Free Republic

SANTA FE – The state Environmental Improvement Board voted 5-0 Monday to repeal a controversial cap-and-trade regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nullifying a struggling program before it got off the ground. A partnership of seven states originally envisioned to participate in the cap-and-trade program had dwindled to two, board Chairman Deborah Peacock said. “The intent was that all these states would be doing this cap and trading, and everyone’s dropped (out) except for California and New Mexico,” she said. “That, to me, was very significant.” The ruling reversed a 2010 decision of the previous board appointed by then-Gov. Bill...

Flying to and from Europe just became more expensive thanks to the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The ETS was instituted in January 2005, in an attempt to control greenhouse gas emissions, specifically carbon dioxide. Initially the scheme applied to power-generating facilities, oil refineries, steelworks, and other heavy industry in Europe. Now, as of the first of the year, the regulations have reached the airline industry, including aircraft based in the United States. Flights to and from Europe account for a third of all global air travel, thus this plan is the widest-reaching measure ever imposed by any country,...

Ow, that’s gotta hurt. CA’s 2006 Global Warming law – denied.Federal judge blocks California low-carbon fuels ruleChico Enterprise RecordFRESNO — A federal judge moved today to block California from enforcing its first-in-the-nation mandate for cleaner, low-carbon fuels, saying the rules favor biofuels produced in the state.The lawsuit challenging the state regulations, which were adopted as part of the state’s landmark 2006 global warming law, was filed in federal court last year by a coalition including the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association and the Consumer Energy Alliance. Fresno-based U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill’s written ruling Thursday said the low-carbon fuel...

This guy (Headmaster Rob Benzie) has become Scrooge in England, except he doesn’t provide even one lump of coal, because, well that would mess up his “carbon footprint”. This is just too bizarre not to pass on, thanks to The Daily Bayonet who writes: A headmaster at a British school decided a great lesson in sustainability would be to turn off the heat for a day. In December: Pupils at Ansford Academy in Castle Cary, Somerset, were forced to grip their pens through thick gloves and wear their coats and hats in class as temperatures dropped to 1C. The school’s...

New Mexico has already been passed over for some gas and oil projects because of regulatory uncertainties, a witness for opponents of the state’s cap-and-trade rule told the Environmental Improvement Board on Tuesday. The board, which concluded three days of technical testimony, also heard from a climate change expert who said the science is still in flux and that its impacts on New Mexico health and resources can’t be predicted with accuracy. John Christy, an atmospheric science professor and contributor to United Nations reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said cap and trade would have no meaningful impact...

Yesterday Australia passed it's $23 a ton carbon tax. Leftist activist group Get Up emailed this message to it's members from Al Gore. "This is a historic moment. Australia's Parliament has put the nation's first carbon price into law. With this vote, the world has turned a pivotal corner in the collective effort to solve the climate crisis. This success is the result of the tireless work of an unprecedented coalition that came together to support the legislation, the leadership of Prime Minister Gillard, and the courage of legislators to take a vote that helps to safeguard the future of...

Manufactured Mitt: Rare Iowa Appearances Attempt to Hide Positions on Carbon Emissions After Mitt Romney skipped a presidential forum in Iowa hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers last week, he should use today’s appearance at Dubuque manufacturing facility to answer the tough questions he is avoiding about his record of environmental activism. “Mitt Romney regulated Massachusetts electric supplies by capping carbon emissions, and now he’s trying to regulate his political risk in Iowa by capping his exposure to tough questions,” said Perry campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan. “Given that Romney has visited the state just four times in 2011, he...

California became the first state to cap greenhouse gas emissions across its major industries Thursday when air regulators unanimously approved a plan to allow companies to sell pollution credits as a way to ratchet down heat-trapping gases. The state Air Resources Board took the action almost a year after a nearly identical plan was approved, then delayed by environmentalists who demanded the board consider taxing carbon as an alternative to the cap-and-trade strategy. By 2013, refineries, power plants and the rest of the state's top 600 industrial sources of greenhouse gases will have to cut emissions on average by 10...

Carbon is the fourth-most-abundant element in the universe and takes on a wide variety of forms, called allotropes, including diamond and graphite. Scientists at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory are part of a team that has discovered a new form of carbon, which is capable of withstanding extreme pressure stresses that were previously observed only in diamond. This breakthrough discovery will be published in Physical Review Letters. The team was led by Stanford's Wendy L. Mao and her graduate student Yu Lin and includes Carnegie's Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, Li Zhang, Paul Chow, Yuming Xiao, Maria Baldini, and Jinfu Shu. The experiment started...

Former Vice President Al Gore threw his support behind the Occupy Wall Street protests Wednesday night, arguing that the country’s elected officials have failed the public on everything “from the economy to the climate crisis.” Gore, a vocal advocate of policies to address climate change, called the protests — which have spread around the country — a “true grassroots movement.” “From the economy to the climate crisis, our leaders have pursued solutions that are not solving our problems; instead they propose policies that accomplish little,” Gore wrote on his blog Wednesday night. “With democracy in crisis, a true grassroots movement...

It has been over a week now since the Gore-a-thon, a.k.a. “24 hours of climate reality,” where Al Gore sent his latest message of global warming doom to the world. The front page of the Climate Reality Project has changed from “live mode” to offering clips of videos shown during the 24-hour presentation. One of the video clips there, “Climate 101,” tells the story of how to do a “simple experiment” at home to prove carbon dioxide causes global warming. But if you watch closely, you’ll see an “inconvenient truth” of the worst kind. Watch the portion of the video...

I was listening to Neil Boortz last night and he was talking about this new Carbon EPA stuff. He said that the EPA was hiring, get this, 230,000 new employees whose sole responsibility was to process this new paper work. He said that it was going to cost (I think) 1.4 million jobs right out of the box and companies will have to fold, and that some powerplants that we desparate need will be shut down, electricity is going to go through the roof. C02, a natural occuring Gas, is now pollution. He did say that Hermain Cain said the...

The president has found a way to add jobs, after all — 230,000 of ‘em, all within the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s the number of new bureaucrats the federal government will need to hire to implement new proposed greenhouse gas regulations, according to a report by The Daily Caller: The Environmental Protection Agency has said new greenhouse gas regulations, as proposed, may be “absurd” in application and “impossible to administer” by its self-imposed 2016 deadline. But the agency is still asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion...

Google released what was once among its most closely guarded secrets on Thursday: how much electricity its enormous computing facilities consume. The company said that its data centers continuously drew almost 260 million watts — about a quarter of the output of a nuclear power plant — to run Google searches, YouTube views, Gmail messaging and display ads on all those services around the world. Though the electricity figure may seem large, the company asserts that the world is using less energy as a result of the billions of operations carried out in Google data centers. Google says people should...

The Kyoto Protocol committee has blocked Romania from selling carbon credits over concerns about irregularities in the country's carbon emissions data, Romania's environment ministry said Sunday. In December, Romanian Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely said the country hoped to earn some 1.5 billion euros ($2.2 billion) from selling carbon offsets. But the committee that monitors Kyoto Protocol compliance decided to suspend Romania from the programme due to "irregularities observed" in Bucharest's 2010 greenhouse gas emissions data, the environment ministry statement said. The suspension has immediate affect, and Bucharest must put in place an "adequate" system for monitoring emissions before it can...

We’ve had the opportunity to previously discuss the Obama administration’s proposed changes to CAFE standards for the nation’s fleet of passenger vehicles and the downstream effects this will have on auto prices and jobs. Never satisfied with half measures in “helping� us in this struggling economy, the White House has apparently decided to double down and apply similar new standards to long haul, big rig trucks now. WASHINGTON–President Obama announced the first-ever fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for long-haul rigs, work trucks, and other heavy duty vehicles Tuesday, the second mileage pact with manufacturers in less than a month.The...

A new report issued by the Environmental Working Group calculates the carbon footprint of meats, cheeses, and a smattering of other foods. The results are good news for those who avoid red meat as well as vegans. They are not good news for vegetarian cheese lovers like this blogger. Special shout-out to those of you who eat baby sheep: You suck! Lamb is the single most carbon-intensive meat, .. (beef 2nd) Cheese comes out ahead of pork, farmed salmon, chicken and canned tuna. .. What it means, in practical terms: -Eating one less burger a week, is like driving 320...

Mitt Romney: Carbon not a health threat By: Darren Samuelsohn July 18, 2011 06:55 PM EDT Mitt Romney says he doesn’t think carbon pollution threatens human health and would not green light EPA climate regulations if he were in the White House. The GOP presidential candidate signaled the reversal to one of the Obama administration's top environmental policies during a town hall meeting Thursday in Derry, N.H. This came about six weeks after he acknowledged during a campaign stop that global warming is real, a statement that won him praise from Al Gore. "I think we may have made a...

SYDNEY (AP) -- Australia will force its 500 worst polluters to pay 23 Australian dollars ($25) for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit, with the government promising to compensate households hit with higher power bills under a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unveiled Sunday. Prime Minister Julia Gillard sought to reassure wary Australians that the deeply unpopular carbon tax will only cause a minority of households to pay more and insisted it is critical to helping the country lower its massive carbon emissions. Australia is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas polluters, due to its heavy reliance...

JULIA Gillard admits Australia is a long way from consensus on climate change - and says the debate may become ever tougher for Labor - as new polling reveals her behind Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister for the first time. ..... Ms Gillard said today the polling was a result of her plan to put a price on carbon, and that while it was a tough reform "it may get even tougher, before it gets easier". “I believe that once carbon pricing is in place people will see how the system works and the benefits of it,” the Prime...

Heavy industry in Europe faces a crippling bill for global warming. Lately, it seems, ever more people have been waking up to the almost unimaginable scale of this disaster now roaring down on us. As one power company last week raised its charges by an average £200 a year, it was claimed by the Global Warming Policy Foundation that a fifth of our soaring energy bills are now accounted for by the hidden subsidies and other costs imposed by the drive to "decarbonise" our electricity supplies. The GWPF has also published a magisterial paper by Lord Turnbull, who was head...

For years exponents of climate change theories have used images of deforestation to support their cause. However, the density of forests and woodland across much of the world is actually increasing, according to a respected scientific study. The change, which is being dubbed the 'Great Reversal', could be crucial in reducing atmospheric carbon, which is linked to climate change. In countries from Finland to Malaysia, the thickening has taken place so quickly that it has reversed the carbon losses caused by deforestation between 1990 and 2010. In Britain, forest density has increased by 10.8 per cent from 2000 to 2010...

Germany's plan to shut all its nuclear power plants by 2022 will add up to 40 million tones of carbon dioxide emissions annually as the country turns to fossil fuels, analysts said on Tuesday. The extra emissions would increase demand for carbon permits under the European Union's trading scheme, thereby adding a little to carbon prices and pollution costs for EU industry. "We will see a pick-up in German coal burn," said Barclays Capital analyst Amrita Sen. "Longer term, they will be using more renewables and gas but this year and next, we should see a lot of support for...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced Thursday that he would pull out of a regional climate pact by the end of the year, delivering a political setback to the fledging effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. In a news conference, Christie said the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a 2005 accord in which 10 states agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants 10 percent by 2018, would not be able to meet its goals. The program requires plants in the region that burn fossil fuels to buy pollution allowances for the carbon they...

THE Australian Federal Police could be required to investigate new climate change offences under Julia Gillard's carbon tax, sparking concerns over the agency's resourcing. As Julia Gillard today declared her carbon tax would be “shyster” proof. Climate Change Minister Greg Combet's office said enforcement arrangements under the proposed carbon tax were yet to be finalised. But AFPA president Jim Torr said there was little doubt the AFP would be required to play a role in policing the scheme. “Tax evasion is one of the big things the AFP works on,” he told The Australian Online. “This will be another area...

It’s like watching the same train wreck — twice. Our politicians are starting to commit the same wasteful blunders, resulting in the same perverse consequences, as the Europeans have in pricing carbon dioxide emissions, ostensibly to fight climate change. The harbinger of many bad things to come for us is now happening in B.C. There, the provincial government is forcing the transfer of millions of tax dollars from cash-strapped schools, hospitals and other public institutions, by requiring them to buy carbon offsets. Money which then benefits hugely profitable energy companies like Encana. This is eerily reminiscent of what happened in...

We are constantly bombarded with information – much of it inaccurate, misleading, even deliberately so. We are frequently told we must reduce carbon emissions, support “carbon disclosure” and invest in “carbon trusts” – to prevent catastrophic global warming, global climate change or global climate “disruption.” News stories, advocacy and lobbying activities, and corporate “ethics” promotions frequently use “carbon” and “carbon dioxide” almost interchangeably; some occasionally talk about “dangerous carbon monoxide emissions.” Torn by misplaced hydrocarbon guilt, wanting to do right ecologically, and often scientifically challenged, people are naturally confused. Because so much is at stake – for our energy supplies...

The public is increasingly skeptical of global warming and far more worried about the economy than the environmentWhat the heck went wrong?" That, apparently, is the question roiling the environmental community as it realizes that the fight against climate change has fizzled. As Brad Plumer writes in the New Republic, everything was looking great in 2008 for a sweeping effort to make good on candidate Barack Obama's pledge to start turning back the rising oceans. The Democrats held Congress. Both John McCain and Mr. Obama had promised to push for capping carbon emissions. Corporations had gotten on board. Al Gore...

The Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it would throw out a global warming lawsuit brought by California and five other states that seek limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in the South and Midwest. Encouraged by the solicitor general, the justices said regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the Environmental Protection Agency. The issue debated before the high court Tuesday was not whether greenhouse gases are causing global climate change, but who should regulate them. The decision involves politics, economics and science, the lawyers said. "It's a question of tradeoffs," said Peter Keisler, representing the power producers....

A new computational study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how hydrocarbons may be formed from methane in deep Earth at extreme pressures and temperatures. The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of hydrocarbons at high pressures and temperatures are important for understanding carbon reservoirs and fluxes in Earth. The work provides a basis for understanding experiments that demonstrated polymerization of methane to form high hydrocarbons and earlier methane forming reactions under pressure. Hydrocarbons (molecules composed of the elements hydrogen and carbon) are the main building block of crude oil and natural gas. Hydrocarbons contribute to the...

California Governor Jerry Brown will sign a bill today which will raise the required amount of costly renewable energy for electric generation in the Golden State to 33% while Texas Governor Rick Perry is likely grinning from ear to ear. Texas and other business-friendly Western states such as Arizona and Utah, stand to benefit from California's latest payoff to the green lobby.  The bill boosts the electric renewable energy standard from its current 20% to 33% by the year 2020, and California consumers and businesses will be stuck with the additional cost.  Businesses will have one more reason to leave...

At times it seems hard to accept that humanity has really advanced. Though it would appear that we have generally forsaken superstition and confronted the shadows that linger just beyond the light cast from our communal fires, today’s news from Chicheley, England would suggest that we have only masked our fears of the unknown with superficial intellectualism. Charles J Hanley, a special correspondent with the Associated Press, reports that dozens of scientists gathered at Chicheley to discuss a Plan B that may serve as an alternative to carbon emission reduction plans which the world seems unwilling to adopt. The concept...

President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday scrapped the country's proposed carbon tax and reshuffled his cabinet in populist tilt after suffering a crushing electoral defeat over the weekend, when his Gaulliste UMP party lost every region other than in its bastion of Alsace and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. The vote saw a resurrection of both the Socialist Party and the far-Right National Front, showing how the delayed effects of rising unemployment can change the political landscape long after recession has passed. The jobless rate has risen to 10.1pc, up from 8.7pc a year ago. A quarter of those aged...

Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years. The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.

Here's a recipe for climate catastrophe: First, authorize enough new coal production in Wyoming to yield 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Then authorize a new export terminal in northwest Washington to ship that black gold to Asia, where the other half of Chimerica will burn it to power the factories we shipped them in the infinite wisdom of globalization. This process is called carbon offshoring, and it's the nastiest, planet-killingest scheme of which you've probably never heard. China is just the beginning: ... The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should block these deals on national...

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Remember the Cola Wars? Get ready for the Bottle Wars. PepsiCo Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a bottle made entirely of plant material, which it says bests the technology of competitor Coca-Cola and reduces its potential carbon footprint. The bottle is made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials. Ultimately, Pepsi plans to also use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers from its food business. The new bottle looks, feels and protects the drink inside exactly the same as its current bottles, said Rocco Papalia, senior vice president of advanced research at...

ASTONISHINGLY, the PM, the Cabinet and members of the Canberra Press Gallery don't know the difference between carbon and carbon dioxide. There are two great lies told about the need to "put a price on carbon". Lies which I can't recall a single member of the gallery ever confronting the liars with -- far less the prime liar herself.And it'll be a cold day in hell before you see a critical commentary from any of the supposed leading lights of the gallery such as Fairfax's Michelle Grattan or Peter Hartcher applying a critical analysis to the claims.Now these two lies...

As Congress looks for ways to trim the budget, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) represents an opportunity for up to $9 billion in savings. This outfit has become little more than an advocacy group for trendy leftist causes operating on the public’s dime. Many liberal policies being promoted are so unpopular that congressional Democrats can’t muster the votes to get them through the proper legislative process. So they go to the EPA instead. That’s why the EPA announced Tuesday that it had revised the deadlines imposed on certain companies for reporting so-called “greenhouse gas” production. A facility that manufactures paper,...

With a schedule as hectic as President Obama's it must be hard to stick to a training regimen without help -- but why does he insist on having his old trainer fly out from Chicago to D.C. regularly when Obama and his wife exhort the rest of us to drive less? And in a recession? According to Ashley Parker at the New York Times, Obama's fitness czar Cornell McClellan comes out to D.C. every week: Mr. McClellan grew up practicing martial arts, eventually earning a black belt, and as a college student realized that he had a knack for working...

General Motors has yet to return most of the TARP funds sunk into its operations by George Bush and Barack Obama. They claimed to have paid back the loans given the automaker, but as Chuck Grassley angrily pointed out at the time, they paid back the loans using other TARP funding for the cash. Taxpayers still have tens of billions of dollars stuck in GM stock, and whether Treasury ever gets to a break-even point is anyone’s guess.That hasn’t stopped Chevrolet from dumping $40 million in cash into carbon offsets over the next five years, however: David Antonioli, chief executive...

RGGI Is The Prototype For More Regional Cap & Tax Entities Soon RGGI will expand to every state and stick you with astronomical energy prices. RGGI is the model for two new stealth cap & tax entities. The Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord would bring the tax scheme to Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. The Western Climate Initiative will force California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Montana to start paying through the nose for energy. Both programs are set to start in 2012. The corruptocrats in Washington are completely responsible for this gigantic waste of tax...

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Anthony Watts Image via WikipediaThe question is, are we a country of laws made by our representatives, or a country of laws made by bureaucrats? The constitution provides only one answer, and Ms. Jackson would do well to read it.Latest News release from the EPA: CONTACT: EPA Press Officepress@epa.gov February 9, 2011Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Opening Statement Before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and PowerAs prepared for delivery – Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify about Chairman Upton’s draft bill to eliminate...

If President Obama is serious about smoothing the path for U.S. businesses, he should take up reading the newspaper. Not a day goes by that he wouldn’t find opportunities aplenty to unclog our regulatory arteries. This past Friday was no exception. The issue? A proposed coal terminal on the Columbia River in Washington. A terminal that would facilitate coal shipments to China, thus aiding one of Mr. Obama’s professed goals—ramping up U.S. exports. Unfortunately, as the Wall Street Journal reported, local environmentalists want the project scuttled. Not because the terminal’s operations would damage Washington State’s air or water quality, but...

In a stunning blow to the inexperienced administration of GOP Governor Susana Martinez, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Governor Martinez violated the state Constitution when she prevented a rule reducing carbon pollution from being published as codified state law. The lawsuit was filed by nonprofit New Energy Economy and reflects growing claims that Governor Martinez arbitrarily and illegally sought to suppress the rule. The rule requires facilities that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon pollution per year to reduce these emissions by 3% per year from 2010 levels starting in 2013. The rule aims to...

California's sweeping plan to institute cap and trade and regulate "greenhouse gases" has been thrown out by a San Francisco judge. SFGate.com reports: The California Air Resources Board violated state environmental law in 2008 when it adopted a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and again last year when it passed cap-and-trade regulations, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled in a tentative decision. [snip] In his decision, Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled that the air board approved the larger plan to implement AB32 prior to completing the required environmental review, and that the board failed to adequately consider alternatives to cap and...

State-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has produced first shale gas in the country at Icchapur in Durgapur district of West Bengal, reports Our Bureau from New Delhi. ONGC said the 2,000-metre deep well at the shale formation encountered gas on January 25. "The breakthrough is significant as India is the first Asian country where gas was discovered from shale outside USA and Canada," ONGC said in a statement. Shale gas is non-conventional natural gas reserves found in non-porous rock and requires fracking technology to extract gas from shale. India has huge shale deposits in Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, the...

SANTA FE -- Environmental groups have been handed a victory by the New Mexico Supreme Court in a pair of cases that challenged an attempt by Gov. Susana Martinez's administration to delay publication in the state register of recently approved pollution control measures. The Supreme Court is ordering the state records administrator to publish the rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions and dairy discharges.

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. So how did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan...

The European Commission (EC) suspended trading in carbon credits on Wednseday after unknown hackers compromised the accounts of Czech traders and siphoned off around $38 million, according to published reports. EU countries including Estonia, Austria, The Czech Republic, Poland and France began closing their carbon trading registries yesterday after learning that carbon allowances had been siphoned from the account of the Czech based register. A notice posted on the Web site of the Czech based registry said that it was "not accessible for technical reasons" on Thursday. The EC followed suit: issuing a statement on Wednesday evening saying that the...

The European carbon market has been thrown into turmoil after the scandal-hit scheme was suspended for a week over suspicions of fraud. More than €2bn (£1.7bn) of trade is likely to be disrupted after the European Commission said it would prevent transactions until January 26. The suspension follows allegations that 475,000 carbon credits worth €7m were stolen in a hacking attack on the Czech carbon register. It appears that the intangible allowances were bounced between eastern European countries before disappearing without a trace. France's Bluenext exchange was the first to close its platform, while Austria, Poland, Estonia and Greece also...