6/14/13, "As Obama moves forward on climate, he faces a tough political task," Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin
"A pair of fundraisers just 90 minutes apart in the San Francisco Bay Area last week laid bare the competing forces of politics and policy that President Obama is grappling with as he prepares to unveil a slate of major initiatives on global warming in late June or in July....
But during the second event, according to several people familiar with his private remarks at the home of clean-tech entrepreneur Vinod Khosla, Obama expressed concerns about the political pain involved, saying that “dial testing” of his State of the Union speech showed that the favorability ratings “plummeted” when he vowed to act on climate change if Congress refused to do so."...
==========================
Vinod Khosla made poor people in Georgia even poorer, took federal tax dollars as well. He's good at getting politicians to do what he wants:
2/15/11, "Plant closure bursts Ga.’s biomass bubble," Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dan Chapman
""The premise, and the promise, were brilliant in their simplicity: Turn tree waste into fuel, help break the Middle Eastern choke hold on America’s economy and
- bring hundreds of jobs to rural Georgia.
Plenty, starting with the closing last month of the Range Fuels cellulosic ethanol factory that promised to help make Georgia a national leader in alternative energy production. Then there’s the money — more than
- $162 million in local, state and federal grants, loans and other subsidies committed to the venture.
- Range Fuels,
But critics — ranging from budget hawks to renewable energy experts to dispirited locals — say the shutdown is a case of
- good money thrown at unproven science and lofty promises.
- We need jobs. We need them bad.”...
- vowed in 2007 to
- “declare a war on oil” and said “cellulosic ethanol is the weapon we need.”
“Range Fuels represents a new future for our country,” proclaimed then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, flanked by dignitaries and beauty queens. ...
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, who steered a $76 million federal grant to Range, said that “by relying on American ingenuity
- and on American farmers for fuel, we will enhance our nation’s energy
- and economic security.”
- Georgia officials pledged $6.2 million.
Private investors reportedly put up $158 million. In all, the project raised more than $320 million.
- It hasn’t been enough.
- 13.3 percent unemployment rate.
- Range shut down in early January. Only a few employees in Soperton remain....
- filling local and state treasuries.
- the statewide economic impact at $150 million.
- for rural development.
Range told Georgia officials that other states were also in the running for the cellulosic factory.
OneGeorgia’s governing board, which included Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and the directors of the state’s economic development, community affairs and revenue departments, decided the $6.2 million grant would help seal the deal....
Range used the grant to buy a catalytic converter, feedstock distributor and an auger. All but $200,000 has been spent, Cobb said, adding that Georgia isn’t likely to receive any money back. Under terms of the contract, Range has until 2015 to invest at least $150 million into the factory and create at least 50 jobs
- before the state would consider any penalties....
- Production fell short
EPA, citing technical and financial difficulties bedeviling the nation’s six cellulosic ethanol producers, slashed the mandate to 6.5 million gallons for 2010.
- Critics doubt even that amount was manufactured.
and the company went bankrupt. Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla’s private equity firm,
- reportedly invested $12.5 million in Cello.
David Aldous, president of Range Fuels, told a Colorado newspaper last month he was seeking more money to ramp-up production in Soperton to a commercially feasible level. He also said the factory had trouble processing its raw material, mainly pine scrap.
“Their technology did not work,” said Sam Shelton, research director for Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute who has long
- questioned Range’s scientific claims.
- The Energy Department largely concurred.
The Energy Department suspended payments to Range last month thereby “reducing future financial risk for the American taxpayers.” In an e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the agency said it had given Range
- $43.6 million so far with another $5 million obligated.
Folks in Soperton can only hope Range re-opens.
“You see what it’s like around here. Businesses are closing. Storefronts are empty,” said Little, the former school teacher.
- “I see hope moving further and further away.”
“If nothing else,” quipped Lee, the economic developer, “it would make a
- nice Jack Daniels distillery.”"
Juliet, congress is a non-issue. The GOP will do what Obama wants because he helped them beat the Tea Party in 2012. Obama issued $18.5 billion in climate regulations in 2012 alone. Without congress. "The vast majority of “laws” governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations.""In 2011, the US Congress passed a total of 81 new “laws” while government agencies issued 3,807 new regulations."
==============================
$18.5 billion in climate regulations were issued in 2012 alone.
4/22/13, "Costs of New Regulations issued in 2012 Dwarf those of Previous Years, according to OMB Report," Regulatory Studies Center, George Washington University
(pdf of article has numerous links)
"The Office of Management and Budget quietly released its draft 2013
Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Regulations on Friday,
April 19, covering regulatory activity through the end (September 30) of
fiscal year 2012....By the administration’s own estimates, the rules it issued in FY2012 alone imposed more costs on the economy than all the rules issued during the entire first terms of Presidents Bush and Clinton, combined....Of the reported benefits of regulations issued in FY 2012, over 95% derive from two assumptions that many scholars find questionable:
1) that reductions in emissions of fine particles will cause large reductions in premature mortality (55% of total benefits); and
savings are worth more–to the consumers themselves–than consumers realize (contributing 41% of the total benefits)."...
============================
Juliet, recent Obama climate "action":
6/12/13, "Obama Quietly Raises 'Carbon Price' as Costs to Climate Increase," Bloomberg, Drajem
=============================
Juliet, your own newspaper tells you Obama doesn't have to deal with congress:
5/24/13, "The rise of the fourth branch of government," Washington Post, Jonathan Turley, opinion
"The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.
This exponential growth has led to increasing power and independence for agencies. The shift of authority has been staggering. The fourth branch now has a larger practical impact on the lives of citizens than all the other branches combined. "...
==============================
7/22/12, "The Cost Of Government Regulation: $1.75 Trillion," Zero Hedge
"In the US, the federal government lists its regulations in what is called the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules of the economic “game” cover 169,000 pages and more than ten new ones are added every day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
In 2011, the US Congress passed a total of 81 new “laws” while government agencies issued 3,807 new regulations."
===========================
1/18/13, UK Met Office says no warming since 1998:
1/18/13, “Climate change: scientists puzzle over halt in global warming,” Der Spiegel, by Axel Bojanowski (translation from German). Chart by UK Met Office, via Der Spiegel
.Der Spiegel (chart above, UK Met Office)
===============================
Latest global CO2 emissions:
6/10/13, "US Carbon Dioxide Emissions Fall as Global Emissions Rise," Cato.org, Paul C. 'Chip' Knappenberger
"Notice that the U.S. is far and away the leader in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, while China primarily is responsible for pushing global CO2 emissions higher. In fact, CO2 emissions growth in China more than offsets all the CO2 savings that we have achieved in the U.S."
Chart from IEA report, p. 2 ================================
The Washington Post denies decades of US climate "action:"
Global Warming ‘action’ was mandated and institutionalized in US government in 1990 by George Bush the 1st in the “U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990.” CO2 reduction is mentioned near the end in Sec. 204, item 4.
Devoting 13 federal agencies to ‘climate’ matters is hardly lagging in “action.”
Trillions have been taken from US taxpayers for climate endeavors via agency budget allocations, tax subsidies, diversion of US military to climate or green projects, countless federal regulations, vast sums shipped out in no strings foreign aid for ‘climate’ capacity building, etc.
Other countries’ CO2 hasn’t dropped despite hundreds of billions spent on cap and trade and extra taxes. This isn’t to say the US government hasn’t become business partners with the ‘climate’ industry.
===========================
US 2012 weather extremes due to natural causes, not global warming per NOAA:
:
4/12/13, "Study Reveals Global Warming Not To Blame For Last Year’s Crippling Drought," stlouis.cbslocal.com with AP
.
"A new federal study reveals that global warming is not to blame for last year’s extreme drought that crippled the central Great Plains. The study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Drought Task Force places the blame on natural variations."...
============================
News of US CO2 plunge has been described as:
- “Surprising,“
- “little noticed,“
- “dramatic,“
- “stunner,“
- “most people are surprised to learn,“
- “quiet but tremendous progress,”
- “major long term implications,”
- “game changing,”
- “shocker,”
- “huge contrast to the forecast.”
======================
2/21/13, “IPCC Head Pachauri Acknowledges Global Warming Standstill,” The Australian, Graham Lloyd
======================
11/29/12, 134 scientists write to UN Sec. Gen., ask him to desist from blaming climate disasters on global warming that hasn't happened: "Global warming that has not occurred cannot have caused the extreme weather of the past few years."
========================
6/11/13, "What to make of a warming plateau," NY Times, Justin Gillis
========================
A May 2013 CBO report commissioned by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) states US on its own has little effect on global climate:
p. 14: "Acting on its own, the United States could have only a modest effect on the amount of warming."
May 2013 CBO report,"Effects of a Carbon Tax on the Economy and the Environment"
================================
The May 2013 Waxman commissioned report also says further US CO2 reductions will be meaningless, that global emissions won't improve without significant reductions from countries like China and India (page 14, left column), and that any further US CO2 reductions:
p. 14, "would be offset by increases in emissions overseas—."...
=====================
5/31/13, "Science in the Service of Ideology: The National Climate Assessment," Norman Rogers, American Thinker
"(Incidentally, the phrase "extreme weather" did not begin to appear frequently in New York Times articles until around 2010, when it was starting to become clear that global warming had really stopped, at which point the global warming story was changed to the extreme weather story.)"...
=============================
Obama re-election made GOP House Speaker Boehner king: NPR
12/8/12, "Once Boxed-In, Boehner May Finally Be Master Of The House," NPR, Frank James
"In a paradoxical way, Obama's re-election victory coupled with congressional Democrats adding to their numbers may have helped Boehner. Some of those wins came at the expense of the Tea Party."...
.
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