Many people have the impression that there is significant scientific disagreement about global climate change. It’s time to lay that misapprehension to rest. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states unequivocally that the consensus of scientific opinion is that Earth’s climate is being affected by human activities, and most of the “observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.” Major changes are taking place in the Arctic, affecting both human and nonhuman communities, as predicted by climate models. We need to stop repeating nonsense about the uncertainty of global warming and start talking seriously about the right approach to address it. — Naomi Oreskes, the Washington Post
More than 650 scientists from around the world dispute the claims made by the United Nations and former Vice President Al Gore about global warming, saying that science does not support that climate change is a man-made phenomenon, according to a posting on the Senate environmental committee’s press blog. I’ve found that you’ve really got to pay close attention to how people talk about global warming or climate change. Most scientists agree that climate change indeed is occurring — they just differ on the reason why it is occurring. As for myself, I’m no scientist (or a Nobel Prize-winning former vice president), but I think that if you’re trying to find out why things are heating up, the sun would be a good place to start, especially since there’s plenty of scientific data showing that the Earth has been running hot and cold for thousands of years. — Carleton Bryant, GlobalClimateScam.com
If Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wants to raise some extra cash to help the state budget, maybe she should accept the challenge of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, to debate global warming. They could charge admission, and maybe even make it pay-per-view television. It could certainly be entertaining to see Tiahrt, who doesn’t think humans contribute to global warming, try to hold his own against Sebelius, who has much more experience grappling with this issue.
Meanwhile, Tiahrt, who said last month that he opposed Sebelius’ nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services because of her support for abortion rights, said during a visit to Hutchinson Tuesday that he expects Sebelius to be confirmed and that it is important to have someone in that position who has knowledge about rural health care, which Sebelius has.
Columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman noted how opponents of a cap-and-trade tax on carbon have been singing the same tune: President Obama “is going to raise your taxes and sacrifice U.S. jobs to combat this global-warming charade.” Americans for Prosperity had a commentary on Saturday’s Opinion page that made such an argument. Friedman agrees that the cap-and-trade proposal has problems — but because it is too complicated, not because it raises taxes or because global warming isn’t a serious concern.
“Americans will be willing to pay a tax for their children to be less threatened, breathe cleaner air and live in a more sustainable world with a stronger America,” Friedman wrote. “They are much less likely to support a firm in London trading offsets from an electric bill in Boston with a derivatives firm in New York in order to help fund an aluminum smelter in Beijing, which is what cap-and-trade is all about. People won’t support what they can’t explain.”
Check out Neil Young’s music video about Wichitan Jonathan Goodwin, who has been converting Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental into a electric biodiesel hybrid that he expects to get 100 miles per gallon. The song is called “Johnny Magic,” and its lyrics talk about “disappearing down Douglas” and refer to Goodwin as the “motorhead messiah.”
“Everything that we have been doing to cure the climate change problem has been wrong, because what we have been doing is depending upon politicians — like me — when, in fact, the only real answer is in science,” Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson said during a speech this week on climate change policy at the University of Kansas.
Parkinson said that scientists need to create more efficient energy grids and search for more efficient renewable-energy sources, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. But politicians can help, he said, by encouraging conservation and spurring innovation. They also can avoid making the problem worse, which is what will happen in Kansas if lawmakers force approval of two new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb.
State lawmakers are expected to vote today on another attempt to force approval of a coal-fired power plant expansion near Holcomb. The only suspense is whether proponents will have the two-thirds support needed to override a promised veto by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius or her successor, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson. But it is ironic and myopic that this same week U.S. House Democrats released a plan to fast-track legislation to cap and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Also this week, the Energy Information Administration released its Annual Energy Outlook, predicting that concerns about emissions could lead to limited additions of new coal-fired plants and that few, if any, such additions are needed to meet U.S. energy needs between 2013 and 2025.
Seeking to convince the world that the United States finally is serious about slashing Earth-threatening carbon emissions, President Barack Obama is urging Congress to fast-track his plan for a carbon cap-and-trade system. Obama’s ambitious goal would require all Americans to abandon wanton consumption and adopt a green way of life that would reduce our nation’s carbon emissions 15 percent from 2005 levels by 2012 and 80 percent by 2050. Opponents of cap-and-trade legislation dubiously argue that such a system will destroy the U.S. economy — a mind-boggling assertion when you consider the huge number of jobs it will create. The new administration is duty-bound to bring the United States into line with the rest of the world in embracing Kyoto and preparing for Copenhagen. — Wayne Madsen, Online Journal
Key congressional committees are expected to begin debating legislation that would impose mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. The proposed legislation would create a European-style market-based system that caps the maximum allowable amounts of carbon dioxide from power plants, manufacturers and vehicles. If companies emit more than their cap allows, they must buy “carbon permits” on the market from companies that have extra ones. This “cap-and-trade” system is designed to give companies an incentive to reduce emissions, but unknowing consumers would be “taxed” through higher home energy bills and the rising costs of fuel, food and consumer products. It’s time we developed a fair system by first recognizing that greenhouse gas controls must be implemented globally: No one nation can do much on its own to reduce climate change. — Mark J. Perry, finance professor at the University of Michigan at Flint
In another move toward carbon regulations that would affect the proposed coal-fired power plants near Holcomb, the Environmental Protection Agency has officially concluded that greenhouse emissions are pollutants that endanger the public’s health and welfare. In 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court instructed the EPA to decide whether greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act, but the Bush administration put off that decision. President Obama’s preference is for Congress to pass caps on greenhouse-gas emissions. But if Congress doesn’t act, the EPA could impose restrictions based on the Clean Air Act.
Americans’ preference for supersoft toilet paper comes at a high price to the environment. The fiber that gives the paper a plush feel comes from millions of trees harvested in North America and Latin America, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada, the New York Times reported. As a result, environmental groups have started trying to raise awareness about which toilet-paper brands are more environmentally friendly. Greenpeace calculates that Americans could save 400,000 trees if each family just bought one roll of toilet paper made from recycled paper.
The Environmental Protection Agency has moved closer to regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Just before it left office, the Bush administration declared that the EPA would not limit emissions, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide should be considered a pollutant. But on Wednesday new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson ordered a review of that memorandum. John Stowell, a vice president for Duke Energy, said he wasn’t surprised by the announcement and that industry officials expect the federal government to impose a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions, which would significantly increase the cost of the plants.
Meanwhile, Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy, a Topeka-based group that opposes the building of two new coal plants near Holcomb, released a survey this week showing that, by 64 to 18 percent, Kansans prefer expanding renewable energy production, such as wind power, to building coal plants.
A new “guidance document” issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment counters the false claims that Kansas isn’t open for business and that it is suffering from “regulatory uncertainty.” Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said, “For the past year we’ve seen legislators, lobbyists and even the Chamber of Commerce run a fear campaign, telling businesses they’re in jeopardy because KDHE denied one single permit.” Since January 2003, KDHE has issued more than 3,400 air-quality permits and denied only one — the Holcomb coal-fired power plant in 2007. The document makes clear that only proposed coal plants will face restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions in the state permitting process, which should reassure all other businesses and industries. The reasons for singling out these plants are because of their large amount of greenhouse gas emissions and because they typically last 30 to 50 years.
Al Gore has a Nobel, an Oscar and an Emmy. But can his “Inconvenient Truth” documentary make it in Milan? Composer Giorgio Battistelli and librettist J.D. McClatchy remain on track for their opera version of the hit documentary to open at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, in May 2011. But they’re now looking for a new stage director, having lost “Exorcist” director William Friedkin because of “irreconcilable creative differences,” according to Friedkin. Battistelli said the director wanted to emphasize special effects rather than the environmental message. “Opera isn’t Hollywood,” he said.
President Barack Obama showed a welcome new seriousness about the environment today by ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider whether to allow California and 13 other states to regulate automobile tailpipe emissions. The Bush administration rejected the request in 2007, the first waiver denial by the EPA in the then-37-year-old history of the Clean Air Act. Obama also ordered that the Transportation Department issue guidelines to ensure that the nation’s automobile and light truck fleet reaches an average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. President Bush signed a law in 2007 establishing the fuel-efficiency standard, but his administration never wrote any regulations to enforce the law. The Bush White House even refused to open e-mails from the EPA about the harmful effects of greenhouse-gas emissions, because doing so would have forced it to take action.
“Bush’s assault on science and the environment is his second-worst war,” columnist Derrick Jackson wrote, noting how President George W. Bush, in his waning weeks, has freed federal agencies from consulting with government scientists to evaluate the environmental impact of projects and eliminated the 100-foot buffer zone protecting rivers and streams from coal-mining waste. “What could possibly be left of the environment for the Bush administration to degrade on its way out the door?” Jackson asked. It wants to let developers pave forest roads in order to develop residential subdivisions.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to cut America’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 – a goal that most of the world’s scientists believe is vital to avoid catastrophic global climate change. That goal will involve sacrifice, but it is achievable. Using the “bully pulpit” of the White House, Obama will be able to move Americans to make the lifestyle changes necessary to reduce their currently oversized carbon footprint to a trimmer, energy-efficient size by midcentury. His aggressive plan to put the United States in the avant garde of global environmental leaders already has the support of key congressional leadership. Obama’s plan, which will rely on a free-market-oriented federal carbon cap and trade system, also foresees a cut in carbon emissions from U.S.-manufactured cars by 5 percent in 2015 and by 10 percent in 2020. After eight years of the Bush administration discounting the threat of a rapidly warming planet, Obama is keenly aware that far too much valuable time already has been wasted. – Wayne Madsen, Online Journal
Obama promised to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 – approximately a 16 percent cut – and then to cut them an additional 80 percent by 2050. That would mean trimming U.S. carbon emissions to roughly where they were in 1905. Think about 1905 for a minute. There were just 77,988 registered vehicles in the United States, compared with more than 250 million today. Less than 10 percent of the country had electricity, fewer than 5 percent of households had electric clothes washers, only a handful of Americans had dishwashers and no one had air conditioning. Life expectancy was only 47 years, about 30 years shorter than today – although it may have seemed a whole lot longer than that. Reducing America’s greenhouse gases to 1905 levels, even including the substantial energy efficiency gains already made and those projected for the future, would be very costly and require a wrenching transformation of our way of life. – David A. Ridenour, vice president, National Center for Public Policy Research
Sunflower Electric Power. Corp. is pulling out all the stops – and abandoning reason – in its quest to get approval of two new coal-fired power plants. It filed a federal lawsuit this week claiming that state officials violated Sunflower’s civil rights. There is a civil right to pollute the air? The lawsuit also irresponsibly charges that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson and Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby opposed the permit application to “further their individual political fortunes.” So why have coal plants been blocked in other states? Are officials in those states building their resumes, too? Were U.S. Supreme Court justices hoping for better jobs when they ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to take action on regulating carbon dioxide?
After the coal wars of the past legislative session ended with Holcomb plant opponents on top, the buzz was that the advocacy groups behind nearly $1 million in ads during that fight would insert themselves in specific election campaigns. But so far it’s quiet out there, and Harris News Service reports that most of the groups involved “say they’re not planning to spend additional dollars trying to influence the outcome of legislative races.” Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s Steve Miller did say the company planned to contribute to some supportive candidates. And in general, he said, “we are going to continue to advance the cause of getting those power plants built.”
John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin may have endeared him to hockey moms, but it’s taken the GOP ticket out of the running in the green sweepstakes, argues New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
By choosing Palin, who supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (McCain has opposed it, although he’s now reconsidering) and doesn’t believe in human-caused global warming (McCain does), McCain “has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of Big Oil.”
And Friedman notes that for all of McCain’s stump talk about boosting clean renewables, he has studiously avoided supporting eight different votes to extend crucial tax credits for wind and solar.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, was one of many Republican conventiongoers to take shots at Barack Obama’s comment that motorists could save gas by keeping their car tires properly inflated. The idea is endorsed by every energy expert in the world, but Republican leaders apparently can’t resist making jokes about it.
Tiahrt told a group at the GOP convention last week, “The price of gasoline hit $4 and we were told to inflate our tires.” But he later acknowledged that, yes, inflating tires works: “We can all conserve . . . and we can inflate our tires. That’s part of it, too.”
John McCain, too, was against tire inflation before he was for it.
Make up your minds, Republicans: Do you want Americans to keep their tires inflated or not?
The city of Wichita is setting a fine example with its addition of 12 hybrid Honda Civics to its motor pool, especially as the city fights to comply with new federal air-quality rules. Each $22,782 sedan gets about 40 miles per gallon while emitting 75 percent less pollution. As Joe Pajor, assistant director of public works, said at the rollout, “They make sense economically because they will save enough on fuel to pay the additional initial cost of each vehicle. Beyond that, they make great sense environmentally.”
At a recent western Kansas meeting to promote wind energy, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., remarked that he’s considering installing a small wind generator at his Topeka home.
“I want to do it,” he said. “But I don’t want to do it stupid.”
If Brownback wants a smart way to do home wind in Kansas, then he should support a net metering law, which allows residential wind users to sell their excess energy back to the utility and makes residential wind much more economically feasible.
Kansas is one of only six states without some kind of residential net metering for wind. And we’re supposed to be a leader in wind power?
The Bush administration is threatening the integrity of the Endangered Species Act by ending a requirement that federal agencies get independent scientific review of projects that could affect endangered animals and plants. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne defended the move, saying that the change will prevent the statute from being used as a “back door” to regulate greenhouse gases and climate change by protecting polar bears and other species. The administration also argues that individual agencies have their own expertise to evaluate the impact of dam, construction and road projects.
But this move should send up red flags, given the Bush team’s record of filling government jobs with partisan ideologues and hacks and of ignoring or marginalizing scientific expertise on a host of issues.
There might be ways the Endangered Species Act could be administered more efficiently, but President Bush’s record doesn’t inspire trust on this issue.
T. Boone Pickens recently visited The Eagle editorial board, touting his plan to boost wind energy in the Great Plains. It’s a good plan that would bring economic development benefits to rural Kansas.
But one part of Pickens’ vision deserves more scrutiny: He has been buying up water rights in the Texas Panhandle and hopes someday to sell and ship groundwater via pipeline to thirsty cities such as Dallas and San Antonio, along the same corridor that he uses to ship wind energy.
As this BusinessWeek article observes, “Pickens owns more water than any other individual in the U.S. and is looking to control even more. He hopes to sell the water he already has, some 65 billion gallons a year, to Dallas, transporting it over 250 miles, 11 counties, and about 650 tracts of private property.”
Pickens refers to oil a “finite resource.”
Water is a finite resource, too — and Pickens sees it as just another commodity to mine and sell. Is he trying to corner the market for the region? Would his water pumping further deplete water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer and affect western Kansas, which also depends on the Ogallala?
T. Boone Pickens is giving wind power a big boost with his energy plan. Another sign that America is poised for a renewable energy revolution: MIT researchers reported last week that they’ve discovered a way to save solar energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine — a major breakthrough. Previously, storing solar energy has been prohibitively expensive and inefficient, according to MIT, which said the team’s discovery could unleash a “solar revolution” and “transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source.”
China is on the verge of an automobile boom, according to this Washington Post article. And many Chinese like SUVs and other big gas hogs. While SUV sales are tanking in most of the developed world, they’re up 43 percent in China. In fact, more big Buicks are now sold in China than in the United States.
Fifteen years ago, few Chinese owned a car. Now there are more than 15 million autos in China — and the numbers are expected to explode in coming years.
That’s not only bad news in the global fight against climate change. The growing Chinese demand for oil likely will keep U.S. gas prices high, too.
Many people have the impression that there is significant scientific disagreement about global climate change. It’s time to lay that misapprehension to rest. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states unequivocally that the consensus of scientific opinion is that Earth’s climate is being affected by human activities, and most of the “observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.” Major changes are taking place in the Arctic, affecting both human and nonhuman communities, as predicted by climate models. We need to stop repeating nonsense about the uncertainty of global warming and start talking seriously about the right approach to address it. — Naomi Oreskes, the Washington Post
If Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wants to raise some extra cash to help the state budget, maybe she should accept the challenge of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, to 
Columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman 
“Everything that we have been doing to cure the climate change problem has been wrong, because what we have been doing is depending upon politicians — like me — when, in fact, the only real answer is in science,” Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson 
State lawmakers are expected to 
Seeking to convince the world that the United States finally is serious about slashing Earth-threatening carbon emissions, President Barack Obama is urging Congress to fast-track his plan for a carbon cap-and-trade system. Obama’s ambitious goal would require all Americans to abandon wanton consumption and adopt a green way of life that would reduce our nation’s carbon emissions 15 percent from 2005 levels by 2012 and 80 percent by 2050. Opponents of cap-and-trade legislation dubiously argue that such a system will destroy the U.S. economy — a mind-boggling assertion when you consider the huge number of jobs it will create. The new administration is duty-bound to bring the United States into line with the rest of the world in embracing Kyoto and preparing for Copenhagen. — Wayne Madsen, Online Journal
In another move toward carbon regulations that would affect the proposed coal-fired power plants near Holcomb, the Environmental Protection Agency has officially 
Americans’ preference for supersoft toilet paper comes at a high price to the environment. The fiber that gives the paper a plush feel comes from millions of trees harvested in North America and Latin America, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada, the New York Times 
The Environmental Protection Agency has moved closer to 
A new “guidance document” issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment 
Al Gore has a Nobel, an Oscar and an Emmy. But can his “Inconvenient Truth” documentary make it in Milan? Composer Giorgio Battistelli and librettist J.D. McClatchy remain on track for their opera version of the hit documentary to open at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, in May 2011. But they’re now looking for a new stage director, having 
