The Great Global Warming Swindle

Global warming is almost exclusively about politics and increases taxes and control over people, rather than science. We have advanced beyond the military industrial complex to the welfare industrial complex and environmental industrial complex.

Love of Theory is the Root of All Evil

The Cost of Higher Fuel Economy

From The New York Times: "Electric cars, hybrids and high-mileage versions of some vehicles are more efficient but also more expensive than similar offerings from the same brand. Even given high gas prices, it may take years to earn back the additional cost."

Grouch: I think the "green" in green economy refers more to the extra dollars it costs, rather than any good done for the environment.

Round and Round We Go, Where the Subsidies Stop, No One Knows

From The Examiner:

A heavily subsidized solar company received a U.S. taxpayer loan guarantee to sell solar panels to itself.

First Solar is the company. The subsidy came from the Export-Import Bank, which President Obama and Harry Reid are currently fighting to extend and expand. The underlying issue is how Obama’s insistence on green-energy subsidies and export subsidies manifests itself as rank corporate welfare.

Here’s the road of subsidies these solar panels followed from Perrysburg, Ohio, to St. Clair, Ontario.

First Solar is an Arizona-based manufacturer of solar panels. In 2010, the Obama administration awarded the company $16.3 million to expand its factory in Ohio — a subsidy Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland touted in his failed re-election bid that year.

Five weeks before the 2010 election, Strickland announced more than a million dollars in job training grants to First Solar. The Ohio Department of Development also lent First Solar $5 million, and the state’s Air Quality Development Authority gave the company an additional $10 million loan.

After First Solar pocketed this $17.3 million in government grants and $15 million in government loans, Ex-Im entered the scene.

In September 2011, Ex-Im approved $455.7 million in loan guarantees to subsidize the sale of solar panels to two solar farms in Canada. That means if the solar farm ever defaults, the taxpayers pick up the tab, ensuring First Solar gets paid.

But the buyer, in this case, was First Solar.

A small corporation called St. Clair Solar owned the solar farm and was the Canadian company buying First Solar’s panels. But St. Clair Solar was a wholly owned subsidiary of First Solar. So, basically, First Solar was shipping its own solar panels from Ohio to a solar farm it owned in Canada, and the U.S. taxpayers were subsidizing this “export.”

First Solar spokesman Alan Bernheimer defended this maneuver, saying this really was an export, pointing out that First Solar paid sales taxes on the transaction.

But this subsidy undermines the arguments for Ex-Im’s existence. Ex-Im, whose authorization expires May 31, is supposed to be a job creator, helping U.S. manufacturers beat foreign manufacturers by having U.S. taxpayers backstop the financing.

“It is critical that we encourage more American companies to compete in the global marketplace,” Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg said about the First Solar deal, saying the subsidy “will boost Ohio’s economy, create hundreds of local jobs and move us closer to President Obama’s goal of doubling U.S. exports by the end of 2014.”

The implication here is that First Solar was “competing” with foreign solar panel makers in order to sell solar panels — to First Solar.

Ah, yes, the old Government shell game at its finest. Nothing like using taxpayer money to buy products from yourself.

Are the Polar Ice Caps Completely Gone Yet?

So much for Al Gore's prediction back in 2007 that there would be no sea ice in five years. The above picture from the University of Illinois shows that Alaska and Greenland are having a very healthy year for sea ice.

Don Surber of the Daily Mail reports:

So much for an ice-free Arctic. Henry Hudson’s long-ago dream of a Northwest Passage that would link England to the Orient by sea will have to wait another century as Mother Earth gives him the cold shoulder. Again.

From Real Science: “1979 was the peak year for Arctic ice, yet 2012 has more ice around Greenland and Alaska than 1979 did.”

Same date satellite data seems to show that Iceland and everywhere else is iced over this year when they were feeling a little green 33 years ago.

Of course, our moral and intellectual superiors elsewhere in the press keep banging the drums of Man Caused Global Warming.

The Green Jobs Answer Man

ManBearPig, Climategate, and Watermelons: James Delingpole on the Climate Industrial Complex

James Delingpole is the man the climate-industrial complex loves to hate. He has put together a damning case against the green movement in his book Watermelons. This was before the billions lost to taxpayers on Solyndra and Nevada Geothermal Power and how many other companies yet to be named. He is putting a big dent in the carbon robber barrons' dreams of world dominance.

The Honeywell WT6500 Personal Wind Turbine

Among homeowners, wind energy has never caught on, in large part because personal turbines are often noisy and inefficient. Most turbines need strong winds to turn a heavy central generator and create current, a design with two main disadvantages. First, the gears make a lot of noise. Plus, the generator is positioned at the blades’ center, which moves at one tenth the speed of the periphery. And less speed translates to less power.

Honeywell’s wheel-shaped WT6500 takes an entirely new approach. Magnets mounted near the tips of its 20 blades sweep through an outer ring of copper coils to produce a current, making the entire wheel the generator. Because this arrangement traps energy from the fast-moving blade tips and eliminates the heavy central generator, the WT6500 can pull a current from winds as slow as two miles an hour (most home turbines need 8mph gusts). Better suited to home use than other turbine designs, the wheel is six feet in diameter, whisper-quiet, and can produce up to 1,500 kilowatt-hours of power per year—enough to replace about 15 percent of an average household’s energy bill. Depending on an area’s clean-energy incentives, the turbine can pay for itself in only a couple of years, though most owners will make back their investment in five to 10.

HOW IT WORKS

• A flap on either side of the wheel catches wind, which spins the turbine toward the gusts.
• The wind moves the turbine wheel, including its 20 blades.
• The blade tips contain rare-earth metal magnets. As they sweep through copper coils in the outer frame, they generate a DC current.
• An inverter [not shown] gathers the current. It can store the power in a battery or convert it to AC for immediate use.

Source: Popular Science

Grouch: I'd love to have one of these on my roof, but the economics of the purchase don't look particularly good for this $10K purchase.  Under optimal conditions (i.e., windy all the time), at 13 cents per kilowatt hour (what my electric company charges), I'd save $195 a year, for a payback period of a little over 51 years.  But realistically, the wind won't be blowing all the time.  If I'm very lucky and the wind blows 50% of the time, my payback period is now over 100 years.  But if I hit the 15 - 20% average, my payback period is over 200 years.  My guess would be the useful lifetime for this type of machine is somewhere on the order of 20 - 25 years, making it almost impossible to break even on this investment unless my electricity rates were to triple or quadruple.

These first versions will probably be toys for the rich, who may not care whether they are economically sound investments.  If the prices for this type of product begin to come in at under $800, they may be worth a serious look for the average homeowner in windy locations.

Why The Global Warming Agenda Is Wrong

Roy W. Spencer, former NASA climatologist and climate expert, shares his thoughts on the global warming agenda.

Climategate Explained

The speaker is Berkeley physicist Richard Muller.

My Own Personal Global Warming Paradise

Over 12 inches of paradise fell last night.

Walking Through a Global Warming Wonderland

More Evidence of Global Warming: Snow in 49 States

As evidence continues to grow that global warming is a real, man-made phenomenon, what more supporting evidence is required than here in the US we now have snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states, the sole exception being Florida.  Paradoxically, much of North America has been experiencing a colder than average winter this year, and the UK has experienced their coldest winter in 1000 years.  It should be no surprise to anyone that this is caused by the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere, and though our kids have forgotten what snow looks like with the alarming rise in global temperatures they can still relive the experience by buying snow cones from the local Eskimo stand.  

Someone I work with who lives in Huntsville, AL sent me the photo below.

This picture has obviously been digitally altered, because there is no way anyone in Alabama could have snow on the ground.  I totally discount the local newspaper reports that Homer Gantry, of Homer's Auto and Body Shop fame, was unable to get his ancient snow plow attached to his pickup truck and now the good folks of Huntsville will just have to wait until the big thaw before they can get their cars on the road again to create more global warming.

Get Ready for Higher Energy Prices: EPA Moves to Unilaterally Impose Carbon Caps

Piers Corbin, routinely mocked by the global warming true believers, has been uncannily accurate with his weather predictions. In the video below he gives his assessment of the global warming "science," and put forth his prediction we are in the early stages of a cycle of global cooling.


Meanwhile back in the strange world of politics (where up is down and down is up), what could not be accomplished through legislation will now be implemented through regulation. Congresses failed attempts to pass the Cap and Tax bill have forced the administration to move to Plan B-- EPA mandates. The EPA said it would regulate fossil fuel power plants and petroleum refineries — which together emit nearly 40 percent of US greenhouse gases — starting in 2012.

"We are following through on our commitment to proceed in a measured and careful way to reduce greenhouse gas pollution that threatens the health and welfare of Americans and contributes to climate change," EPA chief Lisa Jackson said in a statement.

Of course, "climate change" is an interesting term now that "global warming" has become the butt of jokes. The climate does nothing but change every day, and has done so since the beginning of time, before man was even on the earth or discovered fire or fossil fuels. Now any weather fluctuations can be blamed on greenhouse gases and carbon emissions-- whether it is hot or cold or dry or wet, horror of all horrors, it's caused by climate change. We are already seeing this play out around the world, and nothing could be more ridiculous, or more revealing about just how little the global warming advocates really know about the climate.

But what's the real end game here? It is two-fold: 1) the government desperately wants to increase it's revenue through additional taxes and fees on energy, and 2) green energy sources are less efficient and more costly than fossil fuels, so to make green energy viable in the market the cost of traditional energy sources must at least double. The master planers must lead the people to the nirvana of renewable energy no matter what the costs.

If there ever was reason to significantly reduce funding to the EPA, this is it.  112th Congress, are you listening?

Quote of the Day: The Wall Street Journal -- Boone Pickens Gives Up On Wind Power

After 30 months, countless TV appearances, and $80 million spent on an extravagant PR campaign, T. Boone Pickens has finally admitted the obvious: The wind energy business isn't a very good one.

The Dallas-based entrepreneur, who has relentlessly promoted his "Pickens Plan" since July 4, 2008, announced earlier this month that he's abandoning the wind business to focus on natural gas.

Two years ago, natural gas prices were spiking and Mr. Pickens figured they'd stay high. He placed a $2 billion order for wind turbines with General Electric. Shortly afterward, he began selling the Pickens Plan. The United States, he claimed, is "the Saudi Arabia of wind," and wind energy is an essential part of the cure for the curse of imported oil.

Voters and politicians embraced the folksy billionaire's plan. Last year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he had joined "the Pickens church," and Al Gore said he wished that more business leaders would emulate Mr. Pickens and be willing to "throw themselves into the fight for the future of our country."

Alas, market forces ruined the Pickens Plan. Mr. Pickens should have shorted wind. Instead, he went long and now he's stuck holding a slew of turbines he can't use because low natural gas prices have made wind energy uneconomic in the U.S., despite federal subsidies that amount to $6.44 for every 1 million British thermal units (BTUs) produced by wind turbines. As the former corporate raider explained a few days ago, growth in the wind energy industry "just isn't gonna happen" if natural gas prices remain depressed.

In 2008, shortly after he launched his plan, Mr. Pickens said that for wind energy to be competitive, natural gas prices must be at least $9 per million BTUs. In March of this year, he was still hawking wind energy, but he'd lowered his price threshold, saying "The place where it works best is with natural gas at $7."


~ The Wall Street Journal, A Wind Power Boonedoggle by Robert Bryce

Grouch: Boone should have known better. He was dead on with his call that natural gas should be the fuel of the next 25 - 75 years while the technological challenges of alternative energy got solved to make it cost competitive in a free and open marketplace. It's unusual to see a veteran energy guy like Boone get sucker punched by the siren's call of wind power.

Last Minute Christmas Shopping for That Special Someone

Looking for a last minute present for that special someone and can't seem to find the exact right thing? Think about some carbon offset credits. What could more fulfilling than living a carbon-neutral life? Make it a green Holiday, and deck the halls with something other than holly and mistletoe.

More information can be found here.  

I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of my family and friends when they rip the paper off their presents to find a highly decorative and prestigious Carbon Offset Certificate.  Too bad it isn't signed by President Al Gore.  Maybe next year.  

The Cancun Climate Farce

It's hard work jetting off to luxurious resorts to listen to each other shout sanctimonious slogans and mindless claptrap, but oligarchical collectivists from the United Nations are willing to endure it for the sake of the polar bears:

The 12 Days Of Global Warming

More Evidence of Global Warming: Roof of Metrodome Collapses

From the AP:

An intense storm that spanned parts of eight states continued to dump heavy snow in the upper Midwest on Sunday, collapsing the Metrodome in Minneapolis and forcing numerous road closures.

The storm was moving eastward a day after it dumped 20 inches of snow in some places. A Sunday NFL football game between the New York Giants and the Minnesota Vikings had already been pushed to Monday because the Giants couldn’t get to Minneapolis to play when the inflatable Metrodome collapsed Sunday. It’s uncertain when that game will now be played.

Update: Detroit's Ford Field will host the game between the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings moved from Minneapolis after the Metrodome's inflatable Teflon roof collapsed under the weight of snow from a heavy storm that passed through on Saturday.

The game, with a 7:20 p.m. ET kickoff, had already been postponed from Sunday after the Giants' flight was diverted Saturday to Kansas City as Minnesota air travel was shut down.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Is The Latest Greenhouse Pollutant That Must be Banned

This will be my last post making fun of the UN COP 16 conference in Cancun. I promise.  My old buddies Penn and Teller caught onto the climate scam early on and it's main goal of extracting money from the gullible.  In this video from 2006, the dynamic duo convince well meaning, but not particularly bright people to sign a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide, which is an “evil” chemical found in our lakes, rivers, oceans, our food and has even been absorbed into our bodies!.  That is H2O for those of you who took high school chemistry.



Yes, these folks signed up to ban water. Now watch the video from the Cancun climate conference. You’d think these sophisticated delegates would be have enough science background (from their work in complex climate issues) to realize what they are signing, but sadly, no.



HT: Watts Up With That