Showing posts with label biofuels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biofuels. Show all posts

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Clexit and the "Parasitical" Climate Change Industry

“The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically, and burning too much oil.”    -  Sir James Lovelock, BBC Interview

Photo taken in the Nashville Airport
Ileana Johnson October 2015
Viv Forbes, in a media release on August 1, 2016, announced the founding of Clexit, Climate Exit, by“over 60 well-informed science, business and economic leaders from 16 countries.”

Forbes announced in his press release that ratification of the Paris accord will suppress the developed world with “pointless carbon taxes and costly climate and energy policies” that have no rational basis and are based on consensus. Such green and destructive polices are destroying real industries while “enriching the huge and parasitical climate-change industry that thrives on bureaucracy, misdirected government research, law books of costly regulations, never-ending conferences and subsidies for promoters of the failing technologies of renewable energy.”

He continues that if the EU ratified the Paris accord, it will spell the end of low-cost hydrocarbon electricity and transportation and the “end of manufacturing, processing and refining industries.” Developing countries will be denied low-cost energy and be forced to continue their dependency on “international handouts.”

“Perhaps the most insidious feature of the UN climate plan is the ‘Green Climate Fund’. Under this scheme, selected nations (“The rich”) are marked to pour billions of dollars into a green slush fund. The funds will then be used to bribe other countries (“developing and emerging nations”) into adopting silly green energy policies.” http://clexit.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/clexit.pdf

Bloomberg reported that “Environmentalists who once championed biofuels as a way to cut pollution are now turning against a U.S. program that puts renewable fuels in cars, citing higher-than-expected carbon dioxide emission and reduced wildlife habitat.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-07-27/as-corn-devours-u-s-prairies-greens-reconsider-biofuel-mandate

Car manufacturers announced that they are not standing behind warranties if car owners use the EPA approved E15 (15% ethanol) fuel in their cars. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/07/warranties-void-on-cars-burning-e15-say-automakers/index.htm

Klaus Kaiser, a professional scientist with a Ph.D. in chemistry and an extensive resume in research, wrote recently that the 2004 report, “Growing Energy,” claiming that “biofuels can clean up the environment,” is not true.” “Instead,” Kaiser wrote, “the few studies by independent investigators all showed the opposite to be true. Between sowing and reaping the harvest, converting, distilling, and distributing the product(s), no energy was ‘saved,’ the environment was not ‘cleaned up’ but rather destroyed, and the economy did not improve either.” Kaiser calls the biofuel claims a “boondoggle and a Biofuel Curse.” http://fairfaxfreecitizen.com/2016/08/03/sanity-may-prevail-after-all/

Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, this administration has made global warming/climate change a priority, seen as a biggest threat facing the nation. The administration wants to “fill U.S. roadways with electric vehicles.” It also ruled that “greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft endanger human health and welfare.” Another goal is to “phase out super-polluting HFCs (hydro-fluorocarbons), chemicals in refrigerants and other industrial substances that warm the climate.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/02/from-now-on-every-government-agency-will-have-to-consider-climate-change/?utm_term=.33f6731f2a62

On August 2, 2016, the White House Council on Environmental Quality released “final guidance on considering climate change in environmental reviews.” The ‘guidance’ is telling federal agencies that they must quantify the impacts of their actions on climate change when they produce greenhouse gas emissions. Their actions must be spelled out in the NEPA reviews. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/08/02/fact-sheet-white-house-council-environmental-quality-releases-final

NEPA is the 1969 law, the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to take into account and disclose environmental consequences of their activities such as permits to drill on public lands, mining, building roads, bridges, etc. Agencies are asked to look at alternatives in order “to mitigate the impacts of climate change.” The administration stated that in 2015 the federal government penned 563 such NEPA reports. https://www.fws.gov/r9esnepa/RelatedLegislativeAuthorities/nepa1969.PDF

NEPA was originally intended to “encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality” and not to restrict human activities through such severe, often draconian rules and regulations.

In the U.S. Eastern District Court of California, a judge found that John Duarte, a farmer, “plowed wetlands, four to six inches deep, and therefore violated the Clean Water Act. According to the Jefferson Policy Journal, the Court wrote, “In sum, soil is a pollutant. And here, plaintiffs instructed [a contractor] to till and loosen soil on the property. Plowing caused … the material in this case soil, to move horizontally, creating furrows and ridges. This movement of the soil resulted in its being redeposited into waters of the United States at least in areas of the wetlands as delineated.” http://www.jeffersonpolicyjournal.com/court-rules-soil-is-a-pollutant/
According to the Congressional Research Service, President Obama’s major goal is to reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). He pledged at a conference in Copenhagen in 2009 that U.S. will reduce emissions of GHGs 17 percent by 2020 below 2005 levels and 80 percent by 2050. In November 2014 he set a new goal, 26-28 percent by 2025, while China announced its emissions to peak by 2030.

According to the Congressional Research Service report, “EPA’s Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants: Frequently Asked Questions,” (R44341, June 15, 2016), “President Obama made the pledge in the context of U.S. commitments under a [1992] international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf

The 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro produced three documents:

-          The Framework  Convention on Climate Change

-          The Convention on Biological Diversity

-          Agenda 21 (which has now morphed into Agenda 2030)

 
President George H. W. Bush signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change and Agenda 21 but refused to sign the Convention on Biological Diversity. According to the late Henry Lamb, “The Convention on Biological Diversity was not ratified, but because the Clinton administration believed so strongly in its provisions, the treaty recommendations were implemented administratively.”

Agenda 21 is not a treaty but a “soft law” document which “means that its recommendations are not legally binding, but nations that endorsed the document are morally obligated to implement them,” according to the United Nations. Agenda 21 and its sister on steroids, Agenda 2030, have never been debated or adopted in Congress but its provisions, including its lynchpin, Sustainable Development, have been included in legislation and administratively through “visioning grants” at the state and local levels thanks to non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) constant brainwashing around the globe.

The Obama administration also released a “Climate Action Plan and directed the EPA to propose standards for ‘carbon pollution’ [carbon dioxide, the gas of plant life] from power plants by June 2014 and to finalize the standards a year later.” The rule, however, is under ongoing litigation initiated by several states and other entities who have challenged the rule. On February 9, 2016, the Supreme Court stayed the rule for the duration of the litigation.  The EPA claims that it has the authority for such a rule in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44341.pdf

Our Secretary of State, John Kerry, confessed at the COP-21 climate conference in Paris that emissions cuts by U.S. and other developed nations will make no difference in the global climate.

“The fact is that even if every American citizen biked to work, carpooled to school, used only solar panels to power their homes, if we each planted a dozen trees, if we somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse gas emissions, guess what – that still wouldn’t be enough to offset the carbon pollution coming from the rest of the world.

If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions—remember what I just said, all the industrial emission went down to zero emissions—it wouldn’t be enough, not when more than 65 percent of the world’s carbon pollution comes from the developing world.”http://www.globalclimatescam.com/cop21/why-bother-john-kerry-admits-american-co2-cuts-would-be-pointless/

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Energy Poverty Around the World

The global warming/climate change industry has been aggressively pushing renewable energy, wind, solar, and biofuels for a long time even though the economies of various industrialized countries need much more energy than what renewables generate.

The green activists have been zealously lobbying Congress and the EPA to change the laws, rules, and regulations that would make it much more expensive and difficult for fossil fuel energy producers to survive while passing the higher costs onto consumers, impoverishing those customers on fixed incomes and taking away disposable income from the rest.

Green energy causes electricity poverty around the world. Today the Fraser Institute of Canada, an independent, non-partisan public policy think-tank released a study that found that energy poverty is on the rise in Canada.

"Government policies that raise electricity prices may push some families into energy poverty and further stretch the household budgets of families already in energy poverty," said Taylor Jackson, study co-author and policy analyst at the Fraser Institute.

"Because high energy costs take a large bite out of many household budgets, families across Canada pay the price when government energy policies boost the cost of electricity," said Kenneth Green, the Fraser Institute's senior director of natural resource studies and co-author of Energy Costs and Canadian Households: How Much Are We Spending?

According to the study, Canadian households that make $47,700 or less per year are disproportionately affected by energy poverty.

The Fraser Institute found that in 2013 the three regions most affected by energy poverty were Atlantic Canada at 20.6 percent, Saskatchewan at 12.9 percent and Ontario at 7.5 percent, with a general 7.9 percentage in Canada. “Between 2010 and 2013, energy poverty was on the rise in most provinces.” British Columbia had the lowest at 5.3 percent.

The study authors also found that the Green Energy Act of Ontario is responsible for the increase in electricity prices.

In 2013 Der Spiegel warned us that “the political world is wedged between the green-energy lobby, masquerading as saviors of the world, and the established electric utilities, with their dire warnings of chaotic supply problems and job losses.” http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/high-costs-and-errors-of-german-transition-to-renewable-energy-a-920288.html

In Germany, the Energiewende, or energy wave (revolution), was “Chancellor Angela Merkel’s project of the century.” It turned out to be a flop, although not as bad as her recent policy of welcoming with open arms of waves of violent Muslims into Europe.

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Merkel “quickly decided to begin phasing out nuclear power and lead the country into the age of wind and solar.” The government-predicted renewable energy surcharge turned out to be higher than the 20 percent price hike.

Of all the companies that must pay the renewable energy surcharge, 2,300 German businesses with lobbying representation, were able to exempt themselves from this green energy surcharge by claiming tough international competition.

Der Spiegel said that German customers were forced to pay 20 billion euros for electricity from solar, wind, and biofuel plants that had a market price of only 3 billion euros. The authors explained that this cost did not include “unintended costs and collateral damage associated with the project.” The costs included the fact that, depending on weather and time of day, the entire country can face “absurd states of energy surplus or deficit.” Solar panels and wind turbines can generate lots of electricity at times and other times zero.

According to Der Spiegel, more than 300,000 German households a year had their electricity cut off for unpaid bills. Caritas, a charity group, called this “energy poverty.”

Sweden, a heavily forested country, used up its biomass from wood and paper industry waste to fuel conventional power plants; once it exhausted this source, it switched to wind farms on land because the offshore ones were very expensive and tended to rust much quicker.

There is no doubt that Americans have also been affected by energy poverty. The Institute for Energy Research is citing the case of the residents in Pueblo, Colorado. The state’s Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act forced inexpensive coal plants to be closed. Their residential kWh rate has increased 26 percent since 2010 when “the new local utility company in Pueblo replaced nearly all its inherited cheap coal capacity with wind and natural gas.” Residential customers, with a poverty rate of 18.1 percent and one third of the population on welfare, had to pay for the large infrastructure bills when the switch was made. Wind turbines were added in order to meet the state’s Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act requirement of 30 percent capacity coming from renewable resources. http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/energy-poverty-coming-america-coal-shuttered-green-power/

At CPAC 2015, during a panel discussion on climate change and global warming alarmism, Gary Broadbent, representing Murray Energy Corporation, the largest privately held coal mine in the U.S., highlighted Obama’s “war on coal” via regulations passed by EPA alone in the last five years totaling 25,000 pages.  Quoting Robert E. Murray, Chairman of Murray Energy Corporation, Broadband said, “Prior to the election of President Obama, coal provided 52% of the electricity generation in our country. Today it is 37%. In our judgement, it will further decline to about 30%, at a maximum.”

Enumerating the 411 power plants designated for closure through 2016, “101,000 megawatts of the lowest cost electricity in America,” CEO Murray wrote that electricity, generated by coal at the plant cost of 4 cents per kWh, will be replaced by “Mr. Obama and his appointees” with 15 cent per kWh electricity from natural gas and 22 cent per kWh electricity from wind and solar power, not to mention the huge subsidies to solar power from American taxpayers.

In CEO Murray’s opinion, the Obama Administration has bypassed illegally Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the States and their Public Utility Commissions, which are “empowered to regulate the availability and cost of electricity.”

According to Chairman Murray, while we came within 700 megawatts of reducing loads to 61 million Americans in 13 states during the Polar Vortex of 2014, “China has been building a new 500 megawatt coal-fired plant every week for years, [and] burned about 4.0 billion tons of coal last year.”

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Climate Change Causes Everything So Let's Fundamentally Change Our Economy

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2014
As the global warming alarmists tell us that the science is settled, there is no debate, and government bureaucrats are going full-speed ahead with taxation plans that will further weaken our already suffering economy, honest and wise politicians like Delegate Scott Lingamfelter of Virginia ask, “let’s see the physical science, not the political science before we strap Americans with huge taxes as the Obama Administration wants to do.” We should not formulate public policy such as carbon tax when the real science is constantly changing.


Hurricane Central has reported that “The 2014 hurricane season has fallen into a slumber heading into the final days of the season’s peak month.” http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/atlantic-hurricane-season-2014-update-quite-20140922
However, we don’t want to mix catastrophic weather events with climate as the global warming alarmists do. We could have a late arrival hurricane like Sandy.
The planet’s climate has been changing for millions of years yet, if you ask a climate change alarmist, they are unable to tell you what the appropriate temperature of the planet should be or what it was 200 years ago. As it stands, the earth has been in a cooling period for the last 18 years. It explains why the enviro-globalists have changed the name of their taxation and control agenda from global warming to climate change.
Scientists are constantly revealing the negative and dirty cost of clean energy promoted by enviro-bureaucrats; renewables like wind, solar, and biofuels have negative effects on humans and animals who happen to exist in the vicinity of such sources or depend on food produced from corn.
The Smart Meters controversy is finally reaching a fever pitch with the battle moving into the mainstream. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader called smart meters a “step toward technological despotism. http://www.takebackyourpower.net/news/2014/10/02/ralph-nader-smart-meters-a-step-toward-technological-despotism/
The Wall Street Journal stated that “one in 10 cell/grid towers violate FCC’s safety guidelines.”  According to the FCC,  radio frequency radiation is a serious problem since at very high levels, “RF can cook human tissue, causing cataracts and temporary sterility and other health issues.” http://online.wsj.com/articles/cellphone-boom-spurs-antenna-safety-worries-1412293055
The FCC set two limits “to buffer people from these ’thermal’ effects, limits on how much radiation frequency people can absorb—one for the public, and one “occupational” limit five times higher for people who are trained to work near antennas. “ Perhaps their skin cooks five times slower? “A German study in 2013 found higher emissions from 4G antennas.” http://www.mcf.amta.org.au/newsletters/Mobile.InSite.May.2013?Article=39384
Cash-strapped families in Ireland had to pay water bills in excess of 240 euros a month thanks to smart water meters. http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/politics/outrage-revealed-politicians-wont-pay-4354752
Citizens who refuse smart meters for health reasons and privacy issues have to pay higher upfront fees and monthly reading fees that vary from state to state, anywhere from $35-$95 per month. Other customers are abused by a system that uses the police state to force citizens into compliance.
Customers who had their traditional meters replaced by smart meters are now paying much higher electric bills although their consumption has not changed. Some customers lost their homes to smart meters that caught fire or exploded.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Malia “Kim” Bendis of Naperville, Illinois, after being arrested on January 13, 2013 for filming the installation of a smart meter at Jennifer Stahl’s home, was recently acquitted of the charge of “misdemeanor of resisting or obstructing a peace officer.”  http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-lisle/chi-jury-gets-naperville-smart-meter-case-20141001-story.html
While we are trying to be conscientious protectors of the environment and want clean air and water, we are not interested in destroying our economies and our way of life for the unfounded fears and exaggerations of those who stand to gain from their draconian environmental agenda.
The World Council for Nature’s mission statement explains, “But our interest in the conservation of nature does not mean that we forget about people: we shall also defend human populations against aggressions that have the same origin.” http://wcfn.org/
Mark Duchamp, President of WCN, fights in particular against the health damage that wind turbines and solar plants cause animals and humans. In his October 6, 2014 press release, Duchamp stated that “health authorities refuse to measure accurately infrasound and low-frequency noise emitted by wind turbines; they are obviously protecting the wind industry.”
Wind turbines blast nearby residents non-stop with low frequency sound (LFS). Lack of restful sleep causes exhaustion coupled by, according to testimony, a “deep, drumming, rumbling sensation in the skull behind my ears which is like pressure and often a pulsating, squeezing sensation at the base of my skull. I also experience irregular heartbeat while I am trying to sleep and while I am relaxing (sitting or reclining) in our house. I did not have any trouble sleeping before the turbines started operating.” http://waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/david-mortimers-statement-cherry-tree-hearing-at-vcat-jan-2013/
Mark Duchamp cites Dr. Marcus Drexel of the University of Munich whose study found that “low frequency sound can affect the active micromechanics in the human inner ear.” http://en.friends-against-wind.org/doc/140166.full.pdf
As much as 30 percent of the population is sensitive to LFS. Some individuals have persistent headaches, insomnia, and depression.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2775222/Could-living-near-wind-farm-make-DEAF-Low-frequency-hum-damage-inner-ear-experts-warn.html#ixzz3FQeQO7B3
Mark Duchamp said that we live in “a world where the wind/climate coalition has successfully blocked official research on LFS emitted by wind turbines since the Kelley Studies in 1985-1987.”
It is hard to understand why governments subsidize and investors throw money into bigger and bigger wind farms and solar plants when the energy is unreliable, expensive, insufficient to satisfy our large economy, a health hazard to humans and to wildlife, and it requires the use of such vast swaths of land.
The thermal flux from the solar panels fries millions of birds in mid-air and even evaporates them completely. Birds mistaken the huge mirrors for water and dive to their deaths. The huge wind turbine blades chop up millions of birds and bats.
Dr. Klaus Kaiser described how Germany’s Bard 1 wind farm became finally operational in March 2014 following years of delay. After connecting to the grid and beginning to deliver energy, the AC-to-DC converter station experienced a “meltdown.” The replacement converter was shut down a few days later. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/print-friendly/66002
The EPA is closing our coal power plants with their outrageous regulatory demands while China, India, France, and Hungary are building new power plants and nuclear ones. We are destroying our economy in order to satisfy the environmental lobby’s ever more onerous regulations to protect Mother Earth which is already pretty clean in the U.S., while other countries like China and India are polluting away.
©Ileana Johnson 2014