What Color are Hypocrites? Green, of Course.

Hoo boy. Lots of stupid here...

Shell protesters damage West Seattle dive park habitat

The activists protesting Shell oil and the impacts drilling has on the environment left behind material used to anchor their protest barge in a popular dive park.

The barge known as "The People's Platform" was parked over the dive park near Seacrest Park during last weekend's protest of Shell and the Polar Pioneer oil rig.

First, take a look at the picture accompanying the article. What jumps out at you?

If you answered "Jay, they're protesting Shell Oil while using large products manufactured from petroleum", give yourself a cookie. 

So, as if it wasn't enough to be a bunch of giant hypocritical @$$holes (We hate Big Oil! But we love the stuff they make from it!), they thoroughly trashed the chosen venue. Well-played, oh great stewards of the environment. In your quest to demonize a legitimate company, you managed to create eco-havoc. You destroyed that which you claim to love, all the while showing your hypocritical @$$.

It's not every day we get a reminder just how feckless and clueless the anti-capitalist left really is. I mean, really, if you were looking for a better microcosm for the Green movement, it'd be hard to find one better than this story. They *claim* they want to save the environment, except that their actions belie that 100%. Kinda like pro-Green celebrities and politicians taking private jets to "save the environment" conferences, no?

It's not just the big shots that are clueless hypocrites; it's the entire movement...

That is all.

What's Missing Here?

Robb sent this in, thinking (rightly) that I'd be interested.

Renovo Motors

Now, I'll give them credit for a few things here. They've capitalized on one of the big strengths of the electric motor, that power is available instantly. It's no surprise that a reasonably light car with a powerful electric motor is fast off the line. Bully on them for using that as a selling point. Also, they've obviously modeled the Renovo Coupe after the Shelby Daytona (and the second generation Dodge Viper...). Well done in the design department.

But what's missing from that glossy spec sheet? There's two things that jump out at me. First is price. Not even an estimate. Given that the Tesla's sedan runs about $90+ or so, I'm guessing the Roadster is at least the same ballpark. Six figures - or close to it, at least - puts the electric sports car firmly in the realm of "toy for the rich and/or famous."

The other missing spec, and this is a big one, is range. All that power doesn't mean squat if the car's got a 30 mile range between charges. They're quick to point out the 30 minute fast charge, yet curiously omit how far you can travel before needing that quick charge. I suspect if the car had a 200+ mile range, that'd be a big selling point.

Again, I want to clear up a misconception. I have nothing against electric cars, not even silly boutique ones like this. I would love a reasonably priced electric sedan/coupe/hatchback that could travel 250 - 300 miles on a charge and be recharged in 15 minutes or less. Unfortunately, what we're seeing is that the only way companies can recoup the very large investment in electric cars is by marketing them to the "more environmental than thou" crowd who don't have to worry about mundane things like running out of power on the way home from work.

Unless and until electric cars start rolling 250+ miles on a single charge - including in the winter with the heater on full blast and in the summer with A/C cranked - they're going to be little more than playthings for the idle rich. That's not necessarily a bad thing, except it's unlikely to advance the concept of an all-electric car to the greater majority of people.

Really, though, I love electric cars - I love seeing the cognitive dissonance on a hippie's face when I remind him his "green" car runs on nuclear power...

That is all.

Paging Colonel Sanders...

...y'all need to be looking into this s**t. Joseph in IL sends in YAGESS (Yet Another Green Energy Success Story).

Emerging solar plants scorch birds in mid-air

Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays — "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

These powerful solar panels are literally frying birds right out of the air. If they could just ratchet the heat up another hundred degrees or so, they could open the world's freshest poultry restaurant. So, we have windmills that turn bald eagles and condor into chicken of the plains, and now we have the Great Migratory Bird Microwave solar power.

Yeah, green energy. Lots of thought went into saving the environment, didn't it? 28,000 birds a year, that's the high estimate of the number killed by this one facility. I wonder how this compares to, say, KFC? I mean, I'm sure KFC uses more animals, but they're *using* the animals, not causing thousands of deaths a year as a byproduct.

I guess the old saying really is true: You *do* need to break a few eggs to make an omelet...

That is all.

Good Luck With That...

Stretch sends in this interesting story. It's interesting because you rarely get to see these groups actually tipping their hands and admitting their true goals. For once, they've come out and admitted what their true aims are.

130 Environmental Groups Call For An End To Capitalism

Environmentalists have declared that global warming can’t be stopped without ending the “hegemonic capitalist system,” saying that cap-and-trade systems and conservation efforts are “false solutions.”

“The structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system,” reads the final draft of the Margarita Declaration, presented at a conference including about 130 environmental groups.

Of course, global warming is regarded as an absolute certainty (the science *is* settled, after all) and that the ONLY reason that it's happening is that those darn first world countries are just too darn successful. If only they'd stop putting out cheap, plentiful power. If only we'd stop having jobs, and houses, and food and extraneous stuff like that.

You know, it takes a pretty fair amount of hubris to say "you need to force your country to be less successful"...

What's really interesting is watching domestic environmental groups go batshit crazy over this. They've made a tidy living selling "carbon credits" and hiring themselves out as "consultants" to those eeeeeeevil corporations figuring out how to save the planet. If these anti-capitalist groups start gaining momentum, the money train ends for the other groups. No one's going to send Al Gore millions for carbon credits if we're about to be forced back to an agrarian society.

You want to start a shooting war? End capitalism. Newflash, greenies. The Soviet Union fell because capitalism works too well. Faced with western ways, seeing freedom in its many forms - including the freedom to fail - gave the comblock countries the push needed to end their failed experiment. You think that's all going to change because of your alleged global warming?

Good luck with that.

That is all.

Two Words: Bull And S***

Um, no. Just no.

Inventor pushes solar panels for roads, highways

The solar panels that Idaho inventor Scott Brusaw has built aren't meant for rooftops. They are meant for roads, driveways, parking lots, bike trails and, eventually, highways.

Brusaw, an electrical engineer, says the hexagon-shaped panels can withstand the wear and tear that comes from inclement weather and vehicles, big and small, to generate electricity.

I haven't seen his panels, but what I have seen, up close and personal, is the beating that a roadway takes from cars, trucks, and weather. Unless he has invented a solar panel that is stronger than concrete and will wear better than asphalt. Now, maybe he's invented a sophisticated electronic device that performs in a different manner than, well, every other sophisticated electronic device ever invented, and it keeps running despite environmental hazards and physical shock.

A few other things jump out at me. First, they've tested it on a small parking lot and claim that it holds up to wear and tear. Um, really? Did you drive an oversized, overweight truck over it? Subject it to three or four years of freeze/thaw/bake cycles? Send hundreds of thousands of vehicles speeding over it for month after month after month? No? You have a small, controlled area where you control what goes there and you think this can be extrapolated to a highway?

Remind me to steer clear of any project this guy has been involved in, would you?

The second thing was this:

The Brusaws have produced no estimates of how much the solar panels would cost, so the financial realities of their vision remain an unknown.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! 

Oh, they know how much it costs, I'm certain of that. That they didn't release even a grossly unrealistically low price tells me that they know it's going to cost several orders of magnitude more than even the most sophisticated composite road material out there. Unless and until they have a comprehensive series of tests that at least partially approximate real-world usage, playing this "ask us how much it costs later" game isn't going to fly.

Lastly, I'm curious about this:

There are skeptics, who wonder about the durability of the panels, which are covered by knobby, tempered glass, and how they would perform in severe weather or when covered with dirt.

"Knobby, tempered glass"??? That doesn't sound like anything I want to be driving on. What's the coefficient of friction of this glass when it gets wet? How does it withstand freeze/thaw cycles? Glass doesn't hold heat in, which means that areas that get a lot of sun (i.e., the target areas) this new roadway is going to reflect heat like a sumbitch. No traction, radiating heat, and unknown wear and tear. Yeah. Sounds like a winner.

But he got the idea after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" so you know there's no agenda here, right?


That is all.

Another dispatch from...

(image courtesy of Robb Allen)

Is No One Immune?

Yikes. This one is pretty bad... Sent in by #1 blogdaughter is yet another recall - but not from GM.

Recall sends some 2014 Nissan Leaf electric cars to the crusher

Just because you own an electric car doesn’t mean it isn’t subject to all the recalls and potential problems that conventional cars experience. Nissan has recalled about six weeks of production of the 2014 Nissan Leaf for missing welds in the front structure that could compromise the car’s structural integrity in a crash.

Affected owners are being notified to take their cars back to the dealership for inspection to see if all necessary welds are in place. If they are not, industry sources tell us, Nissan is replacing at least some of the vehicles free.

I'm assuming that the vehicles that were scrapped were incomplete; I would like to think Nissan would be smarter than destroying (nearly) intact cars. Then again, I'd also like to think they'd be smart enough to weld all the critical body components the first time around. While it looks like this is a pretty small recall - I don't believe it affects all Leafs out there, and the Leaf isn't exactly a huge seller to begin with, it's a pretty serious error in the manufacturing process.

If I owned a Nissan, I'd be pretty concerned about what else they may have missed in my car. If I were thinking about a Nissan, I might re-think Honda/Toyota/etc. You'd like to think that a car that costs more than double a comparable gasoline-powered variant would have a little more attention to detail, wouldn't you?

And that's my big beef with this entire segment. I understand that these cars are significantly more expensive to produce, but charging double the cost of a gas model? The Leaf STARTS at $30K - it's far more with extras - whereas a comparably equipped Versa (about the same size) starts at $12K. The Versa is excellent on gas, too - 31 MPG city, 40 MPG highway - meaning that, with a 10 gallon tank, you've got a range between 300 - 400 miles. Compare that to the Leaf's official range of 84 miles (at best; other sources put it closer to 30 - 40 miles) and the recharge time of "overnight" (no time is given at their charging stations).

Oh, and you need an electrician to come to your house and install the charger. They say the cost can be up to $2K plus whatever fees your municipality charges. It's a 240 volt service - which I would imagine isn't going to be cheap. This isn't exactly like running an extension cord from the house, folks.

So, the Leaf realistically costs 3X as much as the gas-powered car, has up to a tenth the range, requires extensive electrical work be performed just to refill at your house overnight or can be recharged at random stations for unknown amount of time and price. Forgive me if I am less than enthusiastic about this from the get-go.

I'm sure the Leaf makes sense for someone. I'm just trying to figure out who. They've got to live close to work and shopping centers, or have access to a charging station (apparently you can use a regular power cord, but considering that the special 240 volt charger they install at your home takes all night, I can't imagine a standard 110 volt outlet being *faster*...) They've also got to have disposal income - you're talking about spending a sizable chunk of change that you will, realistically, never make back, to buy electric over gas.

And, now, they've got to be willing to hope that Nissan didn't cut any *other* corners...

That is all.

I Applaud The *Concept*...

Sent in via Facebook friend Ken O.

Zero Motorcycles.

2014 Zero SR

Not a bad looking motorcycle, I'll admit. 171 mile range*. 0-60 MPH in 3.3 seconds.

There's only two problems:

1. It is far too quiet. Go to one of the videos on the site and listen to it - it sounds like a remote control car. People have a hard enough time with gasoline powered motorcycles; I would be afraid to ride that in traffic.

2. The bike pictured is $17,000. With the *extra battery that brings the total range to 171 miles, the cost is $19,500.

Now...

This bike:

is a Kawasaki Ninja 650. It gets 50 MPG and has a 4.2 gallon tank. It will do 0-60 MPH in 4.3 seconds.

It costs $7,700.

Is the electric bike worth $10K more? That's a value judgement, up to the individual. From a purely financial standpoint, it's hard to justify the Zero SR. A marginal increase in performance, combined with overall lower cost of operation, do not in my mind add up to sufficient incentives to overcome the short range, danger of zero noise, and hefty extra cost.

Not to mention it doesn't even have dual front brakes.

The Kawasaki is $10K less (more than $12K if you're talking the extra battery for the Zero), is only slightly slower off the line, and can travel further on a tank of gas than the Zero can on a charge even with the extended pack. Even with the Fast Charge system (which costs $1800 and is something you'd have in your garage, not out on the road), it takes an hour to charge the Zero back up. That 171 miles turns into less than 90 when run on the highway, too - meaning that you have a realistic range of maybe 50 highway miles before you have to turn around.

And that doesn't even take into the equation if you have a passenger.

Again, I like the concept. I think that motorcycles are infinitely more ready for electric motors than automobiles. They're smaller, lighter, and typically run in weather conditions more favorable for optimum battery life. It's just incredibly hard to justify nearly triple the cost for a marginal increase in performance and less maintenance and operation costs.

Now, in all fairness, I did compare the top-of-the-line Zero to a lower-mid-range Kawasaki. A high-end Ducati superbike is more expensive than the Zero, true - but then again, no one compares a Toyota Prius to a Lamborghini, either. All but the most exotic sportbikes or tricked out cruisers are going to be less than the Zero; the lower-range Ninja was the closest in size and performance I could think of.

A for Effort, D for Execution, in my opinion.

That is all.

REAL Green Energy Success

Brad_in_MA sends in a true success story...

IdeaPaint founder John Goscha unveils new light bulb

You might say a light bulb went off in John Goscha's head a few years ago when he thought about building a better energy-efficient light bulb.

On Monday, Goscha officially launched the Finally Light Bulb Co., a maker of an energy-efficient bulb that emits light just like the old incandescent bulb.

This right here, my friends, is America. We had to reinvent the bloody light bulb because the government took ours away. But, being as how this is America, we took one look at the problem, got all righteously indignant, and engineered around the stupid ban.

It's an awful lot like the Ares Defense SCR stock that takes out the pistol grip, really. A pistol grip somehow makes a rifle more dangerous (how? I have no idea. Ask a gun banner, they'll tell you it's the shoulder thing that goes up), so they took it out. They complied with the law - and it will be called a "loophole"...

How long before these new light bulbs are banned? They use copper, rather than the standard filament, and will cost more. How much do you want to bet there will be some "environmental impact" of all that copper or somesuch? The government isn't going to take the re-introduction of the regular lightbulb sitting down. No, they'll have to destroy this upstart, which is why they've operated in "stealth" mode so far.

Because if there's anything the government really hates, it's being thwarted in their socialist utopia plans by Americans being, well, Americans...

That is all.

Let's Bake Cookies So the Boys Will Like Us!

Yes, I'm on a Simpson's quote kick today for post titles... This is a story sent in by #1 Blogdaughter, who sent it in with the subject: Math is hard.

NM college spends $5 million on solar array to save $200,000 in utility bills

Santa Fe Community College has just unveiled a solar array that, it says, will save the college at least $200,000 a year on its utility bills.

But the array, funded by taxpayers in a 2010 bond election, will cost $5 million.

You don’t have to be a math major at the college to figure out it would take 25 years of $200,000 cost savings per year to reach the $5 million mark for the project to just break even.

I'm going to have to call bull**it on the cost and savings, too. I suspect that the cost will exceed the $5 million figure, and the "savings" are based on a wildly enthusiastic reckoning. I'd be shocked if this made money back in 50 years.

Now, I have nothing against alternative energy. I would *love* to have a solar array or windmill that would generate enough electricity to power my house year round. However, I don't happen to have a spare $50K kicking around to get set up, and if I pitched it to my wife that we would make our money back in 25 years, when she stopped laughing at me she'd say no anyways.

You want to sell alternative/green energy as a source of renewable, clean energy? Great! You want to sell it as an off-the-grid, preparedness, TEOTWAWKI stuff? Totally understand. Would love to have a house with solar power, a well, and septic - in case of zombies, dig moat. But don't sell solar/wind/unicorn fart power as some magic money savings, because it's just not there.

And anyone who says it is is a big fat liar.

That is all.

There It Goes Again...

Ah, "climate change." It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping!

Climate change likely to make Everest even riskier

Climbing to the roof of the world is becoming less predictable and possibly more dangerous, scientists say, as climate change brings warmer temperatures that may eat through the ice and snow on Mount Everest.

Nepal was left reeling when a sudden ice avalanche slammed down onto a group of Sherpa guides on Friday and killed 16 in the deadliest single disaster on Everest. While it is impossible to link any single event to long-term changes in the global climate, scientists say the future will likely hold more such dangers in high-altitude regions.

But that certainly didn't stop you from trying, did it? Now, let me take a stab at things here. Nepal, last I checked, is north of the equator. That means that right now it's *SPRINGTIME* in Nepal. You know, springtime? When snow and ice starts to melt as part of the normal weather cycle?

I love how the climate change cultists are the first to bleat repeatedly about how one very cold winter doesn't mean that global warming isn't happening, yet one avalanche on Everest in the springtime means ZOMG ALL THE ICE WILL MELT FOREVER. Because, you know, snow and ice NEVER melts when that side of the planet gets closer to the sun and average temperature increases...

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED!!!1111

That is all.

Another dispatch from...

(image courtesy of Robb Allen)

Um, Wat?

#1 Blogdaughter sends in a story that, surprisingly, is not from Massachusetts.

Oklahoma may charge customers who install their own solar panels, wind turbines

Oklahoma residents trying to go green by producing energy through solar panels or small turbines may soon be forced to pay an additional monthly fee to energy companies.

The new measure, which passed the state legislature and is expected to be signed into law soon by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, charges residents who install energy-saving devices on their property an additional monthly fee.

Um, what the bloody hell? It apparently boils down to "net metering," where excess electricity generated by these solar panels and wind turbines is sold to the electric companies to be in turn sold to other electric customers.

Any bets on whether the fee to the solar and wind power customers is equal to or greater than the kickback they get?

Apparently this is nice and legal, as it appears to be going through without much incident. It does seem rather ironic, though, given how much lip service is given to people "going green" and looking for alternative sources of energy. Granted, the article doesn't really provide much in the way of concrete information, so I guess it's possible that the energy companies need to do *something* to the alternate energy when it enters the grid.

Or, more likely, they're trying to use the bully pulpit of government to stop competition...

That is all.

Such A Shame We Didn't Sign Kyoto...

I mean, this has to be our fault, right?

Asian air pollution strengthens Pacific storms

Air pollution in China and other Asian countries is having far-reaching impacts on weather patterns across the Northern Hemisphere, a study suggests.

Researchers have found that pollutants are strengthening storms above the Pacific Ocean, which feeds into weather systems in other parts of the world.

Boy, imagine how bad the pollution would be if China hadn't started following the Kyoto Protocol, right? I mean, wait.

Some countries, including China and India, were exempted from targets because they were not main contributors during the period of industrialisation that is believed to be the cause of climate change.

Boy, that was a great idea, wasn't it? Here we have this thing - manmade global warming - but we're going to handicap only the countries that USED to be bad polluters, because evil dead white guys. The worst polluters? You guys are good. Keep spewing toxins into the atmosphere, because you're cute little indigenous people. We're only going after those evil white guys.

Climate change/global warming/ozone hole/acid rain/whatever the hell they're calling it this week is nothing more than an excuse to take another whack at the US and other industrialized nations. It's more feel-good BS sold as some sort of snake oil panacea, a quick-fix for a problem that we're not even sure we can fix. It's a 15-second sound bite for a problem more complex than the vast majority of people can comprehend, with entire factions of the scientific community disagreeing on even what the basic parameters of the problem might be.

But, you know THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED.

That is all.

Another dispatch from...

(image courtesy of Robb Allen)

GreenWorks Electric Pushmower Review

So, a while back I mentioned getting an electric (battery powered) pushmower. Finally had a chance to run it this weekend, and I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised. Now, granted, the grass was not horrifically tall, so I can't speak to how it handles overgrow, but there were a couple patches that were pretty thick that caused a bit of slowdown but no stopping. Pretty much like a small gas mower would handle it.

Not having to drag a cord around is huge. The battery is sufficiently sized that it only dropped one bar (out of five) for the whole lawn; now, granted, we have a small yard, but it was good to know that it's more than enough to get the job done. The bagger portion worked efficiently and didn't need to be emptied as often as I thought - pretty much once for the front and sides, twice for the back.

It's a little unwieldy, that's about the only negative I can give it. The heavy battery, which my untrained assessment would guess weighs more than a conventional pushmower gas tank, sits squarely on top of the blade, so all the weight is right out where you need to be moving (whereas with a gas mower the tank is typically towards the back of the engine, placing the weight distribution more over the pivot point of the handle).

All in all, though, it did a very passable job of cutting the grass, and I'm pleased with the performance. 

Also had a chance to use the battery powered weedwhacker as well. That worked alright; however I'll admit to going low-end on that one because, well, TheBoy is going to be banging it around a lot, so I looked at it as pretty much a starter weedeater... I like the concept, though, and I think a battery-powered leaf blower will be joining it. For small yards, without a lot of edging or tight spots, the small weedwhacker worked fine.

So far, I'm glad to be using coal power to cut my lawn!

That is all.

You Know What We Haven't Had In A While?

#1 Blogdaughter sends in another green energy success story.

Veterans Affairs wind turbine, built for $2.3 million, stands dormant

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – A $2.3 million federal stimulus project at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud is giving green energy initiatives a bad name.

A 600-kilowatt wind turbine -- some 245 foot tall -- stands on the wintry VA grounds, frozen in time and temperature, essentially inoperable for the past 1 1/2 years. No one is working to fix it, though many attempts were made to repair the turbine, once billed as a model green energy project.

No, I think green energy initiatives are doing a fine job all on their own of giving themselves a bad name. This is just the latest in a long string of "green" energy success stories we've seen in the past five years, as the Obama administration flung billions of dollars at any energy source with "green" in their name.

As long as there was green sent to the administration's political party fundraisers, of course.

They dumped a couple million dollars into this wind turbine, all for it to sit unused. Think of how much they could have done with that money rather than piss it away on magic beans green energy. Other than the snake oil salesmen who pushed the turbine project, it's hard to see who benefited from this. Not the VA - they get to have a shining example of their failure out on their front lawn. Certainly not taxpayers, as we get to see millions of our dollars squandered.

And, lastly, *real* alternative energy sources - because every one of these "success" stories makes it more likely that legitimate businesses will be overlooked as mere charlatans...

That is all.

Well, Now, Isn't This Something...

Author of ‘EPA Playbook’? Report claims notorious fraudster was behind costly EPA regulations

John Beale, the former EPA official who fooled his bosses into believing he worked for the CIA, was deeply involved in crafting costly environmental standards which still are having an impact today -- though he came into the job with little, if any, environmental experience.

The details were included in a 67-page report from Republicans on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which claims the fraudster's role should now throw those rules into question.

The report is the product of months of research into the case of Beale, a top official in the Office of Air and Radiation, who was sentenced to prison in December for defrauding the agency with his CIA lie. It details Beale's role in crafting an aggressive regulatory approach which the report dubs the "EPA Playbook."

Wow. Just wow. This is the guy who claimed he was working for the CIA to get out of working at the EPA. Now it turns out that he was grossly unqualified to work at the EPA - yet it didn't stop him from weighing in on environmental policies that affect the entire country. The very same system that hid his gross incompetence and couldn't even be bothered to check up on his CIA story is telling us that the policies he pushed were based on solid science.

Pull the other one. It has bells on it.

Now, for full disclosure, he started at the EPA in 1989 (BUSH'S FAULT). This guy worked through four different presidential administrations before he got caught. No environmental experience. Came on board at the highest pay level - even with zero experience. And even that wasn't enough for him, he had to claim some phoney baloney gig at the CIA to get an extra day off every week.

And we're supposed to believe that the projects that he worked on were fully researched?

The sad part is that we're better off just plodding forward. Otherwise we're going to have to recreate every single thing he was involved in for the past 25 years. Ordinarily that would be the prudent and careful thing to do - except the agency that would be doing it has a proven track record of hiring grossly incompetent people with no experience in environmental science, letting them work unsupervised, and not checking up on them at all, despite outlandish claims.

Yeah. I'm sure they would follow full scientific protocols while recreating 25 years of research. And blue baboons will fly out of my hairy Italian ass. The costs alone would be staggering, and there's no guarantee they wouldn't just hire another group of unqualified nepotites who would immediately claim to be working for the TSA.

Can anyone explain why the EPA has even the slightest shred of credibility? George W. Bush was excoriated for cutting funding to the EPA - and as it turns out, he was right. It's not like they were doing anything productive with our tax dollars; in fact, I'd wager more often than not it was mostly phoned in, with questionable results garnered from minimal effort. He should have shuttered the place and saved us billions.

Instead, we get environmental regulations proposed and promulgated by charlatans and frauds - yeah, that'll help the environment...

That is all.

Another dispatch from...

(image courtesy of Robb Allen)

A New Low...

Seen on Facebook is the latest from the ZOMG GLOBAL WARMENING crowd. It's a new low.

Santa Warns In Greenpeace Video Christmas Will Be Canceled Due To Global Warming

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — Greenpeace is warning children the world over Santa Claus might not be bringing gifts to them because of global warming.

A “Save the Arctic” video released by the environmental group shows a sullen and dirty Santa – played by Jim Carter of “Downton Abbey” — in a dark, concrete room with water dripping from the ceiling.

Ironically, of course, because the South Pole recorded the lowest temperature ever three years ago. I do like how they're still stubbornly clinging to the "global warming" even though we've seen very recent record colds around the world. The debate still rages (despite the science being settled, of course).

You know, though, I take this as a good sign. They have to resort to cheap scare tactics and stunts to push the same tired agenda - obviously they're getting through to fewer people with traditional tactics. They're degenerating into scaring kids about Santa Claus - what's next? Is the Easter bunny going to have to take heat exhaustion breaks when delivering Easter baskets? The Tooth Fairy can't leave a quarter under the pillow because she spent all her money on air conditioning?

That they have to turn to such tired, hackneyed methods makes me wonder if we're seeing the last dying dregs of a failed religion movement...

That is all.

Another Round of "Let's Imagine"...

Can you just imagine the howls of outrage if George W. Bush had exempted British Petroleum from federal punishment for the Gulf Oil spill? Or if his father had excused Exxon for the Valdez oil spill? Brad_in_MA sent in this link about the current administration and their insouciance toward endangered wildlife.

Obama to Give Wind Farms 30-Year Pass on Eagle Deaths

The Obama administration is about to approve a rule that will ensure the death of golden and bald eagles for the next 30 more years.

Hundreds of thousands of birds die each year flying into the deadly turbine blades atop the soaring towers that compose wind farms. The rule will give wind farms thirty year permits for the “non purposeful take of eagles-that is where the take is associated with but not the purpose of, the activity.’’ The take of eagles is also a euphemism for the slaughter of them.

Now, I'm going to leave aside the whole "are wind farms worth it" argument here. I want to focus on the reaction to the Obama administration just flat-out handing a blanket exemption to the wind companies to skirt federal regulations on killing endangered wildlife. Imagine the furor if that had been a Republican president. Imagine the protests, angry op-ed columns, and red-faced watermelons environmental activists that would have ensued.

But Teleprompter Jesus waves his imperial hand and exempts wind companies from turning endangered bald eagles into meatloaf-of-the-plains? No problem! You can't make an omelet without breaking a few condor eggs, right? It's all for that greater good of greener energy, right? So a few birds get puréed. This is GREEN, baby! We have to decapitate those majestic birds to save them.

The other thing I want to know is where those activists went. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that flew to the Gulf of Mississippi and Prince William Sound to clean the poor pelicans and penguins with their very tears. We were saturated with image after image of these poor birds and seals just covered with oil, dying a horrible death, etc. to tug at our heartstrings. When it comes to bald eagles - the symbol of America - getting hacked to bits by wind power? Cue the crickets.

Well, at least there will be more crickets in areas de-birded by windmills...

That is all.

Donning My Karnac Hat...

Joseph in IL sent this story in. On its face, it's patently ridiculous and moderately frightening.

Nissan Leaf owner arrested for taking 5 cents of energy without asking

Electric vehicles no longer count as spaceships of the road; last month alone, U.S. automakers sold about 10,000 vehicles with a plug, and a few like the Nissan Leaf have become commonplace. Unfortunately for those owners, the methods of charging such cars hasn't kept pace with their growth; there's only about 6,800 public charging stations nationwide, and it's not uncommon for an EV owner to have to ask for some spare juice.

But what happens if there's no one to ask? That's the trouble facing a Georgia man who was arrested and spent a night in jail — all for taking electricity worth about a nickel.

I suspect - and this is pure conjecture on my part here - that the issue wasn't so much that the person in question plugged his car in without asking, but how he responded to the police officer. There's a world of difference between the response to "Hey, pal, what's the deal here?" being "I'm just charging my car, officer, is there a problem?" versus "Don't you have robbers and murderers to catch?"

I have a very hard time believing that someone being cordial and polite would have police come to his door later on to arrest him for stealing electricity. Could it happen? Almost certainly. I just have a sneaking suspicion that the person in question's attitude was not sufficiently docile for the responding officer. Should this be the cause for an arrest versus a "knock it off"? That's a tough call.

In the most technical of senses, the man was stealing something. Would it make a difference if, rather than a middle school, he was parked outside a stranger's house charging his car off the stranger's outdoor electrical outlet? It's the same thing as someone with a pool running a hose to the neighbor's house to fill it so that they don't have to pay the water bill overages, really.

But it is worrisome that it was a public place. Assuming that this man lived in the town (since his kids were theoretically going to the school), there's a bit of a case to be made that since this was a public school, and his taxes go to fund the school, that he's got some claim to taking the electricity. I certainly wouldn't want to be the DA who had to prosecute someone for using electricity from a public building.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, certainly...

That is all.

Another Whack At The Green Energy Pinata...

Sent in by Brad_in_MA, natch!

Taxpayers on hook for $139 million after loan to failed green automaker is sold

Taxpayers are on the hook for a multi-million-dollar tab after a U.S. Department of Energy gamble on a green automaker went into the red.

The Obama administration announced Friday it will lose $139 million on a loan to struggling electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. after selling part of the loan to a private investor that immediately took the company into bankruptcy.

You know, because cars that impersonate this:

tend to have skittish investors...

I think what bothers me most about the Tesla is that it *could* have been something awesome. The Roadster has a 0-60 time worthy of most supercars. It has a maximum range of 300 miles - not too bad, except that it also takes a full 6 hours to charge for that maximum range. 300 miles, though, is plenty to get you back and forth to work the entire week - even if you don't plug it in.

But they wanted it to be a status symbol, so they priced it well out of the reach of most of the car buying public. If Joe Six Pack is going to drop 6 bills on a car, it's going to have a nameplate like Porsche, Corvette, or Mercedes. It's also going to be able to carry a set of golf clubs to the green with the A/C on high and not bog down.

And it certainly doesn't burst into flames when it hits something in the road...

That is all.

Ah, Yes, That Alternate Energy...

Brad_in_MA sends in yet another green energy "success" story...

Eagle deaths at wind turbine farm: Duke Energy agrees to pay $1 million

WASHINGTON -- The government for the first time has enforced environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities, winning a $1 million settlement Friday from a power company that pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at two Wyoming wind farms.

The Obama administration has championed pollution-free wind power and used the same law against oil companies and power companies for drowning and electrocuting birds. The case against Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm was the first prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act against a wind energy company.

Boy, that's a tough position to be in, isn't it? I mean, pretty much every solar company out there has gone bust - right after they got the Obama administration to slap heavy tariffs on inexpensive solar panels from China - so solar's out. Now that they're starting to enforce existing laws against killing birds, wind power is going to take a decent hit, too.

It's going to be interesting to see how this prosecution ripples through the alternative energy community. One of the long-standing complaints about wind power is the danger posed to avian life, and now that it's starting to be addressed in the only form businesses understand (fines), how much will this affect new wind power production?

I wonder when we'll start getting serious and building more nuclear power plants?

That is all.

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