EPA chief’s weekly flights home emit tons of CO2

Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy may be a global warming crusader, but her weekly flights home to Boston are causing her to emit tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The EPA recently released a photo album titled “A Day In The Life of the EPA Administrator” that shows what McCarthy does on a typical day, including the fact that she flies home nearly every weekend to spend time with her family.

“Although she keeps a small apartment near EPA headquarters, almost every weekend McCarthy travels back to Boston, to her home and her husband,” according to the EPA.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/09/epa-chiefs-weekly-flights-home-emit-tons-of-co2/#ixzz2yaeTX8Wb

Germany Amends Green-Energy Regime to Curb Rise in Prices

Analysts Say Reforms Fall Short

By

Harriet Torry and

Jan Hromadko

April 8, 2014 11:43 a.m. ET

 

BERLIN—The German government has amended renewable-energy laws meant to help make the country nuclear-free but that have sent power prices rocketing—squeezing consumers and the country's formidable export machine.

The cabinet approved amendments on Tuesday that it said would contain soaring electricity costs while seeking to protect German jobs in the industrial sector. The changes include less ambitious targets for wind power and a...

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304819004579489434076477734?mg=reno64-wsj

Second Climate Thoughts

The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its latest mammoth report last week, and the effort marks an improvement over the IPCC's last such effort in 2007. That may not be saying much, but on climate change intellectual progress of any sort is worth commending.

The IPCC's "Fifth Assessment Report," or AR5, is generating the usual alarmist headlines: "Impacts on All Continents, Worse to Come" was typical. That's partly a function of what the IPCC frontloads into the 28-page "summary for policymakers," the only portion of the report that most politicians or journalists ever bother reading, and that is sexed up for mass media consumption.

So it's worth diving deeper into the report, where a much more cautious picture of the state of climate science comes into view. Gone are some of the false alarmist claims from the last report, such as the forecast that the Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035 or that hurricanes are becoming more intense. "Current data sets," the report admits, "indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century." Recall the false claims of climate cause and storm effect last year after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines.

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303532704579477222157281450?mod=rss_opinion_main&mg=reno64-wsj

Delaware Carbon Tax to Increase Electric Rates

  The first regional carbon auction using new rules confirmed electric rates will eventually increase by about $60 a year for an average residential customer as predicted by CRI. Electric cost could rise hundreds of thousands a year for large industrial customers compared to non-carbon tax states leading to even more job losses in Delaware. Speculators snapped up over half the available permits freezing out power plants that will have to pay even higher prices in a secondary trading market.

            Permits to release carbon dioxide (CO2) must be purchased in quarterly auctions by electric power plants.  Unhappy with the state tax revenue being generated, Delaware, along with eight other states, reduced the number of available permits by 45% hoping a shortage of permits would lead to higher prices. The March 5, 2014, auction saw prices more than double from where they were before the announcement of the change a year ago. All the available permits sold as opposed to 53% in earlier auctions resulting in revenue increasing 3.5 times to $4.5 million. The cost of the permits is passed on in electric bills.

 

            One of the rule changes added price caps to the auction that started at $4/ton in 2014 and increased to $10/ton by 2017. To keep prices going above the cap extra permits would be held in reserve to increase supply. The entire annual reserve was used up in the first auction as demand was three times higher than the number of permits available. Making matters worse, speculators purchased 55% of the available permits. These permits will be sold to power generators in a secondary market at even higher prices resulting in even higher electric rates as the cost is passed on. We expect speculators will add over 40% to the cost of the program. Prior to the rule change there were no speculators in the market.

 

READ MORE:  http://caesarrodney.org/index.cfm?ref=30200&ref2=446

EPA's shredding system makes bad news about climate regulations disappear

Federal law mandates an independent scientific review of the possible effects -- both good and bad -- of proposed environmental regulations before decisionmakers act. The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't do that.

The scofflaw EPA routinely and systematically kills any hint of bad effects from its rulemaking that might appear in its scientific reviews.

That despicable tampering with the truth has duped the American public into believing that environmental regulations have only good effects and positive net costs and deliberately blinded us to the enormous evils we suffer because of EPA’s self-serving malice.

The EPA's outrageous meddling has come to light as it prepares the most expensive regulation in history, harsh new ozone rules, with the agency's own cost estimates at more than $90 billion per year.

READ MORE:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/epas-shredding-system-makes-bad-news-about-climate-regulations-disappear/article/2546272

Kansas Senate gives approval to new bill ending renewable energy standards

A bill repealing renewable energy standards for utility companies won approval in the Kansas Senate on Tuesday.

House Bill 2014 would end the renewable portfolio standards that require Kansas utility companies to receive 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.

The vote was 25-15. The bill now goes to the House.

Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, who carried the bill, contended that repeal was necessary because of the expiration of a federal tax credit for wind production. He said Kansans would be stuck making up for the loss of that tax break in their electric bills.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/25/3367792/kansas-senate-to-consider-bill.html#storylink=cpy

READ MORE:  http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/25/3367792/kansas-senate-to-consider-bill.html

EDITORIAL: When smoke gets in the EPA’s eyes

Another of life’s pleasures goes the way of the light bulb

 

Nothing chases the chill of a cold winter’s night like pulling a chair up close to a wood-burning stove. The Environmental Protection Agency, which lives in mortal dread that somewhere, someone is enjoying life, wants to eliminate wood-burning stoves. President Obama has agreed to impose a tax on coziness, with new regulations proposed by his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

These new rules would reduce the maximum airborne particulate emissions for new stoves by 80 percent to 4.5 grams per hour initially, and crank down the allowable level further to 1.3 grams after five years. Achieving these targets will add between $300 and $500 to the cost of a stove, prompting fears that working-class folk who typically burn wood to save money won’t be able to afford to do so. A period of public comment on the proposed standards ends May 5.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/24/editorial-when-smoke-gets-in-the-epas-eyes/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz2xYKpYeqd