Global warming

r"The Global Warming Consensus Has Been Shattered
John CarneyOct. 22, 2009, 3:26 PM 3,432 41
PrintTags: Regulation, Global Warming, Carbon, Cap And Trade
Just a few years ago, Americans reached a consensus that the earth had warmed over the past few decades. These days, however, far fewer Americans believe in global"

Beware of extreme saving claims

Canada's biggest alternative-power generator, Canadian Hydro Developers, generates 496 megawatts of wind and hydropower... theoretically. If its claims were true, it could power almost 400 average U.S. homes for a year.

In fact, this $720 million company's power supply is terribly inefficient. In the first quarter, the company only operated about 27% of the time from January to March. That means its true generating capacity was just 133 megawatts.

When we break down Canadian Hydro Developers' sales, we see that it earns about $82 per megawatt hour (which is one megawatt of energy supplied for one hour). That works out to about $720,000 per megawatt of capacity (hours per year multiplied by $82 per megawatt hour).

The company claims it will install another 185 megawatts of power this year. However, by its own estimates, those power plants will only produce about the equivalent of 66 megawatts of power. In other words, those new plants' planned efficiency is 37%... and will probably be much lower.

That puts the company's total paid power generation for this year at just under 200 megawatts. The company spends, on average, $8.5 million to build one paid megawatt of wind power and $4.8 million to build one paid megawatt of hydropower.

At $720,000 per megawatt of paid power generation, new hydropower plants will take almost seven years to pay for themselves. New wind plants will take almost 12 years to pay for themselves.

As you can see, the company must spend far more money than it will recoup in the near term. Canadian Hydro Developers' long-term debt soared 275% in three years... from $224 million in 2005 to $839 million today. That's about 10 times its estimated earnings for 2010, which is too high for my taste.

GM Volt

Despite GM's struggles to bring the Volt to market, there's no doubt that technology is changing the automotive industry forever and that mpg will soon be a wholly inadequate metric on which to judge the efficiency of a car. You can expect GM's inflated claims to be reduced when the Volt finally hits showroom floors in a few years. But you can also expect shockwaves to run through the industry and the economy as virtually every component of the car, shy of the seats, is rethought over the next decade. Fortunes will be made and lost in a way that has not been seen in the automotive industry in half a century or more

Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites

Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites: "There is no problem with global warming, Plimer says repeatedly. He points out that for humans periods of global warming have been times of abundance when civilization made leaps forward. Ice ages, in contrast, have been times when human development slowed or even declined.
So global warming, says Plimer, is something humans should welcome and embrace as a harbinger of good times to come."

More voices of reason combat the new golbal warming fanaticism How warm has your summer been? SHT

Canada has a great energy future

Canadian Oil Sands: More Oil Than Saudi Arabia?

Canada's oil sands hold an estimated 170 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered with existing technology and as much as 1.7 trillion barrels -- more than five times the size of Saudi Arabia's reserves -- that could be produced with the use of new methods that are being developed.

As the only non-OPEC source with the capability for large production growth during the next several years, oil sands have the potential to reduce the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' revenues, weakening the cartel and those members that often undertake policies hostile to U.S. interests.

By getting more of their oil from Canada, refineries in the Midwest are moving from being at the back of the crude oil supply line to the front. With these secure supplies, Midwest refineries are not as vulnerable to supply disruptions from overseas producers or hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

So who would object to Canadian oil sands?

Eenvironmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club are trying to shut down Canadian oil sands production and block the expansion of refineries here in the U.S.

If the environmental groups truly cared about achieving results in their battle against global warming, they would better focus their energy on the construction of scores of power plants in rapidly developing economies like China and India that account for most of the increase in the world's carbon emissions. These developments pose the real global environmental danger, not the Canadian oil sands.

~From my editorial in today's Detroit News
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/06/canadian-oil-sands-more-oil-than-saudi.html

Should Government be in the green business?

Suzuki unwelcome in our homes
Posted By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN
Posted 2 hours ago


So far, not many people have seen Canadian environmentalist Tom Adams' clever YouTube videoHome Invasion David Suzuki Style.I'm hoping that together, we're going to change that.

An independent energy and environmental consultant, Adams was for 11 years, until 2007, the highly-respected executive director of Energy Probe, a sister organization of Pollution Probe.

Adams believes so-called "green" energy decisions by governments are best made by paying attention to such old-fashioned ideas as democracy, due process and paying for the real costs of electricity.

This as opposed to turning the energy market into a giant casino where governments arbitrarily decide winners and losers among energy producers and consumers by cabinet decree, after consulting with favoured environmental groups who then gush support for the government's "green" initiatives.

All this while treating taxpayers like mushrooms -- covering them with manure and keeping them in the dark.

Which pretty much describes the approach of the Ontario government under Premier Dalton McGuinty, sadly illustrative of governments in general.

If you go to youtube.comand type inHome

Invasion, David Suzuki Stylein the search engine, up will pop the mild-mannered Adams, warning about the potential abuse of state power when it comes to all things "green."

For months, Ontarians have been subjected to patronizing, tiresome television commercials -- paid for with their taxes -- featuring Suzuki lecturing clueless citizens (apparently the government's view) on conservation.

Suzuki has been shown doing everything from conspiring with children in a tree house on how to correct the energy-wasting habits of their parents, to showing up in the basement of some guy with the mental acuity of Homer Simpson, delighted to learn how much more beer he can buy with the energy savings from getting rid of his old beer fridge.

Adams zeroes in one ad called Habitat -- see it at powerwise.ca/features/videos-- in which Suzuki sneaks into someone's home and caulks the windows -- dripping the stuff on the floor -- while describing the sleeping homeowner as an energy-wasting species known as the "draft dodger." Awakened by Suzuki, the groggy homeowner emerges from his bedroom and the two stare vacantly at each other, before Suzuki takes off, stopping briefly on the guy's lawn to deliver more advice.

Adams points out the problem with this ad -- apparently the government's idea of humour -- is that the joke is on us.

That's because in the original version of McGuinty's Green Energy Act -- applauded by the Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups as "world class" -- Suzuki, or anyone designated by a government bureaucrat, could, in fact, under the "Inspection, Enforcement and Penalties" section of the law, conduct surprise search and seizure raids on anyone's home or business.

This to check out activities deemed suspicious by the government related to energy or water use.

In the case of a house raid, the government, uh, generously stipulated a search warrant would have to be obtained, presumably before grilling homeowners at midnight about their electricity and water bills.

Adams says the Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups didn't raise a peep of protest about these draconian, privacy-violating measures, while praising the act.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the foundation told me it didn't focus on this aspect of the law because it knew early on McGuinty wasn't going to go through with these "Big Brother" provisions.

OK. Two questions for McGuinty.

What efforts did his government make to inform ordinary citizens it was planning these draconian measures and how many knew as fast as the Suzuki Foundation it was dropping them?

Adams concludes the good news is McGuinty was ultimately embarrassed into dropping the search and seizure provisions, but the bad news is what he left in the law is worse,

How bad? Type "Green Energy Act Paradox" into youtube's search engine. He'll tell you.Article ID# 1628502 http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1628502

Interesting food for thought particularly after the e-health fiasoe SHT

FCPP Publications :: Cheer Up, Canada's Environmental Record is Improving

FCPP Publications :: Cheer Up, Canada's Environmental Record is Improving: "In light of these trends, Earth Day should not be an occasion for hand-wringing and lamentation. It should instead be viewed as an opportunity to celebrate the tremendous progress we have made towards greater environmental sustainability. There is always room for further improvement, and we should strive toward smart, environmentally-sustainable growth 365 days a year. This week, however, we should also reflect on what has already been achieved. So congratulations to all of us and, of course, Happy Earth Day!"

This is is a good review of the major improvements that have been made in Canada on the environment-
sht

Ethnol is it artificial bust and wishful thinking

Burn our food as gasoline. Brilliant. Farmers love it of course, because, like 99% of Americans, they love government handouts. But growing corn consumes a lot of diesel fuel. Transporting corn consumes a lot of diesel fuel. And turning corn into fuel consumes a lot of electricity... which is produced by burning coal and natural gas. Which makes ethanol a huge money loser without government support. Washington's ethanol plan is taking its only natural course: Bankruptcy. As this excellent WSJ opinion piece outlines, most ethanol players have gone belly up. So guess what is on the way from our "bigger government is better" president? You guessed it: More money and more support. Read full article...

Wishfull thinking can be dangerous . Wall street That's pretty much the story of ethanol. Consumers were asked to suspend disbelief as policy makers blurred the lines between economic reality and a business model built on fantasies of a better environment and energy independence through ethanol. Notwithstanding federal subsidies and mandates that force-feed the biofuel to the driving public, ethanol is proving to be a bust. - the market economy rules not wishful thinking Sht