Cap and Trade Tentacles

Cap and trade has always seemed like a stupid idea for limiting greenhouse gases, but reading this post by Stateofdisbelief left me with my mouth hanging open.

Cap and Trade: the answer to global warming or another Wall Street payday?

In any event, [on Thom Hartmann's radio show] Pete [DeFazio] was discussing his recent “no” vote on the Obama Climate “cap and trade” bill. First, I was shocked to hear that such a strong liberal had voted against the bill. The meme throughout the MSM and the blogosphere was that only republicans were balking, so that definitely caught my attention; … but when Pete mentioned that he, along with Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Pete Stark (D-CA) voted against the bill because it was nothing more than a boon for Wall Street traders, I knew further investigation was needed if I were to make a well-reasoned decision about this issue.

[...]

As you can see, in addition to the complete giveaway to Wall Street traders, Pete DeFazio noted his opposition to the fact that this bill ended the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions – something it has had the ability to do since being awarded the authority by the Supreme Court.

 

Bill Maher: “Hoping for a little more audacity.”

Yep, I’m posting Bill Maher again.    Maher is still giving Obama more credit than he deserves for his “good ideas,” but it looks like he is starting to wake up, or at least, isn’t making excuses for Obama any more.

 

Let the fear-mongering begin

Honestly, this is all they have. Obama is callng for higher fuel economy standards, something we’ve all been hopping up and down for for years, and the other side is not going to go down without a fight.

The move is also an example of the clout environmentalists have with the Obama administration and comes as automakers’ dire financial straits are forcing safety to a back burner. It raises the risk that cash-strapped automakers will take the fastest and cheapest route to building more fuel-efficient vehicles: Make them smaller and lighter. Further, as General Motors and Chrysler rely on federal bailout money for survival, they are ill-positioned — and disinclined — to fight proposals that some say may not be just dangerously costly, but simply dangerous.

Love that “some say.” It’s always a dead give-away. Jeebus on a triscuit.

 

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades

Sunglasses makes anyone cool, right?

Bwahahahahaha!  No, really!

Yeah, the sunglasses make me forget all about the Tennessee sludge spill.

Let’s see who else sunglasses makes “cool.”

 

Coal ash and radiation

Just like last month’s unemployment numbers, the scope of this disaster has been revised upwards.

The Tennesse coal ash spill is more than three times the original figure.  And the term “ash” is a bit deceptive to those of us not familiar with coal plants.  It ain’t Mount St. Helens kind of ash.

Officials at the authority initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, gave way on Monday. But on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.

[...]

Residents said they were stunned by the new figure for the size of the spill.

“That’s scary to know that they can be off by that much,” said Angela Spurgeon, whose dock and yard are swamped with ash. “I don’t think it was intentional, but it upsets me to know that a number was given of what the pond could hold, and the number now is more than double.”

Authority officials offered little explanation for the discrepancy, saying the initial number was an estimate based on their information at the time.

Ms. Spurgeon said the scope of the disaster was difficult to fathom, even from photos.

“This is not a thin coating of ash,” she said. “These are boulders. There’s one in our cove that’s probably the size of our home.”

Aside from the current devastation, environmental concerns are on everyone’s mind. The TVA is trying to reassure everyone that currently there isn’t a problem, but the residents aren’t too sure.

“You’re not going to be endangered by touching the ash material,” said Barbara Martocci, a spokeswoman for the T.V.A. “You’d have to eat it. You have to get it in your body.”

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation also released a statement saying there was no indication of risk unless the ash was ingested.

But residents like Deanna Copeland were thinking further into the future.

“Our concern is, what happens if this liquid dries out?” Ms. Copeland said. “There are huge health concerns. It’s going to get in our house. We’re going to breathe it in. It would be like walking through a dust bowl, and we don’t know what’s in the dust.”

I saw a special on the Dust Bowl of the ’30s and it was devastating to the health of the people who lived there. And that was just “dirt.”  This stuff is full of poison.

I’ve never been a fan of coal for energy anyway, and I’ve always thought that “clean coal” was more of an oxymoron than the panacea that many have made it out to be. Obama might want to rethink this part his energy policy.

Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology. 

. . . An Obama administration will provide incentives to accelerate private sector investment in commercial scale zero‐carbon coal facilities. In order to maximize the speed with which we advance this critical technology, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will instruct DOE to enter into public private partnerships to develop 5 “first‐of‐a‐kind” commercial scale coal‐fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration.

 We might be able to do something with the emissions, but what do you do with the waste from coal production?  Looks like Scientific American is asking the same question.

And it turns out that coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste! 

. . . the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, fly ash—a by-product from burning coal for power—contains up to 100 times more radiation than nuclear waste.

At issue is coal’s content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or “whole,” coal that they aren’t a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.

Fly ash uranium sometimes leaches into the soil and water surrounding a coal plant, affecting cropland and, in turn, food. People living within a “stack shadow”—the area within a half- to one-mile (0.8- to 1.6-kilometer) radius of a coal plant’s smokestacks—might then ingest small amounts of radiation. Fly ash is also disposed of in landfills and abandoned mines and quarries, posing a potential risk to people living around those areas.

Alrighty then!

 

Java Energy!

Ver-ry cool.

I, for one, am ready, willing, and able to stand up and do my part.

Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks.

[...]

The scientists estimated, however, that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world’s fuel supply.

To verify it, the scientists collected spent coffee grounds from a multinational coffeehouse chain and separated the oil. They then used an inexpensive process to convert 100 percent of the oil into biodiesel.

The resulting coffee-based fuel — which actually smells like java — had a major advantage in being more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee’s high antioxidant content, the researchers say. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost, the report notes. The scientists estimate that the process could make a profit of more than $8 million a year in the U.S. alone.

Okay, I’m going to need a much bigger container than a milk carton to start collecting my grounds. I’m wondering if this can be done on a small scale, as well?

H/T to ohio at corrente

 

Paris 2008?

From lambert at CorrrenteWire: Paris Hilton answers the McCain ad.. No really! It’s good and worth the click!

 

Reverend Amy rawks

Beating me to the punch by a couple of days, and with greater aplomb, Reverend Amy riffs on the same topic of my post Leadership vs Showmanship.

So, to recap: Obama is off on his European vacation on TAXPAYER’S dime, pretending to be JFK but missing the mark by a universe, and Clinton is in the Senate fighting for US.

Once again, Automatic Super Duper Delegates: PICK THE PERSON WHO IS FIGHTING FOR US, who has the intelligence, the passion, the COMMITMENT, to restoring this country to economic health, and to take us to energy independence. HILLARY CLINTON is the only one who will do that. Grow a spine, stop worrying about getting more money for your pet projects, and DO THE RIGHT THING already. Have some integrity. Have some GUTS. Do not foist yet another Pretender on us. Seriously.

Just a snippet, dear readers. Click on through and read the whole masterful post.

 

Leadership vs Showmanship

Go. Read. Senator Hillary Clinton’s floor remarks in support of The Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act. You know, the bill that even the airline CEOs were begging for… Read the whole speech. Again she addresses not only the short term, but looks forward to what we need to do to create a decent energy future. Can we please get Hillary back?

And where was Obama? MIA, as usual.  Maybe I’m being unreasonable. How else is Barack Obama going to get any kind of foreign policy street cred before November?  Silly me, the Obama World Tour™ most certainly takes precedence over doing the work of the American people when you are The One.  Flying all over Europe and the Mideast and pretending to be POTUS is so much more important than doing the job you are still being paid to do.

Seriously, my Obama supporting friends, how the hell do you justify this? Doesn’t this exercise in arrogance and presumption give you at least a moment of pause?

Oh, and before anyone comes here and calls me a bigot again, please watch this entire video (H/T to Julie at Former Obama Supporters)

 

My head just exploded

This is a copy of an email I just received from United Airlines. (My emphasis in bold)

An Open letter to All Airline Customers:

Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now.

For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers. Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.

We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

Robert Fornaro
Chairman, President and CEO
AirTran Airways

Bill Ayer
Chairman, President and CEO
Alaska Airlines, Inc.

Gerard J. Arpey
Chairman, President and CEO
American Airlines, Inc.

Lawrence W. Kellner
Chairman and CEO
Continental Airlines, Inc.

Richard Anderson
CEO
Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Mark B. Dunkerley
President and CEO
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.

Dave Barger
CEO
JetBlue Airways Corporation

Timothy E. Hoeksema
Chairman, President and CEO
Midwest Airlines

Douglas M. Steenland
President and CEO
Northwest Airlines, Inc.

Gary Kelly
Chairman and CEO
Southwest Airlines Co.

Glenn F. Tilton
Chairman, President and CEO
United Airlines, Inc.

Douglas Parker
Chairman and CEO
US Airways Group, Inc.

So, let’s get this straight, and please, tell me if I’m reading this wrong: An industry that has been one of the the biggest contributors to the “let’s deregulate everything” Republican Party, the same industry that fought tooth and nail against putting reinforced doors on their cockpits because it would cost too much, an industry that has screwed its employees right and left, is now calling for a return to regulation ala Franklin D. Roosevelt?

Huh. Maybe we liberals had the right idea after all. Unregulated greed is not good for the community. It may benefit a few in the short term, but if the few want to continue to prosper, a little regulation just may be the ticket. No pun intended.