or some sort of new-speak to be used.
___
**Here is what they do. Gov. says we want $100 of your money. However, if you spend money in a way that we approve, we will only take $80. We will be pleased to tell the citizens that we are giving you a $20 subsidy and threaten you because you agree with this scam.
As Mr Sorenson said above, this is far more ‘sensible’ than I expected from a guy who no doubt shares bunk-beds with the Al Gore. I truly am amazed by his restraint. I know he must have wanted to die in having to switch from saying “Global warming is a fact” to what he said instead. Someone who helps in the executive branch knows the winds are shifting (yes, a pun of sorts) and it’s time to maybe pull it back a bit.
Now, that is the optimistic side of me, a half which rarely makes an appearance. I still can’t stand government, left or right, and I am anything but a supporter of this administration, but I really think this is a big loss for the whinging lefties tonight. Considering the asinine build-up of pro-warmist articles as of late, I was not expecting such reserve on his part.
And William Teach gets my vote for comment-of-the-day. 🙂
Despite representing nearly all official scientific bodies in blasé fashion by giving mere lip service to the climate modeled emergency, he acted as a good leader by educating low information voters that fracking should be encouraged by government instead of thwarted. Bingo! This is what winning looks like, gentlemen.
Big, unstated contradictions –
+ All that excess natural gas that has created glut prices comes from fracking, and self declared environmental wonks say the net is no impact on CO2: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/21/the-shale-gas-boom-wont-do-much-for-climate-change-but-it-will-make-us-a-bit-richer/
They maintain that cheap natgas will crowd out cleaner tech and will also encourage more consumption, so while coal to natgas cuts CO2 per BTU by half, it cuts $/BTU by more.
+ Fracking is an area that Obama has already used Executive Orders to regulate: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/13/executive-order-supporting-safe-and-responsible-development-unconvention
There is a lot of pressure on Obama from liberals to come down hard on fracking: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/16-0