US government’s climate con-job
Suppose a company doctored data, misrepresented study findings, replaced observations with computer simulations, and hired PR flacks to promote its new “wonder drug.”
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Back to the “good old days”
The Wright brothers had just made history. Coal and wood heated homes. Few had telephones or electricity. Ice blocks cooled ice boxes. New York City’s vehicle emissions were 900,000 tons of horse manure annually. Life expectancy was 47.
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President Obama’s red sea
America is diving into a Marianas Trench of red ink. There is barely a digit of black anywhere on the balance sheet, and spendthrift lawmakers are closing off numerous sources of positive revenue.
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Eco-colonialism degrades Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of Earth’s most impoverished regions. Over 90% of its people still lack electricity, running water, proper sanitation and decent housing. Malaria, malnutrition, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and intestinal diseases kill millions every year. Life expectancy is appalling, and falling.
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Following Europe ’s lead on climate change
Global warming science is settled, we’re told. The United States is out of step with other nations, and must follow Europe ’s lead to prevent climate chaos. That could prove difficult.
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The social responsibility of coal
Energy shortages and price hikes could cost millions of jobs in the automotive, airline, tourism, food and beverage, textiles, paper making, plastics, chemicals, metals and manufacturing industries – especially if Congress also enacts cap-and-trade rules. Most will never be replaced by “green collar” jobs that some claim will be created by intermittent, unreliable wind and solar energy.
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Stop the war on poor families
Anti-drilling policies don’t merely cause unemployment, and cost the United States trillions of dollars in lost lease bonus, royalty and tax revenues. They also wage an immoral war on poor families. They destroy jobs, erode civil rights gains, and force minority and elderly households to choose between food, fuel, rent and medicine.
And yet, we are sending up to $700 billion a year to foreign countries – in the midst of our worst economic crisis in memory – while some politicians and activists are saying the greatest threat facing minority families is climate change.
More responsible energy policies are clearly needed. In this informative and provocative article, Congress of Racial Equality national spokesman Niger Innis explains what is needed and why.
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Nuclear power reality check
Nuclear plants generate electricity over 90% of the time, every year. They provide one-fifth of the electricity America relies on to make jobs, health, living standards and civil rights possible. And yet myths abound regarding the safety of this vital energy resource, and the viability of supposed alternatives.
This article explores these important issues in depth, from the perspective of a civil rights veteran who has been at the helm of the Congress of Racial Equality for many decades and is intimately familiar with the nation’s energy situation.
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Energy fraud!
We can “visualize a planet without cars” – as some urge us to do. It would mean taking hours or days to get anywhere, on foot, bicycle or bus, living with Calcutta-like urban congestion, maybe even going back to 1900 New York City and streets clogged with horses and horse manure, urine and carcasses.
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Green-collar jobs – or con jobs?
An even bigger problem with the green-collar vision is its ultimate goal: ending our “addiction” to fossil fuels and mandating “sustainable,” hydrocarbon-free lifestyles. This agenda is promoted by Senator Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, civic groups and companies that want the United States to run only on conservation, efficiency and “clean energy,” through government control of energy and economic decisions.
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Killing Malarial Mosquitoes Now!
Not long ago, most Americans thought malaria had disappeared from Planet Earth. Few remembered that it had killed thousands every year in the United States, into the 1940s – or that it was once prevalent in New Jersey, Ohio, California and the South, as well as in Europe and even Siberia.
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Following Europe’s lead on climate change
Global warming science is settled, we’re told. The United States is out of step with other nations, and must follow Europe’s lead to prevent climate chaos. That could prove difficult.
There is no “consensus” on the “problem” or “solution.” Over 31,000 scientists, including hundreds of climate scientists, vigorously disagree with the assertion that human carbon dioxide emissions will cause a climate cataclysm. Many express concern that climate legislation would cost jobs and punish families and businesses, to reduce global temperatures by perhaps 0.1 degree.
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Blowing hot air on wind power
T. Boone Pickens is being lionized for his efforts to legislate a transformation to “eco-friendly” wind energy. In reality, his policy prescriptions would create new energy, economic, legal and environmental problems, and carry a price tag of over $1.2 trillion. He would billions, while taxpayers and right-fo-way owners would get stuck with the risks.
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Drill here. Drill now. Drill ANWR.
“We can’t drill our way out of our energy problem.” This daily mantra underscores an abysmal grasp of economics by the politicians, activists, bureaucrats and judges who are dictating US policies. If only their hot air could be converted into usable energy.
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America's Native Criminal Class
There is no distinctly native American criminal class, Mark Twain observed – except Congress.
A century later, government power and intrusiveness have increased exponentially – and special interests have adapted by employing lobbyists who can navigate Washington, explain technology to tech-challenged members and staffs, persuade legislators that provisions are vital (or disastrous), and give clients “a seat at the table” where subsidies, mandates, taxes, preferences and penalties are meted out.
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Jim Crow Energy Policies
The US civil rights revolution of the 1950s and ‘60s was one of the greatest social and political liberations in history. It gave African Americans and other minorities new opportunities and new levels of success in virtually every walk of life.
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Global warming tax hikes heading your way
America is in the throes of a major housing and financial downturn, soaring food and energy costs, rising unemployment and near recession. But legislators, bureaucrats and presidential candidates are falling all over themselves to restrict fossil fuel use, advance climate change legislation – and thereby increase energy prices, oil imports, and costs for families and businesses.
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Beyond Food and Fuel: The Role of 21st Century Agriculture
Keynote Address
by Hugh Grant, Monsanto Company
at the Opening Session of The World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium
Des Moines, Iowa, October 18, 2007
Over the next two days this august group – the World Food Prize group – will have a rare opportunity to look at the challenges of meeting the ever-growing demands of food and fuel.
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Poisoning the Economy
Schizophrenic legislators are enacting “stimulus” bills, at the same time that they are doing everything possible to DE-stimulate the economy … with counter-productive energy, land use, climate change and environmental policies. America needs to foster sensible energy development, and prevent passage of more bills that would cost jobs, reduce economic opportunities and roll back civil rights progress.
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Live Earth – Dead Africans
The much-hyped Live Earth concerts ignored a critical fact. If they cause more people to demand that Africa and other poor regions not develop the energy they so desperately need, the false global warming “solutions” could be disastrous for the world’s most impoverished citizens. These people desperately need electricity, lights and refrigeration. But hysteria about manmade climate cataclysms is delaying their access to these vital technologies – and millions are dying every year as a result.
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The Truth about Alternative Energy
85% of America ’s total energy comes from fossil fuels. Over half of its electricity comes from coal. Gas and nuclear generate 36% of its electricity. Barely 1% comes from wind and solar. Because millions of acres must be covered with towering wind turbines to generate enough electricity for a large city, on a scale sufficient to meet the electricity needs of a modern society, wind power is just not sustainable. We need a healthy dose of reality before we let Congress pass any more “energy” bills.
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May You Freeze in the Dark
Reopening gold mines in Romania , under modern Western standards, would create thousands of jobs in Rosia Montana and surrounding areas, and clean up the horrific environmental legacy left by decades of mining under the Communists. But radical activists oppose the project. In December they sent some of Romania ’s poorest citizens typically rude Season’s Greetings: May you freeze in the dark.
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Enemies of the Poor
Many poor countries and communities are blessed with natural resources that could reduce poverty and change their destiny, if mining operations were permitted to generate investment, jobs, revenues and infrastructure development. The industry could also create a foundation for sustained and sustainable economic prosperity over decades, and even centuries. But well-organized pressure groups are doing everything they can to stop even the most modern, responsible, environmentally careful mining operations, leaving entire communities with little hope for the future.
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Humpty Dumpty Policies
Agenda-driven notions of “environmental justice” are often used to promote policies that prevent economic growth, increase unemployment, and perpetuate poverty, misery and premature death in poor countries. It’s time to reexamine laws and public policies that are based on perverse, distorted claims of justice – and ensure that policies are set by people who have to live with their consequences … not by activists who merely impose policies on others
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