Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Saturday, February 4th, 2012
Source: http://patriotupdate.com/18094/iran-warns-world-of-coming-great-event
Amid crippling sanctions over its nuclear weapons program, Iran is continuing to prepare itself for war against the West, and now is warning of a coming great event.
“In light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan (America) will soon be defeated,” Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, is warning.
Khamenei, speaking to hundreds of youths from more than 70 countries attending a world conference on the Arab Spring just days ago, told a cheering crowd in Tehran that “Allah’s promises will be delivered and Islam will be victorious.” (more…)
Tags: Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran, Iran threat
Posted in News |
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Source: Wash Times
[SPPI Note: For more information on the truth about Mercury, see here.
Two-page Fact sheet here.]
****************************************************************************
by Willie Soon and Paul Driessen
SOON and DRIESSEN: EPA: Extreme Punishment Authority
New air-pollution rules will impose exorbitant costs for illusory health benefits
On Dec. 16, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson released new Clean Air Act National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. Once again, she touted the supoosedly huge benefits of controlling emissions of mercury and other air toxics from coal- and oil-fired power plants and electric generating units (EGUs).
This final rule will be one of the most expensive ever devised by EPA. The actual benefits, however, are minimal to imaginary. Americans should no longer tolerate being penalized by the “Extreme Punishment Authority.”
EPA itself says the purported “hazards to public health” from mercury and non-mercury emissions from American EGUs are “anticipated to remain after imposition” of the new regulations. (more…)
Tags: EPA dangerous, EPA regulatory burden, MeHg, mercury
Posted in News |
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Source: Global Warming Org
As noted here last week, the sparks flew at a Jan. 25 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing titled “The Volt Fire: What Did NHTSA Know and When Did They Know It?“ Three witnesses testified: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator David Strickland, General Motors (GM) CEO Daniel Akerson, and John German of the International Council on Clean Transportation. My earlier post was based on newspaper accounts of the hearing. Over the weekend, I watched the archived video of the proceeding and read the testimonies and Committee Staff Report. Here are the key facts and conclusions as I see them:
- The Volt battery fire occurred on June 2, 2011 in the parking lot of a Wisconsin crash test facility. The car caught fire three weeks after the vehicle had been totaled, on May 12, in a side-pole collision. The fire caused an explosion that destroyed not only the Volt but three other vehicles. The blast hurled one of the Volt’s components (a strut) a distance of nearly 80 feet.
- The fire was caused by the leaking of coolant into the Volt’s powerful 300-volt battery, which had been punctured by the crash.
- NHTSA could have avoided the fire had it run down (“drained,” “depowered,” “discharged”) the battery after the crash. This raises obvious questions: Was NHTSA responsible for the fire? Was the agency’s six-month silence partly an attempt to hide regulatory incompetence?
- The Volt is a safe car; consumers should not fear to drive it. Gasoline-powered vehicles are more likely than battery-powered vehicles to burn after a crash. The post-crash explosion from a damaged gas tank can occur in seconds as opposed to weeks. Electric vehicle batteries are harder to puncture than gas tanks. NHTSA tried and failed to replicate the fire by crashing other Volt test vehicles. To induce another battery fire, NHTSA had to impale the battery with a steel rod and rotate it in coolant with special laboratory equipment.
- GM is retrofitting Volt batteries to make them stronger and more leak proof, and is updating safety protocols to ensure batteries are depowered after crashes.
- NHTSA kept silent about the fire for six months, acknowledging it only after Bloomberg News broke the story on November 11, 2011.
- GOP Committee members produced no smoking gun evidence of collusion to cover up the Volt battery fire, such as an email saying ‘We’ve got to keep this under wraps or it will depress Volt sales, jeopardize EPA’s fuel economy negotiations with automakers, and make President Obama look bad.’
- Nonetheless, the Obama administration’s heavy investment (financial and political) in GM in general and the Volt in particular creates an undeniable conflict of interest.
- NHTSA determined the cause of the fire in August 2011, yet waited until November 25 to advise emergency responders, salvage yard managers, and Volt owners how to avoid, and reduce the safety risks associated with, post-crash fires.
- Administrator Strickland’s protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, it is difficult to explain the agency’s secretiveness apart from political considerations that should not influence NHTSA’s regulatory deliberations. (more…)
Tags: battery fire, Chevy Volt, Daniel Akerson, Darrell Issa, David Strickland, fuel economy, Jim Jordan, John German, Mike Kelly, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, Ray LaHood
Posted in News |
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Source: Yahoo News
More than a hundred countries now support a French proposal to create a “World Environment Organisation” at the upcoming 20th anniversary conference of the Rio Summit, France’s ecology minister said on Tuesday.
“More than 100 countries have now associated themselves with the proposal,” Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said at a conference in Paris aimed at stimulating ideas for June 20-22 global gathering.
The idea is to beef up the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which critics say lacks muscle for dealing with the world’s worsening environmental crisis. (more…)
Tags: World Environment Organisation, World government
Posted in News |
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Source: No Frakking consensus
According to its website, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a “policy-neutral, never policy-prescriptive” organization. But it’s difficult to take that claim seriously when its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, continues to lobby hard for one policy in particular.
Today he delivered a speech at the inauguration of a sustainability summit organized by TERI, an entity he leads. Again and again, he referred to his favourite hobbyhorse: reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But emissions reduction is merely one possible response to climate change (adaptation and high-tech fixes are two others; see more here). Nor is it a response that most parents, if they spent five minutes thinking about it, would care to embrace.
[see SPPI paper on Pachauri here] (more…)
Tags: Rajendra Pachauri, TERI
Posted in News |
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Source: Washington Post
Iran, perceiving threat from West, willing to attack on U.S. soil, U.S. intelligence report finds
An assessment by U.S. spy agencies concludes that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States, highlighting new risks as the Obama administration escalates pressure on Tehran to halt its alleged pursuit of an atomic bomb.
In congressional testimony Tuesday, U.S. intelligence officials indicated that Iran has crossed a threshold in its adversarial relationship with the United States. While Iran has long been linked to attacks on American targets overseas, U.S. officials said they see troubling significance in Tehran’s alleged role in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington last year. (more…)
Tags: Ali Khamenei, David H. Petraeus, Iran threat, James R. Clapper Jr., Leon E. Panetta, Things more worrisome than AGW
Posted in News |
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Source: UK Guardian
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaving Cuba earlier this month. Tehran is reaching out to friendly governments in Latin America.
Iran launches Spanish TV channel
Hispan TV will deal blow to ‘dominance seekers’, says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iran‘s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has officially launched a Spanish-language satellite TV channel, saying it would deal a blow to “dominance seekers” – remarks that were an apparent dig at the US and the west.
Iran’s broadcasting company said Hispan TV, the first Spanish-language channel airing from the Middle East, will broadcast news, documentaries, movies and Iranian films 24 hours a day.
The launch is Tehran’s latest effort to reach out to friendly governments in Latin America and follows Ahmadinejad’s tour of the region earlier in January, which included stops in Cuba and visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador (more…)
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Hispan TV, Iran, South America, Things more worrisome than AGW
Posted in News |
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Source: No frakking consensus
Sustainable. That word is everywhere these days. So is Rajendra Pachauri, the discredited chairman of the discredited Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This week he’s in India for the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, which begins on Thursday.
The summit is organized by TERI, an institute led by Pachauri. In other words, he isn’t merely a guest at this event. He’s the conductor of the orchestra. This is his show.
Which is why it’s so eye-popping that it’s taking place in an over-the-top, five-star hotel that’s described this way:
Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi offers guests a choice of Deluxe Rooms and Luxury Rooms. All guestrooms are luxuriously appointed with central air conditioning, these rooms measure 304 square feet and feature luxuriously large bathrooms. [bold added] (more…)
Tags: Rajendra Pachaur, Sustainable Development Summit, The Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development
Posted in News |
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Inhofe Applauds Keystone Bill Introduction
Contact:
Matt Dempsey Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-9797
Katie Brown Katie_Brown@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-2160
Link to Press Release
Washington D.C. – Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, applauded bipartisan legislation that approves the Keystone XL pipeline through Congress under Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, instead of through executive approval. This bill, which will be introduced today, is sponsored by Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and David Vitter (R-La.), and Senator Inhofe is one of the 44 cosponsors. (more…)
Tags: Keystone XL pipeline, Sen. Inhofe
Posted in News |
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Source: UK Mail Online
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997. (more…)
Tags: Benny Peiser, Dr Nicola Scafetta, global cooling, Henrik Svensmark, Judith Curry, Pal Brekke, Solar cycle 25, surface temp record
Posted in News |
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Source: Wash Times
Michael Mann
University of Virginia should disclose climate emails
Those who say man alone is responsible for overheating the planet frequently dismiss any role the sun might play. As can be seen in an ongoing freedom-of-information lawsuit leveled against the University of Virginia (UVA), sunshine is precisely what the heralds of climate catastrophe fear most of all.
The American Tradition Institute (ATI) is going after 12,000 emails sent or received by Michael E. Mann while he was on the staff of the publicly-funded university. Mr. Mann is famous for coming up with one of the “tricks” used to “hide the decline” in global temperatures. On Wednesday, ATI released a small selection of emails it hopes will convince a Prince William County judge that full disclosure of the rest is in the public interest.
In March 2003, for example, a trusted colleague of Mr. Mann’s emailed to find out how the UVA professor arrived at his conclusions. Mr. Mann admitted he was missing crucial data and “can’t seem to dig them up.” Though he was working on this project on the taxpayers’ dime, he provided the information for the researcher’s personal use only. “So please don’t pass this along to others without checking w/ me first,” Mr. Mann wrote. “This is the sort of ‘dirty laundry’ one doesn’t want to fall into the hands of those who might potentially try to distort things.” (more…)
Posted in News |
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Source: Bloomberg
Spain halted subsidies for renewable energy projects to help curb its budget deficit and rein in power-system borrowings backed by the state that reached 24 billion euros ($31 billion) at the end of 2011.
“What is today an energy problem could become a financial problem,” Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said in Madrid. The government passed a decree today stopping subsidies for new wind, solar, co-generation or waste incineration plants.
The system’s debts were racked up as revenue from state- controlled prices failed to cover the cost of delivering power. Costs have swollen in the past five years because of an increase in regulated payments for the power grid, support for Spanish coal mines and subsidies for renewable energy plants. (more…)
Tags: Alternative Energy, Spain
Posted in News |
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Source: Sacramento Bee
“By a 9-0 vote, the California Air Resources Board passed a broad set of rules that brings the state in line with President Barack Obama’s goal of doubling the nation’s auto fuel economy standards from the current 27.3 miles per gallon to 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025.
But the new rules go far beyond the federal mandates by providing a road map for the growth of the electric car industry, which will eventually represent one in every seven new cars sold in the state.”
Tags: fuel economy standards
Posted in News |
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Source: WSJ
Editor’s Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article:
[SPPI Note: All the scientists in bold at the end of this article have published papers at SPPI.]
A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about “global warming.” Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.
In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: “I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: ‘The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.’ In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?” (more…)
Tags: Chris de Freita, follow the money, Kevin Trenberth, Skeptics speak out, William Nordhaus, WSJ
Posted in News |
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Source: Sen. Inhofe
Washington D.C. – Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said that FirstEnergy’s announcement today that it will shut down six power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland due to EPA’s Utility MACT rule is a prime example that while President Obama is talking the talk on an ‘all of the above’ energy approach, his administration is aggressively working to shut down American oil, gas, and coal development.
“Today, hundreds of Americans learned that they will be losing their good-paying jobs because of the Obama EPA’s destructive regulatory agenda,” Senator Inhofe said. “Due to EPA’s forthcoming Utility MACT rule, FirstEnergy will be closing six power plants, which will put 529 Americans out of work in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland – states that have already been hit hard by the recession. (more…)
Tags: Obama war on energy, Sen. Inhofe, Utility MACT rule
Posted in News |
