Here’s What I Wanted To Say

This is the point I was making in my previous post, The Real Oil Crisis is Politics. Investor’s Business Daily has it all right here.

Who Is Really Responsible For The High Prices You Pay For Gasoline?

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, May 12, 2008 4:20 PM PT

For the last 28 years, Democrats in Congress and a few Republicans have again and again opposed our drilling for oil in Alaska’s ANWR area when we knew it contained at least 10 billion barrels of oil we could be using now.

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IBD Series: Breaking The Back Of High Oil

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• For the past 31 years, Congress repeatedly prevented us from building any new oil refineries that we now badly need.

• More recently, congressional Democrats defeated and discouraged any bill that would let us drill in the deep sea 100 miles out. However, it’s somehow OK for China to drill there.

• As a further indictment of our Congress, since the 1980s it has continually stopped all building of nuclear power plants while France, Germany and, yes, Japan, plus 12 other major nations, did build plants and now get 20% to 80% of their energy from their wise and safe nuclear plant investments.

• From 1990 to 2000, U.S. crude oil demand rapidly accelerated by 7.41 quadrillion BTUs, according to Department of Energy data. And our rate of foreign oil dependency dramatically increased while our domestic oil production steadily declined.

Under the eight Clinton years alone, U.S. oil production declined 1,349,000 barrels per day, or 19%, while our foreign imports increased 3,574,000 barrels per day, or 45%.

During this time, President Clinton vetoed ANWR drilling bills that would have clearly made Alaska our No. 1 state in the production of our own vitally needed oil supply, not only for all Americans but also for national defense emergencies.

So were Democrats and members of Congress together merely short-sighted, with only a few having any real business experience?

Or were they just ignorant about economics — the fact that the law of supply and demand determines the price of all commodities such as oil, steel, copper and lumber?

Or were they simply and utterly irresponsible and incompetent in their actions that led us to become dangerously dependent on increasing oil imports from foreign countries?

We think it was “all of the above.”

The unintended consequence of the Congress members’ poor judgment and meddling micromanagement of U.S. energy policy is that they actually hurt most the very people they always profess to be able to help — the average American consumer, lower-income workers and those in the inner city who can’t afford an extra $100 a month to drive to and from their jobs.

Democrats kowtowed to the wishes of their environmental supporters over the basic needs of 300 million American citizens.

It is a national disgrace that all they now know how to do is relentlessly criticize, complain and condemn. They always attempt to blame, investigate and scapegoat someone else, in this case U.S. oil companies, when Congress is the true villain of ineptness for constantly blocking and obstructing every effort for us to become more productive and less dependent on foreign oil.

Do those now in Congress really think Middle America’s voters are so gullible that they will believe that its latest best and brightest answer to increasing our supply of oil and gas is to slap a 25% windfall penalty tax on oil companies and remove all other incentives for oil companies to drill and explore for oil?

The right time to release oil from, or stop adding to, our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not now. That will do nothing to increase our ongoing oil supply needs and will have limited affect on oil prices while increasing our national security risks.

Only after we first announce to the world a bold new change in our policy by proclaiming that we intend to begin drilling in ANWR and selected outer sea areas, plus adopt new conservation programs, will the release of oil from our reserves have a major impact on breaking the price of oil.

If our congressional leadership can’t muster the courage to begin reversing past mistakes now and allow our companies to drill in ANWR and off-limits offshore areas, and build essential refineries and safe nuclear power plants, what will an even-more-discredited Congress do in 2009, 2010 and 2011, when millions of new city dwellers in China and India will be driving the cars their countries are now producing, thereby materially increasing their already huge demand for oil and gas?

It’s wake-up time for America. Maybe we should investigate the blame-throwing investigators in Congress.

The Real Oil Crisis is Politics

With all of the new technology available to us, drilling for our own oil is more unobtrusive, and desirable, than ever. Yet, it’s politics as usual whenever it is mentioned that we can start to support our own oil needs.

President Bush held a recent press conference on the current state of the economy and the high cost of energy.

He made several important points. First, he noted one reason gas prices are increasing is that global supply has not kept pace with the growing demand worldwide. Members of Congress, he said, “have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home. They repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]. The Department of Energy estimates that ANWR could allow America to produce about a million additional barrels of oil every day, which translates to about 27 millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel every day. That would be about a 20 percent increase of oil … and it would likely mean lower gas prices.”

And of course Chucky Schumer has the answer. It’s old and tired, but it is against anything positive that can be done easily and quickly to fix the problem. So it fits the liberal format perfectly.

The response of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat: “Unless the [Bush] administration gets OPEC [the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] to increase oil supply, American consumers are going to be in for a scorching summer of $4 gasoline with no relief in sight.” Apparently, Mr. Schumer expects President Bush to bully other countries into relieving our economic problems. This is wise foreign policy advice if ever there was some. And if foreign governments do not want to help us we should not expect Congress to do anything about it. After all, why alleviate needless financial hardship when some senators can use it as a political weapon?

Everybody wants cheaper gas, and less dependence on foreign oil, so why not take the option staring us in the face, while we develop the alternative power we need, like Nuclear Power? OOPS! I said the N word, and that is also not acceptable. When will rational thinking people stand up to the enviro-nuts and their enablers in the Democratic party? Perhaps another Carter administration? I certainly don’t want it to come to that, there’s too much at stake for our nation to risk another Carter type presidency, but that may be what we will get this time around. Obama will destroy us in 4 years, Clinton will take a little longer, and McCain only shows strength on the security front.

The Rest Here

Related Article

Schumer Falls For BPA Scare Tactics

Well whoda thunk it? Chucky comes out against the FDA findings, and in favor of Personal Injury Lawyers. I don’t find it at all unusual, in fact it is business as usual. John Edwards will probably be getting in on this action.

Who needs the Food and Drug Administration?
New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and personal injury lawyers certainly don’t — at least to the extent that the agency gets in the way of their political grandstanding and a multimillion-dollar payday, respectively.

This column recently reported on the sad tale of the chemical bisphenol A — that is, how junk science-fueled anti-chemical activists successfully rigged the scientific review process at the federal National Toxicology Program to cast doubt on the safety of BPA, which led to decisions by Wal-Mart and others to stop selling plastic baby bottles made with the chemical.

Steve Milloy has the rest HERE.

Previously on this blog: More Scare Tactics

Battle At Kruger: Buffalo vs Lion

You have got to see this video! It’s the one everybody is talking about. There’s a lesson or three in there, watch it all. It turns out good, I promise.

Doomsday Cult Can’t Get It Right

It’s not just the Goracle and his cult that have been wrong on all the predictions of doom and gloom. There’s a history of all naysayers being wrong. I can’t think of any of the looming disasters I’ve heard about since the late 60’s coming true, not that I wanted them to, mind you. Walter E. Williams takes a look back at some scary predictions that turned out to be hot air, so to speak.

Now that another Earth Day has come and gone, let’s look at some environmentalist predictions they would prefer we forget.

At the first Earth Day celebration, in 1969, environmentalist Nigel Calder warned, “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.”

C.C. Wallen of the World Meteorological Organization said, “The cooling since 1940 has been large enough and consistent enough that it will not soon be reversed.”

In 1968, professor Paul Ehrlich, former Vice President Al Gore’s hero and mentor, predicted that there would be a major food shortage in the U.S. and “in the 1970s . . . hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.”

Ehrlich forecast that 65 million Americans would die of starvation between 1980 and 1989, and that by 1999 the U.S. population would have declined to 22.6 million.

Ehrlich’s predictions about England were gloomier: “If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.”

In 1972, a report was written for the Club of Rome warning that the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury and silver by 1985, tin by 1987 and petroleum, copper, lead and natural gas by 1992.

Gordon Taylor, in his 1970 book “The Doomsday Book,” said Americans were using 50% of the world’s resources and “by 2000 they (Americans) will, if permitted, be using all of them.”

In 1975, the Environmental Fund took out full-page ads warning, “The World as we know it will likely be ruined by the year 2000.”

Harvard biologist George Wald in 1970 warned, “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” That was the same year that Sen. Gaylord Nelson warned, in Look magazine, that by 1995 “somewhere between 75% and 85% of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”

It’s not just latter-day doomsayers who have been wrong; doomsayers have always been wrong.

In 1885, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that there was “little or no chance” of oil being discovered in California, and a few years later they said the same about Kansas and Texas.

In 1939, the U.S. Department of the Interior said American oil supplies would last only another 13 years. In 1949, the secretary of the interior said the end of U.S. oil supplies was in sight. Having learned nothing from its earlier erroneous claims, in 1974 the U.S. Geological Survey advised us that the U.S. had only a 10-year supply of natural gas. The fact of the matter, according to the American Gas Association: There’s a 1,000- to 2,500- year supply.

Here are my questions:

In 1970, when environmentalists were making predictions of man-made global cooling and the threat of an ice age and millions of Americans starving to death, what kind of government policy should we have undertaken to prevent such a calamity?

When Ehrlich predicted that England would not exist in the year 2000, what steps should the British Parliament have taken in 1970 to prevent such a dire outcome?

In 1939, when the Department of the Interior warned that we only had oil supplies for another 13 years, what actions should President Roosevelt have taken?

Finally, what makes us think that environmental alarmism is any more correct now that they have switched their tune to man-made global warming?

Here are a few facts:

More than 95% of the greenhouse effect is the result of water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth’s average temperature would be zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Most climate change is a result of the orbital eccentricities of Earth and variations in the sun’s output. On top of that, natural wetlands produce more greenhouse-gas contributions annually than all human sources combined.

Source: IBDeditorials via JunkScience

Al Gore Blames Global Warming For Myanmar Cyclone

You just had to see this one coming. Al “snake oil salesman” Gore never misses a chance to sell his line of bull, never minding that the facts prove him wrong. John Coleman pointed it out in his Open Letter a few days ago. The Goracle and his cult will not miss an opportunity to blame global warming and the rising ocean temperatures for hurricanes and cyclones, or anything else they can come up with for that matter. Just one small problem with that. It aint happening.

Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a ‘Consequence’ of Global Warming

By Jeff Poor, Business and Media Institute

Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore in an interview on NPR’s May 6 “Fresh Air” broadcast did just that. He was interviewed by “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross about the release of his book, “The Assault on Reason,” in paperback.

“And as we’re talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated,” Gore said. “And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China - and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.” Gore claimed global warming is forcing ocean temperatures to rise, which is causing storms, including cyclones and hurricanes, to intensify. Read more here.

Icecap Note: Someone needs to let Al know that NOAA’s global 3000 buoys have shown a slight cooling not warming since their deployment in 2003. That temperatures according to satellites (MSU UAH) and the Hadley Center agree with cooling back to at least 2002.
. See larger image here.

Finally someone needs to show Al the current sea surface temperature analysis chart for the globe where most of the Pacific and Indian Ocean including the waters near Myanmar are cooler than the long term normal.

See full size image here

ICECAP is the source.

American Thinker gives Algore a reaming here.

So. Just What Can We Eat?

It seems that we have another emerging “Earth Shattering” problem being added to the Tree Huggers and Animal Rights people. The Plants Rights People. Now we can’t eat veggies because they may have feelings too. I guess we are supposed to eat dead bark off the trees we hug. What will be left? What is a politically correct person do do?

At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the “dignity” of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called “plant rights” is being seriously debated.

A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring “account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms.” No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, “The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants,” is enough to short circuit the brain.

A “clear majority” of the panel adopted what it called a “biocentric” moral view, meaning that “living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive.” Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim “absolute ownership” over plants and, moreover, that “individual plants have an inherent worth.”

Yes, plants have an inherent worth. You really know they are alive when they make up such a fine salad, and when you hear them sizzling on the grill, or being fried or sauted (simmered in butter or oil). Darn good eats. They work especially well with a variety of meats. My favorite is Ribeye, or Filet Mignon, but a good old Hamburger with the “fixin’s” will do just fine.

Moonbattery gets all the credit, or blame for me posting this. Here is a fine parody of the Save The Plants people by Arrogant Worms.

Just Give Peas A Chance

Open Letter To Environmentalists

This is an open letter from John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, regarding the global warming cult.

Thank you for your dedication to protecting our environment. Clean air and clean water are essential to preserving life on planet Earth. Protecting all species and natural lands and forests are admirable priorities. Recycling and a green lifestyle are wonderful. Making the environment the most important thing in your life is a good thing, not a problem. I support you.

But we do have a problem. You have vigorously embraced the Global Warming predictions of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and are using the warning of uncontrollable warming and a resulting environmental calamity to campaign for elimination of fossil fuels. Your environmentally conscious friends in politics and in the media have united with you to create a barrage of news reports, documentaries, TV feature reports, movies, books, concerts and protest events to build support for your goals. The war against fossil fuels has become a massive scare campaign that is giving children nightmares.

Here’s what’s wrong with that: the science is not valid. There is no Global Warming underway and the science on which the computer projections of weather chaos are based is wrong. Dead wrong.

I know many scientists are part of your movement and they have tried hard to give your uncontrollable climate change panic a scientific basis. The UN Climate Change Panel has a large staff, a big budget, a headquarters in Geneva and a strong champion in Al Gore to lead the charge. And thousands of well-intentioned politicians and the media of the world have supported your movement. It must seem to you that there can be no doubt: fossil fuels are destroying the environment and will lead to uncontrollable global warming unless we act now. With all that powerful support for your anti-fossil fuel movement, and with the worthy goal of saving the planet from the disastrous consequences of runaway Global Warming, how can you fail?

Here’s how: The science behind your global warming scare is bad and no anthropogenic global warming is happening. Dissenting scientists have now produced convincing evidence that the cornerstone of your scientific argument, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide forcing a rapid, irreversible rise in temperature, is invalid. All of the various “signs of global warming” you have so widely publicized have been proven wrong. They are normal variations in climate that result mostly from the cycles of the Sun. As the Sun cycle has changed in the last three or four years, they have reversed themselves. Arctic ice melting and polar bears dying, shrinkage of glaciers and the rise of ocean levels, increased intensity and number of hurricanes and intensified droughts have all been touted as signs of global warming. They are not. They are part of this natural variation in climate. The intensified hurricane claim never happened. Katrina was an isolated, random event. The droughts are part of the natural cycle and are reversing at this time. Glaciers are stabilizing. The Arctic ice cap is already back to normal.

Here is what I am suggesting you do. Campaign for your environmental goals on the basis of their own merit. Let go of the global warming frenzy before it leaves you discredited and embarrassed. Stop screaming, “The sky is falling.” It is not.

Do your good work. Devote your lives to our environment. In many ways you will succeed. We are all grateful for your love of the planet. But, don’t use scare tactics.

Most of all I urge you not to become extremists. And, may I encourage you to live your lives in a loving way, love your fellow human beings and our wonderful advanced standard of living and way of life as much as you love the Earth.

My very best regards,

John Coleman

P.s. - If you will read my briefs on the science that debunks the global warming frenzy and follow the links there, you will begin to realize the folly of Global Warming.

Go to ICECAP.us for a starter.

JC

Via NewsBusters

Source

Does Anyone Remember Chicken Little?

People can learn a lot from their childhood. Three “fables” have stuck with me all my life. The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, and Chicken Little. This is a story of Chicken Little, starring Al Gore.

Recently, my son and I went to see a movie. Before the trailers, most theaters run 20 minutes of advertising disguised as entertainment.

But that afternoon, we were bombarded by political propaganda orchestrated by Screenvision for Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. It was about saving the planet from global warming by adopting a “do without” or “green” lifestyle. Among the segments shown was the 60-second “Sky Is Falling” cartoon. It shows elephants, symbolizing the 6.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide released into American skies each year, dropping back to Earth to crush people.

The cartoon reminded me of the fable where Chicken Little convinces a host of other dim-witted animals that the sky is falling because an acorn hit him on the head. They all rush off to warn the king. In their panic, they fall prey to a fox, who leads them to his lair claiming it is the way to the king’s castle. This ancient story is a much more accurate way to describe the ill-fated adventures the Alliance would have Americans experience.

The Alliance was founded by Mr. Gore in 2006, and plans to spend $300 million over three years on ads like the Screenvision program to recruit 10 million chicken-activists. “It’s important to change the light bulbs, but it’s much more important to change the laws,” Mr. Gore has said, “The path for recovery runs right through Washington, D.C.” Watch out for the fox!

Another spot used black balloons coming out of household appliances to show how greenhouse gas is produced by items such as televisions and washing machines. We should retreat to a more “natural” era before such dangerous contractions were in use. It was also argued that instead of travel by car or plane, bicycles and virtual meetings via Internet (Mr. Gore’s invention) should be used.

A spot narrated by actor William H. Macy claims Americans cannot wait for others to act. But, of course, we are not waiting. Nor is the United States the cesspool the Alliance alleges.

One of the targets of the Screenvision show is the coal industry, which the Alliance is trying to cripple. The United States has 27 percent of the world’s coal reserves, which at present rates of use will last more than two centuries. The U.S. exports coal, and could easily increase use of this relatively cheap energy source. The country generates half its electricity with coal. But since the aim of the Alliance is not to provide plentiful, secure energy to improve American living standards, but to reduce the general level of affluence, blocking new power plants is a high priority.

When I lived in Knoxville, Tenn., my house was only a few miles from the Bull Run Steam Plant run by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Bull Run generates more than 6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to supply about 430,000 homes. By 2010, TVA will have spent over $5.7 billion on emission controls at its coal plants to ensure power is generated as cleanly as possible, consistent with efficiency. To reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions, Bull Run burns a blend of low-sulfur coal. A scrubber is scheduled for completion in 2009. To reduce nitrogen oxides, the plant uses a selective catalytic reduction system as well as combustion and boiler optimization controls. I never saw anything ominous at Bull Run, unlike what I saw in China, where coal is used without regard to emission controls.

China generates 69 percent of its electricity with coal, and plans to build a new coal-fueled power plant ever week, on average, until 2012. When I first landed in Beijing, I thought there was a fire nearby because the area was shrouded in gray smoke. In Zhuhai, a coastal resort town next to Macao now designated an economic development zone, I could see the new international airport — but not the planes landing or taking off because of the smog.

According to the World Health Organization, China has 16 of the world’s most polluted cities, and clouds of Chinese pollutants blow across the Pacific into North America. WHO’s Michal Krzyzanowski said last year, “All of the cities are pretty highly polluted by European standards. But even by the standards of Asia, Chinese cities are pretty highly polluted.” The real problem is respiratory ailments, not the delusion of global warming.

At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali last December, Beijing argued that as a developing country it should be excused from adopting meaningful environmental standards. Only “rich” countries like the United States should cut back on industry and energy. Yet, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, China’s carbon-dioxide emissions per unit of output are fivefold America’s. So crippling the U.S. economy for the benefit of Chinese expansion will only make the global environment worse.

Mr. Gore’s Chicken Littles have not thought through the consequences of their proposals.

Now, Al Gore stars in the other two “fables” also, but you will have to wait for those to come to a blog near you.
Source

What Will The Goracle Do Now?

I told ya so! The Goracle is getting desperate, and that is what the $300 million ad campaign is all about. Seems as though even the U.N.’s IPCC has to admit global warming has stopped and may be taking a holiday for the next 10 years. Steve Milloy from JunkScience has a few words to say about this “startling” discovery.

Can global warming’s vested interests close the deal on greenhouse gas regulation before the public wises up to their scam?

A new study indicates alarmist concern and a need to explain away the lack of actual global warming. Researchers belonging to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, reported in Nature (May 1) that after adjusting their climate model to reflect actual sea surface temperatures of the last 50 years, “global surface temperature may not increase over the next decade, as natural climate variations … temporarily offset the projected anthropogenic warming.”

You got that? IPCC researchers project no global warming over the next decade because of Mother Nature. Although the result seems stunning in that it came from IPCC scientists who have always been in the tank for manmade global warming, it’s not really surprising since the notion of manmade climate change has never lived up to its billing.

Would you buy a used car from this guy?

Global temperatures remain well below an El Nino-driven 1998 spike despite ever-increasing atmospheric CO2. Global warming hysterics purport that manmade emissions of CO2 are the primary driver of global climate and that controlling emissions will favorably affect climate. While this is obviously not so since it virtually supposes that without human activity climate change would not occur, it nevertheless remains their viewpoint.

The Nature study, however, reasserts Mother Nature in her rightful place as our climate dominatrix. Although there is no evidence that manmade CO2 emissions play any detectable role in climate change, the very idea that Mother Nature may cool the planet despite humanity’s furious output of greenhouse gases should be even worse for the climate alarmists’ way of thinking.

It would mean that greenhouse gas emissions are actually beneficial, since without them, Mother Nature’s cooling could be quite damaging. The last time the Earth significantly cooled was during the 14th to 19th centuries — a period known as the Little Ice Age.

Just one more quote.

Just this week, Al Gore drummed up $683 million for an investment fund that aims to profit from government-subsidized global warming-related technologies. A few weeks ago, Gore launched a $300 million global warming ad campaign. Do you think he’s at all interested in returning that money to investors and contributors? Or that he and the IPCC are interested in returning their Nobel Peace Prizes?

The Rest Is Here. It’s Good.

This Answer is Wearing a Bit Thin

But good old Chucky Schumer drags out that tired old party line again. Link.

Others are noticing too. Start Drilling. (via Instapundit)
Another here

Politics And The Polar Bear

It seems Barbara Boxer is getting her way by going to a liberal judge, in Oakland of course, to rule on listing the polar bear as endangered.

A federal judge in Oakland has ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 if the polar bear should be protected as an endangered species because of melting sea ice due to global warming.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken decided, in a ruling released today, that government failed to meet the deadline of Jan. 9, a legal requirement under the Endangered Species Act. She dismissed the Bush administration’s plea to give it until June 30, saying officials offered “no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay.”

To give the administration more time, the judge wrote, “would violate the mandated listing deadlines under the [Endangered Species Act] and congressional intent that time is of the essence in listing threatened species.”

Wilken’s decision is a victory for three conservation groups that petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Interior Department, to protect the polar bear as a species threatened with extinction because of receding sea ice.

But the real reason is not to help the polar bear, it is to close ANWAR once and for all.

The polar bear listing comes as the Bush administration is moving to open to new oil and gas drilling prime polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s north coast. Under questioning from members of Congress, Interior Department officials have asserted that the delay on the polar bear listing and the movement toward new drilling are not connected.

Moreover, the Bush administration and global warming skeptics, such as Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) have argued that the effort to list the polar bear as endangered is part of an agenda by environmentalists to thwart new coal-fired power plants needed to meet America’s growing energy needs.

Source
Canada, which has roughly two thirds of the polar bear population, just ruled that the polar bear is NOT threatened. So if the ruling is any different here, you can bet it’s the liberal left twisting the facts and working the system to their benefit.

AND THIS JUST IN!!
U.S. group calls on Canada to list polar bears as threatened

An American environmental activist group says it wants Canada to follow suit if the U.S. lists polar bears as a threatened species.

With the U.S. government expected to announce within weeks whether to grant the bears protection as a threatened species under its Endangered Species Act, the Center for Biological Diversity criticized a Canadian scientific committee’s recommendation last week to list the bears as a species of “special concern” in Canada.

“The only way that recommendation was issued for a ’species of special concern’ was by simply ignoring projections based on global warming, and we think that was incorrect,” Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the California and Arizona-based group, told CBC News on Tuesday.

On Friday, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) recommended that the federal government keep polar bears on the list of species of “special concern,” a status that is one step down from “threatened” and two steps down from “endangered.”

The polar bear has had the “special concern” status since 1991.

Members on the scientific advisory committee said the “special concern” listing best reflects varying conditions among the numerous polar bear populations in Canada’s North, which has declining polar bear numbers in some parts but stable or even rising numbers in others.

And we all know that an Activist Group based in Arizona and California knows a lot more about polar bears than the people that live with them. Egotistical? That’s putting it mildly.
Source

Obama’s Outraged Now? How Convenient

After seeing yesterday that Reverend Wright will not go away quietly, he has changed his mind. Or did he? I doubt the sincerity of his statement.

Barack Obama appeared to disown his former pastor Tuesday, saying he was “outraged” and “angered” by Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s appearance the day before at The National Press Club.

In a press conference in North Carolina, the Illinois senator used his strongest language to date to denounce Wright’s controversial sermons and his public remarks since those sermons became national news a month ago.

“Yesterday we saw a very different vision of America,” Obama said. “I am outraged by the comments that were made, and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday.”

“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive but I believe they ended up giving comfort to those who prey on hate,” he said.

Source

He’s still saying he hadn’t heard the Reverend’s hatred in 20 years. If he didn’t, he’s incompetent, if he did, he’s a liar. Either way, he is flip-flopping for the sake of politics, and saving his ass. We don’t need a person like him in White House.

The Real Cost of Global Warming

Once again everyone jumped to conclusions when President Bush proposed some goals for greenhouse gases on April 23. What he called for was much wiser than the hysterical crap the gloworms are proposing. In short, he calls for stopping The Growth of greenhouse gases by 2025, while the Dems want an 80% Reduction by 2050. Even John McCain wants 65% by 2050. Do you have any idea of the damage to our economy and way of life that would cause? It would be worse than signing the Kyoto Treaty. Damn, I hope people wake up to this soon.

We all ought to reflect on what an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050 really means. When we do, it becomes clear that the president’s target has one overwhelming virtue: Assuming emissions curbs are even necessary, his goal is at least realistic.

The same cannot be said for the carbon emissions targets espoused by the three presidential candidates and environmentalists. Indeed, these targets would send us back to emissions levels last witnessed when the cotton gin was in daily use.

Begin with the current inventory of carbon dioxide emissions – CO2 being the principal greenhouse gas generated almost entirely by energy use. According to the Department of Energy’s most recent data on greenhouse gas emissions, in 2006 the U.S. emitted 5.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, or just under 20 tons per capita. An 80% reduction in these emissions from 1990 levels means that the U.S. cannot emit more than about one billion metric tons of CO2 in 2050.

Were man-made carbon dioxide emissions in this country ever that low? The answer is probably yes – from historical energy data it is possible to estimate that the U.S. last emitted one billion metric tons around 1910. But in 1910, the U.S. had 92 million people, and per capita income, in current dollars, was about $6,000.

By the year 2050, the Census Bureau projects that our population will be around 420 million. This means per capita emissions will have to fall to about 2.5 tons in order to meet the goal of 80% reduction.

And as you know if you’ve been here before, C02 is not a pollutant!

And consider this. Do you really want to go back to living in caves?

Today, the average residence in the U.S. uses about 10,500 kilowatt hours of electricity and emits 11.4 tons of CO2 per year (much more if you are Al Gore or John Edwards and live in a mansion). To stay within the magic number, average household emissions will have to fall to no more than 1.5 tons per year. In our current electricity infrastructure, this would mean using no more than about 2,500 KwH per year. This is not enough juice to run the average hot water heater.

You can forget refrigerators, microwaves, clothes dryers and flat screen TVs. Even a house tricked out with all the latest high-efficiency EnergyStar appliances and compact fluorescent lights won’t come close. The same daunting energy math applies to the industrial, commercial and transportation sectors as well. The clear implication is that we shall have to replace virtually the entire fossil fuel electricity infrastructure over the next four decades with CO2-free sources – a multitrillion dollar proposition, if it can be done at all.

The Kool-Aid drinkers are more of a threat than you may know. First of all, the economy will be ruined. And maybe even more important, by removing C02 from the environment, they may be helping us into the next Ice Age.

Read The Rest.

The Global Warming Hysteria List

I found this list via Glenn Beck. Global Warming has caused everything from Acne to Yellow fever. I kid you not. (I don’t know why the Zebra was left out) All of these things are said to be caused by Global Warming! All links are working. Take a stroll and see what the Gloworms are all atwitter about.

Acne, agricultural land increase, Afghan poppies destroyed, Africa devastated, African aid threatened, Africa in conflict, aggressive weeds, air pressure changes, Alaska reshaped, allergies increase, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), anaphylactic reactions to bee stings, ancient forests dramatically changed, animals head for the hills, Antarctic grass flourishes, Antarctic ice grows, Antarctic ice shrinks, Antarctic sea life at risk, anxiety treatment, algal blooms, archaeological sites threatened, Arctic bogs melt, Arctic in bloom, Arctic ice free, Arctic lakes disappear, Arctic tundra to burn, Atlantic less salty, Atlantic more salty, atmospheric circulation modified, attack of the killer jellyfish, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, Baghdad snow, Bahrain under water, bananas grow, beer shortage, beetle infestation, bet for $10,000, better beer, big melt faster, billion dollar research projects, billions face risk, billions of deaths, bird distributions change, bird visitors drop, birds confused, birds return early, birds driven north, bittern boom ends, blackbirds stop singing, blizzards, blue mussels return, bluetongue, brains shrink, bridge collapse (Minneapolis), Britain Siberian, British gardens change, brothels struggle, brown Ireland, bubonic plague, budget increases, Buddhist temple threatened, building collapse, building season extension, bushfires, business opportunities, business risks, butterflies move north, camel deaths, cancer deaths in England, cannibalism, cataracts, caterpillar biomass shift, cave paintings threatened, childhood insomnia, Cholera, circumcision in decline, cirrus disappearance, civil unrest, cloud increase, cloud stripping, cockroach migration, coffee threatened, cold climate creatures survive, cold spells (Australia), cold wave (India), computer models, conferences, conflict, conflict with Russia, consumers foot the bill, coral bleaching, coral reefs dying, coral reefs grow, coral reefs shrink , cost of trillions, cougar attacks, cradle of civilisation threatened, crime increase, crocodile sex, crops devastated, crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems, curriculum change, cyclones (Australia), danger to kid’s health, Darfur, Dartford Warbler plague, death rate increase (US), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, depression, desert advance, desert retreat, destruction of the environment, disappearance of coastal cities, diseases move north, Dolomites collapse, drought, ducks and geese decline, dust bowl in the corn belt, early marriages, early spring, earlier pollen season, Earth biodiversity crisis, Earth dying, Earth even hotter, Earth light dimming, Earth lopsided, Earth melting, Earth morbid fever, Earth on fast track, Earth past point of no return, Earth slowing down, Earth spins faster, Earth to explode, earth upside down, Earth wobbling, earthquakes, El Niño intensification, end of the world as we know it, erosion, emerging infections, encephalitis, English villages lost, equality threatened, Europe simultaneously baking and freezing, eutrophication, evolution accelerating, expansion of university climate groups, extinctions (human, civilisation, logic, Inuit, smallest butterfly, cod, ladybirds, pikas, polar bears, gorillas, walrus, whales, frogs, toads, plants, salmon, trout, wild flowers, woodlice, penguins, a million species, half of all animal and plant species, mountain species, not polar bears, barrier reef, leaches), experts muzzled, extreme changes to California, fading fall foliage, fainting, famine, farmers go under, fashion disaster, fever,figurehead sacked, fir cone bonanza, fish catches drop, fish downsize, fish catches rise, fish deaf, fish get lost, fish stocks at risk, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, flesh eating disease, flood patterns change, floods, floods of beaches and cities, flood of migrants, flood preparation for crisis, Florida economic decline, flowers in peril, food poisoning, food prices rise, food prices soar, food security threat (SA), footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frog with extra heads, frostbite, frost damage increased, frosts, fungi fruitful, fungi invasion, games change, Garden of Eden wilts, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, giant oysters invade, giant pythons invade, giant squid migrate, gingerbread houses collapse, glacial earthquakes, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, god melts, golf Masters wrecked, Gore omnipresence, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, greening of the North, Grey whales lose weight, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harmful algae, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, health affected, health of children harmed, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes (Australia), heat waves, hibernation affected, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late, homeless 50 million, hornets, high court debates, human development faces unprecedented reversal, human fertility reduced, human health improvement, human health risk, human race oblivion, hurricanes, hurricane reduction, hydropower problems, hyperthermia deaths, ice sheet growth, ice sheet shrinkage, ice shelf collapse, illness and death, inclement weather, India drowning, infrastructure failure (Canada), industry threatened, infectious diseases, inflation in China, insect explosion, insurance premium rises, Inuit displacement, Inuit poisoned, Inuit suing, invasion of cats, invasion of herons, invasion of jellyfish, invasion of midges, island disappears, islands sinking, itchier poison ivy, jellyfish explosion, jets fall from sky, Kew Gardens taxed, killing us, kitten boom, krill decline, lake and stream productivity decline, lake empties, lake shrinking and growing, landslides, landslides of ice at 140 mph, lawsuits increase, lawsuit successful, lawyers’ income increased (surprise surprise!), lives saved, Loch Ness monster dead, lush growth in rain forests, Malaria, mammoth dung melt, Maple production advanced, Maple syrup shortage, marine diseases, marine food chain decimated, Meaching (end of the world), Mediterranean rises, megacryometeors, Melanoma, methane emissions from plants, methane burps, methane runaway, melting permafrost, Middle Kingdom convulses, migration, migration difficult (birds), migratory birds huge losses, microbes to decompose soil carbon more rapidly, minorities hit, monkeys on the move, Mont Blanc grows, monuments imperiled, moose dying, more bad air days, more research needed, mortality increased, mountain (Everest) shrinking, mountains break up, mountains melting, mountains taller, mortality lower, National security implications, natural disasters quadruple, new islands, next ice age, NFL threatened, Nile delta damaged, noctilucent clouds, no effect in India, Northwest Passage opened, nuclear plants bloom, oaks dying, oaks move north, ocean acidification, ocean deserts expand, ocean waves speed up, opera house to be destroyed, outdoor hockey threatened, ozone repair slowed, ozone rise, Pacific dead zone, personal carbon rationing, pest outbreaks, pests increase, phenology shifts, plankton blooms, plankton destabilised, plankton loss, plant viruses, plants march north, polar bears aggressive, polar bears cannibalistic, polar bears drowning, polar bears starve, polar tours scrapped, popcorn rise, porpoise astray, profits collapse, psychiatric illness, puffin decline, railroad tracks deformed, rainfall increase, rape wave, refugees, release of ancient frozen viruses, resorts disappear,