Free Republic

I wrote a few weeks ago that The only lower price than today’s closing price on a ton of carbon is ZERO. That’s true now more than ever. See the chart below from yesterday’s close of the Chicago Climate Exchange: [snip] And it’s still crashing. Last week the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) announced that they were scrapping the existing carbon trading program, and focusing on a new one that deals with directly sold carbon offsets rather than open trading.

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - The United States will host a meeting of major economies on April 18-19 in Washington to advance talks on a global deal to fight climate change, the top U.S. climate negotiator said on Wednesday. Todd Stern told Reuters he hoped U.N. climate talks in 2010 would lead to agreements on six outstanding issues, including financing for poor countries' pollution-control efforts, but he said it was unclear whether a legally binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would be reached this year. "Is there going to be a legal treaty? I think we don't know that,"...

The federal government has been slapping "energy-efficient" ratings on products that don't even exist -- including a bogus space heater with a duster stuck to it and an alarm clock supposedly powered by gasoline. These fake products were submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy for approval as part of an undercover investigation by the Government Accountability Office. The office wanted to see how easily the feds could be duped, since the Energy Star program used to identify products as energy savers serves as a guide to businesses looking for such modern marvels and the basis...

To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving must simply increase, according to a forthcoming report by researchers at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The 14 percent target was set in the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget for fiscal 2010.

More than 90 Maryland homeowners with beautiful views of the Chesapeake Bay say they’re now staring at an ugly reality. The structures are perched on an eroding cliff, but the property owners can’t do anything to stop the soil from wearing away because of a rare insect. The Puritan tiger beetle is an Endangered Species, and the majority of the known beetles live in the cliffside underneath Chesapeake Ranch Estates. Residents say it’s not just a matter of losing their homes, it’s literally a life and death situation. In 1996, a landslide killed a 12 year old girl. Since then,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wind energy could generate 20 percent of the electricity needed by households and businesses in the eastern half of the United States by 2024, but it would require up to $90 billion in investment, according to a government report released on Wednesday. For the 20 percent wind scenario to work, billions must be spent on installing wind towers on land and sea and about 22,000 miles of new high-tech power lines to carry the electricity to cities, according to the study from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "Twenty percent wind is an ambitious goal," said...

The public have been asked to 'snoop' on shopkeepers who continue to sell traditional light bulbs banned by Europe. From September 1, it will be illegal to import conventional pearl or frosted bulbs of any shape or wattage. Traditional incandescent bulbs of 100 watts will also be banned under European law aimed at reducing energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions. They will be replaced by energy saving lights, which usually use flourescent tubes, but it is thought some consumers will still prefer their 'traditional' bulbs, particularly for reading lamps. There is evidence of people hoarding the old fashioned bulbs around...

Road to Green Hell by: Daniel Allen, April 16, 2009 While the risks of continuing to live our current lifestyle have been sung from the rooftops and beaten into the minds of citizens for years now, few have grasped the risks associated with the growing fervor of the green movement. Steve Milloy, the author of a new book called Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop them, offers a comprehensive rebuttal to the green movement, seeking to expose the true motives of many environmental activists. As much as possible in the...