NC Media Watch

The bad news we know, but now some good news from Colorado

Russ Steele

We already know the bad news, Governor Brown signed the 33-by-20  renewable portfolio standard or "RPS", supporting his wacko environmentalist allies in the Legislature.  Brown signed this costly green energy mandate even though it will hike our energy bills by up to 80%. 

While California now has the most draconian of RPS laws, they exist in varying degrees in other states as well, including Colorado.

Now for the good news that might save our economy from distruction.  The American Tradition Institute has filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado's RPS law as a violation of the Commerce Clause of our Constitution.
 
Because the electricity grid is interconnected with other states, the patchwork of RPS mandates plays havoc with power plants.  Green energy sources mandated by RPS such as wind and solar are intermittent, meaning they depend on when the sun shines or wind blows.
 
When the wind or solar plants temporarily cease producing power, fossil fuel plants need to have excess capacity to pick up the slack.  Intermittent green power on the grid forces fossil fuel plants to be run inefficiently, much as you get poor gas mileage when driving a car in stop and go traffic.

For more information on the lawsuit, read the American Tradition Institute press release here.

The most transparent administration in history?

Russ Steele

Freedom of Information? Fifteen Months Waiting for Four Blank Pages.

Last year, PJM made a FOIA request regarding who flew to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Why did it go all the way to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and why was everything redacted?

So, who took a nice vacation Copenhagen with family and friends on the taxpayers ticket?  I guess we will never know.

Exit Question:  Why are UN IPCC meetings always in such lush vacation spots?

Global Warming Update: The Global Warming Court Battle

Russ Steele

Dr S. Fred Singer, writing at the American Thinker explores the current global warming court battles over the infamous “Hockey Stick” and gives a preview of the Congressional investigations to come.
 
Here is a sample:

The UEA e-mails tell us of attempts to "hide the decline" (of temperature) using "Mike [Mann]'s Nature trick." It is important now to discover the truth, either from e-mail evidence or by direct testimony. Unfortunately, none of the investigations so far have delved into this matter, but instead have produced what amounts to a series of whitewashes.

The University of Virginia is fighting the demand for the data using outside lawyers and claiming "academic freedom" among other such excuses. I cannot comment on the legal implications of the AG's investigation. It should be noted, however, that UVA was quite willing to deliver up the e-mails of Professor Pat Michaels when Greenpeace asked for them in December 2009. It makes the UVA protestations sound rather hypocritical.

We live in an Orwellian world where myth and propaganda have replaced science and reason, even at the highest levels of discourse. In May 2010, Science ran a letter signed by 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences attacking Cuccinelli. The letter contained numerous spurious assertions as if they were scientific fact. Lacking expertise and ignorant of the actual data, the signers simply accepted a story that matched their ideological convictions.

Read the full column here.  I found it interesting that UVA would give up Pat Michaels e-mails who questions human caused global warming, while refusing to give up Michael Mann’s e-mail who is promoting human caused global warming.  I agree with Dr Singer,  UVA leaders are hypocrites.

Industry mad as hell and not going to take it anymore

Russ Steele

I took the title used by the Heliogenic Climate Change blog because it clearly portrays the issue for this post. The information was taken from the Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors (DBCCA) have just published report on the Growth of U.S. Climate Change Litigation: Trends and Consequences (DBCCA).  

Figure 1, taken from the DBCCA report, shows the number of climate change lawsuits brought each year, divided into categories. The big jump in 2010 is obvious. While the filings have been dominated by activists groups in prior years, the tables were turned this year as industry groups have responded with their own lawsuits—mostly against the EPA and its subsequent rulemaking.
(Click for a larger image)

The DBCCA report forecasts that insustry litigation of climate change legislation will continue to grow: 

“EPA is now proceeding to issue technology standards on a sector-by-sector basis, and will continue unless Congress acts or the Court of Appeals issues a stay or annuls the tailoring rule. Every further move by EPA is likely to be challenged in court by industry.”

Exit Question:  Now that Prop 23 lost, will more California businesses follow the example being set by industry across the nation and start challenging CARB in Court over the implementation of AB32?

More information at Master Resource and Cooler Heads.

H/T to Heliogenic Climate Change for pointing out this new trend in climate change litigation.

Gold fever, is it real or a miners ploy

Russ Steele

This story appeared in The Union today: Eureka! 9-POUND NUGGET TIP OF THE ICEBERG?

Jim Sander a San Francisco business man found a 9 lb gold nugget on his property in Nevada County. He refused to identify the location. 

For security reasons, Sanders and The Union agreed to not divulge the exact location of his land. In addition, he asked that photos for this story did not show his face.

It looks to me like some of the hydraulic  placer mining areas near the Malikoff Diggings State Park.

This picture accompanied the story.

  Take a close look at the trees and bushes in the photo on the left.

Now look at this photos of the Malikoff Photo on the right Looks at the similar trees and bushes characteristic of this area of Nevada County.  

.Now, to the issue is it real?  There was gold in the diggings when the State of California shut down hydraulic mining with the Sawyer Decision. This decision shut down the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company which became the first environmental ruling in California and the Nation.

On January 7, 1884, after two years of litigation in the case of Woodruff  vs. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company and over 2,000 witnesses with 20,000 pages of written testimony taken during the trial, Judge Lorenzo Sawyer's decision was handed down.  This decision did not stop miners from using the big water cannons but it did prohibit the discharge of debris in the Sierra Nevada regions.  It imposed strict laws regarding any debris sent downstream and it did close all loop-holes.  In essence the ruling stated that "all tailings must stop." 

This ruling essentially shut down the mining operations as the only means of removing the overburden covering the gold was high pressure water cannons, which produced tailings.

Today miners have hydraulic operated backhoes and bulldozers to remove the overburden and metal detectors to find the nuggets. Finding the flower gold flakes in the gravel will require water washing or leaching  operations.  Both an anathema to local environmental groups. 

Is this a real find and could mining operations start up on the Sanders property?  A real find yes. Chance of opening a mining operation, slim to none if our local environmental groups have any say in the matter. Any successful mine, producing real economic recovery, might lead to more mining and more economic recover, and they cannot have that threat to their green economy myths.

Our local environmental groups will use existing laws and the courts to keep any mining operations from starting up in the County, lest gold fever take over the local community which is seeking real economic development. Real economic development that might impede local going green economic visions.

Turning up the heat on Climategate Scientists

Russ Steele

I was wondering how long it would before someone started looking into the abuse of Federal Grant funding by the professors involved in the Climategate scandal.  I discovered this latest post at www.climategate.com. 

Attention Penn State: Top fraud attorney seeks climategate whistleblowers

by John O’Sullivan

We are turning up the heat in pursuit of prosecutions against scientists involved in the recent Climategate scandal. Our dedicated group of volunteers working with Climategate.com are behind a plan to entice co-workers of discredited Penn State University climatologist Michael Mann to turn whistleblowers in return for millions of dollars in federal reward money. Mann is famous for his emails obtained from the East Anglia University server hacking, and for creating the widely disputed ‘hockey stick’ graph that is depicted in Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

An “inconvenient truth” for Mann is that an ally of ours, former CIA agent Kent Clizbe, has this weekend emailed the proxy professor’s co-workers with details of the tempting offer that could turn 2010 into quite a prosperous New Year. We hope someone at this premiere world research institution will come forward and substantiate the facts from evidence already uncovered from the government emails leaked on November 19, 2009. The emails, among other things, show correspondence between Michael Mann and British Professor Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research, which discuss methods to “hide the decline” in global temperatures.

Read the rest here on how to report government fraud.  All 27 of Michael Mann's Associates will be getting the whistleblower offer in their mailbox on Monday morning. Yes, 2010 is going to be an interesting year!