Pelosi concedes ‘not enough votes to pass global warming bill’

24 06 2009

If any WUWT readers have moderates in their congressional district, now is the time to make your opinions known.

May I suggest that you send your congressional representative this story with a request to read it on the floor. And while you are at it, the EPA shenanigans and my surfacestations report.  – Anthony

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/23/us/politics/23waxman_span.jpg

From CNN political ticker

House Democrats unsure of global warming bill’s passage

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Democratic leaders are furiously lobbying their members and moderate Republicans to support a landmark energy bill in the face of resistance from some conservative members of their own party, and staunch opposition from the GOP — roadblocks that are making it difficult to find the 218 votes necessary to pass the measure, according to Democratic leadership aides.

A vote on the Clean Energy and Security Act, which would restrict emissions of green house gases and require use of alternative energy in an effort to slow the effects of global warming, is scheduled for Friday.

The legislation’s lead sponsors held a pep rally outside the Capitol on Wednesday to whip up support for the legislation’s passage. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 84 Comments »

Categories : Carbon dioxide, politics

The EPA suppresses dissent and opinion, and apparently decides issues in advance of public comment

24 06 2009

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/epa_logo_1.png?w=130&h=142http://www.openmarket.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/cei-logo-square.jpg

The EPA apparently doesn’t care about any negative comment of their GHG Endangerment findings, even internally, so the exercise in Democracy we did yesterday apparently was for naught.

“The time for such discussion of fundamental issues has passed for this round. The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision… I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office.”

- Internal EPA email, March 17th, 2009

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has caught EPA administration red-handed in concealment of internal dissent as well as apparently proceeding with plans in advance.

From this PDF circulated today by CEI, here are the points:

Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 197 Comments »

Categories : Carbon dioxide, politics

NCDC writes ghost “talking points” rebuttal to surfacestations project

24 06 2009

UPDATE: The “ghost author” has been identified, see the end of the article.

When I first saw it, I laughed.

When I saw the internal memo circulated to top managers at NOAA, I laughed even more.

Why?  Because NOAA and NCDC are rebuking an analysis which I have not even written yet, using old data, and nobody at NOAA or NCDC  had the professionalism to put their name to the document.

First let’s have a look at the National Climatic Data Center’s web page from a week ago:

ncdc_web_page_061209

I was quite surprised to find that my midterm census report on the surfacestations.org project evoked a response from NCDC. I suppose they are getting some heat from the citizenry and some congress critters over lack of quality control. I was even more surprised to see that they couldn’t even get the title right, particularly since the title of my report defines most of what NCDC is all about; Surface Temperature Measurement. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 176 Comments »

Categories : climate data, politics, weather_stations

Dr. James Hansen of NASA GISS arrested

23 06 2009

Daryl Hannah, scientist arrested at W.Va. mine protest

James Hansen and unidentified woman under arrest by WV state trooper. Photo credit: Antrim Caskey, Rainforest Action Network Field Photography

SUNDIAL, W.Va. (AP) — More than two dozen people — including actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climate scientist James Hansen — were arrested Tuesday in the latest protest in a growing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in Southern West Virginia.

…

State Police said about 30 people were charged Tuesday afternoon after they blocked State Route 3 near a Massey Energy subsidiary’s coal processing plant in Raleigh County.

Full AP story here

In a statement distributed by the Rainforest Action Network, whose executive director was also arrested, Dr. Hansen said: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 233 Comments »

Categories : politics, ridiculae

Updates from West Virginia on Jim Hansen’s protest and debate

23 06 2009

Our WUWT correspondent (and surfacestations.org volunteer surveyor) Michael Caplinger reports in.

Marsh Fork aerial view

Marsh Fork Elementary and the coal operation nearby. More here at WV Public Broadcasting. Media coverage so far has been light. – Anthony

Mike updates us from WV:

As of 10:30 am here I have not heard exactly when the protest will be happening today, and they apparently have not happened yet. They may not happen at the strip site itself (with drag lines, etc), but near (and at) a local school which has been having a standoff for some time about the construction of a new coal storage silo very close to the school.  That is where they will also have the debate I believe (could be wrong though).
Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 42 Comments »

Categories : politics

Pushback on Waxman-Markey – now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their country

23 06 2009

push-back-sq

House to Vote on Climate Bill By Friday

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090622-716255.html

If you have not contacted your legislator yet, consider doing so after reading this. – Anthony

Left Pushback on Waxman-Markey: Is It Time to Start Over?

by Robert Bradley, Master Resource
June 23, 2009

The battle cry of Joseph Romm at Climate Progress (Center for American Progress) earlier this year was “Obama Can Get a Better Climate Bill in 2010: Here’s How.” But now Romm is in panic mode, trying to convince the rebelling Environmental Left that the out-of-control Waxman-Markey climate change bill (now 1,090 1,201 pages) is the last best hope to save civilization. As Romm stated in a post yesterday:

Waxman-Markey is the only game in town.  If it fails, I see no chance whatsoever of stabilizing anywhere near 350 to 450 ppm since serious U.S. action would certainly be off the table for years, the effort to jumpstart the clean energy economy in this country would stall, the international negotiating process would fall apart, and any chance of a deal with China would be dead.

But given that Waxman-Markey is climatically inconsequential, a fact that Romm does not dispute ( “well, duh“, he said), the hard Left is understandably getting restless, even rebelling against the pseudo climate bill. After all, who really wants an Enronesque cap-and-trade bill that enriches lawyers and corporate types at the expense of everyone else?  The first comment on Romm’s blog at Climate Progress made this point:

No. I’m sorry, but the first question everyone must ask about Waxman-Markey is “Did we really need more than 600 pages to do legislate what needs to be done and isn’t 600 pages of dense text likely to have hidden in it so many loopholes, exceptions, obscure procedures and contrary regulations and guidelines that no one except a high-powered corporate law firm will be able to make total sense of it (and thus be able to use it to their corporate clients benefit).”

For the same reason, to Romm’s chagrin, NASA scientist and Al Gore mentor James Hansen got off the Waxman-Markey bandwagon 553 pages ago. Hansen complained: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 44 Comments »

Categories : Carbon dioxide, politics

Eco group calls for volunteers to “Get Arrested with James Hansen to stop MTR!”

22 06 2009

That headline is NOT a typo, that’s what they say:

Arrested_with_Jimbo

Screencap from the website this morning - click for larger image

If there was even any doubt about Hansen changing from scientist to advocate, that doubt is now shattered.

Meanwhile, amazingly, James Hansen has agreed to a debate. Hansen is going to debate with Don Blankenship of Massey coal company. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 186 Comments »

Categories : climate_change, politics

Global cooling – hail to the chief!

21 06 2009

“He’ll stop the globe from getting warm; fuel your car with nuts and corn”
(h/t to Tom Nelson)

The link for the YouTube video is below. It is very well done. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 59 Comments »

Categories : fun_stuff, politics

Hansen’s at it again

20 06 2009
cca-dc-protest-cap17

Dr. Jim Hansen gets ready to deliver his message at the Washington DC power plant protest on March 2nd 2009. On February 22nd, WUWT covered Hansen’s announcement that he was endorsing civil disobedience.

No longer content to be a scientist, and apparently now a full time protesting advocate, Dr. James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies joins forces with deep thinker Darryl Hannah.

From commondreams.org

Following this protest, on June 23rd leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, and former Representative Hechler will join Coal River Valley residents in a second round of protests in West Virginia.

Your tax dollars at work. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: FIRE THIS GUY.

Oh there will be those who say “but he’s doing it as a private citizen”.

I preemptively call BS on that. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 84 Comments »

Categories : politics, ridiculae

George Will: The Green Bubble Has Burst

4 06 2009

Gore_bursts_green_bubble

From the Mt. Pleasant, MI Morning Sun. Graphic by Anthony

WASHINGTON – There once was an Indianapolis concert featuring 50 pianos. Splendid instruments, pianos. Still, 50 might have been excessive.

As is today’s chorus summoning us to save the planet.

In the history of developed democracies with literate publics served by mass media, there is no precedent for today’s media enlistment in the crusade to promote global warming “awareness.” Concerning this, journalism, which fancies itself skeptical and nonconforming, is neither.

The incessant hectoring by the media-political complex’s “consciousness-raising” campaign has provoked a comic riposte in the form of “The Goode Family,” an animated ABC entertainment program on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Cartoons seem, alas, to be the most effective means of seizing a mass audience’s attention. Still, the program is welcome evidence of the bursting of what has been called “the green bubble.”

Gerald and Helen Goode, their children and dog Che (when supervised, he is a vegan; when unsupervised, squirrels disappear) live in a college town, where T-shirts and other media instruct (”Meat is murder”), admonish (”Don’t kill wood”) and exhort (”Support our troops … and their opponents”). The college, where Gerald works, gives students tenure. And when Gerald says his department needs money to raise the percentage of minority employees, his boss cheerily replies, “Or we could just fire three white guys. Everybody wins!” Helen shops at the One Earth store, where community shaming enforces social responsibility: “Attention One Earth shoppers, the driver of the SUV is in aisle four. He’s wearing the baseball cap.” Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 138 Comments »

Categories : politics

U.N.’s ‘Global Warming=300,000 Deaths a Year’ Report – Kofi Annan implies: “close enough for government work”

30 05 2009

Close_enough_for_government_work

Many of you have probably heard by now of  the UN. Report saying that “global warming is killing 300,000 people a year”. There’s a Times Online Story (h/t to Gary Boden) about it today that has some startling admissions. Here are some excerpts:

Climate change is already killing 300,000 people a year in a “silent crisis” that is seriously affecting hundreds of millions more, an influential humanitarian group warned today.

A report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, led by Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, says that the effects of climate change are growing in such a way that it will have a serious impact on 600 million people, almost ten per cent of the world’s population, within 20 years. Almost all of these will be in developing countries.

“Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” Mr Annan said.

“As this report shows, the first hit and worst affected are the world’s poorest groups, and yet they have done least to cause the problem.”

//

The report claims that 90 per cent of the deaths are related to gradual environmental degradation caused by a warming climate, which exacerbates existing threats — mainly malnutrition, diarrhoea and malaria. The rest are said to be the result of weather disasters.

But here is the kicker (emphasis mine): Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 124 Comments »

Categories : climate_change, economy-health, politics, ridiculae

The Audacity of Cap and Trade

20 05 2009
Guest post by Steven Goddard
http://media.economist.com/images/20090418/D1609FN1.jpg
Yesterday, president Obama announced emission standards which he said would raise the cost of automobiles by $1300.

While the new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil, they are expected to cost consumers an extra 1,300 US dollars per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016. Mr Obama said the fuel cost savings would offset the higher price of vehicles in three years.

His remarkable comment caught my attention, because one of the primary purposes of Obama’s “cap and trade” plan is to massively raise the cost of fuel.  There aren’t going to be any fuel cost savings.  In fact, Mr. Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle last year that he actually intends to bankrupt coal fired power plants using cap and trade: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 342 Comments »

Categories : carbon credits, energy, politics

Leaked OMB CO2 memo: “no demonstrated direct health effects”

13 05 2009

US-CO2-emissions

All is not well in CO2 regulation land. You may have heard about a leaked memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that questions the EPA findings on CO2 being a “threat to human health”. BTW there is still time to lodge your comments (as is your right as a US citizen) on this finding, details here.

The leaked internal memo, was  marked “Attorney Client Privilege”.

It has some strong language about the negative impact EPA regulation of CO2 would have on the U.S. economy.

“Making the decision to regulate CO2…is likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S. economy, including small businesses and small communities,”

But there is more than that.  The Hill (a political blog) say the memo indicates that the burden of proof of CO2 as harmful isn’t there:  (emphasis mine)

An EPA finding last month that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health rests on dubious assumptions and could have negative economic impacts, a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warned.

The memo has no listed author but is marked “Deliberative–Attorney Client Privilege.” A spokesman for OMB told Dow Jones Newswires that the brief is a “conglomeration of counsel we’ve received from various agencies” about the EPA finding, the conclusions of which would trigger regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The author(s) of the memo suggest the EPA did not thoroughly examine the relationship between greenhouse gases and human health.

“In the absence of a strong statement of the standards being applied in this decision, there is concern that EPA is making a finding based on…’harm’ from substances that have no demonstrated direct health effects,” the memo says, adding that the “scientific data that purports to conclusively establish” that link was from outside EPA.

But here is the real kicker. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 185 Comments »

Categories : Carbon dioxide, economy-health, politics

Post an Opinion, Go To Jail

9 05 2009

Goto_jail

There are times when I really don’t enjoy living in California, this is one of them.

The idea for a law, by  Rep. Linda Sanchez, Democrat, of California is sheer lunacy. She has proposed a bill that would make it a federal felony to use blogs, text messages, and Internet messaging (”electronic means”) to harass someone and cause them “emotional distress.”

So if my local paper, the Enterprise Record, posts a web story that “causes somebody emotional distress”, do the aggrieved  then just dispense a lawyer from a vending machine in front of the newspaper office and walk in with a lawsuit? There will be DMVesque line with a wait.

It’s coming to that it seems.

Linda Sanchez (D-CA) coming after bloggers

“Greg Pollowitz at NRO Media Blog sends the alert (via The Volokh Conspiracy) that Rep. Linda Sanchez, Democrat of California, has proposed a bill that would make it a federal felony to use blogs, text messages, and Internet messaging (”electronic means”) to harass someone and cause them “emotional distress.” Eugene Volokh pulls these snippets out of H.R. 1966:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both….

["Communication"] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; …

["Electronic means"] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.

(h/t to Helogenic Climate Change)

Here is her official website where you can contact her and let her know what you think about this idea. Be nice.

http://lindasanchez.house.gov/index.cfm?section=contact


Comments : 147 Comments »

Categories : politics, ridiculae

Global Warming clause won’t be used to protect polar bears, ecos plan to sue

8 05 2009

On one hand, we have a sensible decision, on the other, no good deed goes unpunished. – Anthony

latimes.com

From the Los Angeles Times

U.S. global warming rules won’t change to help polar bears

http://www.rushprnews.com/press/wp-content/2008/12/polar_bears480.jpg

Gore's famous polar bear peril - no protection needed

Excerpts from the LA Times story
The Endangered Species Act ‘is not the appropriate tool for us to deal with what is a global issue,’ Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says in announcing that the Bush-era policy on emissions will stand.

By Jim Tankersley

Reporting from Washington — The Interior Department on Friday let stand a Bush administration policy barring the federal government from using the precarious state of the U.S. polar bear population as a reason to crack down on global warming, upsetting environmentalists and cheering oil and gas companies.

…

“The single greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic Sea ice due to climate change,” Salazar said in a conference call announcing the decision. But the Endangered Species Act “is not the appropriate tool for us to deal with what is a global issue,” he added.

Like Bush administration officials before them, Interior officials said it would be impossible to directly link any one factory or power plant to the decline in polar ice, and thus impractical to regulate their emissions.

Environmental groups promised to sue. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 74 Comments »

Categories : Arctic, politics

Founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change: ‘Time to ditch consensus’

6 05 2009

Top British boffin: Time to ditch the climate consensus

Don’t use science to get round politics, says Hulme

By Stuart Blackman the UK Register

EXCERPTS:

Interview Just two years ago, Mike Hulme would have been about the last person you’d expect to hear criticising conventional climate change wisdom. Back then, he was the founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, an organisation so revered by environmentalists that it could be mistaken for the academic wing of the green movement. Since leaving Tyndall – and as we found out in a telephone interview – he has come out of the climate change closet as an outspoken critic of such sacred cows as the UN’s IPCC, the “consensus”, the over-emphasis on scientific evidence in political debates about climate change, and to defend the rights of so-called “deniers” to contribute to those debates.

As Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia, Hulme remains one of the UK’s most distinguished and high-profile climate scientists.

…

He treats climate change not as a problem that we need to solve – indeed, he believes that the complexity of the issue means that it cannot be solved, only lived with – and instead considers it as much of a cultural idea as a physical phenomenon.”

…

When we spoke to him on the phone, Hulme cited as evidence the 2007 protests against Heathrow’s third runway, where marchers made their case by waving a research paper at the TV cameras under a banner bearing the slogan “We are armed only with peer reviewed science”.

…

Read the complete story here in the Register: Top British boffin: Time to ditch the climate consensus


Comments : 80 Comments »

Categories : climate_change, politics

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