U.S. foresees gas-powered vehicles dominating through 2040

Washington — – The Energy Department is predicting gasoline-powered vehicles will continue to dominate the market through 2040.

The Energy Information Agency said in a report Tuesday that it also predicts a big rise in the fuel economy of the nation’s cars and trucks. It predicts the fuel efficiency of the nation’s cars and trucks will rise from 21.5 mpg in 2012 to 37.2 mpg by 2040. Overall energy consumption by the nation’s transportation sector is expected to fall by about 4 percent.

The agency predicts that in 2040, 78 percent of all cars and trucks will run on gasoline, down from 82 percent last year. It predicts a big upswing in micro-hybrids and other advanced fuel technologies to 42 percent of all vehicles by 2040. EIA predicts full hybrids will account for 5 percent of vehicles in 2040 — up from 3 percent today. Diesel vehicles will double to 4 percent from the current 2 percent.

It predicts just 1 percent of total sales will be plug-in hybrids and 1 percent full electric vehicles in 2040.

READ MORE: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131217/AUTO01/312170108#ixzz2p3tKHsvq

Should Congress Extend Renewable-Energy Tax Credits?

Should policymakers vote to extend tax policies incenting renewable energy, including those for wind energy and biofuels?

This year is shaping up like ones past: Congress faces an eleventh-hour decision about whether to extend a slew of temporary tax provisions that expire at year's end, some of which affect energy industries. This time around, the debate is taking place while leaders on the tax-writing committees—House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.—are working on long-term comprehensive tax reform, which could cloud efforts to pass a last-minute deal to extend temporary tax incentives.

Policies the energy industry is affected by include the production tax credit for wind power and several similar temporary incentives for the biofuels industry. Meanwhile, certain tax provisions the oil and natural-gas industries receive may be eliminated as part of comprehensive tax reform, if Congress really takes up such reform.

Should Congress pass an overarching "tax extenders" package like it does at the end of most years? What factors should Congress consider when making this decision? How does this eleventh-hour debate affect efforts to achieve comprehensive tax reform, and vice versa?

READ MORE:  http://www.nationaljournal.com/policy/insiders/energy/should-congress-extend-renewable-energy-tax-credits-20131216#comment-1167895157

Welcome to the Mexican Oil Rush of 2014

It seems to me that the biggest story that nobody’s really been paying much attention to over the last few days is the Mexican Congress’ vote to amend the constitution to open the country’s energy markets to foreign investment after 75 years of control by state-owned firm Pemex. On top of being a major victory for new President Enrique Peña Nieto, who came to power promising to reverse his country’s slumping economic growth, this is a development with profound implications for politics, business, and the environment.

Mexico could be sitting on the world’s largest unexplored oil reserves outside the Arctic, but the country’s output has been falling over the last decade as Pemex hasn’t had the means to explore it. The country’s exports to the United States dropped below 1 million barrels for the first time in 20 years last year. Mexico may also have the world's sixth-largest recoverable shale gas reserves.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2013/12/16/mexico_opens_oil_industry_to_foreigners_let_the_rush_begin.html?wpisrc=hpsponsoredd2

EIA Forecast: Fossil Fuels Remain Dominant Through 2040

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) just released its Annual Energy Outlook 2014 with projections through 2040. Although there is a major push by the Obama Administration to make renewable energy the fuel of choice, fossil fuels supply 80 percent of the nation’s energy in 2040, slightly less than their 82 percent share in 2012. Renewable energy increases its share from 9.3 percent in 2012 to just 11.8 percent in 2040 despite the subsidies and mandates that they receive.

Oil Production
EIA projects that the production of crude oil and lease condensate will increase from 6.5 million barrels per day in 2012 to 9.6 million barrels per day in 2019, 22 percent higher than in last year’s forecast, as producers locate and target the sweet spots of plays currently under development and find additional tight formations that can be developed with the latest technologies. After 2019, domestic crude oil production declines, but remains at or above 7.5 million barrels per day through 2040. Tight oil production increases from 2.3 million barrels per day in 2012 (35 percent of total crude oil production) to 4.8 million barrels per day in 2021 (51 percent of the total). Tight oil production declines after 2021, as more development moves into less-productive areas. Offshore crude oil ranges between 1.6 and 2.0 million barrels per day from 2015 through 2040, as the pace of development activity quickens and new, large development projects, predominantly in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater portions of the Gulf of Mexico, are brought into production.

READ MORE:  http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/12/17/eia-forecast-fossil-fuels-remain-dominant-through-2040/

North America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly

The flood of North American crude oil is set to become a deluge as Mexico dismantles a 75-year-old barrier to foreign investment in its oil fields.

Plagued by almost a decade of slumping output that has degraded Mexico’s take from a $100-a-barrel oil market, President Enrique Pena Nieto is seeking an end to the state monopoly over one of the biggest crude resources in the Western Hemisphere. The doubling in Mexican oil output that Citigroup Inc. said may result from inviting international explorers to drill would be equivalent to adding another Nigeria to world supply, or about 2.5 million barrels a day.

READ MORE:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-16/north-america-to-drown-in-oil-as-mexico-ends-monopoly.html

Study: Earth was warmer in Roman, Medieval times

If you think the Earth is hot now, try wearing plate armor in the Middle Ages.
A Swedish study found that the planet was warmer in ancient Roman times and the Middle Ages than today, challenging the mainstream idea that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the main drivers of global warming.

The study, by scientist Leif Kullman, analyzed 455 “radiocarbon-dated mega-fossils” in the Scandes mountains and found that tree lines for different species of trees were higher during the Roman and Medieval times than they are today. Not only that, but the temperatures were higher as well.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/13/study-earth-was-warmer-in-roman-medieval-times/#ixzz2nk6IMQL2

Mark Landsbaum: Climate alarmists' search for proof going cold

Even China’s coal-burning is offered to explain lack of global warming.

Recall global warming hysteria’s halcyon days? Just 13 years ago, Dr. David Viner, senior scientist at Britain’s University of East Anglia’s climatic research unit, confidently predicted that, within a few years, winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event.”

“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
Of course, that doesn’t mesh with what happened. This past October, the UK Express headlined, “Worst winter for decades: Record-breaking snow predicted for November.”
By the end of November, Brits were shivering, “as Britain faces snow, ice and plummeting temperatures,” reported the Mirror newspaper. “Most of Scotland has been issued severe weather warnings for ice, and temperatures are expected to remain low, causing problems with snow and ice across the country.” Winter yet lay ahead.

READ MORE:  http://www.ocregister.com/articles/warming-593355-global-temperature.html

Sierra Club celebrates the 'war on coal'

Sierra Club officials praised the planned closures of one-third of America's coal plants over the next decade, further promoting the “war on coal.”

Rather than promote other forms of energy in an effort to compete coal out of the market, the Sierra Club seems to be more interested in crushing the coal industry to force Americans to purchase more expensive, less efficient forms of energy like wind and solar.

The Sierra Club called the coal plant closures a “significant milestone” in its effort to remove coal from the market by 2030.

READ MORE:http://washingtonexaminer.com/sierra-club-celebrates-the-war-on-coal/article/2540567

Cold dis-comfort: Antarctica set record of -135.8

WASHINGTON (AP) — Feeling chilly? Here's cold comfort: You could be in East Antarctica which new data says set a record for "soul-crushing" cold.

Try 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero; that's 93.2 degrees below zero Celsius, which sounds only slightly toastier. Better yet, don't try it. That's so cold scientists say it hurts to breathe.

A new look at NASA satellite data revealed that Earth set a new record for coldest temperature recorded. It happened in August 2010 when it hit -135.8 degrees. Then on July 31 of this year, it came close again: -135.3 degrees.

The old record had been -128.6 degrees, which is -89.2 degrees Celsius.

READ MORE:  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cold-dis-comfort-antarctica-set-record-1358

EPA says taking over private property will benefit the economy

Can the EPA run your property better than you? The Environmental Protection Agency says that its proposal to extend its regulatory powers over wetlands and waterways would produce economic benefits.
Republican lawmakers warn that the agency is trying to extend its power to regulate private property.

The EPA’s rule would redefine the term “waters of the United States” to include all “tributaries, regardless of size and flow, and all lakes, ponds and wetlands within a floodplain” reports E&E News. Other bodies of water, “such as geographically isolated wetlands, would have to be shown on a case-by-case basis to have a significant chemical, physical or biological effect on larger waterways downstream — a major point of concern for environmental groups” E&E added.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/09/epa-says-taking-over-private-property-will-benefit-the-economy/#ixzz2nBryyJaM

NY farmers reject anti-hydrofracking position at Farm Bureau meeting

LIVERPOOL, N.Y. - Farmers today shot down a proposal to oppose hydrofracking, the deeply divisive natural gas drilling process that has split New Yorkers from tables to farms.

The decision from delegates of the New York Farm Bureau was no surprise. The 25,000-member group has a strong voice in Albany and has long-supported hydrofracking as a way to improve economies for individual farmers and the state's rural counties.

Some farmers who live near the Pennsylvania border, where fracking is allowed, say they see jobs and money overflowing from the wells. Many are frustrated that Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn't made a decision on whether to allow fracking just a few miles north.

"With us and our farm, that's our livelihood," said Judi Whittaker, a delegate and dairy farmer from Broome County whose milk ends up in Chobani yogurt. "With no decision, we're stuck."

READ MORE:  http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/12/ny_farmers_reject_anti-hydrofracking_position_at_farm_bureau_meeting.html

An incredible story of how the American energy revolution could have been stopped in its tracks, but was accidentally saved.

SPECIAL REPORT: Special Report: How 'Halliburton Loophole' Spawned the Shale Boom 

 http://www.energyintel.com/Pages/Eig_Article.aspx?DocId=827579

Although technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are largely credited with clearing the path for the US unconventional gas revolution, the origins of the "shale boom" can also be traced to language buried within a 551-page energy bill enacted in 2005.

Known as the "Halliburton Loophole," Section 102 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 banned the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating hydraulic fracturing under its underground injection control program.

This spared oil and gas firms from red tape and litigation that would have been possible under regulation by the EPA -- which can exert control even on private land, where shale gas has blossomed in recent years. 

Explainer: Putting Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act in Perspective

This article references New Jersey, but will apply equally to Delaware

Law to increase insurance rates could spell trouble for residents of the Jersey Shore

What it is

The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 makes a number of changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP),including increasing flood insurance premiums so the rates people pay will more accurately reflect their risks. Many discounts and subsidies policyholders received in the past -- including those for second homes -- are being eliminated or will be phased out over the next several years. The act also calls on FEMA to incorporate sea-level rise into its future flood maps.

There’s a common misperception that all these new rules are going into effect as a result of Sandy, but that’s not the case. Biggert-Waters was passed months before the storm, and these changes were already due to take place. It's just a coincidence that Sandy happened around the same time.

READ MORE:  http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/13/11/11/explainer-putting-biggert-waters-flood-insurance-reform-act-in-perspective/

 

 

Behind the windfarm scenes

Readers may remember Gordon Hughes' report about the lifetimes of real-world industrial wind turbines and the finding that this is much shorter than assumed in government cost projections. The reasons for the short lifetimes centre on wear and tear on the turbine blades and on the gearboxes.

In that vein, you may be interested in this recording from a forum for windfarm operators in which some of these problems are discussed in fairly plain terms. Having listened, you realise that the factors affecting performance are legion, including not only wear and tear, but dirt build-up on the blades, icing. These factors can severely impact upon performance, and because they tend to unbalance the blades they then increase wear and tear on the mechanical parts of the turbine. But icing is even more serious, as the last speaker on the recording notes:

The icing issue in Northern Europe is huge...there was a [wind] park in Northern Sweden...and it iced up for 21 days....you are talking about a complete shutdown...do the maths...everything else becomes insignificant...there will be huge PR problems...you are looking at if we will invest in wind farms or wind energy ever again.

READ MORE:  http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/11/26/behind-the-windfarm-scenes.html

Moniz taps Union of Concerned Scientists’ leader for chief of staff

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has recruited the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists to be his chief of staff.

Kevin Knobloch has headed UCS for a decade, and in a statement today, he said it was a post he would leave only “for a call to public service of this order.”

“The priorities of Secretary Moniz and the DOE, including reducing carbon emissions, expanding clean renewable energy, and reducing the threat of nuclear weapons and fissile material, have been passions throughout my career,” Knobloch said. “This is a strong opportunity to improve the health and safety of all Americans.”

Knobloch became president of UCS in 2003, after serving as executive director for four years and, years earlier, as the group’s legislative director for arms control and national security. His environmental credentials are extensive, including a stint as the chairman of the Green Group, a coalition of the CEOs of national environmental organizations. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

In an email to staff this afternoon, Moniz announced that Knobloch would begin at DOE on Monday.

READ MORE:  http://www.governorswindenergycoalition.org/?p=5943

Sierra Snub: ‘Climate Champion’ John Kerry Touts Natural Gas

Just when it appeared that the Sierra Club couldn’t be any further marginalized, it happened: Secretary of State John Kerry – who, throughout his career, has made climate change one of his top issue priorities – officially disagrees with the Sierra Club’s position on natural gas.
Here’s what Secretary Kerry said earlier this week:

“If we harness the power of the wind in Mexico and the biomass in Brazil, the sunshine in Chile and Peru, the natural gas in the United States and Argentina, then the enormous benefits for local economies, public health, and of course climate change mitigation could reach every corner of the Americas and beyond.”

Let’s take a moment to recognize why this is so important. The Sierra Club has lauded Secretary Kerry as “one of the strongest champions for climate action,” while the Natural Resources Defense Council said he is a “champion for action against climate change.” Both of these groups are critical of future natural gas production, claiming it is inconsistent with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Most scientists and energy experts disagree with that position, but Secretary Kerry’s rebuke still holds enormous significance.

READ MORE:  http://energyindepth.org/national/sierra-snub-climate-champion-john-kerry-touts-natural-gas/

Wind and Natural Gas: Best Friends, Worst Enemies

DENVER—Managing wind power makes flying a kite look easy.

Wind usually blows the most between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. when people need electricity the least. But every now and then, the weather gets surprisingly windy at other times. That's when a handful of people on the 10th floor of a downtown Denver office building suddenly get very busy.

"They're really scrambling during that time frame," said Mike Boughner, Xcel Energy's manager of generation control and dispatch, while giving a recent tour of the company's "trading floor," where traders buy and sell electricity and other employees manage the power of the company's entire electric-grid operations throughout the Western and Central U.S., 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "They're calling all the plants, both natural gas and coal, and telling them to back down as fast as they can."

This happened one recent Tuesday—which just happened to be Election Day—because it got much windier during the daytime than both the pair of meteorologists and advanced forecasting systems employed by Xcel Energy had predicted.

READ MORE:  http://www.nationaljournal.com/new-energy-paradigm/wind-and-natural-gas-best-friends-worst-enemies-20131124

NOAA: Slow Atlantic hurricane season coming to a close

No major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic basin - first time since 1994

 

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends on Saturday, Nov. 30, had the fewest number of hurricanes since 1982, thanks in large part to persistent, unfavorable atmospheric conditions over the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and tropical Atlantic Ocean. This year is expected to rank as the sixth-least-active Atlantic hurricane season since 1950, in terms of the collective strength and duration of named storms and hurricanes.

“A combination of conditions acted to offset several climate patterns that historically have produced active hurricane seasons,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. “As a result, we did not see the large numbers of hurricanes that typically accompany these climate patterns.”

Thirteen named storms formed in the Atlantic basin this year. Two, Ingrid and Humberto, became hurricanes, but neither became major hurricanes. Although the number of named storms was above the average of 12, the numbers of hurricanes and major hurricanes were well below their averages of six and three, respectively. Major hurricanes are categories 3 and above.

READ MORE:  http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20131125_endofhurricaneseason.html

California Cannot Meet Its 2050 Carbon Dioxide Emissions Goals

For years, politicians in California have prided themselves as being on the forefront of regulation of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. In 2006, California passed the immodestly titled “Global Warming Solutions Act” to reduce California’s carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2020.[i] California has implemented a state-wide cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide, they pressed the federal government to dramatically increase fuel economy standards for cars, they are trying to implement a “low carbon fuel standard” for gasoline and diesel, they subsidize renewable generation, and they have increased their renewable electricity mandate to 33 percent by 2020.

To evaluate their progress reducing greenhouse gases, California asked the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to assess whether its existing policies and technologies would enable it to meet its greenhouse gas emissions goal of an 80 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050. The answer was: Not even close! Even under the most ambitious policies, which would be highly unrealistic, the state would still fall far short of its greenhouse gas emissions goal in 2050, although it does meet its 2020 goal.

The Lab report found that if all of California’s policies were implemented such as cap-and-trade, low carbon fuel and renewable electricity standards, zero-emissions-vehicle mandate, the state’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 would be virtually unchanged from today.[ii] And if more aggressive measures were adopted, greenhouse gas emissions would still exceed the state’s target by a huge amount, which indicates that the many billions that California spends annually on electric car and rooftop solar subsidies, energy efficiency upgrades and alternative fuel development is all for naught.

READ MORE:  http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/11/19/california-cannot-meet-its-2050-carbon-dioxide-emissions-goals/

Why Do We Have Excess Regulation, and Can We Get Rid of It?

As a general rule, the main incentive faced by regulatory agencies is to produce more and more regulations. They have no incentives to even make sure that these regulations are needed, appropriately addressing a problem, or not causing more harm than good. The result is more and more regulations. How much more? Over at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s blog, Ryan Young gives a list of 66 new regulations produced in a week:

It was a short work week because of the Veterans Day holiday, but agencies still added nearly 1,700 pages to the 2013 Federal Register, which is on track to be the fifth-largest ever despite a two-week shutdown.

On to the data:

• Last week, 66 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 78 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 33 minutes.
• All in all, 3,186 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.

READ MORE:  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/364215/why-do-we-have-excess-regulation-and-can-we-get-rid-it-veronique-de-rugy

Aussies buck environmentalists, fight to repeal global warming taxes

 Australia’s new conservative government introduced legislation that would eliminate the carbon tax and cut funding to green energy in a series of aggressive moves to scale back the country’s environmental laws.

“We have said what we mean, and will do what we say. The carbon tax goes,” Prime Minister Abbott told Australian lawmakers. “Repealing the carbon tax should be the first economic reform of this parliament.”

The Liberal-National Party swept seats in September’s election in large part due to their opposition to the left-wing Labor Party’s imposition of a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. The unpopular tax was blamed for rising power bills and hurting economic growth. Abbott has touted his party’s bill to repeal the carbon tax as “our bill to reduce your bills.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/14/aussies-buck-environmentalists-fight-to-repeal-global-warming-taxes/#ixzz2lIMsLMk2

Japan's new CO2 goal dismays U.N. climate conference

TOKYO/WARSAW (Reuters) - China, the EU and environmentalists criticized Japan at U.N. climate talks on Friday for slashing its greenhouse gas emissions target after its nuclear power industry was shuttered by the Fukushima disaster.

The Japanese government on Friday decided to target a 3.8 percent emissions cut by 2020 versus 2005 levels. That amounts to a 3 percent rise from a U.N. benchmark year of 1990 and the reversal of the previous target of a 25 percent reduction.

"Given that none of the nuclear reactors is operating, this was unavoidable," Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara said.

Japan's 50 nuclear plants were closed on safety concerns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima reactors northeast of Tokyo. Nuclear accounted for 26 percent of Japan's electricity generation and its loss has forced the country to import natural gas and coal, causing its greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket. 

READ MORE:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/japan-drastically-scales-back-co2-emissions-cut-target-002021962--business.html

Prairies vanish in the US push for green energy

ROSCOE, S.D. (AP) — Robert Malsam nearly went broke in the 1980s when corn was cheap. So now that prices are high and he can finally make a profit, he's not about to apologize for ripping up prairieland to plant corn.

Across the Dakotas and Nebraska, more than 1 million acres of the Great Plains are giving way to corn fields as farmers transform the wild expanse that once served as the backdrop for American pioneers.

This expansion of the Corn Belt is fueled in part by America's green energy policy, which requires oil companies to blend billions of gallons of corn ethanol into their gasoline. In 2010, fuel became the No. 1 use for corn in America, a title it held in 2011 and 2012 and narrowly lost this year. That helps keep prices high.

READ MORE:  http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Prairies-vanish-in-the-US-push-for-green-energy-4977288.php

The Renewable Fuel Standard Is the Problem, Not the Solution

Some time ago, the politicians in Washington decided that mandating the use of so-called renewable fuels in the nation's energy portfolio would accelerate their development and production on a commercial scale.

It was a large scale test that has failed, for the most part. The Renewable Fuels Standard is based on the assumption that forcing energy producers to utilize corn-based ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, wind power, solar technology and other so-called alternative energy sources would create a market for them. As a result they would be more plentiful and, therefore, cheaper.

It hasn't worked out that way. The RFS has resulted in increased costs all across the energy sector. Now, with that same sector focused on what the United States Environmental Protection Agency will announce is its proposed RFS for 2014, it's time for Congress to consider getting rid of it altogether.

[See a collection of political cartoons on energy policy.]

Most predictions are that the 2014 RFS will actually lessen the volume of corn-based ethanol required in the U.S. energy portfolio. Capital Alpha Partners, a Washington-based economic intelligence firm, said Tuesday it expected the EPA would reduce the mandate "to 13 billion gallons for 2014, as indicated in the draft numbers leaked last month" and effectively freeze it at that level for the next several years.

READ MORE:  http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2013/11/12/its-time-for-congress-to-scrap-the-renewable-fuel-standard

The secret, dirty cost of Obama's green power push

CORYDON, Iowa (AP) - The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply.

Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.

With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country "stronger, cleaner and more secure."

READ MORE:  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131112/DAA11OTG2.html

Strange Doings on the Sun

Sunspots, Which Can Harm Electronics on Earth, Are Half the Number Expected

 

Something is up with the sun.

Scientists say that solar activity is stranger than in a century or more, with the sun producing barely half the number of sunspots as expected and its magnetic poles oddly out of sync.

The sun generates immense magnetic fields as it spins. Sunspots—often broader in diameter than Earth—mark areas of intense magnetic force that brew disruptive solar storms. These storms may abruptly lash their charged particles across millions of miles of space toward Earth, where they can short-circuit satellites, smother cellular signals or damage electrical systems.

Based on historical records, astronomers say the sun this fall ought to be nearing the explosive climax of its approximate 11-year cycle of activity—the so-called solar maximum. But this peak is "a total punk," said Jonathan Cirtain, who works at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as project scientist for the Japanese satellite Hinode, which maps solar magnetic fields.

READ MORE:  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8193037623324968177#editor/target=post;postID=4428285337429732333

Proposed giant EPA land-grab is rigged, conflicted and corrupted

We still have to live with at least 3 more years of this!

What happens when Washington’s top environmental policymaker packs a government advisory board with federal grant recipients so she can regulate virtually every acre in the United States of America?

For one thing, two powerful members of Congress angrily take notice and demand in a news release to know why “EPA Skirts the Law to Expand Regulatory Authority.”

That’s also the point of a letter sent Friday by House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith of Texas and Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, chairman of its environment subcommittee, to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy.

Smith and Stewart are outraged by a proposed EPA rule – the “Water Body Connectivity Report” – that would remove the limiting word “navigable” from “navigable waters of the United States” and replace it with “connectivity of streams and wetlands to downstream waters” as the test for Clean Water Act regulatory authority.

READ MORE:  http://www.conservativeactionalerts.com/2013/10/proposed-giant-epa-land-grab-is-rigged-conflicted-and-corrupted/

Atlantic hurricane season quietest in 45 years, experts say

MIAMI (Reuters) - The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season looks set to go down as a big washout, marking the first time in 45 years that the strongest storm to form was just a minor Category 1 hurricane.

There could still be a late surprise in the June 1-November 30 season, since the cyclone that mushroomed into Superstorm Sandy was just revving up at this time last year.

But so far, at least, it has been one of the weakest seasons since modern record-keeping began about half a century ago, U.S. weather experts say. Apart from Tropical Storm Andrea, which soaked Florida after moving ashore in the Panhandle in June, none of this year's cyclones has made a U.S. landfall.

READ MORE:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/atlantic-hurricane-season-quietest-45-years-experts-170425159.html

RFS ‘A Christmas Story’ for Big Ethanol

In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Ron Lamberty of the American Coalition for Ethanol likens the federal ethanol mandate to “A Christmas Story,” a classic American film about a boy who wants Santa to give him a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

The analogy isn’t far from the truth. In 2005, Congress gifted Big Ethanol its version of Ralphie’s Red Ryder BB gun—a federal mandate that requires Americans to purchase their products.

Indeed, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has been a gift that keeps on giving for ethanol producers. The RFS requires oil refiners to blend increasing volumes of ethanol into gasoline, with the goal of blending 36 billion gallons by 2020. The mandate gives ethanol producers guaranteed, rising market share through repeat customers. Moreover, the RFS forces refiners to sell the ethanol industry’s products.

READ MORE:  http://www.productsandpower.org/2013/10/21/rfs-a-christmas-story-for-big-ethanol/

Study: Global warming could yield $11.6 trillion in increased crop production

Could global warming be a boon to farmers? A recent study found that rising carbon dioxide concentrations bestow an additional $11.6 trillion in benefits from crop production between now and 2050.

The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change found that while many studies focus on the costs of rising carbon emissions, few studies focused on whether or not more carbon in the atmosphere could be beneficial to society.

In fact, the Obama administration recently raised its social-cost-of-carbon estimate from $21 per metric ton to $35 per metric ton to the ire of global warming skeptics and Republicans. The estimate reflects how much each ton of carbon emitted costs the U.S. economy.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/19/study-global-warming-could-yield-11-6-trillion-in-increased-crop-production/#ixzz2jJEwUsg4

WATCH LIVE Secretary Sebelius Testifies on Obamacare Launch Car Charging Gets $230 Million EV System From Bankrupt Ecotality

Taxpayers paid for this.  Doesn't that make you feel good?!


Car Charging Group Inc. (CCGI), the Miami Beach-based operator of electric-vehicle charging stations, acquired the assets of bankrupt competitor Ecotality Inc. (ECTYQ) for $3.34 million, gaining a $230 million network partially funded by the U.S. Energy Department.

Car Charging paid cash for Ecotality’s Blink Network and related assets, including more than 12,500 charging stations, according to a statement today.

Car Charging also assumed the assets of The EV Project, an initiative that received a $114.8 million Energy Department grant and was managed by Ecotality. Outside investors matched the grant, according to the statement.

The acquisition is Car Charging’s fourth this year as it expands its network. The company now owns and operates more than 13,400 charging stations in 35 states and three countries, according to the statement.

READ MORE:   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-17/car-charging-gets-230-million-ev-system-from-bankrupt-ecotality.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8393

Obama’s global-warming folly

By Charles Krauthammer,July 04, 2013

 

The economy stagnates. Syria burns. Scandals lap at his feet. China and Russia mock him, even as a “29-year-old hacker” revealed his nation’s spy secrets to the world. How does President Obama respond? With a grandiloquent speech on climate change.

Climate change? It lies at the very bottom of a list of Americans’ concerns (last of 21 — Pew poll). Which means that Obama’s declaration of unilateral American war on global warming, whatever the cost — and it will be heavy — is either highly visionary or hopelessly solipsistic. You decide:

Global temperatures have been flat for 16 years — a curious time to unveil a grand, hugely costly, socially disruptive anti-warming program.

READ MORE:  http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-07-04/opinions/40369711_1_warming-climate-change-global-temperatures

Environmentalists, workers seek common ground

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The nation's largest labor unions are ready and willing to help fight global warming, but are cautioning environmentalists that workers need new clean-energy jobs before existing industries are shut down.

The four-day Power Shift conference in Pittsburgh is training young people to stop coal mining, fracking for oil and gas, and nuclear power, but organizers also want workers to join the battle against climate change.

Union leaders say their workers want to help build a new, green economy.

"Global warming is here, and we can work and get it fixed together," United Steel Workers president Leo Gerard said in a Friday night address at Power Shift.

READ MORE:  http://news.yahoo.com/environmentalists-workers-seek-common-ground-183058884.html

Last Gasp for the Atlantic Hurricane Season

This quote from the article says that scientists know "little about" important aspects of hurricane formation this year, but some of the same people believe they know what the climate will do in 100 years.  Does that seem odd to you?

 

"There is something else in addition to dry air, wind shear and tropical water temperatures, playing a role during the low hurricane seasons that we know little about and meteorologists have to study more," Kottlowski stated.

Tropical Storm Lorenzo has formed in the central Atlantic. It is not expected to impact any land in the coming days.

---

The area that has bred the majority of tropical storms during the 2013 Atlantic season may have a couple more tricks up its sleeve before the season comes to a close.

The western Caribbean and southwestern Gulf of Mexico are likely candidates for near-continent tropical storm formation in the coming weeks.

As large high pressure areas begin to build southeastward from Canada and across the eastern United States, the flow of air around these fair weather systems may help to spin up tropical systems farther south.

READ MORE:  http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/last-gasp-for-the-atlantic-hur/18980610

Seven States Just Sued The EPA For Failing To Update Standards For Wood-Burning Furnaces

Seven states and the group Earthjustice have filed two related lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to update emissions standards for wood-burning boilers.

It’s an often overlooked environmental concern. The boilers resemble outhouses with chimneys, and are used to heat water that’s piped into a home’s radiator system. Along with furnaces and other wood-burning sources, they emit soot — a potentially dangerous pollutant that falls under the under the regulatory authority of the Clean Air Act’s New Source Performance Standards.

The seven states are New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont, and Earthjustice’s lawsuit is on behalf of the American Lung Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Clean Air Council, and Environment and Human Health, Inc. According to the complaint, which was filed Wednesday, the EPA is required by the Clean Air Act to review standards for air pollution that can endanger health every eight years.

READ MORE:  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/11/2768501/wood-boiler-lawsuit-epa/

Let's play God: The scientific experiments that might save the world (or destroy it...)

Fake volcanoes, giant space mirrors, oceans of iron filings… One of these ideas might save our planet from the worst effects of global warming – or destroy it. Memphis Barker reports on the rise of geoengineering – and the rift it has opened in the scientific community

 

Two years ago this month, in a disused Norfolk airfield, a small group of scientists were preparing to undertake one of the more controversial experiments in British scientific history. What little equipment it needed – a B&Q pressure washer, 1km of hydraulic hose and an 8m air balloon – had been bought or loaned. A truck was ready. Once in the air, the dirigible balloon would spray 120 litres of fine water droplets into the East Anglia sky, a miniaturised test for a much larger system that would eventually pump out chemical particles to reflect sunlight and, so the scientists calculated, cool the planet. It was to be a momentous day.

Geoengineering – as defined by the Royal Society in 2009 – is the large-scale, technological manipulation of the climate (some call it "planet hacking"). After decades of theorising, the Cambridge group was going to be the first in the West to take research out of doors. But shortly before lift-off, they aborted. There was, they feared, no way of knowing who could use their research, or in what way, and the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (Spice) team did not want to open a door that might be impossible to close.

READ MORE:  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/lets-play-god-the-scientific-experiments-that-might-save-the-world-or-destroy-it-8884386.html

 

3 Coyotes Attack Man During Walk To Work

NIWOT, Colo. (CBS4) – A man is recovering after being attacked by three coyotes in Boulder County on Monday morning.

The man was walking to work in the Niwot area northeast of Boulder at 5 a.m. when he heard the animals coming up behind him. One of the coyotes was large and the other two were smaller.

“They lunged at him and were scratching and biting,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said.

The man told officials the attack took place over about a 70 yard stretch of road before he could finally get away from them.

READ MORE:  http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/10/16/3-coyotes-attack-man-during-walk-to-work/

GOP accuses EPA of 'unprecedented' power grab with proposed water rule

Two Republican lawmakers on the House Science Committee are accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of pushing through a rule that could potentially expand the agency’s regulatory authority over streams, wetlands and other bodies under the Clean Water Act.

Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Chris Stewart, R-Utah, on Friday sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy expressing concern over the proposed draft rule, which they say would give the agency “unprecedented control over private property across the nation.”

The rule, which aims to clarify the agency's regulatory jurisdiction over different types of water bodies, was sent to the Office of Management and Budget in September for review. The agency has said the scope of the proposal is limited to clearing up confusion caused by Supreme Court decisions involving the Clean Water Act.

The lawmakers claimed the agency is engaging in a "rushed, politicized regulatory process" and called for the EPA's independent science advisory board to review the science underlying the proposal.

READ MORE:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/19/gop-accuses-epa-unprecedented-power-grab-with-proposed-water-rule/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29

013 Hurricane Season Ranks as One of the Least Intense

Wasn't global warming or climate change supposed to bring us more severe storms?  What happened?  Is it possible the scientists who believe so strongly in climate change might not know as much as they thought they did?

With only two hurricanes so far, the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is well behind the curve to reach the average number of hurricanes and is one of the least intense since 1950.

While the season does not end until late November, time is running out for the season, much to the relief of those living in coastal areas.

By the end of November, on average there are about 12 tropical storms and six hurricanes per season. With approximately two months to go, the season will likely finish with an above-average number of tropical storms. There have already been 11 tropical storms as of Thursday morning, Oct. 3, 2013.

READ MORE:  http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/2013-hurricane-season-ranks-nearly-least-intense/18392996

Activists urge papers to follow LA Times on climate letters

And you thought you had freedom of speech?

An environmental group is pressing four large newspapers to follow The Los Angeles Times by refusing to print letters denying that humans are causing climate change.

The Times revealed its policy in a recent editor’s note that declares: “Letters that have an untrue basis (for example, ones that say there's no sign humans have caused climate change) do not get printed.”
Now the group Forecast the Facts has launched an online petition urging The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today to follow suit. The group said Monday it has gathered 22,000 signatures in less than a day thus far.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/328351-activists-urge-papers-to-follow-la-times-on-climate-letters#ixzz2hzDgtOnc

Assessing Wind Power Cost Estimates

Here's a study that shows wind power to be far more expensive than its proponents claim. 

-Rich Collins

The Institute for Energy Research released a study titled Assessing Wind Power Cost Estimates. The study, written by Dr. Michael Giberson, an economics professor at Texas Tech University, details the costs of wind power that commonly go unreported in studies performed by government-funded groups such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The study is published as the federal wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), a massive subsidy to the wind power industry, is set to expire at the end of the year. Last year, the PTC received another one-year extension that government analysts project will cost taxpayers $12 billion.

“As Big Wind’s lobbyists fight tooth and nail to extend the wind Production Tax Credit, it is important that we look at the true costs of wind power to taxpayers and ratepayers,” IER President Thomas Pyle said upon release of the study.

“Despite being propped up by government mandates and billion dollar subsidies for decades, wind power continues to be an expensive and boutique energy source that the American people cannot rely on for power when they need it. Although lobbyists for the wind industry prefer to downplay the real costs of wind power, Dr. Giberson has produced a fact-based study that demonstrates just how expensive it really is.”

READ MORE:  http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/ptccost/

Analysis: Lawsuits likely as EPA declares US ethanol blend wall a 'reali

(Reuters) - With two words, the U.S. environment regulator may be handing oil refiners the biggest win of a long battle to beat back the seemingly inexorable rise of ethanol fuel.

In a leaked proposal that would significantly scale back biofuel blending requirements next year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the blend wall - the 10 percent threshold of ethanol-mixed gasoline that is at the crux of the lobbying war - is an "important reality".

The agency's rationale for a cut in the volume of ethanol that must be blended echoes an argument the oil industry has been making for months: the U.S. fuel chain cannot absorb more ethanol.

Few retailers are able to sell ethanol blends beyond the 10 percent maximum, or willing to take the legal risk that comes with it, they argue.

READ MORE:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/11/us-ethanol-blendwall-analysis-idUSBRE99A09420131011

Updating the Cost of Delaware's "Green" Energy Program

                A key CRI goal is to lower electricity bills in the state to make our economy more competitive to encourage job growth. Working against that goal has been an increasing cost for green energy programs.    State policy requires an increasing percentage of our power come from wind mills and solar cells. Electric generators must also buy permits at auction to emit carbon dioxide with the number of permits gradually decreasing over time forcing permit prices higher. This year these requirements will add a $90 million premium to electric bills in the state. The premium will grow to a job killing $275 million by 2022 and add almost $300 a year (12.5%) for an average residential customer.

 

            Adding electric generation will be critical to maintaining reliable service as coal plants shut down in response to federal policy. Wind farms produce electricity at roughly a 50% higher cost than conventional natural gas facilities (according to the US Energy Information Agency) with about the same impact on the environment. Several natural gas generators are scheduled for construction in the state and will add both construction and permanent jobs while lowering electric rates by as much as $240 a year for a typical residential customer. Meanwhile, we will be obtaining almost 20% of our power from out-of-state wind farms by 2025 with no construction or permanent jobs created. In fact, jobs will be lost because of the higher cost of electricity diverting money from discretionary income.    

 

            By 2025 about 2.5% of our power will come from solar electric systems and the power will cost two and half times the cost of conventional power. However, about 500 Delaware jobs are created at a solar manufacturing plant in Newark and by solar system installers around the state. At the current cost we project two jobs will be lost because of higher electricity costs for every job created. There is some indication installed cost for solar will continue to decline.

 

            Meanwhile, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) is accelerating the cost of the carbon auction program. DNREC is using a regulatory change to extend the carbon reduction goal from 10% to 53% while raising the maximum allowable cost of the permits. The program was costing about $5 million a year in 2011 and 2012 but will cost over $16 million in 2013 rising to as much as $38 million by 2017. The Delaware Constitution requires any fee increase be approved by the legislature with a 3/5 majority but DNREC is ignoring the Constitution.

 

            Germany, with 40% of the world’s installed solar energy capacity, started down this same path a decade before Delaware. The green premium to electricity rates has reached 20% of the bill. The cost continues to grow despite a dozen reductions in subsidy rates over the last few years. Falling subsidies have led to lower wind and solar project costs as renewable energy suppliers try to remain competitive. New subsidized projects continue to be built although at a lower premium power cost rate. The German electorate is rebelling at the cost so more subsidy cuts are planned.

 

          It is not too late for corrective action by our state government. To reducing energy cost for the First State Delaware should:

 

·                     - Continue to encourage construction of natural gas pipelines and power plants to reduce net greenhouse gas emission while lowering power cost.

 

·       

                      - Require 3/5 legislative approval of changes to the carbon dioxide permitting program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and remove the higher emission targets (Delaware has already lowered GHG by 45% compared to only 9% for the entire country).

 

·       

                    -Delay implementation of the increasing requirements of the Renewable Portfolio Standard particularly as it drives added use of out-of state wind farms. Gradually eliminate state subsidies for wind and solar projects to encourage lower installed prices.

 

·        

            -Cap the fuel cell project with Delmarva Power at 30 megawatts as power cost for fuel cells is the most expensive in Delaware at almost four times the cost of conventional natural gas generation and 60% higher than solar.

 

David T. Stevenson

Director, Center for Energy Competitiveness

Caesar Rodney Institute

http://caesarrodney.org/index.cfm?ref=30200&ref2=413

World hydrocarbon supply 'relatively boundless,' SEG told

Geophysical advances have contributed to the identification of a "relatively boundless supply" of oil and gas worldwide, Barry Smitherman, chairman, Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), told the Society of Exploration Geophysicists annual meeting Sept. 23. Texas oil production alone, 1.76 million b/d in the first 6 months of 2013, would rank third behind 2.9 million b/d of imports to the US from Canada and 2.2 million b/d of imports from the Persian Gulf, Smitherman said. Imports from Saudi Arabia would rank fourth. Including natural gas liquids, Texas is producing well above 2 million b/d of petroleum liquids and could double the figure by 2020 and triple it by 2025...

READ MORE:  http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-111/issue-9d/general-interest/world-hydrocarbon-supply-relatively-boundless.html

AP IMPACT: Families hoard cash 5 yrs after crisis

NEW YORK (AP) — Five years after U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering a global financial crisis and shattering confidence worldwide, families in major countries around the world are still hunkered down, too spooked and distrustful to take chances with their money.

An Associated Press analysis of households in the 10 biggest economies shows that families continue to spend cautiously and have pulled hundreds of billions of dollars out of stocks, cut borrowing for the first time in decades and poured money into savings and bonds that offer puny interest payments, often too low to keep up with inflation.

"It doesn't take very much to destroy confidence, but it takes an awful lot to build it back," says Ian Bright, senior economist at ING, a global bank based in Amsterdam. "The attitude toward risk is permanently reset."

READ MORE:  http://news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-families-hoard-cash-5-yrs-crisis-042042926.html

What happened to hurricane season? And why we should keep forecasting it…

As we wrap up September, there have been just two short-lived Category 1 hurricanes in the Atlantic. Yet seasonal forecasts predicted an extremely active season. What’s going on?

Before diving into the seasonal forecasts, let’s take inventory on where the season stands.

In an average season,  8 tropical storms, 4 hurricanes, and 1 major (category 3 or higher) hurricane form by this date. This year, we’ve experienced 10 tropical storms, 2 hurricanes, and no major hurricanes.

Though we’ve had close to the average number of total storms, most have been short-lived and/or weak. If you went out for a cup of coffee at any time this hurricane season, you would’ve missed many of them.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/09/30/what-happened-to-hurricane-season-and-why-we-should-keep-forecasting-it/

Federal shutdown weakens weather and climate enterprise

Much of the National Weather Service is still functioning, but that does not mean all is well in the world of weather and climate with much of the Federal government closed for business.

Most weather and climate-related activities not directly tied to the protection of life and property are on hold.
This means atmospheric research conducted not just at NOAA, but also at NASA, EPA, and the Department of Interior among others has stopped.

“A staggering 97 percent of NASA employees have been furloughed“, writes Phil Plait at the Bad Astronomy blog.

“The EPA is taking one of the biggest hits of any federal agency — about 96 percent of the agency’s staff aren’t coming to work,” notes Katie Valentine at Climate Progress.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/10/01/federal-shutdown-weakens-weather-and-climate-enterprise/

New flood map lowers risk, insurance in Fenwick

FENWICK ISLAND — Despite growing concern over sea level rise on Delaware’s coast and the return of severe hurricanes such as last season’s Sandy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided to lower the flood risk in Fenwick Island. FEMA’s update to the Flood Insurance Rate Map could result in lower flood insurance rates for property owners in the community who have already built above the proposed floodplain ordinance. The flood risk reduction came as a surprise to many Fenwick residents in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, said Pat Schuchman, building official for the town. However, FEMA’s Flood Insurance Study did not include data from Sandy that would have affected risk.

 READ MORE: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130930/NEWS/309300040/New-flood-map-lowers-risk-insurance-Fenwick?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

A Pause, Not an End, to Warming

BERKELEY, Calif. — THE global warming crowd has a problem. For all of its warnings, and despite a steady escalation of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, the planet’s average surface temperature has remained pretty much the same for the last 15 years. 

As you might guess, skeptics of warming were in full attack mode as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gathered in Sweden this week to approve its latest findings about our warming planet. The skeptics argue that this recent plateau illustrates what they always knew — that complex global climate models have no predictive capability and that, therefore, there is no proof of global warming, human-caused or not. 

READ MORE:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/opinion/a-pause-not-an-end-to-warming.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130926&_r=3&

Global warming believers are feeling the heat

On Friday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivers its latest verdict on the state of man-made global warming. Though the details are a secret, one thing is clear: the version of events you will see and hear in much of the media, especially from partis pris organisations like the BBC, will be the opposite of what the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report actually says.

• Nile Gardiner: Senator Ted Cruz stands up to the liberal Left
• Tim Stanley: Ignore the killer abortionist Kermit Gosnell
• Con Coughlin: Iran must get over its Holocaust hang-up

Already we have had a taste of the nonsense to come: a pre-announcement to the effect that “climate scientists” are now “95 per cent certain” that humans are to blame for climate change; an evidence-free declaration by the economist who wrote the discredited Stern Report that the computer models cited by the IPCC “substantially underestimate” the scale of the problem; a statement by the panel’s chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, that “the scientific evidence of… climate change has strengthened year after year”.

READ MORE:  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100238047/global-warming-believers-are-feeling-the-heat/

IPCC models getting mushy

In the next five years, the global warming paradigm may fall apart if the models prove worthless

There has been a lot of talk lately about the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and whether it will take into account the lack of warming since the 1990s. Everything you need to know about the dilemma the IPCC faces is summed up in one remarkable graph.

figure nearby is from the draft version that underwent expert review last winter. It compares climate model simulations of the global average temperature to observations over the post-1990 interval. During this time atmospheric carbon dioxide rose by 12%, from 355 parts per million (ppm) to 396 ppm. The IPCC graph shows that climate models predicted temperatures should have responded by rising somewhere between about 0.2 and 0.9 degrees C over the same period. But the actual temperature change was only about 0.1 degrees, and was within the margin of error around zero. In other words, models significantly over-predicted the warming effect of CO2 emissions for the past 22 years.

READ MORE:  http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/09/16/ipcc-models-getting-mushy/

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

A forthcoming report lowers estimates on global warming

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) "fifth assessment report," part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

A forthcoming report lowers estimates on global warming

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) "fifth assessment report," part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

A forthcoming report lowers estimates on global warming

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) "fifth assessment report," part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

A forthcoming report lowers estimates on global warming

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) "fifth assessment report," part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

A forthcoming report lowers estimates on global warming

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) "fifth assessment report," part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

A forthcoming report lowers estimates on global warming

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) "fifth assessment report," part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html

An Environmentalist Deception

If the government buys the forest, should the citizens make a sound?

Last week the R Street Institute, which claims to advocate free market policies, issued a statement celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in 1982. This is, at best, misguided. The federal government’s ever-growing control over and continuous acquisition of land across America is the antithesis of the institution of private property and undermines conscientious private stewardship of land, waters, and other natural resources. 

Every day, we see the results of a century of mismanagement of government-owned forests. Failure to harvest timber allows the forests to become overgrown and filled with overstressed, diseased, beetle-ridden, dying, and dead trees—leading to millions of acres scorched by catastrophic wildfires every summer, year after year.

READ MORE:  http://spectator.org/archives/2013/09/04/an-environmentalist-deception