Britt Weygandt, Western Business Roundtable

Says U.S. Senate Should Ignore Calls by Environmental Extremist Groups Wanting To Derail the Nomination

Western business leaders today commended the decision by President-elect Barak Obama to select U.S. Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) to head the Department of the Interior.

“Ken Salazar is a uniquely qualified Western voice for the full range of Western issues and challenges under the management of the Department of the Interior,” said Roundtable Executive Director Britt Weygandt.  “We look forward to continuing to find areas of agreement with the Obama Administration and particularly with our new Secretary of the Interior on water, public lands, energy policy and endangered species regulation.” “We know that we will get a fair hearing even on those issues where we disagree, because that’s the kind of guy Ken Salazar is,” Weygandt added.

Weygandt expressed disappointment that “a few self-styled environmental groups are already attacking the Salazar nomination.” She pointed to press reports today saying that the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project launched “last-ditch” campaigns yesterday trying to derail the Salazar nomination.

“Ken Salazar listens to all sides of an issue. It’s unfortunate that there are extremist groups in the West that don’t admire that quality in our government leaders. We do.  We urge the U.S. Senate to view the actions and recommendations of these extremist groups for what they are, and to vote to approve Senator Salazar as the new Secretary of the Interior.”

Weygandt noted that the Western Business Roundtable has worked with Senator Salazar on a number of issues, including water policy, “Good Samaritan” abandoned mine legislation and clean coal and carbon capture technology development issues.

See release here.

Investor’s Business Daily

The Associated Press warns that the new administration won’t have much time to save the planet from a global warming apocalypse. Never mind that the “ticking time bomb” is a dud.

The temperature at Denver International Airport dropped to 18 below zero on Sunday, breaking the previous record of 14 below set in 1901. White Sulphur Springs, Mont., reported 29 below to the National Weather Service, breaking the record of 17 below set in 1922. Meanwhile, ice storms ravage the Northeast and the upper Midwest.  This is not a local phenomenon. Hong Kong had the second-longest cold spell since 1885. Cold in northern Vietnam destroyed 40% of the rice crop and killed 33,000 head of livestock. The British Parliament debated climate change as London experienced the first October snow since 1934. Presumably this has all been reported by the Associated Press.

But according to a weekend AP report, this is all an illusion and “2008 is on a pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line.” Rather than being “evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming.” Oh. The report, which includes no comments from any skeptic, says global warming “is a ticking time-bomb that President-elect Obama can’t avoid.” It warns “warming is accelerating. Time is running out, and Obama knows it.” Especially if he relies on AP wire reports. Problem is, nature didn’t get the memo.

Geophysicist David Deming found that for the first time since the 18th century, in the days before SUVs, Alaskan glaciers grew this year instead of retreating. Fairbanks had its fourth coldest October in 104 years of records. U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia reported: “On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July.” It was the worst summer he’d seen in two decades.  As the Anchorage Daily News reports, “Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Ice Field witnessed the kind if snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too.” The consequence of melting glaciers and sea ice is supposed to be rising sea levels.

The poster children for this phenomenon are low-lying coral islands such as the Maldives and Tuvalu. Again, the facts are ignored in the quest for headlines. The satellite record shows the sea level has actually fallen four inches around Tuvalu since 1993, when the $100 million international TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite project record began. As in other places around the world, sea-level changes have many natural explanations, including geologic changes in the land. The atolls of Tuvalu rest on sinking volcanic rock on top of which new coral grows to replace the coral die-off that occurs as the volcanic rock sinks deeper into the ocean where coral does not survive. Sand is excavated for building material on Tuvalu. Excavation for building material has eroded the beach, thus giving to the casual, or biased, observer the impression of rising sea levels. The strong El Nino of 1997-98 caused the sea level surrounding Tuvalu to drop just over one foot. Patrick Michaels, a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and visiting scientist with the Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C., notes that Tuvalu is near the epicenter of a region where the sea level has been declining for nearly 50 years.

He has written that the decline has been so steep that, even accepting the U.N.’s median estimates of global warming over the next hundred years, Tuvalu would not return to its 1950 sea level until 2050, much less disappear under the sea. None of this, of course, matters to the warming zealots and some major media outlets. If it’s too dry or too wet, too hot or too cold, everything is caused by global warming. We believe, as do many reputable scientists, that the warming and cooling of the earth is a natural phenomenon dictated by forces beyond our control, from ocean currents to solar activity. We needn’t worry about one day mooring our boats to the Washington Monument. Read post here.

EPW Minority Blog

U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today commented on President-elect Barack Obama’s intention to nominate Lisa Jackson for the position of Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), physicist Steven Chu as the Energy Secretary, and former EPA administrator Carol Browner as the newly created “climate czar” inside the White House. 

“The next President faces the challenge of balancing the environment with the reality of our current economic downturn,” Senator Inhofe said. “As falling gas prices have finally provided a welcome relief to families in tough economic times, my concern is Team Obama may be now ready and willing to restrict realistic energy supplies and drive energy prices higher, harming already struggling Americans.”

Inhofe comments on Steven Chu: “Steven Chu has made troubling comments. Chu has unabashedly called coal—which generates over 50% of our nation’s electricity—his ‘worst nightmare.’ Equally worrisome is Chu’s call for raising America’s gas taxes to European levels as noted in today’s Wall Street Journal.  Rather than threaten the nation’s economic security, the Department of Energy must promote policies to power this machine we call America. 

Inhofe comments on Lisa Jackson: “I look forward to getting to know Lisa Jackson better during the nomination process. Over the past two years Ms. Jackson has testified before the committee on issues ranging from chemical security to mercury legislation. At a time when American families are facing a troubled economy, the position of EPA Administrator is particularly important as we look to continue environmental progress while developing our economy. I look forward to discussing with Ms. Jackson her views on how we can best accomplish these goals.” (The position of EPA Administrator is a confirmed position through the Environment and Public Works Committee.)

Inhofe comments on Carol Browner: “I look forward to learning more about the position of an ‘energy czar’ in the new administration. Certainly Carol Browner’s record as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under former President Clinton is well known. She is a proud liberal who has long-advocated an environmentalist agenda that would drive up energy costs on families and put thousands of Americans out of jobs. At a time when the economy is already suffering, it will be interesting to see how President-elect Obama will reconcile what seems to be conflicting agendas in the White House.” Read more here.

Note: See Roger Pielke Jr’s post on the connection of Browner to Cap-and- Trade here.