By Alan Caruba
In early July the Sierra Club celebrated the fact that, “Today, 100 of those planned coal plants have been defeated or abandoned.” They crowed over the fact that a year ago there were plans for 150 new plants and that they had successfully thwarted the provision of electrical power around the nation. As for as the Sierra Club is concerned, “This milestone marks a significant shift in the way Americans are looking at our energy choices. Cities, states, businesses and electric utilities are all moving away from the polluting coal power of the past.”
Today’s coal-fired plants are all equipped with very expensive technology that eliminates the pollution of the past, “scrubbing” their massive stacks before any is emitted. They are not polluting anything, but they are providing affordable electrical energy.
Coal represents just a shade over fifty percent of all the electricity Americans use. It is so abundant here in America that the provision of those 150 plants would have ensured that the nation had a significant portion of the additional power it requires for a growing population and our manufacturing sector.
Why does the Sierra Club oppose coal-fired plants? It says that “carbon dioxide pollution, a main cause of global warming” is the reason, but CO2 is not a pollutant. It is the gas of life because without it not one single blade of grass or any other vegetation grows on planet Earth. Our food supply, crops and the livestock that depend upon them, is the result of CO2.
And, of course, there is NO global warming. The planet has been cooling for the past decade and the science of CO2 demonstrates that it plays no role whatever with regard to major climate trends. The Sierra Club’s opposition to coal-fired plants is entirely based on a LIE.
It doesn’t stop there, however. As far back as 1974, the Sierra Club has been opposed to nuclear energy as well. They called for “adequate national and global policies to curb energy over-use and unnecessary economic growth.”
“Unnecessary economic growth”? If a nation does not maintain its economic growth is also does not provide jobs. It does not have the means by which to fund defense, infrastructure, and to compete globally in manufacturing and exports. This is an idiotic policy, but not if your aim, your purpose is to attack the most essential element of growth, the provision of energy.
A visit to the Sierra Club website provides ample evidence of its objection to all forms of energy except the least practical and effective, the so-called “renewable” forms such as wind and solar. Even T. Boone Pickens who gambled on the largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle has thrown in the towel, announcing that his $2 billion investment is now, in retrospect, rather foolish given the need to get the power from the farm to where it is needed. Pickens is now stuck with 687 giant wind turbines, each of which is taller than a 30-story building.
The same may be said of solar power that, like wind, is not dependable and must be located far from the transmission lines and the nation’s urban areas that are most in need of electricity. At what point will Americans begin to realize that the giant Green organizations like the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and others stand in opposition to the very thing they most desperately need, energy? At what point will Americans begin to realize that failing to access its own vast natural resources, coal, oil and natural gas, is suicidal?
One hopes it will not be before the economy is so severely damaged that we cannot borrow or fund the coal-fired and nuclear plants that we need to keep us from being figuratively and literally in the dark? See blog post here.
FREAK SUMMER STORM DUMPS SNOW ON YONKERS
By Clemente Lisi, New York Post
It was Christmas in July for some Westchester County residents. A wintry mix of hail and heavy thunderstorms downed trees and utility poles in Yonkers last night—causing mountains of slush and ice to build up in parking lots and on grassy areas.
Police said at least two homes were damaged by falling sleet (hail), which hit the area at 11:30 p.m. Snow plows were called in early this morning to help remove the snow, while extra fire trucks were on hand to help with the unseasonal cleanup.
A section of the Saw Mill Parkway’s exit ramp in Yonkers was especially icy, causing cars to get stuck in as much as two inches of sleet during the early morning rush-hour. Several residents called 911 last night claiming they had spotted a tornado, although local authorities could not confirm that a twister had hit the area.
No injuries were reported. Local emergency management officials will survey the damage in Yonkers and other parts of the county later today to determine whether a twister actually touched down. A tornado warning had been issued last night for southern Westchester by the National Weather Service.
The number of power outages, meanwhile, reached over 14,000 homes across parts of lower Westchester just before 10 a.m. today. Hardest hit was Yonkers with 9,277 outages, according to Con Ed. The utility company said they were working to restore power to the affected areas, which included Bronxville and Mount Vernon.
Frost in July hits P.E.I.
By CBC News
Temperatures dropped to a record low in Prince Edward Island overnight Tuesday, with reports of frost throughout the province. An official record low of 3.8 C was set early Wednesday morning at Charlottetown airport. The previous record for that date was 5.1 C, set in 2005.
Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that to his knowledge, frost has never been reported before in July in P.E.I. “That 3.8 we got last night kind of sticks out as being lower than some of the other records for anytime in early July,” Robichaud told CBC News on Wednesday. “So we’re looking at a significant event,” he said. Environment Canada has issued a frost risk warning in low-lying areas of the province for Wednesday night. The temperature is expected to dip to 4 C.
Chicago has its coolest July 8 in 118 years
By Tom Skilling, Chicago Tribune
For the 12th time this meteorological summer (since June 1), daytime highs failed to reach 70 degrees Wednesday. Only one other year in the past half century has hosted so many sub-70-degree days up to this point in a summer season—1969, when 14 such days occurred.
Wednesday’s paltry 65-degree high at O’Hare International Airport (an early-May-level temperature and a reading 18 degrees below normal) was also the city’s coolest July 8 high in 118 years—since a 61-degree high on the date in 1891.
By Piers Corbyn
“As world leaders of the G8 and others meet for yet another ‘discussion’ on so-called man-made Climate Change (scheduled for 9th July) they must face one simple truth - Reality will not go away. The world is cooling despite continuing CO2 rise and it will probably stay cool for at least a century. The CO2 driver theory of Climate is refuted by the facts and all policies that rest on it must be scrapped”, said Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist of WeatherAction.com long range weather & climate forecasters.
“There are three simple actions honest world leaders need to take on ‘Climate Change’ if all their talk of accountability and transparency is not to be seen as misleading nonsense by the world public”, said Piers.
1. Put testable science before ‘Climate Change’ ideology and admit there is no observed scientific evidence which shows using the available official data that CO2 changes drive world temperature or climate change over recent decades, centuries or thousands of years. They have a duty to make the UN Climate Committee (The IPCC) respond to world scientists who have asked for such evidence and to listen to recent calls from leading USA scientists.
Letter to UN Sec General 14 July 2008
OPEN LETTER TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: YOU ARE BEING DECEIVED ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
19th June 2009: World cooling has set in and it will stay colder for at least 100 years predicts scientist in forecast breakthrough
June 2009 VIDEO: WeatherAction World Climate Forecast for next 100 years.
2. Put Action to protect the world public against natural weather disasters before failed science. World leaders must use proven long range forecasting techniques which can predict weather extremes months ahead and enable action to be taken rather than rely on provenly failed CO2-centered standard forecasts which have no merit and are promoted for ideological reasons to brainwash and frighten the public.
“For example the summer floods of 2007 and 2008 and the snowy deluges in winter 2008/9 in Britain & Ireland were predicted months ahead by solar based techniques while standard meteorology CO2-centred approaches had forecast the opposite to what occurred and cost the public and the economies of Britain & Ireland damage, deaths and billions because the authorities prepared for the opposite.
11th May 2009: Met Office ‘barbecue summer’ forecast “seriously misleading”
29th April 2009: Letter to UK Environment Minister Hilary Benn offering Long Range Flood Forecasts to assist Flood Warning
3. Recognize that the Green bubble of false value will burst and ‘Climate Change’ policies are bad for the world because they are subsidy for phoney job creation and unproductive work and weaken the economies of every country and the world. CO2 is not a pollutant. More of it is a good thing because it increases crop growth. CO2 is not bad or dangerous it is The Gas of Life.
24th April 2009: World cooling has set-in warns astrophysicist - BBC & ‘Global Warming apologists’ challenged to end ‘cover-up’ “......
22nd April 2009: UK Budget “Carbon Con” must be stopped - spend it on Council Housing instead says scientist “The ?1billion ‘carbon budget’ announced by Alistair Darling 22 April is nonsense to create a bubble of false value based on false science and will fail.....
G20 Policy a ‘two-legged stool’ - Piers Corbyn
“Unless leaders listen the world will head for tragedy. It is disgraceful how official media block the truth and indulge in brainwashing using false information, innuendo and failed science in a manner which is reminiscent of the activities of totalitarian regimes in the inter-war years. All those who are concerned should demand their politicians locally and nationally provide evidence-based justification for their ‘Climate’ policies, or drop them forthwith”, said Piers.