Thread: Nutty Professors, Nutty Carbon Tax Miracle Cure

Alan S. Blinder, The Carbon Tax Miracle Cure

Nutty Professors and Nutty New Taxes

By Alan Caruba
Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Alan S. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. All of which might explain why the nation is broke and why “intellectualsâ€

EPW Policy Beat: 16 coal-fired plants in West Virginia, 38 in Ohio, 32 in Michigan, 24 in Indiana, 21 in Pennsylvania, and 21 in Wisconsin are "at risk" of shutting down because of EPA rules

EPA hurting jobs in the Heartland

By EPW Blog
Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Link to Inhofe EPW Press Blog http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm? ... &Issue_id=

President Obama’s executive order on regulatory reform calls for an examination of existing regulations. But what about those in the pipeline? More specifically, what about the mass of EPA rules hovering over coal-fired power plants throughout the Midwest? What about their affect on people’s jobs and livelihoods? On this, the President says nothing.

Such inattention will be costly-and this is not mere opinion but now conventional wisdom. Whether it’s Credit Suisse, FBR Capital Markets, the Brattle Group, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or ICF Consulting-all conclude that EPA’s proposed and soon-to-be proposed regulations could force 30 to 75 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity to shut down, starting in 2013.

Put another way, that’s the potential elimination of more than 20 percent of America’s coal fleet, along with thousands of jobs throughout the middle of the country. And this is not counting potential EPA rules to reduce carbon emissions.

Consider where the pain will hurt most: West Virginia (“the top coal producing state east of the Mississippi River,â€

Internet 'Creator' Gore's website crashed by Drudge -- Gore now claims 'increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with... man-made global warming' Visit Site

But Gore never warned of looming 'heavy snowfalls' in his 2006 film -- The man who 'created' the Internet finds his website (and his science) not up to the task -- Climate Depot's Rebuttal

Tuesday, February 01, 2011
By Marc Morano – Climate Depot

Former Vice President Al Gore's website was crashed by Matt Drudge's website on Tuesday afternoon. Gore's site was down from approximately 4:30 PM ET until about 6PM ET.

The DrudgeReport.com linked to Gore's claim that "heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they (scientists) have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming" at exactly 4:29pm ET.

Gore's website crashed almost immediately following Drudge's link. The irony for Gore is that he has touted his role of “creating the Internet.â€

The strong decline of the Arctic winter sea-ice extent, as touted by the NSIDC, is largely a consequence of their unrealistic definition of the Arctic

Sea-Ice in the Arctic

By Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser
Tuesday, February 1, 2011

There are two major organizations measuring, via satellite reconnaissance, the extent of the sea-ice in the Arctic, namely the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) (1) and the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) (2). Their measurements differ routinely by nearly 1,000,000 km^2 ( or about 10%). Why are they so different?

Raison d’être

Some allege that the earth’s atmosphere is heating up (3). To verify this theory of global warming, the extent of the Arctic sea-ice has been measured for a decade or longer, on a daily basis. Of course, one would think, using similar technologies and identical definitions of sea-ice coverage (a minimum of 15% coverage) by the two agencies, their measurements should be about the same, but they are not. So, why are they so different?

It’s in the Definition

It’s all in the definition of "Arctic." The NSIDC definition is essentially "the northern hemisphere," while the IARC definition is much more restrictive. Therefore, for example, the NSIDC includes in its definition of the Arctic such areas as the Bay of Fundy and the St. Lawrence River estuary, areas that are as far south as latitude 43 N, and other areas well south of the Polar Circle along the North American and Asian continents.

Some former colleagues from the province of New Brunswick, Canada were highly amused by that definition. They did not think that they were from the Arctic. Nor, I am sure, do the citizens of Ottawa, Ontario, or Quebec City, Quebec, consider themselves as living in the Arctic. It may be quite cold there in winter, just like in areas of the southern plains, but that does not mean that they are part of the Arctic. The occasional frost in Florida’s citrus groves does not make them part of the Arctic either.

Trends in ice extent

The NSIDC also produces graphs showing the Average Monthly Arctic Sea-Ice Extent. For the month of December, from 1978 to 2010, this graph shows an average decline of 3.5% per decade over that time. The relatively low sea-ice extent for December 2009 and 2010 is ascribed to a strong negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation.

A more practical explanation, however, is the La Nina effect. It generally produces very cold areas over the western Arctic and warmer areas over the eastern Arctic. In fact, some of the eastern parts, including James Bay and the eastern part of Hudson Bay, as well as the areas along the shores of Labrador have become frozen over only quite recently this winter. In contrast, the western part around Alaska has been in a deep freeze for most of the season now. But that still does not explain the apparent decline of the sea-ice, or does it?

The Arctic Ocean does not extend evenly around the North Pole. In the west, it has only a relatively small outlet across the Bering Strait while in the east it is wide open to the Atlantic. That means that within the Arctic Circle region, the eastern boundary of the Arctic sea-ice is much more subject to annual variations resulting from wind and currents than the western one. This is also evident from the sea-ice extent for the summer months, then entirely within the Arctic circle area, where the NSIDC-observed decline over the same period is approximately one half of that found in winter. Moreover, shipping and icebreaking activities are external influences which are more prevalent in the eastern Arctic as well.

Effect of Definition

Commonly, the Arctic is defined as the area north of the northern Polar Circle, that is latitude 66.6 N [4]. When defining the Arctic in that way, the sea-ice extent varies much less from year to year for the NSIDC data, or between the two agencies’ measurements. Therefore, the strong decline of the Arctic winter sea-ice extent, as touted by the NSIDC [5], is largely a consequence of their unrealistic definition of the Arctic.

[1] NSIDC;
[2] IARC-JAXA Information System;
[3] National Geographic;
[4] Free Online Dictionary;
[5] NSIDC; accessed Jan. 26, 2011.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/32829

Many many links on this post; go to the link above to view them

They still need to pass crap and traitor...but now it will be called a different name...they are slowly laying the ground work to bring it up again...


[quote]Only morons want to turn America’s corn into “biofuels.â€