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Dominion Virginia Power is pursuing paths forward that will worsen the Commonwealth’s pollution profile, which isn’t anything to brag about at this time. 

And, they are wrapping their polluting path in an advertising campaign “Sometimes at least part of the answer actually is blowing in the wind.” [Read more →]

Join us at Energize America looking for solution paths toward a prosperous, climate-friendly future. One of those paths is to seek out renewable energy choices which can include a Green Christmas in terms of power source choices to help protect a White Christmas for tomorrow.

Oh, Christmas Eve, the beautiful lights on the streets, glowing above the snow … scratch that, lighting up the soggy ground, with inflatable reindeer merry-go-rounds, mangers, flashing light displays, and so on …  As with much of American society, the excesses of last year are only targets to be topped this year.

The Washington Post reported on a 12-year rivalry between two Maryland homeowners seeking to out do each other’s light displays in Let There be Light.

Both men blew their fuses so many times they ended up installing extra circuit breakers and outlets. Electrical limitations one year forced Richard to pick between plugging in his ailing father’s oxygen machine or his lights. The oxygen ultimately won, but Richard devised a way to work around his father’s schedule and eke out 90 minutes a night for lights.

The rivalry reached fever pitch in 2001 with Steve’s magnum opus: an 8-by-16-foot American flag.

The heat from the glowing monstrosity melted all snow within two feet. The sheer number of bulbs, 6,000 in all, required 12 extension cords, six outlets and a 30-amp circuit breaker.

Richard countered with a 28-foot Christmas tree in lights nailed to the side of his house. But even then, Steve’s flag won the day.

“melted all snow with two feet …”  Is there anything stronger than this statement of fact (lights so hot that the snow melted around the display) to indicate how wasteful energy excesses are helping to heat the globe to reduce the likelihood of a White Christmas in the years to come.

Returning to the flag, just one element in this household required display, 6,000 lights?  How many 10,000s of kilowatt hours are burnt each year at just these two homes in their lighting rivalry?  How many tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the air due to these two men pursuing a lightbulb rivalry?  And, how many homes across America imitate this insanity?

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

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 is calibrated so that 100 equals the detachment seen in Senator Inhofe’s  “greatest hoax”, polar bear, and Mars quotations, seen above. Extra consideration is given to positions espoused with an excessively cavalier attitude or downright meanness, and those from people or organizations that have a obligation to get it right.

The report issued yesterday merits something in the range of an Inhofe 90 (after all, the people cited are, as far as I’m aware, actually alive).   A speech that Inhofe gave back in September, however, pushes the max on the scale, getting into the range of global warming is “”the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”  In essence, Global Warming is the latest Black Helicopter craze of UN conspiracy to take over the United States (and the globe).

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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, I am outraged that such deniers (Roadblock Republicans) are able to stand in the way toward moving the nation and the Globe toward a more sensible energy future.

And, as an analyst, I am outraged that such mediocrity is allowed to be pedaled as a “report” with the imprimateur of the US government and a US Senate Committee behind it.

A full throated examination of the mediocrity of this collection of misleading climate denier and climate skeptic and delayer material is beyond the ability of one single post. 

But, after the fold,  this posting provides just a taste of the reviews and examinations of just the first three of the “peer-reviewed studies” cited by James Inhofe and his staff-support for Global Warming Denial.

Take a look and join with me in questioning what “peer review” means when coming from James Inhofe’s mouth.

Inhofe calls on us to listen to the UN IPCC Chairman, Rajendra Pachauri:

Please listen to the voice of science

Inhofe’s “science” does not stand up to scientific scrutiny.  See what science has to say about these “peer-reviewed studies”.

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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

has got away with doing nothing and maintained a clean image which it does not deserve.

Well, an Energy COOL step toward reducing that footprint is going to sea next month and, as part of its maiden voyage, will be calling on Boston.

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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.

The Jiexun is claimed to have 20 percent lower fuel usage than conventional vehicles with tailpipe emissions that can meet advanced EU-IV standards. 

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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 in the Energy Independence and (in) Security Act.

According to the EPA’s press release

The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution — not a confusing patchwork of state rules — to reduce America’s climate footprint from vehicles. President Bush and Congress have set the bar high, and, when fully implemented, our federal fuel economy standard will achieve significant benefits by applying to all 50 states

What does that mean? States’ rights advocates should be up in arms since the Bush Administration says that states can’t taken stronger action than the Federal government, or at least when they are trying to act in the interests of the general public and tomorrow’s unborn citizens. 

The Bush Admin solution for Global Warming? Kick the ball as far to the right as possible and do nothing.  As per David Roberts at Grist, this press release and the justifications expressed would be called truthiness, except that might insult the word.

This is a serious step backwards and a victory for those auto industry troglodytes that have been fighting stricter emissions standards tooth and nail. California has already pledged to go back to court to fight EPA’s decision. Will they have their day in court before there is a new EPA Administrator come 2009?

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“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 discussion.  The Astroturf organization, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices is a promoter of “Clean Coal”, seeking to promote Global Warming emissions growth through even more coal use. “ABEC” is very good, after all, they do provide you paths toward reducing your personal carbon emissions and energy saving tips.  This is a “100,000 person strong” organization that gives no information (easy to find, at least) about their funding.  They claim to be about balanced energy,  but their objective is to promote coal use.

And, today, they took that promotion to the Hill.

Santa Clauses, wearing white gloves, were at the Union Station and Capitol South Metro stations handing out coal. Handing out clean coal, that is, that didn’t leave a speck of dust on those beautiful white gloves.  A Christmas gift to the Globe, a path for even more CO2 emissions for decades to come.

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