Did the U.S. Hit Record High Temperatures?

Did the U.S. Hit Record High Temperatures?

Front page above the fold headlines  proclaimed that the United States had a record high average temperature in 2012. Several days later we find the rest of the story buried much deeper in the paper. Global average temperature was only the ninth highest on record. Among other things, the unusually high US average meant the rest of the world must have been pretty mild!

 

The United States averaged about 1 degree Fahrenheit above normal in 2012. The US has a large impact on global temperature averages as it has less than 2% of the earth’s surface but 25% of the weather stations (see map below). The average temperature outside the US equaled the 25^th coldest out of 34 years tracked with satellites by the University of Alabama, Huntsville. 

 

The rate of global temperature rise has fallen in the last dozen years. The trend for the entire 34-year record is an increase of about 2.3° F/century but for the last dozen years the rate of increase has been only 0.7° F/century. It is possible some negative feedback mechanism or natural cycle is at work. Some would have us rush into spending trillions of dollars altering our energy infrastructure and significantly increasing the cost of energy to reduce manmade greenhouse gas.   Serious questions remain to be answered before we follow that advice. In the meantime a more measured approach needs to be followed. Electric generation is undergoing a radical shift from coal to natural gas fired plants. Natural gas emits about half the greenhouse gas of coal and actually will reduce electric rates. That’s a win-win situation no matter what happens to future temperatures.                          

 

Download Document Here.   From: http://www.caesarrodney.org/index.cfm?ref=30200&ref2=358

Higher Electricity Costs for Delaware?

A "cap and trade" emissions program in which Delaware participates has adopted new guidelines to drastically cut carbon dioxide (CO2) allowances, potentially driving-up electricity prices in the near future.

Nine states comprise the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) -- a "cap and trade" program designed to reduce CO2 emissions from large power plants by establishing annual limits.  At periodic auctions, power plant operators need to purchase allowances for the amount of CO2 produced by their facilities. 

Under the new policy announced last week by the program, the 2014 regional CO2 budget  would be reduced 45-percent, from the current 165 million tons to 91 million tons.  The cap would then decline 2.5-percent each year from 2015 to 2020.

The reduction is being initiated, in part, because power companies have produced far less pollution than was anticipated when the RGGI was first established in 2008.  The result created a surplus of unsold CO2 allowances, devaluing their worth.

State Rep. Jack Peterman (R-Milford), who has been a long-time critic of Delaware's participation in the cap and trade program, said that changes in the energy market have outpaced the program's pollution reduction goals.  He noted that many of Delaware's power producers have switched from coal to cleaner, more efficient natural gas in recent years.  Natural gas has dropped in price due to new "fracking" technology that has allowed for vast reserves to be tapped in shale formations in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.  As a result, CO2 emissions from Delaware power plants have dropped by at least 40-percent, far surpassing the RGGI target of a 10-percent reduction by 2019. 

"If reducing pollution was the goal, this program has outlived its usefulness," Rep. Peterman said.  "Market forces have driven producers to cleaner alternatives.  The only reason to keep this in place is for the state to continue its hidden tax on businesses and homeowners."

Proceeds from the auction of the carbon dioxide allowances have been a significant revenue-generator for the RGGI member states, producing more than $1 billion of income.  According to records supplied by the organization, through December 2012, Delaware has reaped nearly $29.7 million in total auction proceeds.  The money has reportedly been spent on energy efficiency and renewable energy programs administered by the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU).

Rep. Peterman says the cost of those CO2 allowances is being passed along to consumers, usually without their knowledge.

With the planned cap reduction next year, those stealth costs are expected to increase.  According to a published report, one economic analysis estimates the change will add $2.2 billion to the cost of the CO2 allowances over the next eight years.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) shows that among the 48 contiguous states, Delaware has the tenth-highest residential electricity rate (13.7 cents per kilowatt hour) and the sixth-highest residential average monthly bill ($132.83).

Rep. Peterman said that should be a concern for anyone who is interested in expanding quality employment in The First State.

"The cost of power is one of the top considerations for a business," Rep. Peterman said.  "Policies that drive the price of energy higher are hamstringing our efforts to be an attractive venue for new employers."

Fisker Continues to Waste Taxpayer Time and Money

There has been much news about the status of the Fisker assembly plant in Wilmington Delaware. We were promised good paying manufacturing jobs by the California based automobile company that claimed to be on the leading edge of green automotive technology.    The company has never assembled any of its Karma model in the USA and has not assembled any cars anywhere in the past seven months.

 

Fisker and A123 were tied at the hip. A123 is the bankrupt battery supplier that is now approved for sale by the Federal Government to Wanxiang Group, the large Chinese automobile parts company. There is also a swirl of news that Fisker itself might get sold to Wanxiang, as Fisker is almost out of money and is certainly out of time.

 

Delaware will be left holding the bag on taxpayer money given to Fisker if Fisker does not make it, or if Wanxiang buys Fisker and does not intend to use the old GM site for its operations. The likelihood of Fisker making it as an independent company is extremely low.   Tesla, the other California based Electric Car Company, has all but gobbled up the niche market for high end “green” cars and Fisker has been left in Tesla’s dust.   Back in 2008 Tesla accused Fisker of stealing trade secrets in the design of the Karma. Now that Fisker is on life support Tesla need not concern itself about its failed competitor or the alleged stolen technology.

 

Fisker is a case study of a poorly managed company: It has had several CEOs leave in the past year; It offers a very expensive version of the Chevy Volt and has not delivered on its promise of a second- generation, more affordable, model. At the Detroit Auto Show a few weeks back, some well know auto industrialists stole the show by introducing the Destino, a Karma gutted of its hybrid electric drivetrain and batteries and replaced with a large 638 HP V8 engine used in the high performance Chevy Corvette ZR1.

 

In retrospect one can fault the management of Fisker for their incompetence. But one should certainly fault the government officials in Delaware and in the nation’s capital for going along for the ride so to speak. They should have been far more careful in lavishing money on individual companies in the green tech space.   State governments do not have the technical competence to understand complex markets and complex technologies that may or may not become game changers. Even the US Department of Energy did not have this skill and has bet wrong over and over in the green space.

 

In the next month we should find out if Fisker offers itself for sale to Wanxiang or some other group. Over the next six months to a year we will find out if the eventual owner of Fisker will do anything with the old GM site or it will simply sit empty. We will also find out if Delaware has any hope of being repayed of the money given to Fisker. Right now we know that, up until today, the whole Fisker affair has been a fiasco.

 

Lindsay S. Leveen

Guest Contributor, Caesar Rodney Institute

Read Lindsay's blog at www.GreenExplored.com

Explosive Fed. Mandate Killing Thousands of Red Snapper

MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) A federal mandate to remove old, abandoned oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico is blowing up a lot more than just the rigs.

Undercover video obtained by Local 15 shows thousands of pounds of dead fish, mostly red snapper, floating to the surface after one of the controversial demolitions in the Gulf.

“Good Lord,” marine scientist Dr. Bob Shipp said, when Local 15 showed him the video. “As a scientist, I think it’s abominable.”

Shipp said the demolitions are frequent, sometimes three a week in the Gulf, but are seldom video-taped. Shipp also sits on the Gulf Fisheries Management Council, and has been a strong opponent of the demolitions.

READ MORE:  http://www.local15tv.com/news/local/story/Explosive-Fed-Mandate-Killing-Thousands-of-Red/xj8T4zPamkOGc8fuT40W_Q.cspx

World carbon dioxide emissions data by country: China speeds ahead of the rest

World carbon emissions by country data is out. See how the US has gone down in CO2 production - and who has gone up

COMMENT:  China is the largest emitter of CO2 in the world.  The U.S. has declined for the last 2 years.  It's impossible for the U.S. to stop the spread of CO2 by ourselves.  Delaware, with less than 1/10,000 of one percent of world population, can obviously have no influence.

 World carbon dioxide emissions are one way of measuring a country's economic growth too.

And the latest figures - published by the respected Energy Information Administration - show CO2 emissions from energy consumption - the vast majority of Carbon Dioxide produced.

READ MORE:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/31/world-carbon-dioxide-emissions-country-data-co2

A solar 'superstorm' is coming and we'll only get 30-minute warning

They cause devastation, occur every 150 years – and the last one was in 1859

 

A solar "superstorm" could knock out Earth's communications satellites, cause dangerous power surges in the national grid and disrupt crucial navigation aids and aircraft avionics, a major report has found.

It is inevitable that an extreme solar storm – caused by the Sun ejecting billions of tonnes of highly-energetic matter travelling at a million miles an hour – will hit the Earth at some time in the near future, but it is impossible to predict more than about 30 minutes before it actually happens, a team of engineers has warned.

Solar superstorms are estimated to occur once every 100 or 200 years, with the last one hitting the Earth in 1859.

READ MORE:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-solar-superstorm-is-coming-and-well-only-get-30minute-warning-8484058.html

Al Gore’s disastrous book tour: a breath of fresh air

For disciples of Gore, his reaction was truly an embarrassment, or should have been. It was basically no reaction at all, except to wriggle out of tough questions as quickly as possible and return, unrepentant, to his book-promoting talking points.

Letterman, Lauer, and later Jon Stewart tried to elicit some kind of admission from Gore that what he was doing was in some way — any way — hypocritical.

No way.

Lauer even quoted an excerpt from “The Future,” in which Gore voiced outrage that “virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal, and gas companies.” When pressed about how he himself could accept a half-billion dollars for his television network from one of these same oil and gas conglomerates when they, according to Gore, are the Great Satan threatening the integrity of broadcast journalism, he said matter-of-factly: “I get the criticism. I just disagree with it.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/04/al-gores-disastrous-book-tour-a-breath-of-fresh-air/#ixzz2KysxwyFG

Study: Opinions on Climate Change Rise and Fall With the Temperature

People, newspapers more likely to believe in climate change during hot years

 

 

 Americans' opinions on climate change blow with the wind—with more concern shown in years that are much warmer or much colder than normal—according to a new study released Tuesday.

Five of the nation's top newspapers were also more likely to publish opinion pieces that showed "belief" in climate change during years that were colder or warmer than normal. Previous studies have suggested that people are more likely to believe in or "show worry" about global warming when the weather is particularly bad, but the study, published in the journal Climatic Change, is the largest to date and uses data from 1990 to 2010, a much longer time period than previous studies.

READ MORE:  http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/02/06/study-opinions-on-climate-change-rise-and-fall-with-the-temperatures

 

 

Major changes from oil revolution

OPEC’s China pivot

That prospect also ushers in a major shift in OPEC exports toward China and the rest of emerging Asia — especially as Iraq ascends once again as a game-changing exporter — in a development that also has important implications for the U.S., Mr. Yergin said. While triggering a potentially fundamental reordering of U.S. priorities in the Middle East, it also heightens the importance of the U.S. managing its relationship with China so that the competition between the two economic giants over securing energy supplies doesn’t turn into outright conflict over such issues as Beijing’s energy claims in the South China Sea, he said.

China already consumes more energy from all sources — coal, oil, gas and renewable fuels — than the United States, and it has an increasingly urgent need to secure its supplies much as the U.S. did when it shifted to heavy dependence on imports in the 1970s. Demand for oil continued to strengthen in China even during the recession, while oil consumption in the U.S. and other developed nations peaked years ago, with U.S. demand down 10 percent since 2005.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/4/sea-changes-from-oil-revolution/?page=2#ixzz2Kh6aR94v