Free Republic

Energy-efficiency investments Tangible gains still ahead for $25 billion initiative In Baltimore, the 300 block of East 23 1/2 Street is getting patched up in time for winter. One economic stimulus program is paying to insulate 11 rental rowhouses, another is paying for furnaces and a third is covering the cost for reflective roofs to be installed by prison inmates in a job-training program. The block is part of one of the biggest initiatives ever undertaken by the federal government, a nationwide push to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. But as the national unemployment rate crosses into the double...

Billionaire gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman gave away just $125,000 of her charitable foundation's $46 million in assets in its first year of operation — and tax records show the bulk of the money went to a surprising place. The Griffith R. Harsh IV and Margaret C. Whitman Charitable Foundation in 2007 contributed $100,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund, which is now at odds with Whitman over water policy. The foundation also invested $3 million in hedge funds based in the Cayman Islands — a Caribbean tax haven that's been the subject of political controversy. ... But it's the $100,000 to...

<p>Climate change belief given same legal status as religion An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.</p>

Gore’s Dual Role in Spotlight: Advocate and Investor JOHN M. BRODER November 2, 2009 WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr. Gore is a partner. The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Mr. Gore’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions...

Thanks for killing the planet, dog owners. Well, that's a rough paraphrase of a New Zealand study that claims a medium-size dog leaves a larger ecological footprint than an SUV. In "Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," authors Robert and Brenda Vale argue that resources required to feed a dog — including the amount of land needed to feed the animals that go into its food — give it about twice the eco-footprint of, say, building and fueling a Toyota Land Cruiser. Noting that a cat's pawprint was roughly equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf's, "New...

State officials deliberately underestimated the cost of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's plan to lure green energy companies to Oregon with big taxpayer subsidies, resulting in a program that cost 40 times more than unsuspecting lawmakers were told, an investigation by The Oregonian shows. Records also show that the program, a favorite of Kulongoski's known as the Business Energy Tax Credit, has given millions of dollars to failed companies while voters are being asked to raise income taxes because the state budget doesn't have enough to pay for schools and other programs. The incentives are now under intense scrutiny at the Oregon...

THE Australian Greens have described as "despicable'' a suggestion that Australia needs to have a serious discussion about the growth of its Muslim population. At least one Liberal frontbencher has distanced the party from the views of the last immigration minister in the previous Howard government, Kevin Andrews. Mr Andrews says the issue of a growing Muslim population is a topic that has to be discussed. "To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,'' the Liberal backbencher told Macquarie Radio Network today. "You...

PARENTS have accused early childhood centres of "greenwashing" their children by burdening them with the responsibility of saving the world.Tots as young as three have sent letters to Kevin Rudd about their passion for green living and asked companies to reduce their packaging.Others are growing their own food, repairing toys and walking to preschool in an effort to reduce their toll on the environment.But experts have called for caution in teaching children about climate change because of the potential for fear, anxiety, frustration, anger and despair at catastrophic events.Mother Paula Driscoll, from Sydney, said environmental disaster was the new...

Bill McKibben '82 has founded 350.org, a worldwide action group that this weekend (Oct. 23-25) will promote demonstrations on every continent. McKibben was at Harvard's Memorial Church for a 90-minute "climate convocation" sponsored by 17 groups. Author and climate activist Bill McKibben '82 ascended into the pulpit of the Memorial Church at Harvard University on Oct. 18, a stage so grand that legend puts it "10 feet above contradiction." McKibben's message is that the Earth is warming rapidly, that climate change is too late to stop, but that it is not too late to act. Acting means getting humankind, with...

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has thrown his hat into the green-investment ring, pledging to spend $1 billion on clean energy. The 29th richest man in the world with a net worth of about $11 billion, Soros suggested he is interested in investing in technologies that are profitable and that are effective in reducing global climate change. "I want to apply rather stringent criteria to the investments," Soros said in a speech in Denmark on Saturday. If he is true to his word, however, his investment would seem to rule out a technology into which he has already invested -- carbon...

Green Car of the Year Finalists Announced Posted: Oct. 08, 2009 10:10 a.m. Steady gas prices have made Kermit's words come true: It's not easy being green. Still, despite American car buyers not exactly being red-hot for green cars, automakers are rolling them out, determined to meet government deadlines for fuel economy standards and emissions -- as well as being prepared for the next time gas prices spike and car shoppers start clamoring for the latest in alternative fuel and ultra-efficient cars. The L.A.Times says "diesels and hybrids dominate the roster of finalists for the 2010 Green Car of the...

There may be nothing so dangerous as a policy fantasy. A good one is like the H1N1 virus. It spreads on contact and threatens to infect everyone in its path. . . . Right now, one of the most dangerous policy fantasies is the distracting notion that government can create so-called green jobs and should strive to do so enthusiastically. While the principal proponent of the green jobs hokum, Van Jones, is now out of government, . . . President Barack Obama, of course, has been a veritable Typhoid Mary of the green job virus, . . . The analysis...

Fisker Automotive will receive a $529 million subsidy from the US government to build hybrid cars for the US market. This follows a previous subsidy award of $465 million to Tesla Motors to build electric cars. Both awards were made on the recommendation of international climate genius, former vice-president Al Gore. The models may seem a bit pricey for the average motorist with the Fisker vehicle going for an estimated $89,000 each and the Tesla for $109,000. Gore touted the subsidy as a “first step toward a completely green automotive future. While these vehicles may look expensive, they are really...

A bunch of bored celebrity idiots got together and ruined a classic song. All in the name of raising awareness to global warming.

~Environmental Awareness from a Common Sense Point of View~ Home About Us ***GREEN TEA PARTY*** Contact Us Site Map FYI (events)   "Green Tea Party" America's Path to Environmental Truth        This national event will have guest speakers to discuss issues such as Cap & Trade, the hidden issues regarding Compact Fluoresent Lights (CFL's) and our ever-eroding freedoms due to overzealous environmentalists.       Location: Lafayette Park, Washington D.C. Date: Saturday, September 26, 2009 Time: 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Fisker Automotive, a California manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles, will receive more than $500 million in federal loans to develop a plug-in hybrid sports car with a sticker price of nearly $90,000 and a new plug-in hybrid vehicle... The Energy Department said Tuesday it would lend $528.7 million to Fisker... "This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He estimated it would save or create about 5,000 jobs. Fisker, launched in 2007, is...

America, are you ready for Rush Limbaugh in an electric car? The conservative talk show host has agreed to take Jay Leno's "Green Car Challenge." In the segment airing next Thursday on NBC's "Jay Leno Show," Limbaugh will race an electric Ford Focus around a custom-built track beside Leno's studio, the show's representative confirmed. The "Green Car Challenge" segment makes its debut on the primetime show tomorrow night. Celebrities who participate drive two times around the twisty track, which takes a little less than a minute to complete. By the time Rush gets behind the wheel of the zero-emission vehicle,...

Before he abruptly exited the White House last weekend, former green jobs czar Van Jones used his government position to help Obama's administration cynically green-wash the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Specifically, Mr. Jones helped lead an Obama-approved effort to reshape America's collective memory of the Sept. 11 atrocities. Eager to keep Mr. Jones in the vanguard of radical change, John Podesta's Center for American Progress reportedly offered Mr. Jones office space earlier this weekto help him get back on his feet. This attempt to re-brand the horrors of Sept. 11 is part of the effort to...

The political radicalization of Van Jones, President Obama's "green jobs" adviser, dates back to 1992, when he and hundreds of others took their anger to the streets of San Francisco in the infamous Rodney King protests. Jones, a Yale Law School student who was working in the Bay Area as an intern, was part of a mob that stormed the city following the acquittal in Los Angeles of four white police officers who had been charged with beating King, who is black, after a car chase. In an essay he wrote soon after the rioting and republished in The Huffington...

Avowed Communist and Barack Obama Administration "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones late yesterday released via the White House press office a statement apologizing for offending anyone with any of a series of inflammatory and indeed ridiculous things he has said in the (very recent) past. The latest bit of Jones inanity news was in fact not something he said, but rather something on to which he signed. That would be an October 26, 2004 "Truth Statement" that asserts amongst other things that President George W. Bush had a hand in the September 11th terrorist attacks. Making Jones a 9-11 "Truther"...

Energy saving light bulbs are not as bright as their traditional counterparts and claims about the amount of light they produce are "exaggerated", the European Union has admitted.Soon they will be the only kind of light bulb allowed, but now officials in Brussels have admitted that energy-saving bulbs are not as bright as the old-fashioned kind they are replacing.Soon they will be the only kind of light bulb allowed, but now officials in Brussels have admitted that energy-saving bulbs are not as bright as the old-fashioned kind they are replacing. From tomorrow a Europe-wide ban on traditional incandescent bulbs will...

Here is video from California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy holding a Town Hall Meeting in Bakersfield where he was asked why the Congress was allowing President Obama to create all the "Czars" he is creating. Just before he answered there were shouts from the audience of "He's a communist!" McCarthy answered the question by saying he did not believe Obama had the right to appoint these "Czars" AND give them powers that encroach on the "Checks and Balances" the Constitution requires. . . . . (Watch Video)

The ever nimble Mr. Gore, meanwhile, is mastering the nuances of green marketing. Scare fare is so over. The green mind-set is now good for the economy. It will create jobs. And harmony. His nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection has launched a new TV campaign with a spot called "Family Values." It does not chat up good parenting and sit-down meals — but a father figure who insists that clean energy will ultimately better his employment prospects.

The California Building Standards Commission has announced that the nation’s first Green Building Standards Code became effective on August 1, 2009. The Code, the culmination of a two-year effort by the Commission, is aimed at enhancing the design and construction of buildings through the use of building concepts having a positive environmental impact and encouraging sustainable practices in the areas of planning and design, energy efficiency, water efficiency and conservation, material conservation and resource efficiency, and environmental air quality. In particular the Code encourages for a green building more than 15 percent reduction in energy usage when compared to the...

Even in these dog days of summer, we still remember the poor folks who paid $700 a month for their electric heat last winter. Only homeowners who signed heating-oil contracts at $4.75 a gallon can begin to feel their pain. Now it's not breaking news that electric heat is expensive. Fossil-fuel-fired power plants consume more than twice as much energy as they produce, then 6.4 percent of the electricity they generate — by some estimates, it's 9.5 percent — is lost in transmission and distribution. All those costs must be accounted for, but until that very distant day when wind,...

From the weekend WSJ. An excerpt: Crops rot and people stand in line for food while the EPA engineers a drought San Joaquin Valley, Calif. In 1931, a severe drought began that within a few years engulfed the Oklahoma panhandle and a third of the Great Plains in a "Dust Bowl." Tens of thousands of people fled the region — many traveling to California along Route 66, which John Steinbeck called "the mother road, the road of flight" in "The Grapes of Wrath." A lot of the "Okies" settled in the San Joaquin Valley. In the decades that followed, state...

Just when you thought you'd seen everything, a pair of scientists at Oregon State University has published a study arguing that any effort to limit carbon emissions must consider the impact of "reproductive choices" on the ecological equation. Paul A. Murtaugh and Michael G. Schlax make their case in "Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals," published in the journal, Global Environmental Change. "While population growth is obviously a key component of projections of carbon emissions at a global level, there has been relatively little emphasis on the environmental consequences of the reproductive choices of an individual person," they argue....

The US Marine Corps is trying to reduce its enormous energy footprint as it sends an extra 10,000 troops into Afghanistan. A team of energy conservation experts seeking for ways to reduce cost of keeping American boots on the ground will accompany the soldiers as they deploy. Fuel is one of the Marine Corps's largest expense. In the harsh Afghan climate the Marines burn through some 800,000 gallons of fuel a day. Getting fuel and water supplies into land locked Afghanistan is expensive and the convoys are often targeted by roadside bombs. ...SNIP... Despite their reputation a rugged warriors,...

Bill Clinton: Make college campuses greener August 13, 2009 7:51 PM | No Comments Former President Bill Clinton spoke about the environment today in Chicago, offering his reputation, his folksy wit and his foundation's Rolodex to university and college presidents seeking green technologies to retrofit their campuses. Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment Summit at the Palmer House Hilton today (Tribune / Abel Uribe) Clinton spoke to the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment, some 250 university presidents and top managers looking to green up their campuses, train students for a...

Elston K. McCowan is a former organizer – now the Public Service Director of SEIU Local 2000 – and board member of the Walbridge Community Education Center, and is a Baptist minister, has been a community organizer for more than 23 years, and now, he is running for Mayor of the City of St. Louis under the Green Party.

Oil from algae? Just a sideshow, Exxon's real thrust into green energy is a big bet on natural gas. There are two ways for a big oil company to go green. There is the political approach and there is the engineer's approach. ExxonMobil (XOM) uses both. Sea of green: In Qatar, Exxon is building the world's largest plants to make liquefied natural gas Purely political: the grand announcement in July that ExxonMobil would put $600 million into algae farms that would turn sunlight into automotive fuel. It takes a leap of faith to think tanks of algae can compete with...

The wildly popular "Cash for Clunkers" program is one of a number of policies funded by this year's stimulus package that encourage consumers to make major purchases in the name of the environment. The program offers incentives for car owners to trade in automobiles getting fewer than 18 miles per gallon for more fuel-efficient vehicles. State-run rebate programs for Energy Star appliances operate similarly, encouraging consumers to replace their washers, dryers and refrigerators with new models that meet efficiency standards set by government agencies. These programs presumably benefit the economy and the environment simultaneously: Increased consumer spending helps manufacturers and...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Officials say the Long Island Rail Road is going to be cleaner and greener, thanks to an influx of federal economic stimulus money. Gov. David Paterson announced Saturday that $25.5 million in stimulus money will finance a new, environmentally friendly train wash for the commuter railroad's electric fleet. The facility will be built in Babylon, replacing an old train wash that was demolished. Another facility in Ronkonkoma also washes electric trains, which make up a large part of the LIRR's fleet. The Babylon train wash will recycle some of its water and get some of its...

Al Gore is pretty much the embodiment of what we will all soon be calling the Green-Industrial Complex. The American Conservative magazine describes how Gore profits from his advocacy of green causes. For a snapshot of the federal and business interests intertwined in the rise of green capitalism, consider the best-known environmentalist, Al Gore, director of the film that has informed so many people’s views on the future of our planet, “An Inconvenient Truth.” To many, especially those still convinced that he was robbed of the 2000 presidential election, Gore is simply a super-committed individual determined to make the planet...

Press reports late Thursday said the government's Cash Allowance Rebate System could already be out of money, hitting a major speed bump and possibly causing dealers some drama. ... CARS works this way: Owners of a 1984 or newer vehicle getting 18 mpg or less in combined highway/city ratings can trade in their so-called "clunkers" for more fuel-efficient new cars (in some cases only a few extra miles are required). For their trouble, owners get $3,500 to $4,500 of taxpayer money and their old vehicles' engines are destroyed so they won't end up back on the road. That last part,...

You've seen up-close parking reserved for handicapped drivers or expectant mothers, but a new parking restriction is popping up in Collin County: hybrid-only parking. In an effort to help the environment, the new JC Penney in Fairview has preferential parking for low emitting, fuel efficient vehicles. Link to related video: http://www.nbcdfw.com/traffic/transit/Green_Parking_Push_Dallas-Fort_Worth.html

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she won't approve more cash for clunkers unless the program is revised to require higher fuel efficiency and greater emissions reductions. "We will insist than any extension of the program requires that the minimum fuel economy improvement for newly purchased vehicles be at least two miles per gallon higher than it is under the enacted clunkers program. It is also important to include lower-income consumers who are disadvantaged under the current program. So, we would also include a voucher for the purchase of fuel efficient used vehicles," Feinstein, a Democratic, said in a joint statement...

FOX News’ Sean Hannity recently looked at a recent interview Newsweek magazine conducted with Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar,” Van Jones. Jones, a self-described former communist who was arrested and briefly detained during the Rodney King riots, was interviewed by Newsweek’s Daniel Stone for a July 28, 2009 web-only story. (Snip) Jones tells Newsweek that the real problem is that no one in authority can agree about just what a “green job” actually is

Gone With The Wind By: Tait Trussell FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 30, 2009   The statuesque and towering windmill represents one of Barack Obama’s grandiose hopes for renewable energy in our future. But windmills also have a troubling feature: They can be bad for your health. Dr. Nina Pierpont has conducted substantial research on what she calls “wind turbine syndrome,” the clinical name she has given to the “constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines.” These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression;...

Below Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck explains the Apollo Alliance on his July 28 show. Beck mentions the Obama administration’s “stimulus” blueprint, “The New Apollo Program: Clean Energy, Good Jobs,” which you can read here.

The Leftist publication deserves some plaudits for exploring this $60 billion gaping hole in the $787 billion "stimulus" package President Barack Obama signed into law in February. But there are many points in the article where they could have done better. It would have been nice, for instance, if Newsweek had exhibited some of the scrutiny they show here in advance of the massive plan's passage. They begin with an interesting realization:

The staggered phase out of energy-wasting light bulbs begins on Sept. 1 in Germany. The unpopularity of the energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs that will replace them is leading consumers and retailers to start hoarding the traditional bulbs. As the Sept. 1 deadline for the implementation of the first phase of the EU's ban on incandescent light bulbs approaches, shoppers, retailers and even museums are hoarding the precious wares -- and helping the manufacturers make a bundle. The EU ban, adopted in March, calls for the gradual replacement of traditional light bulbs with supposedly more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). The...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The Sierra Club has joined other environmental groups in intervening in Virginia proceedings to try to block a high-voltage multistate transmission line. The Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, said it filed papers Monday with Virginia's State Corporation Commission. SCC spokesman Ken Schrad says Monday was the deadline for intervening in the $1.9 billion line proposed by Pennsylvania's Allegheny Energy Co. and Ohio's American Electric Power Co. The Piedmont Environmental Council and the National Wildlife Federation also have filed notices of participation. The 765-kilovolt Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, or PATH, would run across parts of northern Virginia and...

Pew Environment Group Launches Project to Highlight Link Between National Security, Energy, Climate Change The Pew Charitable Trusts has announced a new project designed to gather and share with the public viewpoints on the critical links between national security, energy, and global warming. Former Senator John Warner (R-VA) will work the Pew Environment Group on the Pew Project on National Security, Energy, and Climate, which will bring together science and military policy experts to examine new strategies for combating climate change, protecting national security, increasing energy independence, and preserving the nation's natural resources. Warner will work exclusively with state and...

Once the lure of communism seduced the idealistic. Today’s environmental ideologues risk becoming just as dangerous Anthony Blunt’s memoirs, published this week, reveal a different age, one in which fascism and communism were locked in a seemingly definitive battle for souls. Blunt talks of “the religious quality” of the enthusiasm for the Left among the students of Cambridge. There is only one ideology in today’s developed world that exercises a similar grip. If Blunt were young today, he would not be red; he would be green. His band of angry young men would find Gore where once they found Marx....

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood remarked in May that his livability initiative[1] "is a way to coerce people out of their cars."[2] When asked if this was government intrusion into people's lives, LaHood responded that "about everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives," a sentiment that would have certainly surprised the authors of the United States Constitution, a document whose major purpose was to restrain government. LaHood's endorsement of government coercion comes as no surprise to those who have been tracking the Obama Administration's incremental endorsements of the environmentalists' smart growth strategies to slow growth, crowd...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Angry Appalachian coal miners are refusing to vacation in Tennessee because they say one of that state’s political leaders wants to eliminate needed jobs by banning mountaintop removal. Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander is sponsoring legislation that would bar coal companies from the controversial mining practice that involves blasting away mountaintops to unearth coal and dumping dirt, rock and trees into the valleys beneath. Such a ban would effectively halt the destructive form of mining. Miners in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia are taking part in the protest, said Roger Horton, director of Citizens for Coal,...

July 17, 2009 An entertainer learns a lesson William D. Zeranski Working for the common good is noble, but naïve support of nice-sounding causes can have its drawbacks, as actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez learned the hard way: In recent months, actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez has made known his defection from the Democratic party (sic) because of the party's lack of interest in helping drought-stricken farmers like himself in California who have had water denied to them by court order under the Endangered Species Act to save an endangered fish, the delta smelt. [...] "I always saw myself as...

Climate Change: A 2006 California law meant to lead the way on global warming looks like an economic disaster in the making. So far, Congress and Obama have ignored the warnings.America remains the richest country on earth, but it might profit from adopting a bit of the attitude displayed by much poorer but up-and-coming economic rivals such as China and India. Those nations don't take prosperity for granted. That's why they aren't such good sports on global warming. They prefer to get rich and then go green. Now, the U.S. isn't so poor that it can't afford strong environmental policies....

Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel continued his unrelenting assault on Gov. Corzine’s environmental record today. Just two hours before Obama took the stage at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel to rally the Democratic base for Gov. Corzine, Tittel put out a release calling the governor “Unbama.” “The Sierra Club, which endorsed President Obama for election and has worked with his administration on many environmental issues, finds the differences between the Obama and Corzine Administration’s striking. In many instances when it comes to the environment they are on opposite sides,” said Tittel, whose organization yesterday issued a...