By Ken Haapala, Executive Vice President Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
On Tuesday, the Obama administration lifted its controversial ban on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while demanding that the oil industry must meet new, complex regulations. Rather than providing relief for businesses that have been idled and those who have been unemployed by the ban, the announcement created further uncertainty. There were no assurances that permits would be granted expeditiously. Rather, there were promises of even more regulations in the future. The administration seems to be oblivious to the national unemployment rate that is 9.2% and that businesses do not hire in periods of regulatory uncertainty. The only state with strong employment growth is North Dakota where oil drilling is expanding rapidly thanks to the new technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that is opening up extensive oil reserves previously locked in deep, tight shale formations. Please see articles # 1 and #2, and the articles referenced under “BP Spill and Aftermath.”
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Several thought-provoking articles appeared discussing problems with alternative energy. Tom Fuller, an alternative energy advocate, explains why he thinks wind power is not doing well in 2010 – the buyer market is highly concentrated (basically forced by government). Thus, there is no pressing need on the producers to reduce costs because the eventual users must buy regardless of cost. (Since regulated utilities pass on costs plus a profit calculated on costs to their customers, including government imposed costs, utilities have no incentive to demand lower costs.) Please see article #3.
Bjorn Lomborg points out how government officials in Europe have failed to conduct the proper research to discover the tremendous hidden costs of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind. As a result, European countries that invested heavily in these sources are experiencing unexpectedly high utility rates. Please see article # 4.
Peter Grover discusses the folly of British experience and the government’s current mania to build even more expensive off-shore wind farms. Please see article # 5.
As Fuller discusses, there is no incentive or demand on the businesses that are providing the wind farms to lower costs. This is a recipe for failure. Please see Cape Wind article referenced under “Subsidies and Mandates Forever.”
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Another provoking piece appeared on the blog of Roger Pielke, Sr. He describes the requirements of a good scientific model as explained in The Grand Design, a new book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, and then concludes that the IPCC models fail the Hawking and Mlodinow requirements. A good scientific model: 1) is elegant, 2) contains few arbitrary or adjustable elements; 3) agrees with and explains all existing observations, and 4) makes detailed predictions about future observations that can disprove or falsify the model if they are not borne out. Please see “When Is A Model a Good Model?” under “Challenging the Orthodoxy.”
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The issue regarding the resignation of Hal Lewis from the American Physical Society continues to cause controversy. TWTW carried the resignation letter last week. The American Physical Society issued a press release defending its position and Roger Cohen rebutted the press release. Please see the referenced article under “American Physical Society Row.”
**********************************************
SEPP Corrections and Amplifications: Last week’s number of the week was reproduced incorrectly. The number of the week was 1100 times 10 to the fourth power, knots squared. This is the global Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) over the past 24 months as reported by Ryan Maue (September 30, 2010). When it was reformatted the exponents were dropped, literally lowered, thus the number made no sense. In the future we will use the character ^ to indicate an exponent. The ACE would be expressed as 1100 X 10^4 knots^2.
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NUMBER OF THE WEEK: 20 Percent by 2030. Greenpeace and the Global Wind Energy Council produced a study claiming that wind power could produce up to 20% of the world’s power needs by 2030. Given the well known difficulties of wind, as expressed in articles referenced above, one could say that this estimate is a bit optimistic.
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Those who challenge the claim that human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing unprecedented and dangerous global warming by pointing out the failure of the advocates to produce the physical evidence of causation continue to be personally attacked in academic departments at universities and in publications called scientific. For example, Fred Singer is repeatedly accused as being a lobbyist or agent for tobacco companies because he had the audacity to point out that the EPA’s second hand smoke study lacked scientific rigor. Below he describes his relationship with tobacco companies.
SEPP SCIENCE EDITORIAL #31-2010 (Oct. 16, 2010)
S Fred Singer Chairman, and President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
In 1993, the EPA published a report claiming that SHS [sometimes known as Environmental Tobacco Smoke – ETS] causes 3000 deaths from lung cancer every year.
Anyone doubting this result has been subject to attack and depicted as a toady of the tobacco lobby. The attacks have been led by a smear blog called “DesmogBlog,” financed by a shady Canadian PR firm of James Hoggan, and have been taken up with great enthusiasm by a self-styled “science historian,” Professor Naomi Oreskes.
The ultimate purpose of these attacks, at least in my case, has been to discredit my work and publications on global warming. I’m a nonsmoker, find SHS to be an irritant and unpleasant, and have certainly never been paid by Phillip Morris and the tobacco lobby, and have never joined any of their front organizations, like TASSC [The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition].
So what is the truth about SHS and lung cancer? I’m neither an oncologist nor a chemical toxicologist, but I do know some statistics, which allows me to examine the EPA study without bias [I personally believe that SHS cannot be healthy].
I can demonstrate that the EPA fudged their analysis to reach a predetermined conclusion – using a thoroughly dishonest procedure. They made three major errors: 1) They ignored publication bias, that is, studies that do not produce significant results are seldom published, 2) They shifted the confidence intervals, 3) They drew unjustified conclusions from a risk ratio that was barely greater than 1.0. My opinions are independently confirmed by the Congressional Research Service [CRS-95-1115], and by a lengthy judicial analysis by Judge William Osteen [all available on the Internet].
1) Since none of the epidemiological studies provided a clear answer, EPA carried out a “meta-analysis”. Unfortunately, this approach ignores “publication bias”, i.e., the tendency for investigators not to publish their studies if they do not give a positive result.
2) The EPA in order to calculate a risk ratio, moved the confidence intervals from 95% to 90% — and said so openly.
3) Even so, their risk ratio was just a little above 1.0 – whereas epidemiologists ignore any result unless the RR exceeds 2.0.
To sum up, while we cannot give specific answers for lung cancer cases or other medical issues connected SHS, we can state with some assurance that the EPA analysis is worthless.
ARTICLES:
For the numbered articles below please see:
http://www.haapala.com/sepp/the-week-that-was.cfm…
1. Liberating the gulf
Editorial, WSJ, Oct 13, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440…
2. Drill, North Dakota, Drill
Editorial, IBD, Oct 11, 2010
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/550…
3. Captive Clients Determine the Success of Energy Initiatives
By Tom Fuller, Watts Up With That, Oct 13, 2010
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/13/captive-client…
4. First do the research, then make deep carbon cuts
By Bjorn Lomborg, The Australian, Oct 14, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/first-d…
5. Taking The Wind Out Of Wind Power
By Peter Glover, GWPF, Oct 13, 2010 [H/t Francois Guillaumat]
http://www.thegwpf.org/energy-news/1694-peter-glover…
6. Shootout at the EPA Corral
Texas takes aim at the White House’s illegal carbon rules
Editorial WSJ, Oct 10, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696…
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Climategate Continued
BBC Told to ensure balance on climate change
Climate change sceptics are likely to be given greater prominence in BBC documentaries and news bulletins following new editorial guidelines that call for impartiality in the corporation’s science coverage.
By Neil Midgley, Telegraph, UK, Oct 13, 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/80…
Challenging the Orthodoxy
When Is A Model a Good Model?
By Roger Pielke Sr. Pielke Research Group, Oct 11, 2010 [H/t Francois Guillaumat]
http://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/whe…
Time to get real about climate change
10/10/10 and 350.org based on urban legend, not science
By Tom Harris, Washington Times, Oct 14, 2010
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/14/time…
Opening closed minds
By Des Moore, Quadrant Online, Oct 6, 2010
http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2010/…
The scientific world is fracturing
By Joanne Nova, Oct 10, 2010 [H/t Marc Morano, Climate Depot]
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/10/the-scientific-worl…
No consensus among climate scientists after all
By Des Moore, The Australian, Oct 14, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/no-cons…
Opinion: Global Warming not worth the fight
The United States would gain little in trying to forestall climate change
By Keith Yost, Staff Columnist, The Tech, Oct 15, 2010 [H/t Joe Bast]
http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N45/yost.html…
[SEPP Comment: Even assuming man is causing significant warming!]
Is climate change activism dead?
By Louise Gray, Telegraph, UK, Oct 14, 2010 [H/t Joe Bast]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climate…
Dangerous Carbon Pollution: Propaganda from Climatism
By Steve Goreham, Big Government, Oct 8, 2010
http://biggovernment.com/sgoreham/2010/10/08/dangero…
Defending the Orthodoxy
Global warming summit heads for failure amid snub by world leaders
By Louis Gray, Telegraph, UK, Oct 10, 2010 [H/t Brad Veek]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-…
U.N.: ‘Credible’ climate report needed
UPI, Oct 12, 2010 [H/t GWPF]
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/1…
Text of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/about/com…
American Physical Society Row
Roger Cohen Responds to APS response to Hal Lewis Resignation
By Roger Cohen, ICECAP, Oct 13, 2010
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/APSPressReleaseDecon…
Weather Extremes
Arctic Ice Rebound Predicted
Man is not the primary cause of change in the Arctic says book by Russian scientists
By Verity Jones, Watts up with that, Oct 16, 2010
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/16/arctic-ice-reb…
Warmer, wetter climate helping U.S. farmers grow more crops
USA Today, Oct 8, 2010 [H/t Best on the Web]
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2010-10-08-c…
[SEPP Comment: See article below.]
Study; Crop failures to increase with climate change
USA Today Oct 8, 2010 [H/t Best on the Web]
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/p…
[SEPP Comment: On the same day, the same newspaper gives two opposing statements about the effects of global warming / climate change. If climate change means a significant cooling of the great northern grain belts, then it would lead to crop failures.]
BP Oil Spill and Aftermath
U.S. Lifts freeze on deepwater oil drilling
By Matthew Daly, Washington Times, Oct 12, 2010
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/12/offs…
Oil Industry Not Celebrating Yet
Executives Fear New Regulations Could Result in a Continued Slowdown of Offshore Drilling Activity
By Stephen Power, WSJ, Oct 13, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164…
China’s Will To Drill
Editorial, IBD, Oct 13, 2010
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.asp…
Energy Issues
Sluggish Economy Curtails Prospects for Building Nuclear Reactors
By Matthew Wald, NYT, Oct 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/business/energy-en…
[SEPP Comment: It is more than a sluggish economy, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling for natural gas has dramatically changed the energy outlook.]
Offshore Wind Power Line Wins Praise, and Backing
By Matthew Wald, NYT, Oct 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/earth/12wi…
New research questions hydroelectric reservoir emissions
By Staff Writers, Energy Daily, Oct 11, 2010 [H/t Toshio Fujita]
http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/New_research_que…
Biomass Power Encounters a New Regulatory Forest
By David O’Connor and Christian Termyn, Mintz Levin, Oct 2010
http://www.mintz.com/newsletter/2010/Advisories/0689…
[SEPP Comment: A law firm’s take on the problems biomass power faces. Note mentioned is that until the 1880s biomass burning (wood) was the dominant source of energy for the US until coal replaced it when virtually all the forests of the east were logged.]
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Cape Wind backers blew right by cost
Governor Patrick pushed hard for the project, hoping it would jump-start the state’s green economy, And it may. But at what price?
By Beth Daley, Boston Globe, Oct 10, 2010 [H/t Glenn Schleede]
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/…
[SEPP Comment: Oops! As long as politicians do not have to pay they will promote anything that sounds good.]
EPA and other Regulators On the March
EPA Estimates Its Greenhouse Gas Restrictions Would reduce global Temperature by No More Than 0.006 of a Degree in 90 Years
By Chris Neefus, CNS News, Oct 6, 2010 [H/t John Thompson]
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/epa-s-own-estima…
EPA global warmers power grab
Editorial, Washington Times, Oct 9, 2010
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/8/epa-g…
New Policy Fuels High-Octane Debate
Permitting More Ethanol in Gasoline Angers Oil, Food and Car Interests, But May Lift Grain Sales
By Tennille Tracy, WSJ, Oct 14, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673…
Oh, Mann!
The right to question Michael Mann’s climate research
By Joe Barton, Washington Post, Oct 12, 2010 [H/t Randy Randol]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article…
Cuccinelli calls for environmental, economic balance at energy conference
By Rosalind Helderman, Washington Post, Oct 14, 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/20…
Review of Recent Scientific Articles by NIPCC. For a full list of articles see:
A 1300 – Year History of West-Central Mexican Cloud Forest Climate
Reference: Figueroa-Rangel, B.L., Willis, K.J. and Olvera-Vargas, M. 2010. Cloud forest dynamics in the Mexican neotropics during the last 1300 years. Global Change Biology 16: 1689-1704.
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/oct/14oct20…
A Millennium of Reconstructed and Simulated Temperatures for Eastern China
Reference: Liu, J., Storch, H., Chen, X., Zorita, E., Zheng, J. and Wang, S. 2005. Simulated and reconstructed winter temperature in the eastern China during the last millennium. Chinese Science Bulletin 50: 2872-2877.
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/oct/13oct20…
The IPCC Spaghetti-Diagram Reconstructions of Paleoclimate are Incoherent With Each Other
Reference: Bürger, G. 2010. Clustering climate reconstructions. Climate of the Past Discussions 6: 659-679.
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/oct/13oct20…
Rapid Ice Loss On the Antarctic Peninsula
Reference: Hall, B.L., Koffman, T. and Denton, G.H. 2010. Reduced ice extent on the western Antarctic Peninsula at 700-907 cal. yr B.P. Geology 38: 635-638.
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/oct/13oct20…
Miscellaneous Topics of Possible Interest
Moonlighting as a Conjurer of Chemicals
By Natalie Angier, NYT, Oct 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/12newton.h…
[SEPP Comment: A different look at Isaac Newton as an alchemist. According to William Newman, in the 17th Century there were a number of theoretical and empirical reasons to take alchemy seriously. These were eventually replaced by more powerful theoretical and empirical reasons why not to.]
How to prevent fraud
Thoughts on how to catch scientific misconduct early from a research recently convicted of the offense
By Suresh Radhakrishnan, The Scientist, Oct 7, 2010 [H/t Catherine French]
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57738/…
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE:
Wind could provide 20 percent of world power needs by 2030: study
Physorg.com, Oct 12, 2010 [H/t Toshio Fujita]
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-20-pct-world-pow…
[SEPP Comment: Contrary to statements at the end of the article, the US has heavily subsidized wind through the Stimulus bill, tax credits, and state mandates. The savings of carbon dioxide emissions are highly questionable.]
Waste Pickers Offer to Fight Climate Change
By Karl Malakunas, Manila Bulletin, Oct 11, 2010 [H/t Best of the Web]
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/281600/waste-pickers-o…
That great story about Rock Hyrax urine you’ve always wanted to read
Press Release, University of Leicester, Oct 12, 2010 [H/t Watts Up With That]
http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2010-archive/october-…
Cigarettes: A Secondary Cause of Global Warming
By Ken Bosket, Star City News, Oct 12, 2001 [H/t Watts Up With That]
http://www.starcitynews.com/cigarettes-a-secondary-c…
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Michael Proctor says:
October 17, 2010 at 12:45 pm
“What peeves me is reading crap like this […]”
Ok, didn’t know where you got that from, so i googled and here it is, presented by a Josef Romm, a person called Goldmark interviewed:
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/45338/edf%E2%80%99s-peter-goldmark-%E2%80%9Cmy-generation-has-failed%E2%80%9D-it-has-got-be-said-over-and-over-ag
and i actually like a lot of what he says:
“The environmental movement must also do a better job of linking climate directly to shrinking harvests, falling water tables, receding glaciers, extended droughts and more violent storms.”
Yeah, go ahead, produce even more flakey evidence, and for the storms, well, we’ll just wait for a violent one… might take a while, though…
“It’s happening now, and we need to connect that to climate change in the minds of all people.”
I guess it’s way harder to brainwash people into such a fantasy than to awaken them again by simply pointing to the boring non-events in reality.
““What we need more than anything else is a mass movement of young people,”
Yeah. That’ll work. Take Ehrlich’s 1967 philosophy and try to implant it in gadget-keen youngsters of today.
Joe Romm adds:
“He is one of the best thinkers and speakers on climate I know.”
I guess that pretty much sums it up.
The FDA and other agencies have never been able to identify a single death attributable to second hand smoke. As said correctly here, the number is derived by assuming infinite susceptibility to tobacco smoke and then extrapolating the figure downward. This is not science. The fact is that after over 100,000 years of cooking and heating with fire, humans have a healthy tolerance to smoke, even tobacco smoke. At minimal levels smoke simply is not toxic. Period, Cigarettes, which encourage an ingestion of smoke that is abnormal in every respect, clearly overwhelm that tolerance for an extremely large percentage of the population, but there is a threshold sensitivity and second hand smoke does not appear to reach it.
As I have comment ted before on this blog the Severn Barrage keeps coming and going as it were ever since it was first proposed in the 1920’s on a far vaster scale not only offering the possibility of internal dams, I presume not dissimilar to the reefs your refer to, to spread out available generating time. Above all else it would also have provided still much needed road and rail links. This tiny modern version is hardly worth the effort and has been cut down at the insistence the Greens. Something about sea birds or some such I fancy. Or was it seals? I forget.
The use of inline free flow, chiefly screw types, low velocity turbines is hardly new and were widely tested in the UK using more modern self adjusting variable pitch blades, unlike the widely employed Victorian designs which used fixed pitch, in the 1970’s both for tidal and small scale hydroelectric generation. Water being incompressible the gains from variable pitch and hydrodynamic flow lines are not that great as against a simple screw.
Ram type technology whether inline with flow or using direct vertical uplift, which again is what I imagine you referring to, is a very old technology indeed and still in use today in various parts of the world. It is ideal for very small and simple installations but does not scale up well.
Kindest Regards
From the Telegraph article “Is Climate Change Activism Dead?”:
“But this does not mean the anger has gone. In fact it is as militant as ever. Most protestors are focusing on colourful and creative ways of getting their voices heard, although there are concerns about the scale of the protests in Mexico, where
there is a history of police violence.”
====
Heh!! Something to look forward to in Cancun, eh? What the hell, bring ’em to Chicago, we know how to handle these types of crowds!
Nice round up, I feel the unemployment is a feature of the obama regime not a flaw. As for lifting the drilling embargo, why have a ban when you can regulate it to death without the PR fallout! As for the smoking ban, while I enjoy it I feel it is dishonest, however the main way of connecting an activity or substance with cancer is by numbers or animal testing, almost anecdotal so I wouldnt expect any study to be that certain (however the studies regarding SHS and childrens asthma are highly certain, extrapolate that!). Given what we do know it is rather daft smoking anywhere.
Hi peoples … check this out … The Global Warming NWO plan explained http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread620910/pg1 peace
pat says:
October 17, 2010 at 2:30 pm
The FDA and other agencies have never been able to identify a single death attributable to second hand smoke.
=========
REPLY:
I agree that blaming second-hand smoke as a specific cause of cancer is flawed.
However, the literature implicating second-hand smoke as a very significant factor for increased heart attacks is quite strong. Institute of Medicine has replicated this research, as have other researchers overseas, lending strong support to indoor smoking bans. I have reviewed these studies extensively and agree (I’m an environmental epidemiologist).
See Lightwood’s article at:
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/120/14/1373?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Risk+Attributable+to+Secondhand+Smoke+Declines+in+Acute+Myocardial+Infarction+Af&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
Alex P. says:
October 17, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Go up to the top of this page and find the search box. Enter NIWA. The first three hits:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/09/new-zealands-niwa-temperature-train-wreck/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/16/new-zealands-niwa-sued-over-climate-data-adjustments/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/05/15/niwas-kiwi-kaper/
I hope he does.
Here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/09/new-zealands-niwa-temperature-train-wreck/
Why does Fred Singer comes back with such old story. Is he trying to clean some ghosts of the past in his resume. I don’t know. He should have let that story down instead of bringing it on top of the news. It’s just another miscalculation from dear Fred. By putting that old story back in the news, he will again be tied to the tobacco industry and will loose whatever credibility he had regained since that time.
Total waste of time, and nothing to gain out of it. The case was closed and lost. Swallow and move on.
Soothsaying Doomsday Futures is a favorite pastime of those with nothing better to do than scare the rest of us with their nonsense.
Conjecture is just imagination. Predicting the future is a challenging business for there are so many possible futures so anyone just giving one possible future is already debunking themselves as they’ve left out all the other possible futures that contradict the possible future they are soothsaying doomsday about.
“I’m trying to find out NOT how Nature could be, but how Nature IS.” – Richard Feynman
‘Humans will need two Earths by 2030′
http://current.com/182434c
Currently (since 2007) we’re using over 1.5 planets! Funny that, I didn’t see another inhabited planet nearby parked in orbit with humans on it. Did you?
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/2010_lpr/
Yikes, the soothsayers are soothsaying doomsday with slosh graphs.
Smokey-
We are specifically discussing whether the lack of gov regulation is good thing or not. When I disagreed with the prior poster I was arguing gov action on who to loan to was not the primary driver for the mortgage crisis, but the actions of Wall Street tacitly confirmed by the gov’s lack of regulation. Got the argument now Smokey?
The history of one Fred Singer, including his pro-smoking work for Phillip Morris.
[SNIP. Read Dr Singer’s statement in the article, which disputes your link.]
If I were Anthony I might think twice before allowing this guy to post.
“NUMBER OF THE WEEK: 20 Percent by 2030. Greenpeace and the Global Wind Energy Council produced a study claiming that wind power could produce up to 20% of the world’s power needs by 2030. Given the well known difficulties of wind, as expressed in articles referenced above, one could say that this estimate is a bit optimistic.”
Not if the Greenies are successful in reducing the total power production of the world by – say – 50%, intending – of course! – to save us from global warming by dropping the CO2 production by the human race by 50% by 2030. Of course, 10% of current energy production is probably much too high for wind power as well, so perhaps a reduction of power production by 90% by 2030 is more likely their goal.
brad says:
“Got the argument now Smokey?”
I understand the argument, and your attempted re-framing of it.
Regulation is not a bad thing, so long as it is applied evenly across the board, and not corrupted. My point, which sailed right over your head, is that government caused the problems cited.
“Wall Street” is a red herring. Government has police power to regulate the situation. But the corruption of government regulators that you refer to almost always goes unpunished. No wonder there is so much of it.
The problem is with the corrupt government, no more and no less.
@Smokey says:
October 17, 2010 at 6:53 pm
brad says:
Exactly right, Smokey.
Well thought out, focussed regulation is essential.
But the great majority of regulation we see now in the UK and Europe is poorly conceived regulation, for regulation’s sake. The driver for it is (a) to extend the control over the economies of the nation states by an incompetent and unaccountable EU commission (=political elite) and (b) to preserve the jobs of batallions of extremely well paid regulators.
I could write a book about all the “unintended consequences” and flat failures of much of this ‘regulation’, especially in environmental and health & safety fields (which most affects my work).
I don’t think the situation in the USA is much better.
If Brad is so keen on more regulation, he should go to Myanmar, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, India (and about a hundred other states) and tell them all about it. Good luck to him.
@DirkH,
Yeah I used the with the reference in it but it didn’t show up :(, you are correct about it coming from someone who is firmly in belief of his religion Peter Goldmark I sourced it from the EDF site
Brain washing is already beginning in schools, my 9yo son even knows about Global Warming and has told us not to use the car as he is scared that the house will be under water with all the oceans rising, the sad thing is we don’t watch commercial television. so wonder where he gets all this gibberish from?
“Earth poised to ecologically collapse bringing down biosphere, humanity & most if not all creatures. Avoidable but requires increase in knowledge & immediate biocentric action.” – Ecological Internet, Dr. Barry
“We know Earth dying and being for all creatures coming to an end – deal with it and commit to reversing – or you are the problem.” – Ecological Internet
http://pathstoknowledge.net/2010/10/18/an-ecological-internet-prophet-soothsaying-doomsday
I notice that the President of Chile did NOT close down all deep mining in Chile; because they had an earthquake mine collapse; which would have put a whole lot more Chilean miners in jeopardy. And once they knew the trapped miners were still alive; he made sure that nothing got in the way of getting them out.
Quite a difference from the reaction of our boy king to the Gulf drilling platform blowout.
And the first lady; in her campaign speeches, claims that he is spending all of his time in the White House working on the Nation’s problems. Well that excluded the time he spends out on the golf course of course; not to mention the time he spends out giving Jim Jones style sermons to the college kids.
Sometimes the difference in leadership is obvious; even to the untrained eye. I prefer the Chilean model.
Smokey-
Agree on gov – but isn’t an ethical business community that does not lie to regulators for their own gain, and attempt to draft and “game” regulation for their own advantage also needed?
News today in the UK: For the first two quarters of this year wind generation ran at only 5% of installed capacity owing to light winds.
But don’t worry, the spokesman for the Wind Energy lobby assured us that this was a once in two hundred years event!
The mind boggles at what lies they will come out with next.
Methinks that the latest disaster in the Gulf is ample demonstration that changes in regulation are necessary. Perhaps it is impossible to prevent such disasters, but it should not be for lack of trying.
The lift of the ban comes a few months after the incident. Doesn’t seem to be too egregious.
Brad says:
“Agree on gov…”
OK then, we’re on the same page. Regulation is necessary because, as Niccolo Machiavelli wrote: “Men are evil unless compelled to be good.” Regulators compel. At least that’s the theory.
Government does the regulating; business is regulated. As long as the government is honest, everything works. But when the regulators become corrupt, we get problems like BP’s oil spill.
Has even one government regulator lost his job over that oil spill — which killed eleven men? Do you think any regulators heads will roll over allowing rig safety to be compromised? If not, why not?
The problem is the failure of government to police itself. The problem is systemic, and it has become much worse under the current Administration — which now admits it cannot account for the whereabouts of quite a few $billions in stimulus cash. And President Obama has announced that he himself will be the one dealing out BP’s $20 billion fine — a fine levied with no law authorizing it, and no law giving the president the authority to hand it out to whomever he pleases. But that’s what is happening.
The U.S. Treasury issued the “lost” stimulus funds, and you can be sure all that money is in someone’s pockets. It didn’t just evaporate. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is the guy in charge [Geithner is also head of the IRS]. That is the same Timothy Geithner who was caught cheating on his income taxes — and who was subsequently confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of the Treasury!
Where are the honest regulators and auditors? If Diogenes was looking at the government today, he’d have the same problem he’s always had.
DirkH says:
October 17, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Oh God no. Eugenics for WII a la 10:10
Actually, I can see that going down quite well with some youngsters. 🙁
DaveE.