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Entries from December 2007

An Oily Christmas Gift, courtesy of the American taxpayer

December 22nd, 2007 · Comments Off on An Oily Christmas Gift, courtesy of the American taxpayer

Snuck in amid the sounds of Santa and Christmas bells, the Bush Administration has granted a $10 billion gift for the oil company stockings.  

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Tags: Congress · Energy · politics

Another notch in the “Inhofe Scale”

December 21st, 2007 · 7 Comments

Giving credit where credit is due is, to me, a quite pleasurable task.  Lou Grinzo’s Inhofe Scale captures the delusional nature of the Senator from Exxon.  The Inhofe Scale will be used to measure statements (but most definitely not the speakers who make them) that exhibit a noticeable and willing detachment from reality. The scale […]

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Tags: Global Warming · James Inhofe · skeptic · truthiness

Inhofian Reporting: Peerless work?

December 21st, 2007 · 29 Comments

The Minority on the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Commitee (read James Inhofe (R-Exxon)) has just released a “report”: 0ver 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007.  As a taxpayer, to start with, I am outraged that my taxes are used to support such truthiness and distortions. As a human being, […]

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Tags: Global Warming · Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change · politics · skeptic

Energy COOL: Sailing our way to a Smart Energy Future

December 20th, 2007 · 1 Comment

For many, shipping is out of sight, out of mind. So much so, for example, that shipping emissions are not covered in the Kyoto agreement or other proposed carbon reduction treaties. Few people realize that carbon dioxide emissions from the shipping industry exceeds that from aviation.  As one UK Member of Parliament put it, Shipping […]

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Tags: wind power

Hybrid Chinese Style?

December 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Hybrid Chinese Style?

Just a few days ago, the first domestically developed and produced Chinese hybrid vehicle rolled off the assembly line.   “It took us 6 years to develop this hybrid and it marks the beginning of mass production of hybrid vehicles at our company today,” said Xu Liuping, the president of Changan Automobile at a celebration ceremony. […]

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Tags: automobiles · hybrid

Bush Admin tramples States’ Rights … Again

December 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bush Admin tramples States’ Rights … Again

This evening, shortly after George W. Bush signed the weakened Energy Bill into law, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson announced that California (and the 16 states that had pledged to adopt California’s standards) will not be granted a waiver from the clean air act to put stricter pollution controls on vehicles and drive a higher CAFE standard than is included […]

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Tags: automobiles · carbon dioxide · Congress · environmental · Global Warming · government energy policy · politics

Astroturfing the Political Discussion

December 19th, 2007 · 3 Comments

“Clean Coal” sounds so lovely, doesn’t it?  Sounds like coal that’s just been washed with Woolite or such. It is, in reality, an extremely dangerous and seductive term that obscures the very real pollution that would occur even with “clean coal” electricity production. It is not just LCV that is seeking to influence the Presidential […]

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Tags: coal

What are they waiting for?

December 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on What are they waiting for?

What are they waiting for? is an excellent question from the League of Conservation Voters and an excellent site.  As I’ve noted before, if we judge their views by the issues they raise with presidential candidates, global warming simply does not exist for TV pundits like Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Wolf Blitzer, Bob Schieffer, and […]

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Tags: Global Warming · politics

Solar Pool Cleaning

December 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on Solar Pool Cleaning

Swimming pools are not, generally, the most environmentally friendly item you’ll find.  Lots of chemicals to clean them, the electricity to keep the pumps running, all the energy to heat them, all the water used up to fill them … all in all, not the most climate friendly lifestyle choice. But options are growing to […]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Polling our way to a better future?

December 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on Polling our way to a better future?

One of the signs of a changing weltaunschauung when it comes to Global Warming is the ever growing advertising and marketing agency focus on ‘green’ issues.  And, with this, ever more polling about consumer attitudes, providing information about what the “average Joe” thinks about ecology, energy, green, etc issues.  And, some of this is turning […]

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Tags: electricity · Energy