Written by Christopher Booker, Telegraph | 30 August 2010

It is now six months since I reported on what even environmentalists are calling "the biggest environmental scandal in history". Indeed this is a scam so glaringly bizarre that even the UN and the EU have belatedly announced that they are thinking of taking steps to stop it. The essence of the scam is that a handful of Chinese and Indian firms are deliberately producing large quantities of an incredibly powerful "greenhouse gas" which we in the West – including UK taxpayers – then pay them billions of dollars to destroy.

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Written by PHUONG LE, Forbes | 25 August 2010

A Washington refinery

Ed. note: If it isn't clear, to defend these baseless suits will be paid for by, yep, taxpayers. You can thank the Sierra Club.

Two environmental groups said Tuesday they intend to sue the Washington Department of Ecology and two clean air agencies for not limiting global warming pollution from oil refineries.

The Washington Environmental Council and the Cascade chapter of the Sierra Club said the agencies have violated the federal Clean Air Act by failing to require the state's five oil refineries to install technology or take other measures to control greenhouse gases.

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Written by Fiona Macrae, Mail Online | 19 August 2010

It's not exactly rocket science – when building a wind farm, look for a site that is, well, quite windy.

But more than half of Britain’s wind farms are operating at less than 25 per cent capacity.

In England, the figure rises to 70 per cent of onshore developments, research shows.

Experts say that over-generous subsidies mean hundreds of turbines are going up on sites that are simply not breezy enough.

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Written by LIZ GOTTHELF, Journal Tribune | 19 August 2010

[H/T to Ralph] The city has authorized Jim Heath, the former CEO of Entegrity Wind Systems, to broker the sale of the Transportation Center’s wind turbine.

The windmill was installed in February 2008 at a cost of about $207,000. At the time, it was guaranteed by Entegrity Wind Systems to produce 90,000 kilowatt hours a year, or about $12,600 worth of electricity. To date, it has produced about $3,900 worth of electricity, however, and Entegrity Wind Systems went bankrupt, which ended the terms of the guarantee.

Source

Written by The Daily Bayonet | 17 August 2010

British taxpayers discovered today that they will soon be paying up to three times the current rate in green taxes for the government’s environmental policies:

Taxes to pay for contentious climate change policies are set to treble over the next decade, soaring to more than £16billion a year.  The hike is the equivalent of 4p on the current rate of income tax, a report from think tank Policy Exchange claimed.

… The policies which are driving up tax are intended to support either carbon emissions reduction or the promotion of renewable energy.

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Written by Bill Bumpas, OneNewsNow | 10 August 2010

British economist Nicholas Stern told governments they need to pony up the cash.

A well-known skeptic on global warming calls it "laughable" that a United Nations' panel would claim that $100 billion a year in new taxes are necessary to fight climate change.

British economist Nicholas Stern says a U.N. economic panel is discussing carbon taxes, add-ons to international airfares, and a levy on cross-border money transfers as ways to raise the money for a climate fund. Stern has told international climate negotiators that governments will need to create incentives for private investment in industries that emit fewer greenhouse gases.

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Written by Harry de Gorter and Jerry Taylor, MasterResource | 06 August 2010

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently issued a report on how the corn-ethanol tax credit costs $1.78 to reduce one gallon of gasoline consumption and $754 to reduce one ton of greenhouse gases. The Wall Street Journal immediately noted that “to put that [latter] number in perspective, the budget gnomes estimate that the price for a ton of carbon under the cap-and-tax program that the House passed last summer would be about $26 in 2019”.

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Written by Alan Caruba, Warning Signs | 05 August 2010

As the BP oil spill slips off the front pages, replaced by daily reports of Lindsey Lohan’s release from jail; as Chelsea Clinton’s marriage is no longer news; as the war in Afghanistan loses traction with the public; and as Barack Obama pauses to review his declining approval rates, it is time once again to ask, whatever happened to global warming?

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Written by Investor's Business Daily | 02 August 2010

While the oil and gas companies are bearing the brunt of taxation, regulation and environmental angst, others are doing just fine, thank you. If you think cap-and-trade is dead, just follow the money.

According to a recently released Center for Responsive Politics review of reports filed with the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, General Electric and its subsidiaries spent more than $9.5 million on federal lobbying from April to June — the most it's spent on lobbying since President Obama has been in office.

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Written by Henry Payne, Planet Gore | 28 July 2010

2011 Chevy Volt

After driving GM’s new, plug-in electric Chevy Volt, Late Night funnyman Jay Leno quipped that “if you didn’t know, you might think it’s a Cobalt” — a reference to GM’s pedestrian, $15-grand, entry-level small car.

Ouch. Who would buy a $41,000 Cobalt? Or even a $33,500 Cobalt (federal tax credit included).

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