NC Media Watch

Cost of CARB: Obama keeping fuel prices up

Russ Steele

With the price of crude going sideways, the local fuel prices are mirroring similar stability. It would be nice if the price of fuel would go down, but most likely not going to happen on the Obama’s watch.

 According to a recent Heritage Foundation Report, “if the President was serious about bringing down the cost of gas, he would instruct his Administration to reduce the bureaucratic red tape on energy projects in the Gulf of Mexico. A new report from Greater New Orleans Inc.revealed that the issuance of drilling permits is down 71 percent compared to the monthly average over the past three years. … Worse still is the news that the Department of the Interior might let hundreds of Gulf of Mexico drilling leases expire, costing jobs and further decreasing production.

In other words, the president made choice after choice that hampered the ability of domestic oil producers to do what they do best — produce oil.”

Prop 23 Update: Anthony asks a critical question

Russ Steele

Anthony Watts has an interesting post on the Death of a carbon salesman: Chicago Climate Exchange

The Chicago Climate Change is no more.  Here is his question:

Makes you wonder what the bloviator in chief at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Mary Nichols is going to do with their much ballyhooed (but delayed) idea of carbon trading in California?

Prop 23 Update: CA has to try harder to destroy the economy

Russ Steele

CA is still in a depression and the environmentalist are more worried that we are not meeting the goals set out in AB-32 the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, then crating jobs.  Never mind, they there has not been any significant warming for the last 15 years and in Sacramento, the source of AB32, for the last 30 years.

CA Political News has the story here:

California is not on track to meet the most ambitious goals of AB 32, the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, according to Carl Blumstein, director of the California Institute for Energy and the Environment.

“It’s very challenging,” said Blumstein, addressing an August 4 event at the University of California Sacramento Center.

Blumstein did not challenge any part of AB 32, which calls for reductions in greenhouse gasses (GHG) by 80 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2050. But Blumstein said that “we are not on course” to meet the 80 percent goal for 2050. The goal for 2012 is 20 percent.

According to the California Energy Commission, as of 2010 natural gas accounts for 41.8 percent of state energy, with nuclear power 13.9 percent, unspecified 12 percent, large hydro 10.7 percent and coal 7.7 percent. Renewable sources amount to 13.7 percent of state energy. Solar power accounts for only 0.03 percent of that amount.

California must “confront climate change,” said Blumstein, who did not indicate whether all scientists agree that climate change means inexorable warming by human agency, to be remedied by government regulation. He did not refer to 30-year data on temperatures, which show cooling in the Sacramento area.

Read the rest of the story here. I agree, that California needs to “confront climate change” but we need to ask, what happens if the cooling trend continues. Reputable scientists. in peer reviewed papers, have said the sun is going into a long slumber, and when that has happened in the past the planet has cooled, for 30 to 70 years. Past cooling has a huge impact on agriculture and millions starved. What happens to California agriculture, which is a major part of the states economy,  if the cooling continues?  Should we be preparing for cooling and not warming, that is what the real world data is telling us, but our political leaders are looking for problems elsewhere.

Cost of CARB: Fuel prices stable this week, while crude drops

Russ Steele

The current turmoil in the stock market has resulted in a drop in crude prices, but we have yet to see any drop in gas and diesel prices. They are now stable, with the average prices about $1.00 more per gallon at this time last year.  When crude is on an upward spiral, the retailers are quick to raise the price of fuel, but when they are on the down side they are much slower to adjust the price. Why, you ask? They lose some profits on the upward spiral and try to regain their losses on the down slope. If crude continues to stay low, there will be some profit taking before we see any slide in prices.

 

Cost of CARB: More miles per gallon will cost you big time

Russ Steele
Last week President Obama announced a mandate forcing automakers to boost new-car fuel economy standards from 35.5 mpg in 2016 to 54.5 mpg in 2025. He claimed the new standards will save Americans $1.7 trillion over the lifetime of vehicles and $8,000 per vehicle by 2025.

Really?  The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has taken a look at the numbers. There are two ways to increase vehicle miles per gallon, reduce weight by 15% to 30% or add technology. Reducing weight and size reduces vehicle safety, increasing technology increase the cost of a vehicle.  The most likely car company solution will be to increase technology, as reducing safety is not a good marketing strategy. 

Marlo Lewis writing at Pajamas Media:

CAR estimates that a 56 mpg standard would impose on consumers a net loss (sticker price increase minus fuel savings) of $2,858 over five years if gasoline prices average $3.50/gallon. The 62 mpg that CARB, green groups, and (very likely) Obama preferred would impose a net loss of $6,525. Without regulatory coercion limiting our options, most consumers would avoid this “bargain.”

Long term, citizens will hang on to their existing vehicles, buying fewer of these government mandated vehicles. The cost impact will be even higher in California with the $5.00 a gallon gas resulting from CARB’s mandated low carbon fuel starting in 2012. CARB is determined to destroy the California economy with their hair brained regulations one gallon at a time.

Cost of CARB: Mary Nichols on new CAFE Rules - Fuel prices continue to rise.

Russ Steele

CARB's Mary Nichols has been commenting on the new CAFE rules proposed by the President. KQED's Climate Watch has the details on the new CAFE standards here.

Fifteen years from now, the average car in the United States must get nearly 55 miles to the gallon, according to new fuel-efficiency standards proposed Friday by the Obama Administration.  That’s a sharp increase from the current requirement that vehicles average 34.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

California officials, environmental groups, and automakers are praising the new rules, which would require a fleet-wide average for cars and light trucks of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Let's see, California has the second highest unemployment in the nation, with thousands of our best and brightest escaping the economic misery and the loss of freedom in the state, and our bureaucrats are proud to be part of a scam to keill more jobs in California.

“We think this is a very good deal, and we are happy and proud to have played a role in shaping it,” said California Air Resources Board head Mary Nichols.

“What California does is push the envelope.  But not just for the sake of pushing the envelope. We do this because we have a need to reduce the impact of our whole transportation system on our environment and to improve its economic performance,” Nichols said.

Right now the envelope that California is pushing is a full scale depression, all with CARB's assistance in raising energy and transporation costs.  Here are the lastest fuel prices:


I have no explaination why US fuel prices are approaching those in California

Oh No! Not again? Yes, once again the real world collides with NASA's GCM models.(Updated)

Russ Steele

NASA is one of the world's leading scientific agencies, yet they have refused to use their own scientific data to correct their global warming computer models at NASA/GISS. Why?

The latest NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 demonstrates that the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than the alarmist computer models have predicted. The results were published in the peer-reviewed Remote Sensing journal. (More details here.)

James Taylor writes is Forbes Magazine: New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism.

 Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

"The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show," Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. "There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans."

In addition to finding that far less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.

The new findings are extremely important and should dramatically alter the global warming debate.

The real question is does scientific debate really matter? Using those unscientific NASA computer models, aided by a cooperative press, multiple government funded environmental organizations have convinced Californian's that global warming is real, a clear and present danger to their public health. A small minority have impressed their wacko science on the majority. See Rebane's Ruminations for more on the minority tipping point.

The latest Public Policy Institute of California study, Californians & the Environment found that most California's support the states climate change policy.

Cost of CARB: The Nations gas prices are rising to California levels

Russ Steele

The global price of crude oil is moving side ways:


The price of gas in the US is approaching that of California and Nevada County:


Diesel prices are continuing to rise.

 

Exit Question: Why are the US gas prices catching up with California?

Cost of CARB: Fuel prices start back up

Russ Steele

Gas prices in Nevada County and CA showed a slight decline, while US gas prices increased two weeks in a row. Diesel prices across the nation are going up and in CA, but Nevada County is showing a slight decline.  Crude oil is also showing a very slight increase, essentially flat.

With each passing week the charts look more chaotic. Earlier in the year they prices were in synce, and now they are all over the map, and I have no explanation. Please comment if you have any ideas?

 

Cost of CARB: Decline in fuel prices leveling

Russ Steele

Ellen and I have just completed a coast of coast cross county trip in our GMC 2500, which burns diesel.  Ellen kept track of our fuel usage and the prices. The lowest diesel price we saw on the trip was $3.44 some where in the mid-west.  I will have more details next week on the exact location on of the lowest and highest prices.  We arrived home yesterday and are still in recovery mode.

Diesel prices continue to decline, except in Nevada County.

On the other hand the decline in gas prices seems to have leveled off  with the price of crude oil creeping back up again.