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

Germany Is Running Out of Energy Options

Germany, Europe’s largest energy consumer—and the world’s seventh-largest—seems to be running out of politically feasible sources of power.

 

At a summit last week, EU leaders pledged to reduce their reliance on Russia for energy supplies. This isn’t an immediate crisis: No matter how tense things get, Russia isn’t likely to eliminate 14 percent of its export earnings by cutting off Europe’s energy supply. If Moscow decides to punish Ukraine by withholding gas supplies or raising prices, there are now alternate supply routes for getting the gas to Western Europe. And thanks to a milder-than-normal winter, gas reserves are currently high.

But in the long term, countries like Germany would likely feel in a better position to deal with Russia if they weren’t dependent on it for one-third of their oil and natural gas. Unfortunately, none of the country’s other options looks that great either.

Germany is one of the few countries in the world that seems to be sticking with its post-Fukushima pledge to wean itself off of nuclear energy. It plans to have all of its nine remaining nuclear plants offline by 2022.

READ MORE:  http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/03/24/no_nukes_no_russian_gas_no_fossils_no_solar_no_fracking_how_exactly_does.html

Biofuels do more harm than good, UN warns

Growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, admits the United Nations

 

The United Nations will officially warn that growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, The Telegraph can disclose.

A leaked draft of a UN report condemns the widespread use of biofuels made from crops as a replacement for petrol and diesel. It says that biofuels, rather than combating the effects of global warming, could make them worse.

The draft report represents a dramatic about-turn for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Its previous assessment on climate change, in 2007, was widely condemned by environmentalists for giving the green light to large-scale biofuel production. The latest report instead puts pressure on world leaders to scrap policies promoting the use of biofuel for transport.

READ MORE:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10716756/Biofuels-do-more-harm-than-good-UN-warns.html

 

German city wants ‘green police’ to raid homes to enforce electric heater ban

Germany politicians are taking the notion of going green to a whole new level, calling for the creation of “green police” with the power to raid homes and businesses in order to enforce environmental regulations.

The German port city of Bremen is setting out a goal to cut carbon dioxide emissions 40 percent by 2020. To meet this goal, the city is toying with the idea of creating a green police force that would enter private homes and property to enforce a ban on electric heaters.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation For Liberty reports that, “[w]hat sounds like one of the usual injection of fuel into the green bonfire of bans in fact takes on a whole new quality. The proposed law by Environment Senator Joachim Lohse foresees a system of monitoring that allows for detection of violations and punishment.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/21/german-city-wants-green-police-to-raid-homes-to-enforce-electric-heater-ban/#ixzz2x5aNkphS

Governments rip up renewable contracts

Companies ‘do not have a right [to expect the compensation] not to be changed’

Governments across Europe, regretting the over-generous deals doled out to the renewable energy sector, have begun reneging on them. To slow ruinous power bills hikes, governments are unilaterally rewriting contracts and clawing back unseemly profits.

In Italy, one of Europe’s largest economies and one that lavished billions in subsidies on the renewable sector, the government in 2013 applied its so-called “Robin Hood tax” to renewable energy producers. Under the new rule, renewable energy producers with more than €3 million in revenue and income greater than €300,000 must now pay a tax of 10.5%.

That follows a 2012 move to charge all solar producers a five cent tax per kilowatt hour on all self-consumed energy. The government also told solar producers that it would stop taking their power – and would offer no compensation – when their output overwhelms the system.

READ MORE:  http://opinion.financialpost.com/2014/03/18/governments-rip-up-renewable-contracts/

A Climate Analyst Clarifies the Science Behind California’s Water Woes

There’s no question that residents of California and much of the West face a collision between high water demands driven by growth and outdated policies and a limited and highly variable water supply.

But that reality hasn’t stopped heated arguments from springing up in recent days over the cause or causes of California’s continuing epic drought. Is one of the drivers the growing human influence on the climate? Or is this drought something we’ve seen before, the result of natural variability?

In the wake of an unusual public debate on this issue between President Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, and Roger Pielke, Jr., a longtime analyst of climate-related disaster losses at the University of Colorado, I received a helpful note from Martin Hoerling, who studies climate extremes for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

READ MORE:   http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/a-climate-analyst-clarifies-the-science-behind-californias-extreme-drought/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=2

An Obama Advisor Is Attacking Me for Testifying That Climate Change Hasn't Increased Extreme WeatherLast Friday, the White House posted on its website a six-page criticism of me by the president’s science advisor, John Holdren, expanding on testimony he had given to Congress last week claiming that my views on climate change and extreme weather are outside of "mainstream scientific opinion.” Holdren was specifically responding to Senate testimony I gave last year where I argued that recent extreme weather events, including hurricanes, droughts, floods, and tornadoes, have not increased in recent decades due to human-caused climate change. In this debate the facts are on my side. The claims I made in my congressional testimony are no different from the ones made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("Long-term trends in economic disaster losses adjusted for wealth and population increases have not been attributed to climate change, but a role for climate change has not been excluded") and broadly supported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Even Warren Buffett recently explained that more extreme events haven't affected his insurance investments, but that "I love apocalyptic predictions" because they increase insurance rates, earning him more money. When Holdren links specific weather events to human-caused climate change—such as the California drought or the cold winter—he is exaggerating the state of scientific understandings.

Last Friday, the White House posted on its website a six-page criticism of me by the president’s science advisor, John Holdren, expanding on testimony he had given to Congress last week claiming that my views on climate change and extreme weather are outside of "mainstream scientific opinion.” Holdren was specifically responding to Senate testimony I gave last year where I argued that recent extreme weather events, including hurricanes, droughts, floods, and tornadoes, have not increased in recent decades due to human-caused climate change.

In this debate the facts are on my side. The claims I made in my congressional testimony are no different from the ones made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("Long-term trends in economic disaster losses adjusted for wealth and population increases have not been attributed to climate change, but a role for climate change has not been excluded") and broadly supported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Even Warren Buffett recently explained that more extreme events haven't affected his insurance investments, but that "I love apocalyptic predictions" because they increase insurance rates, earning him more money. When Holdren links specific weather events to human-caused climate change—such as the California drought or the cold winter—he is exaggerating the state of scientific understandings.

READ MORE:  http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116887/does-climate-change-cause-extreme-weather-i-said-no-and-was-attacked

Europe needs an alternative to Russian natural gas

OVER THE past decade, Russian President Vladimir Putin has extorted fealty from his neighbors by using energy, particularly natural gas, as a political cudgel. In 2006 and 2009, Gazprom, the Russian state gas monopoly, suspended exports to Ukraine, demonstrating its willingness to withhold fuel from millions of customers to push them around. Now, in the tensest conflict yet between the two nations, Russia is threatening to boost the price Ukrainians pay for gas imports.

This behavior has boomeranged to some extent. Along with other developments in world energy markets, Russia’s subordination of economic considerations to political ones has given both Ukraine and the West incentive to diversify their supply sources, which has increased their leverage. That should help Ukraine and the European Union resist Russia’s aggression now and do more to free themselves from Gazprom’s grip in the future.

READ MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europe-needs-an-alternative-to-russian-natural-gas/2014/03/05/31f30ac2-a321-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html

Wave Energy Developer Pulls Plug On Oregon Project

Developers have scrapped their plans to build the nation’s first large-scale wave energy project off the Oregon Coast, saying the costs were too high to make it work.

The much-anticipated project would have placed a flotilla of 100 energy-producing buoys, each the size of a school bus, in the waves off the coast of Reedsport, Ore.

The project’s developer, Ocean Power Technologies, surrendered its preliminary permit with the federal government, Oregon regulators disclosed Monday.


The project generated national headlines in the run-up to its planned launch in October, 2012. But after it delayed the deployment of its first buoy, the project seemed to be stuck on hold.

READ MORE:  http://earthfix.opb.org/energy/article/wave-energy-developer-pulls-plug-on-oregon-project/

Top 5 failed ‘snow free’ and ‘ice free’ predictions

With the U.S. East Coast blanketed in snow once again, it’s hard to imagine that climate scientists and environmentalists predicted years ago that the “end of snow” was nigh and that the Arctic would soon be “ice-free.”

The U.S. East Coast got pounded by yet another winter storm on Monday that brought to temperatures to a 141-year record low in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. metro area. The rash of cold weather and snowstorms have put environmentalists and climate scientists on the defensive, as they explain that one exceptionally cold and snowy winter does not disprove global warming.

New York Times writer Peter Fox took to the editorial pages to pen an op-ed called the “End of Snow” which argued that global warming meant that there could be no more snowy areas to hold future Winter Olympic games.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/04/top-5-failed-snow-free-and-ice-free-predictions/#ixzz2wK85tf5p

This Is The Gas Pipeline Map That Shows Why The Crisis In Ukraine Affects All Of Europe

If you question the strategic location of Ukraine, check out this map that Agence France-Presse made last in December — two months before protesters in Kiev forced President Viktor Yanukovych out of office.

Russia has now invaded the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, and markets are spooked at the possibility that Russian troops that are being built up on the border could enter eastern Ukraine.

As the international tug-of-war for Ukraine continues, the tension involving economic relations in the region — especially regarding gas flow from Russia to both Ukraine and Europe — will increase.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-one-economic-reason-russias-invasion-of-crimea-pulls-in-europe-2014-3#ixzz2vwf171OZ

Electric customers feel winter's costly impact

A few years back, Kerri Heaney thought she would save money by dropping Delmarva Power and signing a one-year contract with Liberty Power Holdings for her electricity supply.

The contract expired, but she thought nothing of it until last month, when she received a $950 supply charge on her power bill for her Prices Corner-area farmhouse. It was nearly three times what she had paid the month before, despite the fact her family had used less electricity.

"Just looking at it, seeing it on paper, it was like, holy smokes, that's a huge jump," Heaney said.

People who buy their electricity from Delmarva Power, or those who have an active contract with a competitive supplier, are merely using more electricity during an especially cold winter. But customers like Heaney, whose supplier contract has lapsed, generally are experiencing price shock this winter, confirmed David Bonar, state public advocate.

Those customers have seen their per-kilowatt-hour rate mirror spot electricity market rates, which have increased more than 400 percent in the past two months, according to information released by PJM Interconnection, the regional grid manager.

Public Service Commission spokesman Matt Hartigan reported there have been 53 complaints about high bills from alternative electricity suppliers so far this year, across four different suppliers. By contrast, there have been no complaints about Delmarva's electricity charges, he said.

READ MORE:  http://www.delawareonline.com/story/money/2014/03/02/electric-customers-feel-winters-costly-impact/5955275/

How Coal Can Alleviate Pain at the Plug

Adjusted for inflation, American median household incomes have eroded six percent since 2007, and for some low- and middle-income families, energy cost are rising faster than incomes. More than just the pain at the pump most Americans experience with gas prices, high energy costs create a regressive tax for families trying to keep their lights on and their houses warm. A record one in three Americans qualify for energy assistance.

In the last decade, the cost of energy as a percentage of after income has risen by two-thirds for middle-income households. Today, the average middle- to lower-income family spends 20 percent or more of their take-home pay on energy expenses. The lower the income, the more disproportionate the energy strain becomes. Households earning less than $30,000 in 2011 – nearly one-third of all households in the United States – faced energy costs that consumed, on average, 27 percent of their family budgets.

Historically, energy has been far less burdensome on the family pocketbook, but today it competes with other fundamental necessities such as food, housing and health care. While federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has helped alleviate some of these hardships, funding for LIHEAP was cut from $5.1 billion to $4.7 billion in 2011, and slashed again to $3.5 billion in 2012. The result has been a weaker safety net for lower income families that were already struggling to make ends meet.

READ MORE:   https://www.advancedenergyforlife.com/article/how-coal-can-alleviate-pain-at-the-plughttps://www.advancedenergyforlife.com/article/how-coal-can-alleviate-pain-at-the-plug

Greenpeace co-founder says ‘no scientific proof’ humans cause climate change

A co-founder of Greenpeace told a Senate panel on Tuesday that there is no scientific evidence to back claims that humans are the “dominant cause” of climate change.

Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee environmental groups like Greenpeace use faulty computer models and scare tactics in further promoting a political agenda, Fox News reported.

Read more: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/26/greenpeace-co-founder-says-no-scientific-proof-hum/#ixzz2vfV7EREO
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Warren Buffett: Supposed Increase in Extreme Weather 'Hasn't Been True So Far'

Any climate alarmist will tell you that climate change is increasing extreme weather events, but liberal billionaire Warren Buffett easily destroyed that argument.

Buffett told CNBC March 3, that extreme weather events haven't increased due to climate change, saying that weather events are consistent with how they were 30-50 years ago. Buffett, who is heavily invested in various insurance markets, said that climate change alarmism has simply made hurricane insurance more profitable, driving up premiums without increasing risk.

READ MORE: http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/sean-long/warren-buffett-supposed-increase-extreme-weather-hasnt-been-true-so-far#sthash.WGaR67s2.dpuf

Customers tell horror stories of solar company that gets $422M in tax dollars

We all get them — telemarketing callers pushing home solar-energy systems that will save us from rising electric bills.

Most of us generally hang up. But in 2012, Jeff Leeds, who lives in the Northern California town of Half Moon Bay, listened. His 3,100-square-foot home features 91 incandescent bucket lights, a 180-gallon fish tank, three large refrigerator-freezers and a huge entertainment system. His electric bill was averaging $350 per month.

The sales pitch Leeds was hearing on the phone sounded ideal: Lease a system from SolarCity, the nation’s second-largest solar electrical contractor, for a low monthly fee and reap the rewards of cheap electricity.
“For a $600 fee up front, I would pay $182 a month for the next 20 years,” Leeds said. “They have a performance guarantee. If I don’t make enough electricity, they said, ‘No problem, don’t worry, we will write you a check.’ I thought, ‘I’m covered.’”

 READ MORE:  http://watchdog.org/130098/solarcity-horror-stories/

US, UK scientists: Cutting all CO2 emissions would not stop global warming

Calls from environmentalists and lawmakers to cut carbon dioxide emissions to fight global warming would do nothing to stop global temperatures from rising, according to American and British climate scientists.
In fact, completely stopping all man-made carbon emissions would do nothing to stop the Earth from warming.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the UK’s Royal Society have jointly put out a publication to lay out the knowns and unknowns of global warming science. The publication says that global temperatures are rising due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels.

READ MORE: http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/27/us-uk-scientists-cutting-all-co2-emissions-would-not-stop-global-warming/#ixzz2v6DbBoJj

The myth of ‘settled science’

I repeat: I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier. I’ve long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly what this will cause in 20, 30 or 50 years are white-coated propagandists.

“The debate is settled,” asserted propagandist in chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. “Climate change is a fact.” Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge. Take a non-climate example. It was long assumed that mammograms help reduce breast cancer deaths. This fact was so settled that Obamacare requires every insurance plan to offer mammograms (for free, no less) or be subject to termination.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-myth-of-settled-science/2014/02/20/c1f8d994-9a75-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html