Billions spent in Obama climate plan may be virtually useless, study suggests

As President Obama last month launched a sweeping new national program to combat "climate change," including tens of billions of dollars in likely new subsidies for solar and wind power and bio-energy, a separate, groundbreaking study by the National Research Council has warned that those kinds of subsidies are virtually useless at quelling greenhouse gases .

The study, which looks at the subsidies and other incentives embedded in U.S. federal tax law after the past several years of climate change initiatives, concludes that they  have done little or nothing so far to cut U.S. contributions to global carbon emissions, and are unlikely to do much more before 2035, the project's research horizon.

The two-year, $2 million probe was the first of its kind undertaken to examine the relationship between U.S. tax provisions, a key tool of U.S. climate change policy, and the actual reduction of greenhouse gases.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/18/billions-spent-in-obama-climate-plan-may-be-virtually-useless-study-suggests/#ixzz2adLUh9QX

DOE study: Fracking chemicals didn't taint water

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, shows no evidence that chemicals from the natural gas drilling process moved up to contaminate drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site, the Department of Energy told The Associated Press.

After a year of monitoring, the researchers found that the chemical-laced fluids used to free gas trapped deep below the surface stayed thousands of feet below the shallower areas that supply drinking water, geologist Richard Hammack said.

Although the results are preliminary — the study is still ongoing — they are the first independent look at whether the potentially toxic chemicals pose a threat to people during normal drilling operations. But DOE researchers view the study as just one part of ongoing efforts to examine the impacts of a recent boom in oil and gas exploration, not a final answer about the risks.

READ MORE:  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-study-finds-fracking-chemicals-didnt-spread

For Times Environmental Reporting, Intentions May Be Good but the Signs Are Not

Judging by appearances, things are not looking good for environmental reporting at The Times.

In January, The Times dismantled its environmental reporting “pod” – a group of reporters and editors solely devoted to that subject who worked with one another to develop stories and projects.

Then, on Friday, The Times’s “Green” blog ended after more than four years (initially as Green Inc.).
Many readers are unhappy and disillusioned about the changes, believing that they speak to declining interest on the part of top editors in this important subject. And in the case of the blog, they miss having a single online destination for environmental developments that may not be big enough to make it into the paper and for other voices from freelance contributors.

READ MORE:  http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/for-times-environmental-reporting-intentions-may-be-good-but-the-signs-are-not/?_r=0

PYLE RESPONDS TO POTUS' ECONOMY SPEECH

The administration should get out of the way of American entrepreneurs who know how to create jobs and develop truly affordable solutions to our nation's needs.

"The President's policies are not making energy more affordable. In fact, the lesson of Obamacare should have taught us that anything the White House calls 'affordable' will result in higher costs, more bureaucracy, and greater economic pain." -- IER President Thomas Pyle

WASHINGTON -- IER President Thomas Pyle released the following response to a speech given today by President Barack Obama at Knox College in Galesburg, IL. In a much-hyped speech on the American economy, President Obama laid out his plan to foster economic growth and a strong middle class. Pyle's response follows:

"In today's speech, President Obama once again assigns all blame for America's economic strains on others while assuming all responsibility for economic successes that have occurred apart from administration policies. The president touts investments "in new American technologies" to increase domestic oil and gas production, but in reality, the White House is waging an all-out regulatory assault on affordable energy. Indeed, the U.S. is producing more natural gas than any country on Earth. And we are about to produce more of our own oil than we buy from abroad. These production increases, however, are occurring on state and private lands and are happening despite President Obama's policies, not because of them.

Meanwhile, the administration presently engineers more onerous regulations to restrict "American technologies" like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Federal regulators have embargoed energy development on 95 percent of federal lands and waters, derailed numerous energy development projects and delayed others, most notably the Keystone XL pipeline.  Add to that the President's obsession with expensive boutique biofuels, increased ethanol mandates, fraud-laden renewable energy programs, costly and dangerous automobile regulations, and the rising gas prices that hurt America's middle class most of all, and you have a perfect storm that promises to do more economic damage than any natural disaster ever could.

The President's policies are not making energy more affordable. In fact, if the lesson of Obamacare has taught us anything it's that this administration's policies -- however "affordable" the White House calls them -- end up with bureaucratic delays, soaring costs, and greater strain on small businesses and working families.  If this administration is truly concerned about the economy, it would stop promoting empty speeches and imposing costly regulations. Rather, they would promote policies that get government out of the way of American entrepreneurs who know how to create good-paying jobs and develop truly affordable solutions to our nation's needs."

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INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH -FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  JULY 24, 2013MEDIA CONTACT:   BENJAMIN COLE   202.621.2957

The One Issue Republicans and Democrats Can Agree On

Ethanol is insane, and politicians outside the Beltway are finally fighting it. 

While recent Supreme Court rulings on voting rights and same-sex marriage have held the nation’s attention, another decision slipped under the radar. In late June, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s program to raise the maximum ethanol content of gasoline from 10 to 15 percent, thus clearing the way for more ethanol production.  The Senate’s version of the Farm Bill, meanwhile, includes more than $1 billion of support for the ethanol industry. While these developments at the federal level are bullish for ethanol, many states are calling bull.

The fact that most ethanol is made from corn means that an increase in the ethanol content of gas could create, or exacerbate, a variety of problems, like higher food prices and elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Ethanol production has also been linked to the spread of a dangerous form of E. coli.

READ MORE:  http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/food/2013/07/renewable_fuel_standard_repeal_how_states_are_chipping_away_at_the_corn.html

The Gas Is Greener

Britain’s shale gas can provide energy security and jobs, and it’s cheaper than offshore wind.

 

In late June, the British Geological Survey announced the world’s largest shale-gas field. The Bowland Shale, which lies beneath Lancashire and Yorkshire, contains 50 percent more gas than the combined reserves of two of the largest fields in the United States, the Barnett Shale and the Marcellus Shale.

The United Kingdom has been reluctant to join the fracking revolution. Yet tapping the Bowland Shale could reignite the U.K. economy and deliver huge cuts in CO₂ emissions.

At the same time, Parliament has approved stringent new measures to reduce carbon emissions by 2020, with the biggest CO₂ cuts by far to come from an increase of more than 800 percent in offshore wind power over the next seven years. But offshore wind power is so expensive that it will receive at least three times the traded cost of regular electricity in subsidies—more than even solar power, which was never at an advantage in the U.K. For minimal CO₂ reduction, the U.K. economy will pay dearly.

READ MORE:  http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/project_syndicate/2013/07/fracking_britain_should_tap_its_shale_gas_field.html

A Fracking Revolution: U.S. Now Leads World In CO2 Emission Reductions

Fortunately, the U.S. did not sign the idiotic United Nation's Kyoto Protocol that Democrats attempted to force on the U.S. And, thank goodness for common sense, most Americans did not swallow the incredibly lame global warming fear-mongering that is a staple of left-wing, liberal politics - instead, the U.S. relied on innovation and competition, which led to the natural gas/shale fracking revolution and massive CO2 emission reductions, in spite of Al Gore and his green, anti-America jihadis

Thanks to fracking, U.S. carbon emissions are now lower than they were in 1995. 
 
While global warming has all but disappeared (being replaced with a slight cooling trend) the U.S. free market has been busy reducing America's CO2 emissions tonnage. As the adjacent chart attests to, the U.S. leads the world's major powers over the last 5 years.

While Obama, the billionaire-crony Al Gores of the world, the anti-growth Democrats and the green-religion fanatics continue to literally lie about the threat of global warming and push for continuing anti-business and anti-job CO2 regulations, they have completely mislead Americans about the phenomenal success of pro-market forces arresting CO2 emissions.

READ MORE:  http://www.c3headlines.com/2013/07/a-fracking-revolution-us-now-leads-world-in-co2-emission-reductions-.html

SoloPower defaults on $10 million state loan, nears restructuring deal

SoloPower has defaulted on a $10 million loan, state officials confirmed late Wednesday, the same day that executives at the struggling solar panel maker announced they were near a deal to restructure debt and reorganize in Portland.

Chief executive Robert Campbell said major creditors have agreed to terms that focus on rebuilding the organization in Portland, where the company originally planned to build a $340 million factory and employ hundreds.

Those plans derailed earlier this year, shortly after the company built out its first manufacturing line. SoloPower has shed most of its workforce in recent months, struggling to start up in a market flooded with cheap panels manufactured in China.

READ MORE:  http://www.oregonlive.com/money/index.ssf/2013/07/solopower_defaults_on_10_million_state_loan_nears_restructuring_deal.html

The Rise Of Saudi Texas: Shale And Farewell To OPEC

Oil: Production data for April show how fracking has shattered not only the shale rock in formations like Texas' Eagle Ford and Permian Basin but also the myths of "peak oil" and petroleum as an energy source of the past.
As Mark Perry notes on his Carpe Diem blog, Texas produced an average of 2.45 million barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil in April, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). That's the highest average daily output for Texas in any month since April 1985 — 28 years ago.
In only 2-1/2 years, the Lone Star State has doubled its crude output, making it what Perry dubs Saudi Texas and reversing a 23-year decline that fueled speculation that the maximum rate of petroleum extraction has been, or will soon be, reached.

READ MORE At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/070213-662299-texas-eagle-ford-shale-sparks-boom.htm#ixzz2ZJGpyj2T

Sessions, EPW Colleagues Renew Demand For Actual EPA Data On Global Temperatures

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, organized a letter signed by all Republican EPW members to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) about claims by the President regarding global temperatures. Sessions issued the following comment upon release of the letter:

 

To read the letter signed sent by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), along with Ranking Member David Vitter (R-LA), Sens. James Inhofe (R-OK), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Deb Fischer (R-NE), John Boozman (R-AR), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Mike Crapo (R-ID) as a PDF, please click here. Sessions’ comment upon release of the letter follows:

 

“To promote his global warming agenda, the President has stated that ‘temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted even 10 years ago.’ He repeated this claim just a few weeks ago. This is a specific, technical assertion that can be tested in light of actual data. For more than seven months, I have been waiting for EPA to respond to a very simple request: provide an EPA chart comparing actual global temperatures with the official predictions that were made a decade ago. But EPA won’t provide this data. The American people deserve to know if the President has the facts straight, particularly as EPA presses ahead with zealous regulations that will drive up the price of electricity and make it harder for American workers to compete in the world economy. Before the President adds new burdens on American families and workers in an effort to curb a threat of rising global temperatures, shouldn’t he and his Administration produce the data supporting his contention that temperatures are increasing faster than predicted over ten years ago? This is important because published data suggest otherwise.” 

 

READ MORE:  http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressShop.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=7beca17b-ea1a-9ef4-9f06-21dbcb9be3ec

Amendment Would Give Legal Status To People Displaced By Climate Change

Senator Brian Schatz’s (D-HI) filed an amendment for the immigration bill Wednesday that would allow stateless people in the U.S. to seek conditional lawful status if their nations have been made uninhabitable by climate change.

The Senate’s immigration bill currently recognizes that people who come to the U.S. may have no country to return to for a variety of reasons and allows them to come forward to apply for legal status as a stateless person. But one cause for displacement that is overlooked in current law is how climate change has caused people to lose their homes and their nationality.

Noting that climate change is not some “abstract challenge,” but is already displacing people across the world, Schatz explained:

READ MORE:  http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/06/20/2187831/climate-refugee-immigration-bill/?mobile=nc

Obama Readying Emissions Limits on Power Plants

WASHINGTON — President Obama is preparing regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, senior officials said Wednesday. The move would be the most consequential climate policy step he could take and one likely to provoke legal challenges from Republicans and some industries.

Electric power plants are the largest single source of global warming pollution in the country, responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. With sweeping climate legislation effectively dead in Congress, the decision on existing power plants — which a 2007 Supreme Court decision gave to the executive branch — has been among the most closely watched of Mr. Obama’s second term. 

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/science/earth/obama-preparing-big-effort-to-curb-climate-change.html?_r=2&

Climate Change: A cooling consensus

GLOBAL warming has slowed. The rate of warming of over the past 15 years has been lower than that of the preceding 20 years. There is no serious doubt that our planet continues to heat, but it has heated less than most climate scientists had predicted. Nate Cohn of the New Republic reports: "Since 1998, the warmest year of the twentieth century, temperatures have not kept up with computer models that seemed to project steady warming; they’re perilously close to falling beneath even the lowest projections".

Mr Cohn does his best to affirm that the urgent necessity of acting to retard warming has not abated, as does Brad Plumer of the Washington Post, as does this newspaper. But there's no way around the fact that this reprieve for the planet is bad news for proponents of policies, such as carbon taxes and emissions treaties, meant to slow warming by moderating the release of greenhouse gases. The reality is that the already meagre prospects of these policies, in America at least, will be devastated if temperatures do fall outside the lower bound of the projections that environmentalists have used to create a panicked sense of emergency. Whether or not dramatic climate-policy interventions remain advisable, they will become harder, if not impossible, to sell to the public, which will feel, not unreasonably, that the scientific and media establishment has cried wolf.

READ MORE:  http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/06/climate-change

Gasland II and Anti-Energy Extremists

Domestic crude oil production surpassed imports during the week ending May 31, according to an Energy Information Administration report. That’s a milestone that hasn’t been reached in 16 years and underscores the conviction that North American energy security can be realized – if we resolve to achieve it.

In recent years, technological advances that combine safe hydraulic fracturing and innovative horizontal drilling have allowed the United States to take over as the world leader in natural gas production. North America’s total recoverable reserve of natural gas is capable of providing America with 575 years worth of electricity needs at current consumption rates, according to the North American Energy Inventory released by the Institute for Energy Research.

Of course, not everyone wants to see the United States lead the world in affordable energy production. Utilizing Hollywood-style theatrics and baseless propaganda, these activists are dead-set on undermining the energy renaissance that is creating American jobs and strengthening our global position. Avant-garde filmmaker Josh Fox, who rose from relative obscurity in 2010 with his movie Gasland, has blamed shale gas drilling for a host of supposed problems – from flammable drinking water to environmental disasters. Nevertheless, his accusations have been systematically proven as false. Undeterred, Fox will doubtlessly continue to make similar claims in other projects, including Gasland Part II that will air on HBO on July 8.

READ MORE:  http://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2013/06/19/gasland_ii_and_anti-energy_extremists.html

Chris Horner, master of FOIA, bedevils the White House

After years of digging political dirt on the climate movement, Chris Horner has suddenly struck gold in stoking the GOP’s transparency crusade against the Environmental Protection Agency.

Horner’s near-obsessive focus on unearthing federal officials’ emails, instant messages and other digital records inspired the congressional flap over former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s secondary “Richard Windsor” email account, as well as howls from the Hill about the agency’s alleged ideological bias in charging for document searches. Another of Horner’s targets was a regional EPA administrator who stepped down after the revelation that he had used personal email accounts for agency business.

Horner’s not surprised he’s found so much ammunition in bureaucrats’ hard drives.

READ MORE: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/chris-horner-foia-epa-white-house-93264.html#ixzz2YBaJCt3o

Demise of Coda Automotive Means Lonelier Electric-Car Owners

Coda Automotive, a Los Angeles-based electric carmaker, announced today that it is filing for bankruptcy. Coda’s parent company says it plans to sell its auto assets to focus on energy storage. The demise of the 4-year-old startup, which was backed by billionaire Philip Falcone, comes as a surprise to almost no one. Coda struggled almost from the beginning in a very difficult business. “They had a gigantic task ahead of them,” says Brett Smith, co-director of the manufacturing, engineering and technology group at the Center for Automotive Research. Coda sold only about 100 of its sedans.

Now that the company no longer is in the car business, what will Coda owners do if they need repairs or have problems with their cars? They are likely out of luck. “There are probably some parts in pipelines that consumers might be able to find on eBay (EBAY). And maybe the company will be able to support them because there are so few. But the reality is they are abandoned,” says Smith. (Coda did not respond to calls and e-mails for comment.)

READ MORE:  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-01/demise-of-coda-automotive-means-lonelier-electric-car-owners

Green is the color of corruption

President Obama’s declaration of dictatorial, Congress-be-damned war on “climate change” was particularly welcome to hedge-fund billionaire and megabucks Obama donor Tom Steyer.  And why not?  Steyer stands to make a bundle from his beloved President’s decision.

You see, President Obama seems intent on killing the Keystone XL pipeline.  And what do you know?  Steyer’s Farallon Capital just happens to have major holdings in a competing pipeline company called Kinder Morgan, whose TransMountain pipe is carrying tar sands oil from a different part of Canada to Asian customers.  And they’re looking to expand this operation until it’s bigger than Keystone XL would be!

This bit of highly selective and convenient environmentalism has not gone unnoticed, as Fox News reports:

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter — a vocal proponent of Keystone — accuses Steyer of having financial interest in the death of a pipeline he opposes on environmental grounds.

READ MORE:  http://www.humanevents.com/2013/06/27/green-is-the-color-of-corruption/