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.”
Yes, I’m waiting for him to grow his Charlie Chaplin mustache – what’s taking him so long?
Bewitch says:
January 28, 2014 at 6:44 pm
“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.”
There will be an election in 2015 in Canada, and the forces will be:
1) Stephen Harper, Conservative, who must be doing something right because David Suzuki HATES him
2) Justin Bieber, sorry, I mean Justin Trudeau, the lucky sperm from Pierre Trudeau’s loins, whose sole qualifications for the job of leader is good hair and good speechifyin’. Remind you of anyone?
_Jim says:
January 29, 2014 at 6:31 am
When I meet people today who despair of our future, I tell them, “relax – if we could survive FDR, we will survive this.”
You’d think that after nearly 12 years of unrelenting hardship, people might have looked up and said, “you know, maybe it’s him“. But, the public is always a sucker for someone who says he cares, even as he turns the screws on the rack torturing them tighter.
Meanwhile, back in reality land … The entire metro Atlanta area is gridlocked because of about 3 inches (7.4 cm) of snowfall plus temperatures 20°F (11°C) below normal. Is this climate change? I have no idea. It is certainly weather. But most importantly it is weather for which Atlanta, metro area residents, and the state of Georgia were effectively unprepared.
I have no idea what this mess is going to end up costing, but it will be a bundle.
Way too much time & money spent on “climate change” and nowhere near enough on winter weather preparedness.
CaligulaJones says:
January 29, 2014 at 8:40 am
John Kerry? (AKA “The Poodle”). He not only has good hair; he has a knack for marrying rich women, so perhaps he has other qualifications I’m not aware of.
Reed Coray says:
January 29, 2014 at 8:37 am
Agreed. We could criticize AlGore’s crazy ideas without being accused of racism. But any disapproval of the Annointed One is treated as a hate crime.
_Jim says: January 29, 2014 at 8:22 am
…Show cause….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is known as mindset.
Have you ever dealt with inner city kids? They are locked in third generation welfare because they can not imagine anything different. Gates was not locked in. His Dad was part owner of a business.
I have had kids from poverty stricken homes I interacted with come back as adults and thank me for making them realize they were not locked into poverty.
Obama and his buddies WANT to lock those people into poverty and they are doing it any way they can.
My husband was corresponding with someone yesterday. He has youngsters working for him part time. He said they start out gung ho at 14 years but by the time they were 18 they had no desire to work at all.
I saw the same thing in the fresh out of school new-hires I had the misfortune to supervise. Come in late, take long lunches and breaks, leave early and if you actually ASK them to do the work they were hired to do they go screaming to personnel. Then as supervisor it is your ‘fault’ because you did not instill ‘Team Spirit’
In the USA we have the government job, welfare mother, that pays better than minimum wage. we have complicated tax law, insurance and regulations raising the bar on small entrepreneurs. A small business owner can not even get a home mortgage without someone in the family with a ‘Regular Job’ co-signing the loan. And if you have been a small business person, whatever you do never ever mention it at a job interview!
Sometimes _Jim I wonder if you are typing in Mom’s basement.
Good old American capitalism found and produced all of this natural gas without any help or guidance from the Obama administration, perhaps not having an energy policy for almost a decade is the answer.
When our children’s children look us in the eye – they most likely will say “Grandpa, can I have another cookie.”
@timg56 – only if you are a male. For Gail and Janice, I hope they say “grandma”. 😉
timg56 says:
January 29, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Not if current trends in family disintegration continue. More likely they will say something like “Yo! Momma-Daddy: fork over all those cookies if’n you don’t want that bitch from Child Welfare Services all over you ass again”
It is sad to see the United States being headed by such a complete moron. He seems to be unable to do any critical thinking on important matters.
Anyone, including BHO who uses the term “carbon pollution” immediately removes all doubt that he is a scientific nincompoop. I have a number of benchmarks that I use to decide if a person’s opinion is worth listening to on any subject. One of the most important is that if they still believe in any form of AGW I know for sure that they are too stupid and gullible to have a valid opinion on anything. That includes BHO of course.
So tax breaks for fossil fuel producers is evil. And inequality is evil. But somehow tax breaks for buying $100k Tesla’s and $30-70k solar installations isn’t evil. Riiiiight.
pat says:
January 29, 2014 at 12:25am “WOMADelaide 2014: The Planet Talks”
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Just as bad at the Woodford Folk Festival – biggest folk festival in the Southern Hemisphere, and includes a big speakers program on climate change, environment, politics and such like lefty touchy-feely stuff. I think my views on such things are fairly middle of the road, though leaning somewhat to the conservative side. When I’m at Woodford, I feel like I’m somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan. Good thing I only go for the music.
Ah, Phil Jourdan (at 12:49pm), that was gallant of you to remember that there are a few women in the WUWT “gentlemen” ‘s club. Merci!
btw: While I would LOVE to hear “Grandma!” called out to me by a child (I AM a little young, though, heh, heh — not literally, but, it seems like it to me) someday…. Sigh. It’s not looking too hopeful…. AAAAACK! What — am — I — saying?!! I will choose to live not in foolish, pseudo-wise, despair, but rather, in hope — yes! With God, ALL things are possible. (For both of us, Gail — grandchildren don’t have to be biological, you know!)
@Janice Moore – indeed! I have 4 grands, 2 biological, and 2 by adoption (my wife and I adopted their mother, and then she had children). But they are all my grand kids! (especially spelled GRAND Kids).
Here is my TV interview across Canada today about the stupid mistakes in the SOTU on climate: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/search/Tom%20Harris/climate-change-is-a-fact/3122991494001
One of the more pretentious political self-descriptions is “Libertarian.” People think it puts them above the fray. It sounds fashionable, and to the uninitiated, faintly dangerous. Actually, it’s just one more bullshit political philosophy.
– George Carlin –
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I drove to work without getting flattened by an eighteen wheeler with no brakes thanks to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Nor was I smashed by a driver asleep at the wheel thanks to Dept of Transportation.
Then, after spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, I drive back to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and the fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.
I then log onto the Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on WUWT, Freerepublic and Fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine and environment is just BAD, BAD, BAD because the government just can’t do anything right.
Self pwnage you say
Ed Mertin says:
January 30, 2014 at 8:01 am
Yes, and no. It’s like drinking at a party. A couple of mixers and a light buzz relaxes you and makes you glib and pleasant. Several of them makes you an obnoxious bore.
I.e., more of a good thing is not generally better. We are well past the point of diminishing returns, and the heavy drinkers have become a bunch of insufferable, know-it-all, clueless jerks.
Yes, he says what he says, and you can say that because it was so little, “we are winning.” Then recall that this man doesn’t care what congress says or does because he will do by executive order what he wants until at least the January after the mid term elections since Hary Reid and friends will shield him from impreachment.
Also recall that the Constitution does not allow “executive orders” being law, and only the inactivity of the Congress allows them to have that semblance. Law can only be created by Congress, yet by doing nothing and allowing “EOs” to stand, do they appear to be law. The only way the President can act like a dictator is by first the Supreme court shirking the duties which it was intended – and it has – then Congress becoming the puppets of the puppet masters. Then the President can do what he wants – provided, of course, that is what the puppet masters want.
Janice Moore says: @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 7:35 pm
….Gail — grandchildren don’t have to be biological, you know!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We just had another visit from one of the kids we worked with years ago who moved away (~700 miles). She is now 18 and in college! Boy does time fly.
We do children’s entertainment as a small business and have neighbor kids who come to our farm. We also tutor math and science.
@ur momisugly Phil Jourdan — Oh, that’s simply grand! Happy for you.
Thank you for sharing that. #(:))
@ur momisugly Gail — Yes, I know you enjoy kids a lot (or you wouldn’t do all you do with the horses etc… with them). I’m glad to hear that you get the occasional visit. You have, no doubt, as Phil and his wife have, children and grandchildren of your heart.
Oh, and, Gail, if anyone ever said to me, “You, know, Janice, Gail would have made a great mom.”
I would reply firmly, “Gail is a great mom.”
Janice, I HAVE kids, they go BAAAaaa, This year I have 3 blue eyed silvers and an almost black with blue eyes (Spooky looking little fellow)
Of course children love to see the little guys and my lambs.
Oh, Gail, lol. Neato! We had a tan kid named “Billy.” So, I know exactly what that sounds like. My dad’s sister gave him to us for a pet. She was a neat aunt (her brother wasn’t so pleased…). He was sooo, cute. Then, he grew up. THAT was an adventure. One time, we tethered him in the side yard a leeetle bit too close to the house. I woke up to hear him EATING THE SIDING!! Then, there was the time…. and, oh, yeah, that other time he… and …. — on and on as you very well know!
#(:))