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“If you build it,” an Iowa corn farmer was told in the movie Field of Dreams, “they will come.” That worked out so well for all concerned that the federal government is reviving the approach, with some slight edits. “If we mandate it, the science will come,” seems to be Washington’s motto. Instead, government has ended up replacing science with, well, fiction. Consider the push for renewable fuels. It’s easy to see why lawmakers would want to encourage Americans to grow energy rather than dig it out of the ground. But in their eagerness to create an industry, lawmakers...

It becomes a difficult task for those in power to resist the lure of acquiring even more power. The more they have, the more they want. No such example exists greater than that of New York City mayor-king Michael Bloomberg. This is the man who brought into existence the absurd and absurdly named National Salt Reduction Initiative, an incentive-based program designed to reduce the amount of salt in restaurant and prepackaged food. This is the man who, last year, banned the sale of sugary drinks, like sodas, in more than 16-oz containers. Why? Because what’s good for Bloomberg is what’s...

A large global warming protest with a very Canadian connection is scheduled for Sunday February 17th at the White House. The protest, organized by the Sierra Club and 350.org, is being dubbed as the biggest climate rally in U.S. history and is meant to encourage President Obama to veto the construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from northern Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. In a telephone interview with Yahoo! Canada News, 350.org's Daniel Kessler said that he is expecting tens of thousands of people including "several groups" from Canada. Obama is expected to...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has fought against smoking, big sugary drinks and salty food during his tenure, is setting his sights on a new foe: Styrofoam. Bloomberg plans to use part of his Thursday State of the City address to push for a ban on Styrofoam food packaging. He also will call for initiatives that would increase the number of parking spaces for electric cars and begin recycling more plastics and food waste "One product that is virtually impossible to recycle and never bio-degrades is Styrofoam ... something that we know is environmentally destructive and that may...

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in physics but came under questioning for his handling of a solar energy loan, is stepping down. Chu offered his resignation to President Barack Obama in a letter Friday. He said he will stay on at least until the end of February and may stay until a successor is confirmed. Chu’s departure had been widely expected and follows announcements by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that they are leaving.

Today must be International Backpedaling Day. Obama says: “Never mind a million EVs by 2015.” Under a new strategy announced today, the Department of Energy promised to support research into new battery technologies and manufacturing methods that would lower the cost of lightweight materials and improve vehicles’ fuel-efficiency, Reuters reports. But the DOE backpedals furiously from a goal set out in a 2011 State of the Union speech, where President Barack Obama announced what he called “Apollo projects of our times.” One of them was the goal for the United States to be “the first country to have a million...

Industrial policy: After lithium-ion batteries caught fire on Boeing's new Dreamliner, stories popped up about how dangerous they are. Turns out they're the same kind of batteries President Obama is forcing into U.S. cars. This month, a Boeing 787 battery caught fire while the plane was sitting at Logan Airport in Boston. Another 787 was forced to land while flying over Japan, forcing Boeing to ground its fleet of state-of-the-art 787s. In the wake of these events, the press suddenly took notice of the risks posed by lithium-ion batteries. USA Today complained that the FAA should have been more cautious...

Yesterday during his second Inaugural Address Barack Obama promised to blow billions of taxpayer dollars on more global warming junk science projects. After all, his donors have to get paid. Eighty percent of Obama’s green energy “investments” his first term went to committed donors. Much of the money was lost. During his first term over 19 of Obama’s green ventures went belly-up after receiving billions of dollars. But that won’t stop him from committing more of your cash to this failed cause. Yesterday, James Delingpole at The Telegraph tossed cold water on Obama’s reckless statements on climate change.

Former vice president Al Gore, newly flush with cash from his sale of his Current TV to Al Qaeda's favorite TV channel, Al Jazeera, did not even bother to show up for the first meeting between the Current staff and the new ownership. New York Post TV critic Linda Stasi has the story: Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses. That would be two of Al Jazeera’s top guys:...

UNDATED (NBC) - As we say goodbye to 2012, we're also saying goodbye to a fixture in America's lighting fixtures: The 75-watt incandescent light bulb. Under federal law, 75-watt bulbs can no longer be produced or imported as of January 1st, though retailers can still clear remaining stock. **SNIP** Traditional 60 and 40 watt bulbs will be phased out in 2014.

HOUSTON -- At the Light Bulb Depot near his home in The Heights, Randy Gingrich just bought another batch of florescent bulbs. “Since I started three years ago, I haven’t replaced a compact fluorescent yet,” he says. “So I’m happy with that.” “In my ceiling fans, each one of mine has four lights,” says Allen Tabb, who’s been selling light bulbs for 16 years. “So instead of using 240 watts of electricity, I only use 60 watts of electricity. And I get the same light output.” Sure, fluorescent bulbs are more expensive than old-fashioned incandescent bulbs and some people complain...

A word of warning: It’s impossible to review Promised Land, the new movie written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski and directed by Gus Van Sant, without giving away its twist ending. Though the plot turn is fumbling in its execution, it is the slyest tactic in the movie’s clumsy crusade against fracking, the process of injecting high-pressure chemicals, water, and sand into the ground to access vast quantities of otherwise inaccessible natural gas.Here’s the premise: Steve Butler (Damon) is a corporate salesman who draws on his rural roots to persuade farmers to sell their land to a fracking...

All “registered owners” of vehicles weighing more than 26,000 GVW have received this letter over the past couple weeks. This edict, only applies to diesel powered vehicles used as a function of business. Privately used vehicles are exempt, at this time. Compliance is very expensive, Diesel Particulate Filters, start around $10,000.00 per vehicle. New vehicles are as high as, $140,000.00. This is an enormous expense to California business owners, which obviously will be passed on. California business also has to comply with a carbon credit scam and undoubtedly, the future recension of Prop 13 protection of commercial property. There are...

Navistar International Corp. (NAV) plans to close its Garland, Texas, assembly plant, as the embattled truck maker shrinks it manufacturing capacity in response to falling demand for commercial trucks. The plant near Dallas employs about 900 workers and has been Navistar's primary site for assembling heavy-duty trucks in recent years. The company intends to cease operations at Garland during first half of next year. Closing Garland is expected to lower Navistar's costs by increasing the utilization of other plants. SNIP Navistar, which also makes military trucks and school buses, has lost $241 million during the first nine months of its...

For the first time since the United States entered a deep recession five years ago, 70% of Americans now say they believe global warming is a reality, according to researchers. In a report released Thursday by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, authors wrote that America’s concern about global warming is now at its highest level since 2008, and that 58% of Americans expressed worries about it.

In the fall of 2010, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. — the state's "corporate welfare” arm — uploaded a video to YouTube highlighting the battery manufacturer A123 Systems. At the time, the company was promoted heavily by President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. Since then, A123 has shed money, laid off half its workforce, recalled products and seen its stock price plummet to about 26 cents this week from a previous high of $26. Now, just two years after the initial roll-out, A123 is...

Obama: Green energy not ‘socialist plot’ By Ben Geman - 10/08/12 09:59 AM ET President Obama quipped Sunday night that energy efficiency initiatives are not a “socialist plot” in remarks that contrasted his energy policies with rival Mitt Romney’s. The president, fundraising in Los Angeles, addressed energy during a $25,000-per-plate dinner with backers that included actor George Clooney. “On energy, I’m big on oil and gas, and developing clean coal technology, but I also believe that if we’re ever going to have control of our energy future, then we’ve got to invest in solar and wind and biofuels, and that...

Michigan would have 10,540 fewer jobs in 2025 if Proposal 3 passes in November, according to a new study on the renewable energy mandate proposal. The study, done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Beacon Hill Institute in Massachusetts, also concluded that Prop 3 would lower disposable income in Michigan by $1.42 billion; reduce net investment in the state by $147 million and impose net costs on the Michigan economy of $2.55 billion. "Our study also indicates that even if voters reject Proposal 3, Michigan residents will still bear some of these costs," David Tuerck, one of...

(SNIP) "Promised Land," starring Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt and Hal Holbrook, is the fracking (anti-fracking?) movie shot in Western Pennsylvania earlier this year. In an interview in June after shooting finished, Krasinski told the Post-Gazette the film is about fighting for American identity and pride and the original script was about wind power, later changed. (END SNIP)

Extraordinarily smart people at the California Air Resources Board have taken to using the term "leakage" as they go about devising the experimental cap and trade system for reducing greenhouse gases. Homer Perez, head boiler mechanic at Pacific Coast Producers' tomato cannery off East Main Street in Woodland, might use a word that is more familiar to the rest of us: "layoff." The cannery has been operating under one owner or another since the 1920s. A cooperative of 16 growers in Yolo, Solano and Sutter counties owns it now. Perez has worked there for 28 of the past 29 years....