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Even a compromised agreement to reduce emissions could devastate the economy - and all for a theory shot full of holes, says Christopher Booker. What makes this even odder is that the runaway warming predicted by their computer models simply isn't happening. Last week one of the four official sources of temperature measurement, compiled from satellite data by the University of Huntsville, Alabama, showed that temperatures have now fallen to their average level since satellite data began 30 years ago...In March, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has a key role in President Obama's plans to curb CO2 emissions,...

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another.It's a beautiful theory — highways full of electric cars emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants after being plugged into an outlet in our garages overnight. The problem, according to a new Government Accountability Office report, is that the effort may only shift the problem somewhere else. "If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another..."If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."

You may want to think twice before taking your next deep breath. Every time you exhale, you’re supposedly endangering the planet -- by contributing to global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency says global warming poses a “serious threat to public health and safety.” That sets the stage for the EPA to regulate, through the Clean Air Act, almost anything that emits carbon dioxide. CO2, of course, is a naturally-occurring gas. It’s produced whenever a person breathes and, yes, whenever we use any sort of fossil fuel. Driving a car, mowing a lawn, boiling a cup of water, even flipping on...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will not sign up to targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions but will instead focus on fighting poverty and boosting economic growth, the environment minister said Tuesday. India is one of the world's biggest emitters alongside China, the U.S. and Russia, and the second most populous nation. But India's per capita emissions lag far behind rich countries and it feels the developed world should take the lead on tackling climate change. "India cannot and will not take emission reduction targets because poverty eradication and social and economic development are first and over-riding priorities," a...

Climate Change: As a winter storm shutters D.C.-area schools, Al Gore does a show-and-tell on global warming before Congress. The road to Copenhagen is being paved with good intentions."When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things," a joking President Obama told reporters Wednesday morning. Daughters Malia and Sasha had a snow day as the private school they attend, Sidwell Friends, closed due to a winter ice and snow storm. Truer words were never spoken. When it comes to weather, the current Democratic majorities in the nation's capital don't have a clue....

Climate Change: A switch of four Republican votes would have defeated Waxman-Markey, the Democrats' global warming legislation. But like the Clinton Btu tax, the bill could die in the Senate and turn the House over to the GOP. What were these RINOs thinking? The GOP is supposed to be the party of low taxes and free markets. Rep. Mike Castle, one of the eight offered an explanation right off of President Obama's teleprompter...Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, who has senatorial ambitions to replace the choice of impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Roland Burris, demonstrates why GOP fortunes in the Land...

John Hinderaker of Poweline has alerted everyone to the release of the suppressed EPA Carlin/Davidson report along with incriminating emails by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.  President Obama and his administration have again been appropriately exposed. Obama’s intent can no longer be in question, and his deceptive activities are instructive as to the role the United Nations will play in his plan to address the use of American wealth.Because the American news media has not properly and openly questioned Susan Rice about her deliberations with the IPCC, nor the U.S. intentions concerning proposed international “monies” related to CO2, you are obliged...

Climate Change: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill? This was supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest tax increase in U.S. history on 100% of Americans, an attempt was made to suppress a study shredding supporters' arguments.

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump. Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey. The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact. It's what Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security,...

Word flying around D.C. as of 1:30 is that Waxman-Markey is being pulled, suggesting Pelosi doesn't have the votes. It may be they need a little more time to buy off one or two more people, or possibly they simply can't get enough committed votes (I am sure more than a few Democrats say they will vote "Yes" as necessary, but have a deal for cover with a "No" vote, which is complicating the whip count). Stay tuned. As Drudge would say, developing . . .

Today Democrats are about to vote for the greatest tax increase in American history in a bill called the Clean Energy and Security Act. Oh they will call it Cap and Trade and they will tell Americans that it’s for the reduction of green house gases but let me assure you that there is only one reason that Democrats are hotly pursuing this cause, MONEY. Your money, you remember the Obama telling Steve Scully of C-Span that America is out of money? (previous post) (see 28sec video forgive poor quality) Well Democrat law makers have found a new revenue stream...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

The EPA is now considering designating CO2 a dangerous pollutant. The regulation of essential elements of life by our government scares me. It should scare us all. I am devastated by the notion that our own government founded on freedom would regulate and control the most fundamental aspects of life on earth. Regulation on life's important things is certainly tyranny and certainly will destroy the world, at least the nation and supposed freedom, we leave to our children. Please, do not regulate the essential elements of life. Freedom is too precious to take it away in such pointless ways. Carbon...

Obama campaigned on it and even managed to talk about it a full week into office, issuing an executive order on January 23, 2009, promising to create "an unprecedented level of openness in Government" and "establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration." As usual with the words that float so effortlessly from politicians, they were just words. Undoubtedly, they will be paraded about from time to time like a USSR military review--whenever it's convenient to do so. One very important place where transparency is being hidden behind closed doors involves the very inconvenient science behind charging the EPA...

Grove City, Pa. - A few days before this year's Earth Day, America's ideological greens received a present they have been desiring for years: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – responding to a 2007 US Supreme Court ruling – officially designated carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant. That spurred Democrats in Congress to push a major climate change bill. In the next 25 years, their massive cap-and-trade scheme would, according to a Heritage Foundation study, inflict gross domestic product losses of $9.4 trillion, raise an average family's energy bill by $1,241, and destroy some 1,145,000 jobs. Democrats want it passed...

The June 23rd EPA CO2 endangerment public comment deadline looms Comments must be received by EPA by June 23. You can send public comments here: ghg–endangerment-docket@epa.gov To submit a comment, identify them with Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171 and submit them online, by email, by facsimile, by mail or by hand delivery. The docket # is Re: Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– OAR–2009–0171 Be sure to include that number in email They must be received by EPA by June 23. === Points to make - and note that "form letters" are not as effective as personal ones - though we all know...

In April, California adopted a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Since then, Governor Schwarzenegger has been marketing the policy to other states and even Canada. (Both British Columbia and Ontario have agreed to adopt the standard). Until recently, a LCFS was an element of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454) but was dropped after it became clear that the standard would sink the bill. That's good news -- for now -- since the policy will, at best, be much more expensive and less effective than a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade scheme, and, at worst,...

Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) is the most comprehensive objective compilation of science on climate change ever published. It offers a “second opinion” to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2007. Unlike that report, Climate Change Reconsidered finds global warming is not a crisis, and never was. Principal findings of the book include the following: Climate models suffer from numerous deficiencies and shortcomings that could alter even the very sign (plus or minus, warming or cooling) of earth’s projected temperature response...

Climate change has a new Knight in Shining Armor - Henry Waxman (D-CA). His 900+ page Climate Bill, also known as Cap-and-Trade or more affectionately as Cap-and-Tax, is supposed to somehow stop, and possibly reverse, Global Warming. Waxman, and other supporters are obviously not true believers in the climate change cause, or CO2’s role as a root cause.It should be plainly obvious that an energy tax will have absolutely no effect on either global atmospheric concentrations of CO2, nor average temperatures. Not one additional inch of arctic ice will be gained. Snow will not magically form on Mount Kilimanjaro. Ocean...

Think your apartment is small? Don't try to tell that to Elizabeth Turnbull. While studying for her master's in urban ecology and environmental design, the 24-year-old graduate student at Yale University is living in a truly tiny house. It measures just 8 1/2 feet wide by 18 1/2 feet long, for a cozy total of 144 square feet. The goal? Limiting her impact on the environment.

When Obama unveiled new fuel standards we decried the end of fun cars and pointed out how far most automakers are from meeting new-for-2016 fuel standards. It turns out, thanks to Hummer-sized loopholes like your car's air-conditioning, automakers should be able to meet them with little fear.

’ve warned about the implications of cap and trade for the energy industry and America’s families. Any policy that boasts hundreds of billions in new federal revenue has to get that money from somewhere. Under the cap and trade plan, the average American family is looking at an annual increase in energy costs of $3,100. But for states like Montana, where more than 60% of our electricity comes from coal - it could be even more. That’s why the Montanans I’ve talked to are expressing more concerns about cap and trade every day. The powerful special interests that support cap...

Republicans will take their first shot at derailing a top Democratic priority — climate change legislation — by offering as many as 200 amendments when the House Energy and Commerce Committee begins marking up its bill this afternoon. The markup, which could stretch over several days, probably provides House Republicans with their best opportunity for offering changes to a bill that will likely see limited amendments on the floor. “Our folks are united against cap-and-trade,” Energy and Commerce member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said of the carbon control policy being pushed by Democrats. Last week, Democrats agreed among themselves on a...

The Obama administration itself estimates that cap and trade will involve increased costs from 2012 to 2019 alone of $645 billion, and admits in its own budget that the actual costs could be much higher than that, depending on permit prices over those years. Indeed, other estimates put the costs three times higher. So the increased burden on each Ameri can over this period alone would be $2,100 to $6,300. For a family with two children, that would be $8,400 to $25,200, with much more to come after 2019. These increased costs are effectively a new tax on the American...

When it comes global warming, two debates are currently taking place. At the forefront is the political debate. Current legislation introduced by House Democrats Ed Markey and Henry Waxman includes a cap-and-trade plan to attempt to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But the debate unfortunately (and like most political debates) has largely evolved into each party talking past each other.In fact, even Democrats have been talking past each other, which forced Chairman Waxman to bypass subcommittee markup and moving to full committee to keep the bill moving forward—though this may have changed today. Regardless, A number of...

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday a finding that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are a public-health danger won't necessarily lead to government regulation of emissions, an apparent about-face for the Obama administration. The new position follows revelation of a White House document that warns the EPA of the wide-ranging -- and potentially economically harmful -- consequences of an agency finding last month that proposes declaring greenhouse gases are a danger to the public. The White House memo also undermines the EPA's reasoning for the "endangerment" proposal. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has previously said such a...

Today the Obama administration’s Department of Interior announced that it would keep a Bush administration rule [1] forbidding government scientists from considering global warming when protecting polar bears pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.When the Bush Interior Department announced their rule, they were roundly [2] criticized [3] by the enviro-left [4]. It will be interesting to see how they react to the Obama administration taking the same position.More interesting is how the Obama EPA justified their decision. McClatchy reports [1]: On Friday, the Interior Department reluctantly agreed, saying that it’s scientifically impossible to use the Endangered Species Act to regulate...

New federal greenhouse gas emission regulation could expose a raft of smaller emitters to litigation, a nominee for a key post in the Environmental Protection Agency told lawmakers Thursday. The potential for smaller emitters to be regulated under the Clean Air Act is one reason why business groups warn that EPA regulation of greenhouse gases could create a cascade of legal and regulatory challenges across a much broader array of sectors. The Obama administration has said that isn't their intent. Regina McCarthy, nominated to be EPA's Director of Air and Radiation, told lawmakers that even while the government has flexibility...

By Marc Morano - Climate Depot - May 4, 2009 Washington, DC - NASA scientist James Hansen, perhaps the most vocal voice in the U.S. warning of a man-made global warming crisis, has declared he hopes Congressional efforts to pass a cap-and-trade climate bill fail. "I hope cap and trade doesn't pass, because we need a much more effective approach,” Hansen said during a keynote lecture at Columbia University's climate conference on May 2, 2009. Hansen urged Congress to “abandon cap-and-trade initiatives altogether and implement a simple carbon tax instead” according to a May 4, 2009 article titled "Hansen hopes...

... Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts have introduced the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Also known as “the cap-and-trade bill,” this [648-page bill] would stifle the already ailing economy with brand-new costs and regulations designed to defeat so-called global warming. Michigan Democrat John Dingell dared to utter the truth on April 24. “Nobody in this country realizes that cap-and-trade is a tax, and a great big one.” How big? $646 billion between 2012 and 2019, according to President Obama’s budget. Even worse, this bill aims roughly to halve CO2 levels from about 900...

[L]ast Friday the Environmental Protection Agency decided to put a gun to the head of Congress and play cap-and-trade roulette with the U.S. economy. The pistol comes in the form of a ruling that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant that threatens the public and therefore must be regulated under the 1970 Clean Air Act. This so-called "endangerment finding" sets the clock ticking on a vast array of taxes and regulation that EPA will have the power to impose across the economy, and all with little or no political debate. This is a momentous decision that has the potential to...

WASHINGTON -- A proposal in Congress to cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by putting a price on carbon could raise prices for electricity by 22% and natural gas by 17% in 2030, according to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency. But the impact on consumers would be modest, provided the government returns the bulk of the money raised by a carbon cap-and-trade system to households, the analysis showed. If that happens, the analysis showed the average American household would pay an extra $98 to $140 a year -- 27 cents to 38 cents a day -- to cut greenhouse-gas emissions...

Like medieval priests, today’s carbon brokers will sell you an indulgence that forgives your carbon sins. It will run you about $500 for 5 tons of forgiveness—about how much the typical American needs every year. Or about $2,000 a year for a typical four-person household. Your broker will spend the money on such things as reducing methane emissions from hog farms in Brazil. But if you really want to make a difference, you must send a check large enough to forgive the carbon emitted by four poor Brazilian households, too—because they’re not going to do it themselves. To cover all...

One of the most important events of our lifetimes may have just transpired. A federal agency has decided that it has the power to regulate everything, including the air you breathe. Nominally, the Environmental Protection Agency's announcement last Friday only applies to new-car emissions. But pretty much everyone agrees that the ruling opens the door to regulating, well, everything. According to the EPA, greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide -- the gas you exhale -- as well as methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. It is literally impossible to imagine a significant economic or human activity that does not...

Regulation: The Environmental Protection Agency ruled Friday that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that must be regulated. Many are willing to pay the economic costs. Will they be willing to pay in lost lives, too?There are a number of CO2 sources, mostly natural. But Washington can more easily — and eagerly — control human sources, which are roughly 3% of all carbon dioxide emissions. Unless Congress steps in with a legislative plan, unelected bureaucrats will have the authority to set caps on CO2 emissions on electric utilities, energy companies, airlines, cars, trucks, schools, hospitals — anything that releases carbon into...

Waxman-Markey. Higher energy prices. Lost jobs. Strained household income. Minimal environmental benefits. Lose-lose. Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) recently introduced well-intended legislation meant to curb greenhouse gases, but the legislation will carry a high price tag, including slowed economic growth and reduced U.S. employment and gross domestic product. The payoff for a steep economic cost: very little, in environmental terms. While it is understandable that elected leaders wish to address climate, there is little doubt the bill’s cap-and-trade scheme would end up costing consumers and employers. A joint analysis from the American Council for Capital Formation and...

Last Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency began implementing Obama administration policy with a “finding” that man-made global warming is a threat to human health. This finding provides the legal foundation for massive regulation of American life that would ultimately chase remaining manufacturing out of the country, sharply reduce America’s standard of living, and tumble the American economy into long term decline. The EPA and Obama are just following the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But the UN is as self-interested on this issue as the oil companies — except that it tilts in the...

Only a few years ago radical environmentalists would have been more circumspect in their energy pronouncements than members of the Obama Administration, many of whom seem to want to govern by slogan and sound bite rather than reality. Things have been happening in rapid fire and it seems now abundantly clear that the recession, economic crisis and economic stimulus will be used as a cover to usher measures with agendas that, if enacted and stay, would have a major negative impact on our lifestyles and our economy for decades to come. On April 17 the EPA declared finally what many...

[...] Rahm Emanuel is telling senior White House advisers, as well as outside lobbyists and business leaders [...], that he will not allow the cap and trade plan put forward by Rep. Henry Waxman in late March to move very far along the legislative process. Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, put forward a co-sponsored bill with Rep. Ed Markey that set specific policy markers that would reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 20% of their 2005 levels in 20 years. Waxman says he's only doing "what the scientists are telling us we must do." Such a goal,...

Last year, the Brookings Institute conducted a first-of-its-kind study of the per-capita carbon footprints of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. Lexington's combination of coal-fired energy, sprawl and lack of attention to efficiency tagged it at No. 100 — the worst of them all.

Spam 'produces 17m tons of CO2' BBC NewsPage last updated at 14:01 GMT, Thursday, 16 April 2009 15:01 UK A study into spam has blamed it for the production of more than 33bn kilowatt-hours of energy every year, enough to power more than 2.4m homes. The Carbon Footprint of e-mail Spam report estimated that 62 trillion spam emails are sent globally every year. This amounted to emissions of more than 17 million tons of CO2, the research by climate consultants ICF International and anti-virus firm McAfee found. Searching for legitimate e-mails and deleting spam used some 80% of energy. The...

The US government is to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, having decided that it and five other greenhouse gases may endanger human health and well-being. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the move following a review of the scientific evidence. The decision marks a major change from the Bush presidency, when the EPA argued it could not regulate CO2 because the gas was not a pollutant. Developing countries have asked for the US to show leadership on climate. Many are not prepared to curtail their own emissions without firm indications that the US is willing to make significant reductions. Carbon-cutting legislation...

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said he won’t compromise on his proposed 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases over the next decade in the face of criticism from lawmakers who say the economy could suffer. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aaE9Lr1448tM&refer=home

NEW DELHI -- Days after the Obama administration unveiled a push to combat climate change, Indian officials said it was unlikely to prompt them to agree to binding emission cuts, a position among emerging economies that many say derails effective action. "If the question is whether India will take on binding emission reduction commitments, the answer is no. It is morally wrong for us to agree to reduce when 40 percent of Indians do not have access to electricity," said a member of the Indian delegation to the recently concluded U.N. conference in Bonn, Germany, which is a prelude to...

India has thrown down the gauntlet to developed nations in the latest round of climate change talks, saying the developing world wants to see pledges of cash before it is prepared to discuss emissions curbs. The move draws battle lines between rich and poor countries and threatens to halt progress on climate change: rich countries insisted that they cannot name sums before getting commitments that future emissions will be reduced. Shyam Saran, special envoy to the Indian prime minister, said at a UN meeting in Bonn: “The question [of developing country curbs] should not be divorced from what financial support...

EPA agrees to study acidic seas; move adds to regulation momentum The Obama administration took another step toward regulating carbon dioxide, issuing a notice Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency will review whether those emissions should fall under the Clean Water Act. The EPA earlier this year determined that C02 should be regulated under the Clean Air Act due to its impact on temperatures. But Tuesday's notice — soliciting scientific data as to what extent seas are made more acidic by C02 — could extend regulation out to U.S. waters. The notice was in response to a petition filed by...