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/