Mitt Romney, Prisoner of the Tea Party
Just about any electoral map will tell you that Iowa is a swing state, and that Mitt Romney needs to win it if he hopes to capture the Presidency. Just about any political observer in Iowa will tell you that the wind energy tax credit, enacted as part of President Obama's stimulus package (but with previous antecedents), is very popular in the state; it is strongly supported by Iowa's Republican Governor, Iowa's Republican Senator, and GOP officials throughout the Haw...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Groundwater Crisis: Time to Adjudicate
As Rick pointed out last week, the University of Texas has found that California's groundwater resources are "being depleted at an alarming rate" and the state's use of them is completely unsustainable. The Texas study follows up on Rhead Enion's study last year issued by the Emmett Center, which pointed out that California is one of only two states that has no form of statewide groundwater management system at all. Oh, the state promised one -- back in 1913, when it...
CONTINUE READINGElectricity Prices and “Green Economy” Regulation
What is the relationship between pursuing an aggressive renewable portfolio standard and residential electricity prices? Here is what the San Francisco Chronicle (not a Romney newspaper) has to say: Going green: San Francisco's plan to "go green" will likely cost the typical city consumer about $9 more a month - with most of the money going to Shell Energy, which will be providing the renewable energy. Under the plan approved by City Hall, 50,000 to 90,000 househol...
CONTINUE READINGYou May Have Forgotten About Climate Change, But Climate Change Hasn’t Forgotten About You
People get bored. Climate change is old news, but there are lots of things with more immediate interest: the economy, the presidential race, the Summer Olympics, the latest celebrity scandal. But Nature never gets bored. Nature just keeps working away. Greenhouse gases are still in the atmosphere and increasing all the time, and so is climate change -- whether or not we're paying attention. And in fact, as the graph above shows, climate change is already resulting ...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornians and the Environment: PPIC’s New Survey Results
The Public Policy Institute of California this week released the results of its 12th annual "Californians and the Environment" survey. PPIC, a non-partisan think tank, always seems to be generating thought-provoking and cutting-edge scholarship focusing on the nation-state of California. Its latest environmental survey, based on recent polling of 2500 Californians, continues that tradition. The new survey focuses on Californians' views on four distinct, environment-r...
CONTINUE READINGDestroying the Land in Order to Save It
In the middle of the worst drought in decades, the climate denying House of Ayn Rand Representatives was so intent on hacking apart Food Stamps that it couldn't even figure out how to pass a farm bill. (And the House Ag Committee version, it should be mentioned, was an abomination, maintaining egregious farm subsidies and rejecting the minor reforms in the Senate package.). Now, the House Republican Conference has realized that maybe it isn't such a good idea to go ...
CONTINUE READINGLaw School News: Sunstein Returns to Harvard
The White House announced that Cass Sunstein will be leaving OMB at the end of the month to return to Harvard Law School. Sunstein was not popular with environmentalists-- I have heard people say that he was worse than some of the OMB heads who served under Republican presidents. He also doesn't seem to have succeeded in persuading Republicans that Obama's new regulatory initiatives are justified on a cost-benefit basis. But there has been no doubt that he's had ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Did Romney Believe and When Did He Believe It?
Two days ago, I posted documentation about Romney's views about climate change. Today, I want to discuss where he's been consistent and when he has changed course. What's causing climate change? Romney has been consistent in saying that the climate is changing. In terms of the reasons, however, he's been cautious, hedging to varying degrees since the time he entered public life. But he's usually said that human activities are probably contributing to climate change...
CONTINUE READINGWe Interrupt This Blog…
...and outsource it (or offshore it or whatever) to Roy Edroso of Alicublog (h/t Dr. Black): HOW TO BECOME AN UNPERSON. Steven Hayward at Power Line, March 2011: Embedded below, if I have mastered the custom Power Line formatting, is a stunning five-minute video of Berkeley physicist Richard Muller shredding the infamous climate “hockey stick” that is making the rounds widely on the Internet.... ..in the aftermath of Climategate, Muller is “going big” you might...
CONTINUE READINGThe Dark Subcontinent
Chaos has reigned over massive swathes of India during the last few days, as much of the northern part of the country outside of major urban centers has been without power. The New York Times has excellent spot coverage, but a deeper analysis comes from John Elliott's invaluable blog, Riding the Elephant. The government has blamed individual states' demand for power, which (it claims) has led to an overload of the entire national grid. Nonsense, says Elliott: These ...
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