Free Republic

Skeptics are winning: “The carbon market is dead” The collapse of the Man-Made Myth continues apace. You may not read headlines as such (at least not in major dailies) but all the signs are there.People who we never would have imagined speaking against the Big Scare Campaign are now doing so. Key glaciers are not melting and corals are happy. Governments won’t tell you it’s over, but they are behaving that way (the Australian one excepted, due to an election fluke that gave the Greens the balance of power). The Catholic Herald headlined it: Is the ‘anthropogenic global warming’ consensus...

  Al Gore Al Gore deserves an Oscar for hypocrisy to go along with the two Academy Awards his movie won last night, contends a think tank from his home state Tennessee. The former vice president's mansion in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, says the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, citing data from the Nashville Electric Service. Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth, a 95-minute film warning of a coming cataclysm due to man-made "global warming," won the award for best documentary feature and best...

UPDATE on November 19, 2011: The outside income estimate doubled. From Glenn Reynolds: “JAMES HANSEN FINANCIAL SCANDAL? Hey, there’s nothing wrong with professors making outside income. But when it’s for global warming activism, it does call your scientific neutrality into question. In Hansen’s defense, no serious person has believed that he possessed scientific neutrality for years. But anybody who owns an $8000 engraved Montres Rolex watch is clearly part of the 1%, no?” THE ORIGINAL POST Government bureaucrat James Hansen pulled down up to $750,000 last year in speeches and prize money. The American Tradition Institute reported: “As it waits...

[snip] ....What's going on? "The desire to disbelieve deepens as the scale of the threat grows," concludes economist-ethicist Clive Hamilton. He and others who track what they call "denialism" find that its nature is changing in America, last redoubt of climate naysayers. It has taken on a more partisan, ideological tone. Polls find a widening Republican-Democrat gap on climate. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry even accuses climate scientists of lying for money. Global warming looms as a debatable question in yet another U.S. election campaign. From his big-windowed office overlooking the wooded campus of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades,...

"When you make comments that fly in the face of 98 out of 100 climate scientists, to call into question the science of evolution, all I am saying is that in order for the Republican Party to win, we can't run from science," Huntsman said. "By making comments that basically don't reflect the reality of the situation, we turn people off." Politico's John Harris, a debate moderator, pressed Texas Gov. Rick Perry to name the scientists that he refers to on the campaign trail as credibly refuting the international consensus that humans are contributing to global warming.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to reveal the details of a carbon tax designed to help fight climate change and billed as one of the nation's biggest economic reforms for decades. Labor leader Gillard plans to tax Australia's top 500 polluters for their carbon dioxide emissions as a means of reducing pollution, changing energy use and building investment in clean sources of energy. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard "No longer will the nation's biggest polluters be able to pollute our atmosphere for free," Gillard told a Labor Party conference on Saturday. "From July 1 next year, the freedom...

During a press conference on February 12, 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF). The panelists, described below, will work together to mobilize the financial resources for climate change that were pledged at the Copenhagen Summit. The group’s objectives include developing practical proposals to significantly scale-up both short-term and long-term financing for mitigation and adaptation strategies in developing countries, in particular by jump-starting the mobilization of new and innovative resources to reach $100 billion annually by 2020,High-Level Panel ProfilesChristine Lagarde...Christine Lagarde Christine Lagarde made history as the first female chairman of the...

 Guest post by EcotretasCO2 tumbling downEU Carbon Credits via Bloomberg -BLUENEXT - BNS EUA 08-12 (phase 2) (PNXCSPT2:IND) - click graph for report Once upon a time, carbon trading was supposed to be the salvation for Earth’s climate problems. But as time went on, people started realizing that something was wrong. As usual, financial markets anticipated the move. Late last year, US carbon trading crashed. Two weeks later, it closed. In Europe, the price of CO2 emissions even flourished earlier this year. The European Union pushed for stronger policies towards renewables. And Fukushima pressed German’s chancellor Angela Merkel to abandon...

California's largest utility promises its customers green salvation through its ClimateSmart program. For every bit of energy a Pacific Gas & Electric ratepayer uses - from turning on a vacuum cleaner to powering up a computer or heating up an oven - a little part of a tree or forest is saved to erase the carbon sins of the customer. The voluntary program costs participants about $60 a year. But the company isn't telling its customers one crucial fact: Those forests were purchased years ago by a Virginia conservation group that used nearly $50 million in loans and grants from...

(CNSNews.com) – The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it has awarded $17.4 million for pilot projects that will begin exploring how to establish a market for greenhouse gas (GHG) credits, a key component of a cap and trade system, to help reduce carbon and other emissions that apparently contribute to global warming.Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the projects were the “foundational work” for establishing an American carbon market.“This is really sort of foundational work that’s being done,” Vilsack told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday.The $17.4 million in funding is part of the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program,...

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 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...

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...

You might want to file this under “another way to subsidize a tyrant who would just as soon see you dead.” North Korea wants to “earn” real money by “selling” UN-backed carbon offsets from its hydro-power plants. Don’t ya love it? It’s sort of the double whammy (not quite triple) of bad ideas...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2011-46 Washington, D.C., Feb. 18, 2011 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a group of seven individuals who perpetrated a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme in the stock of a sham company that purported to provide products and services to fight global warming. The SEC alleges that the group included stock promoters, traders, and a lawyer who wrote a fraudulent opinion letter. The scheme resulted in more than $7 million in illicit profits from sales of stock in CO2 Tech Ltd. at artificially inflated prices. Despite touting impressive business relationships and anti-global warming technology innovations, CO2 Tech...

In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, the incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) teamed up with Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, to write that the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases "represents an unconstitutional power grab that will kill millions of jobs -- unless Congress steps in." Upton and Phillips complain that EPA -- despite the regulatory power given to it in 2007 under a Supreme Court interpretation of the Clean Air Act -- should await the outcome of further litigation about the...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a timetable on Thursday for issuing rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries, signaling a resolve to press ahead on such regulation even as it faces stiffening opposition in Congress. The agency said it would propose performance standards for new and refurbished power plants next July, with final rules to be issued in May 2012. Proposed emissions standards for new oil refineries will be published next December, it said, with the final rules due in November 2012; rules for existing plants would come later. But the E.P.A. was vague on how...

The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it will seize authority from Texas to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gases because Gov. Rick Perry and state regulators refused to implement the rules. The move caps a long dispute between Texas and the EPA, which have clashed over the Obama administration's push to regulate industrial sources of carbon dioxide emissions. State officials complain the rules will unfairly punish Texas and its energy-hungry industries when they take effect Jan. 2. While the EPA makes the rules, states implement most of the requirements of the Clean Air Act. The most likely practical effect...

GREEN MAKE BELIEVE: Van Jones Admits Left is “PRETENDING” Need for Regulations And Cap & Trade in Green Movement http://www.theblaze.com/stories/green-make-believe-van-jones-admits-left-is-pretending-need-for-regulations-and-cap-trade-in-green-movement/

Scam artists from around the world, capitalizing on lax regulations at the Danish emissions trading registry, have made off with an estimated $7-billion over the last two years, according to Europol. Denmark’s Office of the Auditor General is now investigating the fraud, which occurred after the Danish registry dropped requirements that carbon traders be documented. While allowing a free-for-all served the carbon market on the short term, by appearing to inflate the interest in carbon as a commodity, it ultimately backfired when much of the trading proved to be phony. Read more: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/12/05/lawrence-solomon-the-7-billion-carbon-scam/#ixzz17RgHIzXh

It’s all a grand charade — the matinee show put on by the Theater of Science was merely being used for the Grand Extravaganza called the Theater of Politics.Wikileaks, not surprisingly, turned up some not-so-diplomatic and not-so-scientific goings-on in the political race to steer power and dollars.From The Guardian The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic...

Republican mid-term election joy deals financial uncertainty among green investors as the Chicago Climate Exchange announces the end of U.S. carbon trading. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) announced on October 21, 2010 that it will cease carbon trading this year. However, Steve Milloy reporting on Pajamasmedia.com (November 6, 2010) finds this huge story strangely unreported by the mainstream media.To some key analysts the collapse of the CCX appears to show that international carbon trading is “dying a quiet death.” Yet Milloy finds that such a major business failure has drawn no interest at all from the mainstream media. Milloy noted...

Raising $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020 is challenging, but possible through mechanisms including carbon markets, domestic carbon taxes and a variety of international transportation taxes, a United Nations advisory group said in a report Friday. Earlier this year, the UN's Ban established the panel, which includes U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, billionaire financier George Soros and Deutsche Bank vice-chairman Caio Koch-Weser. The financing will be used to support mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries--in particular, for the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

Environmental groups and industry seem headed for another battle over regulation of greenhouse gases, as President Barack Obama said he will look for ways to control global warming pollution other than Congress placing a ceiling on it. "Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way," Obama said at a news conference Wednesday, a day after Democrats lost control of the House. "I'm going to be looking for other means to address this problem." Legislation putting a limit on heat-trapping greenhouse gases and then allowing companies to buy and sell pollution permits under that...

UW-Madison athletics officials have created a unique way to use the UW Badgers' home football season to reduce carbon emissions. According to Justin Doherty, UW-Madison assistant athletic director, the effort to create a "carbon-neutral" football season involves offsetting the amount of carbon that is expended during home football games because of practices like fans traveling to and from the game and the use of electricity. He said along with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, UW-Madison calculated the amount of carbon emitted at home football games and will pay for carbon "credits" as a part of the Chicago Climate...

WASHINGTON - The Energy Department said Tuesday it was awarding $575 million for carbon capture research-and-development projects in 15 states. The experimental technique involves storing carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants and other sources underground, in an attempt to reduce pollution blamed for contributing to global warming. "This is a major step forward in the fight to reduce carbon emissions from industrial plants," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "These new technologies will not only help fight climate change, they will create jobs now and help position the United States to lead the world in clean coal technologies, which will only...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) conceded her primary race Tuesday night. And despite the crowing from the enviro left and the climate-skeptic right, this is bad news. Covering energy issues, I've often disagreed with Murkowski and her staff, particularly on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have the authority to regulate carbon emissions. But she is one of the last few Republicans in Congress who favors addressing climate change robustly. She has even -- in her tortured, elected-from-a-deep-red-state way -- favored putting a price on carbon emissions, a rational policy that the rest of her party has demagogued to death with...

News Wednesday afternoon that an armed gunman had entered the cable TV headquarters of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, Maryland and begun taking hostages alarmed people throughout the Washington, D.C. area and around the country. As law enforcement officials negotiated with the suspect, posts on social media outlets inevitably began arguing over the ideological motivations of the hostage-taker, James J. Lee. Conservatives were quick to point out the suspect's radical environmentalist manifesto, while left-leaning sources disclaimed any connection. News a few hours later that the suspect had been shot and killed by police spawned a round of smug black humor,...

A UN board could rein in $2.7 billion carbon market to prevent the double dipping of CFC manufacturing incentives and carbon credit sales, as discovered to be happening in China.Guest post by Ric WermeImage from: made-in-china.com click for details Excerpts from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100821/ap_on_bi_ge/un_un_carbon_cutting_scheme# reports UNITED NATIONS – An obscure U.N. board that oversees a $2.7 billion market intended to cut heat-trapping gases has agreed to take steps that could lead to it eventually reining in what European and U.S. environmentalists are calling a huge scam.At a meeting this week that ended Friday, the executive board of the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration called for "fundamental change" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but a long, politically explosive debate lies ahead on the future of the bailed-out mortgage finance giants and U.S. housing policy. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday raised basic questions with housing industry leaders about the U.S. government's long-standing role in subsidizing and supporting the $10.7 trillion housing market. "It is not tenable to leave in place the system we have today," Geithner said at a conference hosted by the Treasury Department almost two years after the government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie...

On July 29, EPA denied 10 petitions challenging its 2009 determination that climate change is real, is occurring due to emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities, and threatens human health and the environment. The petitions to reconsider EPA’s Endangerment Finding claim that climate science cannot be trusted, and assert a conspiracy that invalidates the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. After months of serious consideration of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA finds no evidence to support these...

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) suggested a novel use Saturday for a 100-square-mile ice sheet that has broken off Greenland. “An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country," Markey said in a statement. “So far, 2010 has been the hottest year on record, and scientists agree arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate." Some scientists have attributed the breaking off of the ice sheet to abnormally warm temperatures this year. Markey, who chairs the Select Committee...

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday he has “no regrets” about his role in helping a troubled Boston bank qualify for a $12 million federal bailout now at the center of ethics charges against California Rep. Maxine Waters. In fact, Frank - chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee - says he never helped OneUnited at the behest of Waters, whose husband had served on the bank’s board. Instead, the Bay State congressman said he worked to promote the bailout at the request of scandal-plagued then-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. “I was already working on behalf of OneUnited, I was...

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desperately seeks a way to force a cap-and-trade energy bill through the Senate, folks in 10 northeastern states are getting a bitter taste of what such a program really means. In the case of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that includes New Jersey New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware and Maryland, greed and secrecy appear to be the most dominant considerations. RGGI describes itself on its web site as “the first mandatory, market-based effort in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states...

If you thought it ended with ObamaCare, think again. By “it,” we mean the irresponsible act of Congress to ramrod massive legislation through its chambers with far more regard for incestuous political praise than public service, only to find out, after the fact, that assaults on our Constitution and our individual freedoms were buried in the thousands of pages that this same Congress didn’t have time to read. Bob Beauprez (R) is a former Congressman from Colorado, now political commentator, who can only sum up what he is witnessing in the past 18 months under an Obama, Reid and Pelosi...

Last week we learned the Senate would not proceed with comprehensive climate and energy legislation to solve the climate crisis before the August recess. As I said in my statement, “The need to solve the climate crisis and transition to clean energy has never been more clear. The oil is still washing up on the shores of the Gulf Coast and we’ve just experienced the hottest six months on record. Our troops are fighting and dying in the Middle East and our economy is still struggling to produce jobs. I continue to urge the President to provide leadership on this...

This past weekend, while addressing the Netroots convention in Las Vegas, Senator Harry Reid gave the gathering of lefties a promise regarding U.S. health care. "We're going to have a public option," Reid said. "It's just a question of when." The same thing can be said of a cap-and-trade energy bill: the Democrats are determined to get cap-and-trade. It's just a question of when. There's too much money to be made for Democrat cronies to let this opportunity pass. Nancy Pelosi pushed the original 1,200-page cap-and-trade bill though the House of Representatives a year ago. I have written extensively about...

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank caused a scene when he demanded a $1 senior discount on his ferry fare to Fire Island's popular gay haunt, The Pines, last Friday. Frank was turned down by ticket clerks at the dock in Sayville because he didn't have the required Suffolk County Senior Citizens ID.

A Department of Revenue spokesman said Kerry would be liable for Massachusetts taxes if he berthed the boat in the Bay State within six months of its purchase. If the Isabel were brought to Massachusetts after that period, the state would have to decide if it wanted to pursue the taxes. Massachusetts, like most other states, has been grappling with plunging tax revenues. Last year's budget deficit was $600 million, and officials are bracing for a $1 billion deficit this year. The Republicans of Massachusetts spoke out meekly to criticize Kerry's cost saving measures. "While we can fault the...

Kerry irritated by yacht questions By: Andy Barr July 27, 2010 01:02 PM EDT Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) seemed to grow frustrated on Monday by ongoing questions of whether he paid the proper taxes on his $7 million yacht. “There is nothing more to say about it,” Kerry curtly told a gaggle of Massachusetts reporters as he tried to get into a car on Monday. A video of the interaction was posted online by Boston-area WBZ-TV. The yacht became a local issue over the weekend after the Boston Herald reported on Friday that Kerry was docking his new family boat...

"Let's not get silly here." That was Senator John Kerry's response Friday to questions about his new $7 million yacht, Isabel, which last week was berthed in Rhode Island rather than in Mr. Kerry's home state of Massachusetts. In doing so, Mr. Kerry will save almost $500,000 a year in taxes.

The Washington Post Sunday edition had the headline, “Battle Looms on Tax Breaks: Bush-Era Cuts for Rich at Issue.” There is definitely a fight brewing on Capitol Hill as the Bush Tax Cuts near an end and the Obama administration is looking at sticking it to the rich with tax hikes. You would think that the Bush Tax cuts were only for the rich as you listen to the debate. What I propose is that the rich and powerful actually pay their taxes and stop using loopholes, shelters, and deceit. Senator John Kerry is docking his built in New Zealand...

The controversy came up following a report that Kerry moored the multi-million dollar yacht in Rhode Island , rather than the Bay State to save on sales tax. Today from Fox 24 Boston: Reporter: "Senator, you gonna pay those taxes back?" Former VP candidate Kerry (who served in Vietnam): "We've always payed our taxes, we said we'd pay our taxes...it's not an issue, period."...

Energy Policy: Senate Democrats have shelved job-killing cap-and-trade legislation, at least for now. Neither the political nor the Earth's climate suggests it's a good time to try to fool Mother Nature or the American people. After a Thursday meeting with Senate Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has apparently dropped plans to pursue cap-and-trade before the August recess. He doesn't have the votes to overcome a GOP filibuster, and saving the earth from a phantom threat stands way below jobs on Americans' wish list. But watch out after November. "What he suggested is that we move forward on several bills...

A fidgety U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry tacked away from the press in Weymouth today, ducking questions about taxes for his luxury yacht. Following remarks at the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, Kerry - still recovering from hip replacement surgery - was able to make a quick exit from a press pack. A clearly perturbed Kerry was not happy when questions were thrown out as he was climbing into his SUV. “I have said consistently we will pay our taxes. We always pay our taxes. It’s not an issue period,” the Bay State’s senior senator said. When asked if he...

Like green manna from heaven, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may give Democrats yet new fodder to push cap-and-trade -- legislation setting a national limit to carbon emissions and giving the federal government the authority to parcel out "carbon credits." Never mind that the climate has absolutely no connection to the spill, or even help mitigate future possibilities of disaster, but that's not the point - there'd be few things more shocking than if Team Obama didn't somehow exploit a "good crisis." So what is the point? Well to understand, one must first understand progressives: while most people view...

Congressional budget experts say a climate and energy bill now stalled in the Senate would reduce the federal deficit by about $19 billion over the next decade. The report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was the second positive analysis of the bill by a government agency in a month, but is likely to carry more weight than a similar report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. The CBO is the entity responsible for providing Congress with nonpartisan analyses of economic and budget issues, and lawmakers rely on it for guidance. The CBO report was immediately hailed by the bill's...

Energy Policy: The administration plans to use sleight-of-hand politics to sneak through an economy-killing tax on energy as necessary to save the Earth. Make no mistake: Cap-and-trade is a tax every American will pay in every aspect of his or her life.IBD Exclusive Series: American Freedom And Prosperity Under AttackCap-and-trade is like Jason Voorhees of the "Friday the 13th" movie series. Just when you think you've killed it, it comes back. Exposures of fraud in the climate science used to justify it seemed to doom its chances as the economy soured and prospective costs seemed prohibitive. Then the Deepwater Horizon...

Guess who holds patent for carbon trading plan Disgraced Fannie Mae CEO set to cash in for millions Obama housing adviser Franklin Raines Former Clinton and Obama budget adviser Franklin Raines owns a key carbon-emissions patent he developed as CEO of the government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae, positioning him and his partners to make millions of dollars if it is used in any carbon-capping scheme implemented by the Obama administration. Raines and his associates led Fannie Mae and Congress to believe Fannie Mae owned the patent, despite public records to the contrary, a WND investigation has found. Raines and his...

Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines, two of his top underlings and select individuals in the "green" movement were inventing a patented system to trade residential carbon credits. Patent No. 6904336 was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office on Nov. 7, 2006 -- the day after Democrats took control of Congress. Former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., criticized the award at the time, pointing out that it had "nothing to do with Fannie Mae's charter, nothing to do with making mortgages more affordable." "It wasn't about mortgages. It was about greenbacks. The patent, which Fannie Mae confirmed it...