Leave it to that dastardly Dick Cheney to leave out facts because they don’t jive with the admnistration’s policies:
Seeking to play down the effects of global warming, Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pushed to delete from congressional testimony references about the consequences of climate change on public health, a former senior EPA official claimed Tuesday.
The official, Jason K. Burnett, said the White House was concerned that the proposed testimony last October by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might make it tougher to avoid regulating greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. (via Yahoo News)
Yeah, who cares about the truth, anyway! Ignore whatever doesn’t work for us!
When now-Governor Bill Ritter was running for office, he promised to make a number of changes in Colorado, centering around education, health care and renewable fuels. We’re about four months into Ritter’s first term, and we are already seeing a couple of major initiatives on Ritter’s part, including:
College scholarships funded by the oil and gas industry: This is a very interesting initiative: basically this would recoup the tax credits given to oil and gas companies, and use that money for a few specific purposes. 60% of this money (or around $120 million a year) would be used to fund scholarships. This has to be approved by voters, but it sounds damned good to me.
The state budget for 2008-2009: Ritter’s first budget has some very interesting and promising allocations. The most encouraging of which is an increase of alomst 10% for higher education, increases in both the Chidlren’s Health Plan (enough to cover an extra 11,000 children) and programs for the developmentally challenged.
All in all, I am loving the way that Ritter is already trying to implement his campaign promises here in Colorado. Things are going to be very different - and a whole lot better - in just a few years.
9News.com is running an article about wind power in Colorado. For those of you from outside the state, our current Democratic governor Bill Ritter ran his campaign based heavily on the promise of renewable energy. He said that he would go out of his way to make Colorado a leader in renewable energy, including wind and solar. And he’s already making a difference:
“Why come to Colorado? At some point, it’s a risk-reward game for us. To spend more time and more money and maybe not get a wind project in a state in the northeast or on the west coast, we’re going to come to a place where we can spend capital and affect public policy in a postive way,” said O’Sullivan.
In other words: Colorado was chosen because our political climate is friendly towards companies that are going after alterantive energy. FPL felt the change in the air here since Ritter moved into office, and decided this is where they could make money.
So what exactly is Florida Power & Light Enegry going to do here?
The project includes the construction of 267 wind turbines creating enough energy to power 120,000 households. FPL will construct a 78-mile-long transmission line to connect the Peetz facility to Xcel’s Pawnee substation near Brush. Up to 350 people will be hired to help build the wind farm and transmission line. Afterwards, 20 full-time workers will live in the community to keep it operational.
In the end, this is going to be good for just about everyone. FPL will make a lot of money, Xcel will make a lot of money, there’ll be jobs created here in Colorado (and in a small town like Brush!), and Colorado will take a step forwards toward becoming an alternative energy giant.
I love stories like this!
Dunno why I am surprised by this. This administration has done this basic action again and again over the last 6 years. But there’s something about this one that seems more arrogant than the others. And more frustrating.
As reported by the New York Times, the Bush administration has basically forbidden government scientists and employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service from discussing issues regarding global warming:
Internal memorandums circulated in the Alaskan division of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service appear to require government biologists or other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic not to discuss climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they are not designated to do so.
But the Bush administration decided this isn’t Draconian enough:
“Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175
requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially
involving climate change, sea ice and/or polar bears will also require
a memorandum from the regional director to the director indicating
who’ll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to
questions on these issues, particularly polar bears.”
The sample
memorandums, described as to be used in writing travel requests,
indicate that the employee seeking permission to travel “understands
the administration’s position on climate change, polar bears, and sea
ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues.”
I am not sure how many different ways this frustrates me. The administration is basically trying a combination of censorship (only employees aligned with the administration’s philosophy can comment about the issues) and bullying (scientists won’t even be allowed to travel near the arctic unless they agree to the rules). All so they can try and hide the reality of global warming, and the impact it is already having.
The administration realizes that polar bears could be a major rallying point. Everyone loves polar bears, everyone thinks they’re cute and fun and cuddly. Knowing that polar bears are being driven towards extinction could motivate millions of people into action. Millions who would otherwise not care about the issue, or at least not care enough to get involved.
For the past five years, the Bush administration got away with distorting facts about the effects of global warming. In less than a month, the Democratic congress is already tearing through the deceptions and holding the Bush administration over the coals:
Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) blasted the alleged political meddling, calling it “George Orwell at its best.”At the hearing, several witnesses testified that they had experienced or seen political interference by the Bush administration in climate-change science. Witnesses said press officers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies had manipulated or obstructed media interviews with government scientists. Witnesses also said that important research on global warming had been downplayed, edited or suppressed by a system of “minders” and “gatekeepers.”
Unfortunately, I think that a lot of damage has already been done. There are already a number of people who have bought into the administration’s deceptions and now don’t believe global warming is real. These people will not listen to scientific studies, but instead put their full faith in what the government says.
Well, okay, it’s not mass hysteria. But it is always more than a little odd when Evangelical Christian leaders and scientists agree to work together. Normally the evangelical churches view scientists as heretics at best, anti-Christians at worst. But there’s apparently one issue that is large enough to bridge this gap: global warming:
“Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today,” said Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 churches.Eric Chivian, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, agreed, saying: “Scientists and evangelicals have discovered that we share a deeply felt common concern and sense of urgency about threats to life on Earth and that we must speak with one voice to protect it.”
There is actually something that I have never understood: why aren’t ultra-conservative Christians environmentalists? Psalms 24:1 says that the earth is god’s. So by not taking care of the environment, we are destroying god’s property.
Now this is what I am talking about. There’s a new type of home furnace which not only provids heat, but also generates electricity!
There’s a new fad starting, which might eventually prove to be more a revolution than a fad: an efficient furnace that also generates electricity.The “micro-combined-heat-and-power” units, or CHPs, turns natural gas into hot water and generates up to $800 a year in electricity, the Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday.
They seem kinda pricey at $20,000. But estimates are that these will pay for each other within 3-7 years. I wonder if they qualify for tax rebates, too, for people who live in an area that provides alternative energy tax breaks? All I know is that, when our furnace finally kicks the bucket (and I’m hoping that’s at least a decade away), I’m signing up for one of these puppies!
Big news out of California last week, as Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California’s new solar power policy into law:
The bill, which cleared the state Senate last week, calls for the installation of 1 million rooftop solar panels on homes, businesses, farms, schools and public buildings by 2018.
The solar systems would generate 3,000 megawatts of power and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 3 million tons, equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the state’s highways and making California the third biggest solar producer after Japan and Germany.
It is hard to over-state how big this is for the environment. Solar power production will skyrocket, reducing the need for generating electricity from fossil fuels. When done on a small scale, this would have a small impact. When done on a scale as large as California, the impact will be enormous.
Wanna save some money by not fuelling up so often? Edmunds.com has posted a list of tips for increasing fuel economy: “By changing your driving habits you can improve fuel economy up to 37 percent right away (depending on how you drive). Combine several tips and perform routine maintenance and you will save real dollars, not just pennies.”
My favorite tip? Slow down! Driving the speed limit can drastically increase your car’s fuel efficiency. Second favorite tip? Blast the A/C: there’s basically no difference in fuel use between using your car’s air conditioner or keeping it off and driving with the windows up.
I know that I like to point out all the bad news that Xcel Energy generates. I figure I should balance that out with some good news: according to 9news.com, Xcel has a new wind farm coming! From the article: “An Oregon company says it’ll build a 50-turbine wind farm in southeastern Colorado, big enough to produce 75 megawatts of electricity for Xcel Energy.” I know that Xcel isn’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re doing this because the voters of Colorado are forcing them to.
But no matter what the reason, the fact remains the same: more of Xcel’s electricity is going to be generated via alternative energy sources. And that is good news.
