July 23, 2008
| William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest
Al is so rich that he doesn’t have to use public transit like me. His main form of travel is a luxurious Lear jet. When he does have to drive around, he uses 2 big black SUV’s, which he leaves idling outside wherever he stops to make speeches about global warming. That way, he can keep the AC on.
July 22, 2008
| Doug Bandow, Open Market
Who would have imagined! The horrors of capitalism, again! What is next? Companies meeting unnecessary and wasteful consumer demand? Destroying small businesses by competing against them with ruinously low prices? Developing frivolous new products that promote consumerism? Will the devastation wrought by free markets never stop?
July 22, 2008
| Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Digest
Even if true, Gore seems not to understand the concept of sunk costs or the capital required to build all those wind mills and solar panels. It would require a lot more to accomplish than the sacrifices Americans were forced to make during World War Two, when much of our market economy became a command-and-control economy.
July 22, 2008
| Julie Walsh, Cooler Heads Digest
Today, certain congressmen think they are landmen and have decided that oil companies don’t know how to make money and should be making money off their currently-held leases, rather than Congress releasing new areas. They have no desire to open up American soil for American oil with American jobs. This is clearly seen in the fact that the place where such a bill would be considered—the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy & Mineral Resources —has no hearings scheduled for July on this important issue.
July 21, 2008
| Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Digest
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is going to try to bring a bill to the Senate floor next Tuesday that would go after oil speculators who, it is claimed, are driving up the price of oil. Republican leaders are demanding that votes be allowed on amendments to open OCS areas to oil and gas exploration, so my guess is that it’s unlikely that Reid will move forward. I don’t know what role speculators have played in driving up the price of oil, but there is a simple way to end any speculative bubble: open up federal OCS areas and ANWR to oil and gas exploration. The prospect of increased oil production would bankrupt speculators who have bet the farm on ever higher oil prices.
July 18, 2008
| Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
Economist friend Dr. David Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute based at Suffolk University in Boston, had this to say yesterday in response to Al Gore's speech on going 100-percent to renewable sources for energy generation.
July 17, 2008
| Michael Asher, Daily Tech
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."
July 17, 2008
| Marlo Lewis, Planet Gore
Nonetheless, even assuming that corn ethanol delivers net emission reductions, the costs far outweigh any potential climate benefit. The OECD comments: “Biofuels produced from wheat, sugar beet or vegetable oils rarely provide GHG emissions savings of more than 30 percent to 60 percent, while corn (maize) based ethanol generally allows for savings of less than 30 percent. Current budgetary support, mandates and trade restrictions . . . reduce net GHG emissions by less than 1 percent of total emissions from transport. Fossil fuel use is also reduced by less than 1 percent for most of these transport sectors by 2-3 percent in the EU diesel sector. These relatively modest effects come at a projected cost equivalent to about $960 to $1,700 per ton of CO2-equivalent saved, or of roughly $0.80 to $7.00 per liter of fossil fuel not used.” For perspective, $960 per ton is 15 to 17 times more expensive than the American Council on Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers estimate carbon permits would cost in 2020 under the Lieberman-Warner bill — legislation that the Senate in its wisdom considered too costly to pass.
July 17, 2008
| Barun Mitra, Mint
"It is the economy, stupid!" The economic and political concerns dampened the desire of world leaders at the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Japan to ride the hot air balloon of climate change. That's no surprise. In any contest between a present crisis and future threat, the present always wins. The G-8 leaders are hardcore politicians and recognize that in hard times, politicians must not get carried away by the future. This explains why they agreed to a future goal: 50% reduction in carbon emission by 2050, without any signposts towards that goal for the present.
July 16, 2008
| Julie Walsh, Cooler Heads Digest
Journalistic integrity could be maintained if reporters would do a simple check to see if the region in question has actually warmed. They can put their desired time period, say June 2007 to June 2008, into this NASA form using their desired base period, perhaps 1995 to 2000. This will show them a map of the world with the regions that have lately warmed and those that have cooled.
