CEI Slapps Back In Closing Brief To Michael Mann Libel Lawsuit

Washington, D.C. – February 1, 2013 – Today marked the latest filing in a defamation lawsuit brought by climate science alarmist Michael Mann against CEI, National Review, and scholar Rand Simberg.  CEI has fought back against Mann’s lawsuit by moving to dismiss the case under the District of Columbia’s 2011 Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation, or “Anti-SLAPP,” Act, which protects the public’s right to engage in advocacy on issues of public interest.

Mann filed his lawsuit in October, 2012, in reaction to a July 13 CEI OpenMarket blog post by Simberg  comparing Penn State’s Climategate investigation of Mann to the school's initially shoddy investigation of the former, infamous football coach Jerry Sandusky.  CEI argues the blog post was Simberg’s constitutionally protected opinion, especially given its open reliance on publicly available sources.  This, coupled with Mann’s status as a highly outspoken public figure in the global warming controversy, places the blog post at the core of protected free speech.

CEI’s filing today responds to Mann’s opposition to CEI’S Anti-SLAPP motion.

CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman commented on today’s response to the Mann lawsuit.

As our reply demonstrates, while Mann paints himself as a reluctant warrior in the global warming debate, he’s quick to fling epithets at his critics.  Mann characterizes his opponents and their positions, variously, as “pure scientific fraud,”  “bogus,” “hired assassin,” “shills,” “crimes against humanity,” and the ever-useful smear of “denier.”  The professor claims that he’s been exonerated by numerous investigations, but those reports raise more questions than they answer.  And his view of First Amendment freedoms is so incorrect that, in addition to the Nobel Prize he wrongly thinks he won, he may now end up with a Pulitzer — but it won’t be for nonfiction.

The next step in the lawsuit may be a court hearing.

CEI and Rand Simberg are represented in the action by the firm of Baker Hostetler.

> View Michael Mann v. National Review, CEI, et al: CEI and Rand Simberg's Reply to Mann’s Opposition to our Anti-SLAPP Motion

> View background on the case

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CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

Cooler Heads Digest 25 January 2013

25 January 2013

In the News

Sen. Whitehouse vs the ‘Deniers’—Addendum on Ocean Acidification
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 25 January 2013

Nature, Not Only Mankind, Saved by Fossil Fuels
Indur Goklany, Master Resource, 25 January 2013

The Real Obama Climate Deal
Kimberly Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 25 January 2013

Stupid Grids
Lachlan Markay, Washington Free Beacon, 25 January 2013

“The Final Ploy of the Desperate” Natural Gas Opponents
Tom Shepstone, Energy in Depth, 24 January 2013

Ethanol Making Super Bowl Party More Expensive
Associated Press, 23 January 2013

Mr. President, Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline
Washington Post editorial, 23 January 2013

Does Green Energy Invite Corruption?
Veronique de Rugy, National Review Online, 23 January 2013

Sting Operations Reveal Mafia Involvement in Green Energy
Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, 22 January 2013

How to Keep Promises to Expand Energy Production and Create Jobs
Nicolas Loris, Katie Tubb, & Jack Spencer, Foundry, 22 January 2013

Putting the Lie to EPA’s Scare Tactics
Steve Milloy, Washington Times, 22 January 2013

News You Can Use
Secretary of State Nominee John Kerry Puts His Money Where His Mouth Isn’t

Senator and Secretary of State nominee John Kerry (D-Mass.) is an outspoken global warming alarmist. Yet Kerry does not put his money where his mouth is, according to information obtained on the Center for Responsive Politics website. Included among Kerry’s estimated $230 to $320 million in assets are investments in more than 20 fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, Transocean, Noble Energy, Southern Energy, and Suncor. Notably, there wasn’t a green energy producer on the list.

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

President Obama Talks Big on Global Warming, But Delivery in Doubt

Global warming alarmists are still glowing with excitement over President Barack Obama’s second inaugural speech on 21st January.  The longest discussion of second-term policies in the speech was about climate change. 

Here is what the President said:

“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.  Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But American cannot resist this transition. We must lead it.

“We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries. We must claim its promise. That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure, our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”

This contrasts with Obama’s presidential campaign, in which global warming was barely mentioned.  The President instead campaigned on an “all-of-the-above” energy policy, and the campaign actually ran ads in Appalachian coal country that claimed the President was more pro-coal than Republican nominee Mitt Romney.  Soon after the election, President Obama said that he would focus on climate policy only after he had concentrated on reviving the U. S. economy.   Since his policies are slowing the anemic recovery, my inference is that he’ll never get around to proposing new energy-rationing policies.

However, there are many energy-rationing policies that are already in EPA’s regulatory pipeline.  Soon after the inauguration, the White House suggested that finalizing and implementing these regulations would fulfill the President’s pledge.  International negotiations on a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol is another area where the President might try to make progress in the global war against affordable energy. 

The nomination of Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) to be the next Secretary of State is significant in this regard.  Kerry was the chief sponsor of the cap-and-trade bill that died in the Senate in 2009-10.  At his Senate confirmation hearing this week, Kerry called global warming “a life-threatening issue” and promised to be “a passionate advocate” for drastic international action as Secretary of State.

My CEI colleague Marlo Lewis provides a detailed commentary at GlobalWarming.org on the President’s inaugural climate vows. 

Nebraska Approves Keystone Pipeline Route, Now It’s Up to Obama

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman (R) announced this week that the State had given final approval to a new route for the Keystone XL pipeline that avoids the Sand Hills.  One of the utterly bogus reasons for opposing the pipeline was that it threatened the “ecologically sensitive” Sand Hills in north central Nebraska.  The new route would skirt the eastern edge of this pristine and delicate area.  It will still cross the Ogallala Aquifer, as thousands of miles of other pipelines already do.

Heineman’s decision removes the last formal obstacle outside the Obama Administration to approving TransCanada’s proposed pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf coast.  Keystone XL would carry over 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta and also from North Dakota’s booming Bakken shale field. 

The State Department quickly responded that their continuing review of the application by TransCanada to build the pipeline would take at least three more months.  This means that the next Secretary of State will make the final recommendation to President Barack Obama.  Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) said this week at his Senate confirmation hearing to be the next Secretary of State that he would be in charge of making the decision.

Kerry’s nomination should send a chill through TransCanada and Alberta’s oil industry.  As should the White House announcement on Friday, 25th January, that President Obama has chosen Denis McDonough to be his new chief of staff.  Greenwire’s E and E News PM called McDonough, a former staffer to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar when he was a Senator (D-NM), a “climate hawk.”  Surprisingly, TransCanada shares reached a record high price this week on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

My guess is that President Obama’s focus on climate change policies in his inaugural speech was a challenge to environmental pressure groups to build public and media opposition to approving Keystone in the next few months, which is also why the State Department isn’t going to make a recommendation until April at the earliest.  If they can demonstrate significant opposition, then the President can deny the permit on the grounds that it conflicts with his sacred commitment given on the steps of the Capitol in front of the entire nation to save the planet from global warming.  On the other hand, if polls continue to show overwhelming public support for the pipeline, then the President can say, Sorry, I was counting on you guys and you just didn’t do your job.

Across the States
William Yeatman

Federal Court Refuses to Reconsider Rejection of EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule

Last August, by a 2 to 1 decision, a three judge panel of the D.C. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, a Clean Air Act regulation that would have required power plants in 33 primarily eastern States to participate in a costly cap-and-trade scheme for certain emissions. The Court rejected EPA’s regulation because it was excessively onerous, in that it required many States to reduce emission below what is necessary to protect public health. Yesterday, the full D.C. Circuit Court refused to reconsider the August decision. EPA has yet to indicate whether it will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Maine Regulators Approve Absurd Offshore Wind Project

The Maine Public Utilities Commission this week approved a $203 million ratepayer investment in an offshore wind farm that would generate a measly 12 megawatts of electricity at full capacity. A conventional natural gas plant typically costs anywhere from $900 to $1,500 per kilowatt capacity. By comparison, Maine’s offshore wind would cost an astounding $16,900 per kilowatt capacity.

New Report Calculates Big Costs of Colorado’s New Energy Economy

On Monday, CEI and the Independence Institute published a report by CEI’s William Yeatman, titled “2012 Cost Analysis of the New Energy Economy,” which provides a line-item cost of the green energy policies championed by former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter (D). The results were eye-popping: In 2012 alone, the New Energy Economy cost ratepayers $484 million, or $345 per ratepayer. To read the report, click here.

Around the World
William Yeatman

Europe’s Carbon Market Crashes Again

The price of carbon in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System on Thursday plummeted to $3.79 per metric ton—a record low—after the European Parliament failed to approve a policy that would have boosted the market by extracting allowances from the market and reinvesting them later. The European Trading Scheme needs a bailout because the weak economy has collapsed demand for the carbon coupons. This is the second time that the market has crashed. It also did so in 2007, after regulators over-allocated the carbon shares. My CEI colleague Marlo Lewis has more here.

The Cooler Heads Digest is the weekly e-mail publication of the Cooler Heads Coalition. For the latest news and commentary, check out the Coalition’s website, www.GlobalWarming.org.

ALG's Daily Grind - Obamacare Mandate To Cut Worker Hours, Leaving The Poor Worse Off

Nov. 15, 2012

Obamacare Mandate To Cut Worker Hours, Leaving The Poor Worse Off

Employer mandate will not only hurt job growth among small businesses, it is already resulting in fewer hours and less income for workers at larger companies.

Video: ALG Is Urging Governors Not To Implement ObamaCare Exchange

America's Governors are set to make a decision on whether to implement an ObamaCare exchange. ObamaCareWatcher.org's John Vinci explains what Americans for Limited Government thinks they should do.

New York Misses Out on Natural Gas Revolution as Junk Science Carries the Day

The Marcellus Shale cuts across New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia and could potentially to help transform the world's energy portfolio. But this will require public policy decisions that rooted in sound science not unsubstantiated alarmism.

Roff: GOP Senators Need to Radicalize

Does Harry Reid want to restrict Republican use of the filibuster in the Senate?

CEI Weekly: PBS Documents Changing Climate Change Debate

Friday, October 26, 2012

Feature: Myron Ebell featured in new PBS Frontline.

FEATURE: PBS Documents Changing Climate Change Debate This week, PBS Frontline aired "Climate of Doubt," a close look at the effect climate change skeptics have had on public opinion. CEI's Myron Ebell was featured in the documentary as one of the primary voices in the debate on the urgency of global warming . Watch "Climate of Doubt" here. Listen to Myron's response to the program in the podcast to the right. SHAPING THE DEBATE 'Infostructure' Is Fine But Roads Are Still Essential Marc Scribner's letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal Google Is Many Things--But Not an Illegal Monopoly Ryan Radia's op-ed in CNET Carbon Tax: Will Tweedle Dum Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory? Marlo Lewis' op-ed in Forbes From Frontline, A Look at the Skeptics' Advance Myron Ebell's citation in The New York Times blogs President Obama Reverses Course, For Now, And We're Better Off For It John Berlau's op-ed in Forbes Timely Questions for the Debate Chris Horner's post in PJ Media A Lack of Government Transparency: The Devil in the Detailing Henry I. Miller & Jeff Steir's op-ed in Forbes Layoffs, Failures Test Colorado's "New Energy Economy" William Yeatman's citation in The Denver Post Distorted Government Statistics Endanger Our Economic Health Bill Frezza's column in Forbes

CEI PODCAST October 25, 2012: The Changing Climate Change Debate Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell discusses his recent PBS Frontline appearance, and how the debate over global warming has shifted in the last few years. The issue has all but fallen off the radar as economic difficulties have supplanted environmental concerns in the public mind. BEST OF THE BLOGS Sen. Inhofe Releases Report  on EPA's 2013 Regulatory Agenda By Myron Ebell Police (Union) Brutality By Trey Kovacs American Non-Profits Financing Canadian Oil Sands Opposition By Brian McGraw Regulation in Theory Vs. Practice By Ryan Young

Cooler Heads Digest 19 October 2012

19 October 2012

Announcements

• On Tuesday, October 23, PBS will air “Climate of Doubt,” a Frontline documentary that “goes inside the organizations that fight the scientific establishment to shift the direction of the climate debate.” The trailer and local listings are here.
• Capital Research Center has published a report by Brian Seasholes on how environmentalist special interests in the U.S. are funding opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline in Canada. Click here to read the report, titled “The Green Pipeline.”

In the News

Carbon Tax Would Harm Economy
Scott Segal, Atlanta Journal Constitution, 18 October 2012

EPA’s Illegal Human Experiments
Steve Milloy, Washington Times, 18 October 2012

Opacity of Hope: Review of Chris Horner’s New Book, The Liberal War on TransparencyDaniel Epstein, Washington Examiner, 17 October 2012

More Americans Skeptical about Climate Change than 10 Years Ago
Jay Michaelson, Daily Beast, 17 October 2012

The Solyndra Memorial Tax Break
Wall Street Journal editorial, 16 October 2012

Permitting Down 36 percent under Obama
Kerry Picket, Water Cooler, 16 October 2012

Timeline: A123 Systems’ Downward Spiral to Bankruptcy
Paul Chesser, National Legal and Policy Center, 16 October 2012

Liberals’ Green Energy Contradictions
Charles Lane, Washington Post, 15 October 2012

If New York Bans Nuclear Power and Fracking, Where Will It Get Electricity?
Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth, 15 October 2012

Where Are the 5 Million Green Jobs Obama Promised?
Marita Noon, Townhall, 14 October 2012

Met Office Report: Global Warming Stopped 16 years Ago
David Rose, Daily Mail, 13 October 2012

News You Can Use
New Peer-Reviewed Paper: Global Temperatures Peaked 2,000 Years Ago

A new peer-review study by Jan Esper et al. in the Journal Global and Planetary Change presents a 2000-year summer temperature reconstruction from northern Scandinavia and compares this time series with existing proxy records to assess the range of reconstructed temperatures at a regional scale. The record provides evidence for substantial warmth in the Northern Hemisphere during Roman and Medieval times, larger in extent and longer in duration than 20th century warmth. The first century AD was the warmest 100-year period of the Christian Era.

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

Energy Policy Features Prominently in Presidential Debate

Energy issues featured prominently in the second presidential debate on October 16. But once again, global warming did not come up, although moderator Candy Crowley told disappointed environmentalists after the debate she had a question about climate change but just couldn’t get to it.

The question to President Obama was whether he agreed with Energy Secretary Steven Chu that it was not the policy of the Department of Energy to help lower gas prices.  The president began his answer by taking credit for increased domestic oil and gas production.  “So here’s what I’ve done since I’ve been president.  We have increased oil and gas production to the highest level in 16 years.”

In his response, Republican nominee Mitt Romney explained that oil and gas production had increased on private land but had gone down on federal lands and offshore areas.  In the back-and-forth exchange that followed, Romney stated, “Production on government land of oil is down 14 percent,” to which President Obama replied, “It’s just not true.”  Actually it is true, as these figures from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration show. 

President Obama also brought out the bogus claim oil companies were sitting on federal oil and gas leases they weren’t using.  The fact is once a company wins a lease at auction, it cannot start drilling exploratory wells until it obtains the necessary federal permits.  During the Obama administration, the Department of the Interior has perfected tactics to slow walk the granting of permits for years and years.  That’s why many drilling rigs in the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf are idle at a time when oil prices are high. 

We have excerpted the energy part of the debate here. The full transcript is here.

The Washington Wire in the October 19 Wall Street Journal reports on how coal has become a hot issue in the presidential campaign. Although the Gallup Poll showed this week that Romney leads Obama 51 percent to 45 percent  among likely voters, a new poll by the University of Texas shows the public prefers President Obama’s energy policies to those of former Governor Romney by 37 percent to 28 percent.   

Senator Inhofe Releases Report on EPA’s 2013 Regulatory Agenda

Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, released a report this week that details all the EPA regulations that have been delayed until after the election or won’t take effect until after the election.  A Look Ahead to EPA Regulations for 2013 lists 13 major regulations that “will strangle economic growth, destroy millions of jobs and dramatically raise the price of goods, the cost of electricity and the price of gas.”  Those are on top of the new regulations already implemented that are constricting energy supplies and raising energy prices.

“President Obama has spent the past year punting on a slew of job-killing EPA regulations that will destroy millions of American jobs and cause energy prices to skyrocket even more.  From greenhouse gas regulations to water guidance to the tightening of the ozone standard, the Obama EPA has delayed the implementation of rule after rule because [it doesn’t] want all those pink slips and price spikes to hit until after the election. But President Obama's former climate czar, Carol Browner, was very clear about what's in store for next year: She told several green groups not to worry because President Obama has a big green 'to-do' list for 2013….” Inhofe said in introducing the report.

Sen. Inhofe told Caroline May of the Daily Caller that, “In all these [presidential] debates, the thing they overlook and don’t talk about that is just as important as servicing another $5 trillion of indebtedness is all these rules and regulations.”  Read more here.

Across the States
William Yeatman

California Businesses Ask Governor To Delay Cap-and-Trade

On Monday, a coalition of more than 200 California businesses sent Governor Jerry Brown a letter asking him to delay the start of the state’s cap-and-trade scheme, which is set to convene the first auction for energy-rationing coupons on November 14. By putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions, the cap-and-trade program is designed to make energy more expensive. And because energy is a fundamental input into every act of economic production, cap-and-trade is basically an economy-wide tax. In the letter, the businesses warned the governor the cap-and-trade auction would further harm an economy already in dire straits.

In response to the coalition’s concerns, California’s Air Resources Board voted unanimously to commission a staff report to ensure “industries and manufacturers will not only remain competitive but in fact become more competitive,” in the words of CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols. That’s going to be a tough report to conduct, given cap-and-trade makes businesses less competitive by design. In any case, the report is due in six months, which is five months after the cap-and-trade energy rationing scheme begins.

Around the World
Brian McGraw

German Electricity Prices Set to Soar

Germany’s major electric-grid operators announced this week the renewable energy surcharge paid by consumers will increase from 3.6 euro cents per kWh to 5.3 euro cents per kWh (6.9 US cents) in 2013. Despite falling energy prices, the overall burden to consumers continues to rise as Germany increases the percentage of electricity it derives from renewable energy. Reuters notes German households, on average, will pay $0.345 per kilowatt hour in 2015. The average price of electricity in the United States was $0.105 per kilowatt hour in 2011.

Germany is currently receiving about 25 percent of its power from renewable sources. Though some in Germany have called for a reversal of its strong support for carbon-free energy sources, the official renewable electricity target is set to increase to 35 percent by 2020, and some politicians want it to go even higher. Despite cutting some subsidies for renewable sources earlier this year, it appears German electricity prices will continue to increase well into the future.

The Cooler Heads Digest is the weekly e-mail publication of the Cooler Heads Coalition. For the latest news and commentary, check out the Coalition’s website, www.GlobalWarming.org.