NC Media Watch

And you thought our economy could not get any worse -- Oops

Russ Steele

The EPA announced today it will be granting California’s waiver, enabling the state to enforce its own version of greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles beginning with the current model year. The EPA declared has it had taken this action to tackle air pollution and protect human health. Detail here.

“This decision puts the law and science first. After review of the scientific findings, and another comprehensive round of public engagement, I have decided this is the appropriate course under the law,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “This waiver is consistent with the Clean Air Act as it’s been used for the last 40 years and supports the prerogatives of the 13 states and the District of Columbia who have opted to follow California’s lead. More importantly, this decision reinforces the historic agreement on nationwide emissions standards developed by a broad coalition of industry, government and environmental stakeholders earlier this year.”

The Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to allow California to adopt its own emission standards for new motor vehicles due to the seriousness of the state’s air pollution challenges.

Let see, unemployment is soaring and California is about to pay it's bills with IOUs. California is out of jobs, and out of money. Now California has been given the authority to make it worse.  Oops!

Lunch with Tom Under the Trees

Russ Steele

 The setting was a beautiful yard on Cement Hill under the shade trees. Somehow a beautiful yard on a cement hill is hard to fathom, that is until you visit Jo Ann Rebane’s beautiful yard.  What a lovely place to discuss the politics of the day.

 

The House and Yard

When we arrived there was a large table of sandwiches, fruit  and scrumptious brownies, with bottles of chilled water and green iced tea waiting for us.  Soon neighbors, friends and recognized tea party supporters started arriving, all of us looking forward to hearing our 4th District Representative, Tom McClintock, give us a first hand report from the circus in Washington.

The Food

While selecting our food, and enjoying the light lunch, we had an opportunity to ask Tom  questions and participate in one-on-one discussion of issues important to us all. He was most gracious, listening and then giving direct answers.  No “daisy talk” as George calls useless chatter devoid of content. This was an opportunity for access to first hand knowledge of the political process, and nobody wasted this opportunity on “daisy talk.”   More on Daisy Talk at Ruminations

The Conservation

On the top of the discussion was the  Cap and Trade Bill that just made it’s way through the House of Representatives. According to Tom, we are deciding our survival as a nation. Tom has an excellent grasp of history, and explained the impact that Smoot-Hawley had on delaying the recovery following the 1929 market crash. Smoot-Hawley levied import tariffs on 20,000 products coming from foreign countries, to make US make products more competitive in the US. Tom explained that Cap and Trade is really just a tax on all US products. A tax that makes them less competitive on global markets. All these new taxes in the middle of a recession, could cause the nation to sink into a depression.  Smoot-Hawley caused a depression, do we have another one just over the horizon?

The Details

Tom’s next subject was Healthcare. Unfortunately, my interest in the discussion caused a lapse in my note taking.  He thinks that we should give the same tax credits to employees that we are giving to those who employ workers, so they can buy an insurance plan that will meet their family needs. Interesting, no mention of how us retired folks will fair.

Tom noted that Europe is abandoning socialism, while the US, Iran and  Venezuela are moving toward adopting  socialism. This is leadership driven effort, as conservatism is growing in the nation. Time for the citizens to let their leaders know change is afoot.  American’s are sensing the growing danger and are becoming restless. Calls requesting a vote no on Cap and Trade crashed the House Switch Board.

 

George and Jo Ann in a Final Word With Tom

Tom pointed out that the nation should be learning from the “greening of California” . Once AB-32 was passed, companies started moving to Nevada, Arizona and Texas where they did not have to deal with the excessive carbon taxes and regulations. Since 2007, implementation of AB-32, California unemployment  has been growing faster than the national average, when in the past, California’s unemployment was lower than the national average. The rush of green jobs promised by California politicians never appeared, leaving thousands of Californians unemployed.

There were questions about healthcare, funding of czars,  why Mary Bono, a Republican voted for Cap and Trade ?  His assessment of Nancy Pelosi, and why we are allowing the darter fish to turn the Central Valley into a desert ? Do we really have to fill out all the private data on the Census forms ? Where do we stand on national defense with the new challenges from North Korea and Iran ?

I did not capture all the answers, except for the last one.  In Tom’s view, the Obama apology tour has given rogue nations the high sign, they have nothing to fear from the US.  Being a student of history, Tom recalled the events that set the stage for WWII, when Europe told Hitler he had nothing to fear from nations of friendly people. Tom’s fear is that Obama is sending the same message to Iran and North Korea, we are not going to be a obstacle to your ambitions.   

George, has more on the meeting with Tom and forty friends and neighbors on Rebane’s Ruminations.

 

Solar cycles, not CO2 control our climate

Russ Steele

Stephen Wilde has a exclusive report at his Solar Cycle 25 blog this morning: The Critical Importance of Solar Cycles. Climate history tells us that solar cycles have controlled our climate, producing maximums and minimums, something the IPCC decided to ignore or minimize.  Wilde presents a historical perspective. With the solar cycle 23 growing longer and longer, the probability of a grand minimum increase day by day. 

Wilde's Summary:

This site looks ahead to Cycle 25 because by the time it begins in the 2020s the climate effect of changes in solar activity will be clear to all. Modern and future sensing techniques will leave little room for doubts.

Indeed it may well be that by then and if the current trend in solar activity continues then we will be seeing significant global cooling which will render our current concerns laughable if we were not to be already crying as a result of the misguided energy policy changes put into effect from fear of CO2.

CO2 the beneficial gas must be distinguished from the harmful carbon particulates produced by fuel burning. The latter can be dealt with relatively easily. The former cannot be affected (if at all) without horrendous worldwide economic and social consequences which may well be all for nought.

This post is being cross posted at The Dalton Minimum Returns.

What happens when zealots meet Mother Nature?

Russ Steele

I was reading the Power Line Blog this morning and took note of this closing statement, following John Hinderakes examination of Obama EPA's attempt to quash climate science. More on the quashing here, but this was the thought I found most interesting.

Global warming zealots are a bit like Iran's mullahs. They are fanatically devoted to a series of false propositions. Unable to win an open scientific debate, they consistently resort to bullying and brute force to suppress their opposition. Again, we see the Obama administration taking the lead in this regard, putting political ideology above scientific truth and demanding that all others do likewise.

What happens when the zealots fail to recognizes that Mother Nature does not give a tinkers damn about their political ideology, she has been warming and cooling the earth for billion of years.  There is voluminous evidence the earth has experienced millennial-scale oscillation of climate producing the Roman Warm Period and Dark Ages Cold Period, the subsequent Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and Modern Warm Period, all without any help from changes in the CO2 content in the air. 

The silly notion that a minor gas in our atmosphere controls our climate cannot be supported by scientific evidence. In fact, physical observations have proved the zealots wrong, but they do not care. Detail here. They are only using climate change as an excuse to test some of their silly ideas for managing the future, for creating a long imagined socialist utopia managed by a chosen one.

First it was save the planet, now it is jobs, jobs jobs.

 Russ Steele

On Friday the House of Representative passed HR 2454, a bill intended to address climate change, however the mission may have changed.  The Speaker prodded Democrats to take potentially risky votes to support the party’s top priorities, urged members to remember what the legislation is about: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” She then urged members to vote for creating more job by passing the largest tax bill in US History.

I hope that someone can explain to me how the US is going to compete in global markets by increasing the cost of all US products through excessive energy taxes. If we cannot compete, they there will be no new jobs and more companies will be moving there operations off shore to countries with lower cost energy and no costly CO2 controls. How this is going to create more jobs?  Really? Please explain? 

If Spain is an example, HR 2454 will destroy more jobs than it creates. You can read the study here. The study calculates that since 2000 Spain spent €571,138 ($802,791) to create each
“green job”, including subsidies of more than €1 million per wind industry job ($1,405,599).

The programs creating those jobs also resulted in the destruction of nearly 110,500 jobs elsewhere in the economy, or 2.2 jobs destroyed for every “green job” created.

Now one has to ask, is this how we are going to create more jobs in the US? I hope not.

The Tea Party Patriots now have real targets!

Russ Steele

Now that the Climate Bill Passes in House the Tea Party Patriot have a clear target. The largest tax bill in the history of the United States Passed the House of Representative today, Friday the 26th of June. A date that will go down in history.

The "Yeas" and "Nays" can be found here. There were eight Republicans that voted for the bill. Those Republicans need to find a new line of work ASAP. Clear targets for the Tea Party Patriots. Get started Patriots!! 

There were the 211 Democrats that need an attitude adjustment and an opportunity to seek new forms of employment. These 219 legislators that voted for this tax bill that will have a negative impact on every family in American, all to solve a problem that does not exist - global warming.

The original Tea Party rebellion was about taxes without representation. The modern Tea Party rebellion should be about taxes without scientific validation. Global warming stopped ten years ago and continues to decline, yet 219 representative either do not understand the science, or they do not give rat a** about the people they represent, they are only concerned about another opportunity to tax the compliant sheepeople.   

Update #1:  Here is the test that should apply to all Repesentatives :

1) Did you vote for Waxan-Markey?

2) Did you read Waxman-Markey (300 pages added the the 1200 pages at 4AM)?

3) Why did you vote for something you did not read?

4) Did you serve the people you represent by not reading Waxman-Markey?

Your Answer: Do you think we are that stupid? 

Oh no, not another car regulation - green windows

Russ Steele

California is the first state in the nation to require car manufacturers to install windshields that block the sun as a way to cut greenhouse gases.

The state Air Resources Control Board voted unanimously Thursday to require all new cars sold in California by 2012 to prevent 45 percent of the sun's total heat-producing energy from entering the car with the windshield rejecting at least half of the sun's energy.

In 2016, car manufacturers will be required to install windows in new cars that prevent at least 60 percent of the sun's heat-producing rays from entering the car. Instead the companies may propose technologies to achieve the equivalent result, the board voted.

"My view is that this is not another car regulation," said board Chairwoman Mary Nichols. "We're supposed to be in the business of moving California toward a new energy-efficient world, and that includes reflective glass."

Mary Mary, Mary, perhaps you might want to check a dictionary: 

Regulation

1)  a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority : planning regulations.

For this CARB action to not be "another car regulation" we have to accept two propositions. One, you did not make any rules or publish a directive. Two, you have no authority. Since both are faults, I have to conclude this is another car regulation.

Now, what happens if the world turns colder, we have another Grand Minimum?  A little sunshine in the car on those cold mornings would be most appreciated.

H/T to DaveC for bring this SFGate story to my attention.

Political sausage and bad science

Russ Steele

Watching the making of political sausage can be a painful experience, but some times it is necessary, especially when they are about to put in place legislation to tax you and your family to solve the non-existing problem of human caused global warming. Here is a link to C-SPAN with wall to wall coverage of of our economic suicide.  Link:http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx

Want to understand Waxman-Markey? Really?

Russ Steele

The Republicans are point out that the Waxman-Markey bill would create a convoluted federal bureaucracy that would control key sectors of the economy and of our lives. Minority Leader John Boehner created this graphic, showing how the bill is intended to work; click to enlarge:

Now you know why none of our Congresspersons have read this 1200+ pages of legislation. Yet, they are going to vote on it.  I am having coffee with Congresman McClintock on Monday, I will ask him if he has had an opportunity to read Waxman-Markey. 

H/T to PowerLine Blog

How Much Will The Global Warming Bill Cost You?

Russ Steele

The Heritage Foundation — indispensable in the economic fight for energy freedom — has come up with a helpful table telling you how much your Congressional District will be harmed under the proposed Waxman-Markey global warming bill.

Here is an extract:

 
Note: You live in District 4, Tom McClintock's District, are you prepared to contribute your share to these stunning loses/costs?  Can California's economy sustain these cost? Really? You might want to let Tom know how you feel, link on the left of this page. The vote is Friday!