The Saloon dot net

EPA ruling over climate jeopardizes coal plants

Roland, the Gunslinger — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:46:57 -0500

"The bottom line is this leads to delays for coal plants," David Bookbinder, a lawyer for environmental group the Sierra Club.

Delays could be bad news for the industry especially as the United States may soon regulate greenhouse gases as President-elect Barack Obama has promised to do, he added.

A section of the EPA ruling said, "The Board recognizes that this is an issue of national scope that has implications far beyond this individual permitting proceeding."

Environmentalists said the wording opens up the EPA to reconsidering permits in other states.

In a landmark ruling in 2007, the Supreme Court found that carbon dioxide can be regulated as a pollutant under the U.S. Clean Air Act.

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The world has never seen such freezing heat

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:17:57 -0500

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

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Obama gets set to pick RFK Jr. as EPA boss - anti-oil, anti-nuke, anti-coal, anti-wind, but you may be allowed a small dung fire if you've filed the proper paperwork

Riley Jones — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:06:49 -0500

Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has begun assembling a glittering White House team, which could include two heirs to the Kennedy dynasty and other Washington big-hitters.

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Michael Crichton dies of cancer

Roland, the Gunslinger — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:11:31 -0500

Chrichton was a brand-name author, known for his stories of disaster and systematic breakdown, such as the rampant microbe of "The Andromeda Strain" or dinosaurs running amok in "Jurassic Park," one of his many books that became major Hollywood movies.

"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," his family said in a statement.

In recent years, he was the rare writer to get on well with President Bush, perhaps because of his skepticism about global warming, which Crichton addressed in the 2004 novel, "State of Favor." Crichton's views were strongly condemned by environmentalists, who alleged that the author was hurting efforts to pass legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

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Hansen: Still a Media Darling

Roland, the Gunslinger — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:54:20 -0400

A month ago, Planet Gore reported that NASA climatologist James Hansen, a leading voice in proclaiming man’s role in climate change and a close advisor of Al Gore, had sided with the radical environmental group Greenpeace in advocating eco-vandalism to save the planet. Hansen’s controversial testimony at a London trial in support of activists accused of causing $60,000 in property damage to an English coal facility brought immediate condemnation from some in the science community.

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Obama's Carbon Ultimatum: The coming offer you won't be able to refuse

Roland, the Gunslinger — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:26:59 -0400

Jason Grumet is currently executive director of an outfit called the National Commission on Energy Policy and one of Mr. Obama's key policy aides. In an interview last week with Bloomberg, Mr. Grumet said that come January the Environmental Protection Agency "would initiate those rulemakings" that classify carbon as a dangerous pollutant under current clean air laws. That move would impose new regulation and taxes across the entire economy, something that is usually the purview of Congress. Mr. Grumet warned that "in the absence of Congressional action" 18 months after Mr. Obama's inauguration, the EPA would move ahead with its own unilateral carbon crackdown anyway.

Well, well. For years, Democrats -- including Senator Obama -- have been howling about the "politicization" of the EPA, which has nominally been part of the Bush Administration. The complaint has been that the White House blocked EPA bureaucrats from making the so-called "endangerment finding" on carbon. Now it turns out that a President Obama would himself wield such a finding as a political bludgeon. He plans to issue an ultimatum to Congress: Either impose new taxes and limits on carbon that he finds amenable, or the EPA carbon police will be let loose to ravage the countryside.

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Almost Too Stupid to Post: Switzerland Places Ban on the Humiliation of Plants

Riley Jones — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:49:06 -0400

Recently, the Swiss Parliament asked a panel of philosophers, lawyers, geneticists and theologians to determine the meaning of dignity when it pertains to plants.

Lo and Behold, the team published a treatise on “the moral consideration of plants for their own sake.” The treatise established that vegetation has innate value and that it is morally wrong to partake in activities such as the “decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason.”

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Nonsense By Any Other Name: Calling Carbon Dioxide A Pollutant Doesn't Make It A Pollutant

Roland, the Gunslinger — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:12:41 -0400

From NASA's own website: There is no more important greenhouse gas than water vapor. Water vapor affects global warming in both positive and negative terms, and offers a trail for scientists to follow towards a better understanding about how the planet functions as a whole. By applying integrated analytic tools to the study of climate and climate change, experts hope to learn more specifically how water vapor and other greenhouse gasses move and function throughout the atmosphere.

It is becoming increasingly fashionable to maintain that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, one that should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Seven Northeastern states have even announced their intention to sue the administration for its failure to regulate power plant emissions of carbon dioxide under the Act.

They claim to be doing this because fossil-fueled electric power plants are the source of nearly forty percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in the U.S. To underline the importance of doing something to reduce carbon dioxide emissions-like ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty on climate change which mandates reducing carbon dioxide emissions-they and others have repeatedly stated that carbon dioxide is the main global warming gas.

These claims are not only wrong, they are irresponsible...The principal greenhouse gas is water vapor.

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Barack Obama will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that can be regulated should he win the presidential election on Nov. 4, opening the way for new rules on greenhouse gas emissions.

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Fuel Cells Powered by Hydrogen from Sewage

Riley Jones — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:09:39 -0400

Researchers at the Oregon State University College of Engineering have discovered an efficient way to produce hydrogen from different types of biowaste, including municipal sewage.

The process uses 75% less energy than the traditional water electrolysis method of producing hydrogen, and can be done at a much lower cost, making it a good candidate for hydrogen fuel production. In the lab, researchers are already close to the Department of Energy’s goal of $2 to $3 per gasoline gallon equivalent for hydrogen fuel.

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Bad weather was good for Alaska glaciers

Riley Jones — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:58:37 -0400

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

(Snappy salute to General Disarray)

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Boise gets earliest snow on record

Roland, the Gunslinger — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:19:21 -0400

Big snow flakes fell early Friday evening, turning Downtown Boise into a giant snow globe for people on their way home from work. The snow caught many people off guard, including this bicyclist heading down Idaho Street between 8th and 9th around 5:45 p.m. Across the Treasure Valley, tree branches heavy with wet, snow-covered leaves fell on power lines, causing scattered power outages. This is the earliest measurable snowfall in Boise since recordkeeping began in 1898, according to the National Weather Service. At 10 p.m., the Weather Service said 1.7 inches of snow had fallen. The previous earliest recorded snowfall was Oct. 12, 1969, when a little more than an inch fell. And if the snow wasn't enough, meteorologists say winds across southwestern Idaho will average 25 to 40 mph through Saturday afternoon, with gusts up to 55 mph. Sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph are expected, which can make driving difficult.

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Is the godfather of the Kyoto treaty a public servant or a profiteer?

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:54:23 -0400

"I don't trust you, and I also question your integrity." Thus did Maurice Strong offer me a seat on his living room sofa.

Often described as an "international man of mystery," Mr. Strong during his long, globe-trotting career has been one of the most influential architects of the opaque cross-border bureaucracy that is today's United Nations. He is probably best known as godfather of the U.N.'s 1997 Kyoto treaty, and as a former U.N. top adviser who in that same year received a check for almost $1 million, bankrolled by the U.N.-sanctioned regime of Saddam Hussein. (Mr. Strong told me that at the time he did not know the money came from Baghdad.)

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Cold and Colder

Roland, the Gunslinger — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:58 -0400

Joe Bastardi, the Chief Long-Range Forecaster at AccuWeather, has released his 2008-09 Winter Season Forecast addressing issues of average temperature and precipitation that will impact the nation. His forecast calls for one of the coldest winters in several years across much of the Eastern portion of the United States, the population-dense third of the nation

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Shrimp Farm Turns to Biofuel Producer

Riley Jones — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:21:36 -0400

Gary Wood’s Phoenix-area shrimp farm was highly profitable in the 90’s, but after an increase of imports from Asia, Wood went looking for something else to fill his ponds. Now that biodiesel is cost-competitive with its petroleum cousin, algae-farms have been popping up around Arizona and other warm areas. But Wood has an advantage: his shrimp already eat algae, so he knows exactly how to grow it.

“We will harvest the algae in a very similar way we took the buildup from the shrimp ponds,” Wood said. “It is just amazing we are in this position right now. Up until a couple of years ago, we didn’t realize we’d done so much of this research.”

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Anything Into Ethanol: Forget about corn—future biofuels will be made of wood chips and trash

Riley Jones — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:29:22 -0400

Biofuels could be a crucial weapon against both rising temperatures and dwindling global oil supplies. They are made from organic material such as plants, so they essentially recycle existing carbon in the atmosphere instead of releasing new carbon from the depths of the earth; they are also, in principle, endlessly renewable. But the best-known biofuel, ethanol, is looking decidedly unpromising right now. Today most ethanol in the United States is made from corn, using an energy-intensive process that may not actually save a lot of fossil fuel, and in any case America cannot produce enough ethanol from corn to really matter.

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IBD: Raked Over Coal

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:16:22 -0400

Al Gore has rightly been scolded for encouraging civil disobedience to stop global warming. But his little-noticed follow-up statement might be even more foolish — and dangerous.

When it comes to sheer crackpottery on environmental issues, no national figure can measure up to the lofty standard set by the former Tennessee senator and vice president. This is a man who is leading a caravan of humming hybrid drivers to nowhere and is willing to criminalize those who disagree with him to get there.

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Much touted Denver DNC carbon offset program a resounding success by raising $18.34

Riley Jones — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:17:50 -0400

Results of a program using Aspen’s Canary Initiative to sell carbon offset credits to Democratic National Convention attendees are a little underwhelming.

The program, set up by the DNC Host Committee through the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau and rolled out about a week before the convention started, raised a total of $18.34 worth of Canary Tags, offsetting 0.9 tons of carbon emissions.

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Gore gets the Last Laugh

Riley Jones — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:50:06 -0400

Al Gore, left, and Clay McKinney stand on his houseboat, Bio-Solar One, which the Gores keep docked on Center Hill Lake.

His large Nashville home, utility bills and jet travels have drawn flamethrowers over the last year and a half. Now, it's a houseboat he bought this summer.

"Here's the good news for him," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "It doesn't matter a whit. He's out of politics. He's won the Nobel Prize, the Academy Award and goodness knows what else. ... He's got the last laugh on anybody."

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The Honey Badger: World's Most Fearless Animal

Riley Jones — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:40:22 -0400

Climate change heroes' sham case

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:38:02 -0400

ONE commonly repeated argument for doing something about climate change sounds compelling, but turns out to be almost fraudulent. It is based on comparing the cost of action with the cost of inaction, and almost every major politician in the world uses it. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, for example, used this argument when he presented the European Union's proposal to tackle climate change earlier this year.

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Problems with the Climate Models

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:47:31 -0400

Recalling that people such as Robert F. Kennedy have called climate skeptics “traitors”, David Suzuki calls for their jailing, the Grist website called for Nuremburg trials for them, NASA’s Dr. Jim Hansen calling for their trials for treason, along with the habitual insults from Al Gore, its been difficult for anyone to respectfully dissent. It’s been difficult to stick to the rules of hard science, by demanding evidence and replication, both of which require questioning but are often followed by insults and threats.

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Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:00:48 -0400

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change.

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A Melting Arctic: Happy News for Mankind

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:09:21 -0400

The Earth is currently in the geologic epoch known as the Holocene. This began nearly 12,000 years ago when the last ice age (more precisely, the Weichsal glacial) ended. Temperatures warmed, glaciers began to retreat, and the Arctic began to melt. This began what is called an interglacial: a warmer period between glaciation.

We tend to think of the poles as immutable, but geologically speaking, permanent polar ice is a rare phenomenon, comprising less than 10% of history. Icecaps form briefly between interglacials, only to melt as the next one begins -- this time around will be no different.

So we know the Arctic will eventually be open water. The only question is how it will affect us.

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Drill Here, Drill Now

Riley Jones — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:34:03 -0400

Obama supporters mourn the loss of some trees (not satire)

Riley Jones — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:17:53 -0400

Tree Hugging Hippies...

Global COOLING (Yes, you read that correctly)

Riley Jones — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:43:55 -0400

The record-setting surface of the sun. A full month has gone by without a single spot Source: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

In the past 1000 years, three previous such events -- the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums, have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called a "mini ice age". For a society dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. The growing season shortens, yields drop, and the occurrence of crop-destroying frosts increases.

Thanks, Steve

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Gustav weakens to Category 2 as it nears La. coast

Riley Jones — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:08:02 -0400

A weakened Hurricane Gustav closed in on flood-prone coastal Louisiana Monday, bringing punishing wind and sheets of rain. But the storm veered away from New Orleans, where only a few holdouts and those that refused to abandon Bourbon Street remained.

Gusts snapped large branches from the majestic oak trees that form a canopy over St. Charles Avenue. Tens of thousands were without power in New Orleans and other low-lying parishes, but officials in said backup generators were keeping city drainage pumps in service.

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The 'consensus' on climate change is a catastrophe in itself

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:07:09 -0400

As the estimated cost of measures proposed by politicians to "combat global warming" soars ever higher – such as the International Energy Council's $45 trillion – "fighting climate change" has become the single most expensive item on the world's political agenda. As Senators Obama and McCain vie with the leaders of the European Union to promise 50, 60, even 80 per cent cuts in "carbon emissions", it is clear that to realise even half their imaginary targets would necessitate a dramatic change in how we all live, and a drastic reduction in living standards.

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No shelter for those that stay in New Orleans as Gustav approaches

Roland, the Gunslinger — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:51:16 -0400

Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own.

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Gustav and Katrina...

Riley Jones — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:36:25 -0400

As Gustav looks to be bearing down on Louisiana (More ), here is hoping that the residents of New Orleans take some advice and LEAVE this time...