From the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Cap and Trade FOIA release

From the Wall Street Journal

Obama’s Nontax Tax

Bound to Burn, by Peter Huber

“If we’re truly worried about carbon, we must instead approach it as if the emissions originated in an annual eruption of Mount Krakatoa. Don’t try to persuade the volcano to sign a treaty promising to stop. Focus instead on what might be done to protect and promote the planet’s carbon sinks—the systems that suck carbon back out of the air and bury it.”

“There is no such dichotomy as Reds AND Greens, but Green Reds, and vice versa. It was a deep concern for the livable planet being saved that pointed me originally towards socialism and revolution. That will not change, and Marx only made me a more confirmed green.”

“Few challenges facing America — and the world — are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear.”  President Obama

“This is the justification for the imposition of a carbon cap-and-trade system that will cost $2 trillion.  But Obama does not understand science.  “Settled science” is an oxymoron, and anyone who characterizes science as “settled” or “indisputable” is ignorant not only of science, but also history and philosophy……… President Obama, a lawyer and politician, would now have us believe that the process of history has stopped.  For the first time, scientific knowledge is not provisional and subject to revision, but final and settled……… Knowledge begins with skepticism and ends with conceit.”  Prof. David Deming

“The presumption of sufficient knowledge for central planning is not new.  It’s what Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek termed the “fatal conceit.”  There is no historical evidence that any government has ever planned a major economic intervention that worked as planned, even with mid-course corrections.”  William O’Keefe

Discussion Draft Summary - THE AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT OF 2009

DISCUSSION DRAFT - American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

Do not tie the markets - free them

Speech of the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus in the European Parliament

MEPs Walk Out on Klaus

Interview with the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus for The Sunday Times

Václav Klaus - English Pages

Read it and weep.

Porkulus Rex

Surreal Spending
The House is poised to take a final vote on the compromise $800-billion spending bill on, appropriately, Friday the 13th, with the Senate likely to follow soon after.

In my 36 years in Washington, I have never seen such a surreal environment, with hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed taxpayer money being spent without committee hearings or even meaningful public debate over the thousands of new and expanded programs the bill funds. (more…)

Barack Obama Washington Post Editorial

re: “…the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action…”

It’s not enough that the Democrats have control of the House, control of the Senate, control of the Presidency, and a liberal majority on the Supreme Court? 

When did a limp-wristed majority afraid to act on its’ own beliefs become “partisan gridlock?”  You can’t blame Republicans for the Democrats’ lack of courage to support their own convictions.

And elevating Republicans’ reasonable disagreement with socialist programs to the virtual level of a thought crime is frankly Orwellian. If socialist programs had ever accomplished what they set out to do, anywhere, anytime in history that they have been tried, Republicans would probably sign on.  But we’ve been down this road of failed big government responses to economic crisis, and many people who lived through the Great Depression are still alive to attest to those socialist failures.  The way to stimulate our economy is to get government off our backs and allow people to keep the fruits of their labors.

The stimulus plan the President brought out of the House is built on False Dilemmas, ineffective solutions, poor returns on the dollar, and arbitrary market dislocations.  It benefits one class - the government bureaucrat class.  Everyone else loses. 

Great.  The American people get the government they deserve.  And the government they got is Democrats who don’t need Republicans to pass their stimulus plan.  What they need is to grow a pair, men and women alike, and pass their plans in the light of day as THEIR plans, and be judged by THEIR plans’ results as Democrats.  And if they can’t muster the testosterone to be held accountable for their own plans, they have no one to blame but themselves.

And Republicans need to grow some pairs too.  Conservative philosophy is worth standing on.  They must hold the line and not agree to another dollar of spending or taxation.  It would be a big mistake for them to try to blend in with Democrats at this juncture.  Look what happened the last time a Republican tried to pass himself off as a Democrat - the McCain campaign lost definitively.  Tax and spend is a guaranteed loser for a Republican. 

Democrats don’t need bi-partisan support to enact their plans, and each time they ask for it, Republicans should lock their mouths shut and throw away the key.  The change Republicans need in Washington is to quit the spending spree that went on under President Bush, learn when to keep their mouths shut, and start acting conservatively. 

Also See: Alyssa Lappen on Stimulus Plan

Also See: The Fierce Urgency of Pork

Full Report

U. S. Senate Minority Report:
More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008

INTRODUCTION:

Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report report — updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” — features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grow.

2008 Senate Minority Report

Oceanic influences on recent continental warming

Gilbert P. Compo Æ Prashant D. Sardeshmukh
Received: 22 August 2007 / Accepted: 14 July 2008  Springer-Verlag 2008

Abstract

Evidence is presented that the recent worldwide
land warming has occurred largely in response to a
worldwide warming of the oceans rather than as a direct
response to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) over land.
Atmospheric model simulations of the last half-century
with prescribed observed ocean temperature changes, but
without prescribed GHG changes, account for most of the
land warming. The oceanic influence has occurred through
hydrodynamic-radiative teleconnections, primarily by
moistening and warming the air over land and increasing
the downward longwave radiation at the surface. The
oceans may themselves have warmed from a combination
of natural and anthropogenic influences.

(more…)

Global Warming? Bring it On!

Lord Monckton Thrashes DeSmog Blog Editor in High-Profile Global Warming Debate

The Not So Clear Consensus on Climate Change

IPCC Survey

Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

CONCLUSIONS
There are no experimental data to support the hypothesis that in -
creases in human hydrocarbon use or in atmospheric carbon dioxide
and other green house gases are causing or can be expected to cause
unfavorable changes in global temperatures, weather, or landscape.
There is no reason to limit human production of CO2, CH4, and other
minor green house gases as has been proposed (82,83,97,123).
We also need not worry about environmental calamities even if
the current natural warming trend continues. The Earth has been
much warmer during the past 3,000 years without catastrophic ef -
fects. Warmer weather extends growing seasons and generally improves
the habitability of colder regions.
As coal, oil, and natural gas are used to feed and lift from poverty
vast numbers of people across the globe, more CO2 will be released
into the atmosphere. This will help to maintain and improve the
health, longevity, prosperity, and productivity of all people.
The United States and other countries need to produce more en -
ergy, not less. The most practical, economical, and environmentally
sound methods available are hydrocarbon and nuclear technologies.
Human use of coal, oil, and natural gas has not harmfully warmed
the Earth, and the extrapolation of current trends shows that it will
not do so in the foreseeable future. The CO2 pro duced does, how -
ever, accelerate the growth rates of plants and also permits plants to
grow in drier regions. Animal life, which depends upon plants, also
flourishes, and the diversity of plant and an imal life is increased.
Human activities are producing part of the rise in CO2 in the at -
mosphere. Mankind is moving the carbon in coal, oil, and natural gas
from below ground to the atmosphere, where it is available for con -
version into living things. We are living in an increasingly lush environment
of plants and animals as a result of this CO2 increase. Our
children will therefore enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal
life than that with which we now are blessed.

Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change

“Global warming” is not a global crisis

We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change,

Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method;

Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;

Recognising that the causes and extent of recently observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed ‘consensus’ among climate experts are false;

Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing, human suffering;

Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder:

Hereby declare:

That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity’s real and serious problems.

That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.

That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.

That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.

That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.

Now, therefore, we recommend –

That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as “An Inconvenient Truth.”

That all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.

Agreed at New York, 4 March 2008