Cooler Heads Digest 14 June 2013

14 June 2013

Announcement

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has translated and published a Chinese edition of two massive climate change volumes originally published by the Heartland Institute in 2009 and 2011, Climate Change Reconsidered and Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report. Click here to read more.

In the News

Meet the Nobody from Texas with Big Power at EPA
Ron Arnold, Washington Examiner, 14 June 2013

How Green Groups Make EPA Issue New Rules
Coral Davenport, National Journal, 14 June 2013

The Green Jobs Myth
Matthew Sinclair, Spectator, 14 June 2014

America Should Learn from Europe on Wind Power
Iain Murray, USA Today, 13 June 2013

Climate Models Predict Heat That Hasn’t Occurred
Investor’s Business Daily editorial, 11 June 2013

Climate Models: Epic Failure
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 10 June 2013

Psst: There Are 4 Scandals at EPA Right Now
Mary Katherine Ham, Hot Air, 10 June 2013

EPA’s Conservative Problem, Part II
Jillian Kay Melchior, National Review, 10 June 2013

Methane Emissions from Drilling: EPA’s Continuing, Conscious Overestimate
Katie Brown, Master Resource, 10 June 2013

News You Can Use
Even New York Times Acknowledges Lack of Global Warming

On Tuesday, the New York Times got around to acknowledging that there hasn’t been any global warming for over a decade.  In an article headlined, “What to Make of a Warming Plateau” in the Times’s Science section, Justin Gillis writes: “The rise in the surface temperature of earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that. And that lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have accumulated in the atmosphere at a record pace.” See Inside the Beltway below for more on the New York Times story.

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

Gore Surfaces in D.C.

Former Vice President Al Gore made a rare appearance in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, when he gave the keynote speech at Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) annual Rhode Island Energy and Environmental Leaders conference.  According to Darren Goode in Politico, “Gore lamented today that scientists ‘will not let us link record-breaking’ tornadoes in Oklahoma and elsewhere to climate change because of inadequate record keeping on the twisters.” 

Gore went on to explain, “But when you put more energy into a system, it gets more energetic.”  I wasn’t there, but according to Goode, Gore really did say that.

Later in the day, during a video chat on Google+, Gore criticized President Barack Obama’s failure to lead on climate change policy.  “I hope that he’ll get moving on to follow up on the wonderful pledges he made in his inaugural speech earlier this year and then soon after in his State of the Union.  Great words. We need great actions now.”

President Obama has reportedly been telling major donors at fundraising events that he plans to announce his climate agenda in July. The President may be aiming for July, but I doubt that the administration will release anything before the Senate votes to confirm Gina McCarthy as EPA Administrator.  That’s because what the White House is likely to propose is a bunch of further rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

White House climate czar Heather Zichal said as much when she spoke at the same conference Gore spoke at on Tuesday. “Our focus moving forward will be on executive actions.”  That is going to make many Senate Republicans angrier than they are now about unilateral administration actions and therefore more likely to try to block a vote on McCarthy’s nomination.

Speaking at his conference, Senator Whitehouse said that the tide was turning in Congress in favor of taking action on climate policy.  According to Greenwire, he went on to say that  “Frankly, to be a carbon denier at this point in the development of the facts is to be one short step away from insane.”

Senator Whitehouse’s comment came the same day that the New York Times got around to acknowledging that there hasn’t been any global warming for over a decade.  In an article headlined, “What to Make of a Warming Plateau” in the Times’s Science section, Justin Gillis writes: “The rise in the surface temperature of earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that. And that lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have accumulated in the atmosphere at a record pace.”

Gillis notes that there are half a dozen theories about why global warming has stalled, but focuses on the idea that, “…a prime suspect is the deep ocean. Our measurements there are not good enough to confirm it absolutely, but a growing body of research suggests this may be an important part of the answer.  Exactly why the ocean would have started to draw down extra heat in recent years is a mystery, and one we badly need to understand. But the main ideas have to do with possible shifts in winds and currents that are causing surface heat to be pulled down faster than before.”

The exact causes don’t really matter, however, because according to Gillis, “And in any event, computer forecasts of climate change suggest that pauses in warming lasting a couple of decades should not surprise us.”  This statement is actually true.  Nothing surprises the climate computer modelers.  And nothing that happens falsifies their predictions.  It’s magic. 

Or as my CEI colleague Brian McNicoll commented when he read Gillis’s article: “It closes an important loop in their argument. Hotter means global warming; colder means global warming; drier means global warming; wetter means global warming. More snow, less snow, blah blah blah. Breaks from warming … that hadn’t been accounted for yet. Now, it has … that too means global warming. They expected 20-year breaks ALL ALONG.”  

Across the States
William Yeatman

North Dakota’s Energy Sector Propels Economic Growth

For the third consecutive year, North Dakota had the fastest growing economy in the United States. The State posted a 13.4% growth rate in 2012, which is six times the national average of 2.5%. North Dakota’s economy has taken off thanks to thriving oil and gas production in the Bakken Shale, where hydrocarbon resources only became economically recoverable over the last decade, due to technological advances in drilling. Almost as important, the Bakken Shale is largely located on private and state land, rather than federal land, and it is, therefore, exempt from many of the Obama Administration’s policies meant to inhibit domestic fossil fuel production.

EPA Proposes Another Regulatory Takeover in Wyoming

EPA on Monday published a proposed regulatory takeover, known as a “Federal Implementation Plan,” of Wyoming’s Regional Haze program. Regional Haze is a Clean Air Act regulation, the purpose of which is to improve visibility at National Parks. EPA’s takeover would cost Wyoming ratepayers up to $96 million more annually than the Regional Haze strategy crafted by state officials, in order to achieve a visibility “improvement” that is imperceptible to the naked eye.

If EPA finalizes this Federal Implementation Plan for Wyoming, it would be the agency’s 20th regulatory takeover of a state Clean Air Act program since President Obama took office. There were two such takeovers during the previous 12 years. (This data comes from a report to be published next month by the American Legislative Exchange Council, titled “EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty”).

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.

Cooler Heads Digest 7 June 2013

7 June 2013

Announcements

The Competitive Enterprise Institute on May 20 held a Congressional staff and media briefing on “EPA’s FOIA Scandals: ‘Richard Windsor,’ Gina McCarthy, and the Abuse of Power,” given by Chris Horner, author of The Liberal War on Transparency and CEI Senior Fellow. Video of Chris’s presentation is now available online at GlobalWarming.org.  

In the News

What Happens in the Backroom of a Sue and Settle Lawsuit?
Ron Arnold, Washington Examiner, 7 June 2013

Offshore Wind: The New Math
David Kreutzer, The Foundry, 6 June 2013

Revisiting Climategate
Steve Goreham, Master Resource, 6 June 2013

Social Cost of Carbon: Interagency Group Predictably Predicts Climate Change Worse Than Predicted
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 5 June 2013

The Climate’s Alright
Marlo Lewis, National Review, 5 June 2013

Mr. President: For Jobs, Look to Houston
Robert Bradley, Jr., Forbes, 3 June 2013

How EPA Skirts Transparency
Rep. Don Young, Politico, 2 June 2013

News You Can Use
IER Releases New Energy Subsidy Tracker

The Institute for Energy Research today launched a new online transparency tool—www.energysubsidies.org—designed to give greater access to data about taxpayer-funded energy subsidies, including federal loan guarantees, grants, and various tax credits.

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

Richard Windsor Wins Scholar of Ethical Behavior Award, While White House Defends Use of False Identity E-mail Addresses

The EPA’s “Richard Windsor” e-mail scandal continued to broaden and gain more media attention this week.  On Monday, 3ed June, the top story in the Washington Times featured my CEI colleague Chris Horner’s latest discovery: that although “Richard Windsor” was the false identity of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, “the agency had nonetheless awarded the fictional staffer’s e-mail account certificates proving he had mastered all of the agency’s technology training — including declaring him a ‘scholar of ethical behavior.’” 

Inspired by Chris Horner’s discovery of “Richard Windsor,” the Associated Press on Tuesday ran a story that detailed the results of the AP’s own Freedom of Information Act requests.  The AP found that a number of other high Obama Administration officials were using secret e-mail addresses to conduct official business.  Reporter Jake Gillum claimed that the practice “complicates agencies' legal responsibilities to find and turn over e-mails under public records requests and congressional inquiries.”  The Drudge Report made this its feature story through much of Wednesday. 

Earlier on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said during his daily press briefing that the use of secret e-mails had been overblown.  According to the Hill newspaper, Carney said, “There's nothing secret.  It's about having a public e-mail address and one for internal workings, but they're all available for [Freedom of Information Act] searches.”  The story went on to say that Carney “also stressed that government employees ‘do not and should not use private e-mail accounts for work.’”  Carney then claimed that, “Our record on FOIA compares favorably to every previous administration and reflects our efforts to be more transparent.”

In response, Chris Horner stated in a CEI press release that Carney’s claims were “outrageously false.”  Horner elaborated: “We have shown Robert Perciasepe, EPA’s current acting administrator, conducted public business on private e-mail, as did the top administrators for EPA Regions 8 and 9.  Documents produced in related litigation we filed revealed an employee using a Ford Foundation e-mail address, as well as an e-mail address for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that apparently does not identify him.  Then, of course, the loan guarantee program made infamous by Solyndra was executed on 14 private accounts.”

A further indication that the mainstream media are paying more attention to the Obama Administration’s multiple violations of the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Records Act was an editorial cartoon in the Columbus Dispatch by Nate Beeler, which also appeared in other papers, such as the Washington Examiner.  President Obama sits at his Oval Office desk with four stacks of paper in front of him labeled, SPYING ON REPORTERS, IRS SCANDAL, DRONE PROGRAM, and SECRET E-MAILS.  A speech balloon above the President has most of his words redacted (that is, blacked out).  All that is left is, “…CHANGE…YOU…CAN…BELIEVE…IN…?”

Across the States
William Yeatman

Nevada Fuel Switching Law Is Great for Warren Buffett, Terrible for Ratepayers

On Monday night, the Nevada Assembly voted 53-10 to approve SB 123, legislation requiring fuel switching of 800 megawatts of electricity generation from coal to natural gas and renewables. The bill had passed the Senate in late May. SB 123 enjoyed bipartisan support from state-wide politicians including Republican Governor Brian Sandoval and Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The legislation also was strongly supported by NV Energy, the State’s largest utility. Indeed, NV Energy stands to make a huge windfall. As noted by a recent Nevada Policy Research Institute study, SB 123 contains ultra-generous rate-recovery provisions for the utility. It is no coincidence that famed investor Warren Buffett unexpectedly bought NV Energy for almost $5 billion last month. Thanks to SB 123, the utility has locked in big profits.

Nevada ratepayers will be the biggest losers. The coal-fired power plants that will be shuttered prematurely due to SB 123 had already been paid for. In order to replace them, new capital intensive gas power plants and wind turbines will have to be built. Fuel costs will increase precipitously.  From 2008-2012, NV Energy’s natural gas fuel cost 230% more than coal fuel on a $/mmBTU basis, according to the utility’s most recent 10k filing before the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Science Update
Myron Ebell

Carbon Dioxide Greening Deserts

New research confirms that the Earth’s desert regions are gaining vegetation as a result of higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.  According to an online article in Live Science, the study published in the 15th May Geophysical Research Letters found that, “Between 1982 and 2010, leaf cover on plants rose by 11 percent in arid areas, including the southwestern United States, Australia's Outback, the Middle East and some parts of Africa.”  The lead author of the study titled “CO2 fertilisation has increased maximum foliage cover across the globe's warm, arid environments” is Randall J. Donohue of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. 

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.

Cooler Heads Digest 31 May 2013

31 May 2013

Announcements

On Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 12:00 p.m., the Heritage Foundation will hold a panel on “The Lack of Science in the Scientific Consensus: The Case of the National Climate Assessment,” with Patrick Michaels, Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, Harold Doiron, Retired NASA Physicist and Engineer, and Harlan Watson, Former Ambassador, Special Envoy to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, David Kreutzer, Research Fellow in Energy Economics and Climate Change at the Heritage Foundation. The panel will take place in the Heritage Foundation’s Lehrman Auditorium. RSVP online.

In the News

John Christy: Climate Change Overview in 6 Slides
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 31 May 2013

More Evidence of EPA Bias against Small Government Groups
Kevin Mooney, Watchdog.org, 30 May 2013

Tesla’s Hazard Lights Are Flashing
Robert Weinstein, The Street, 30 May 2013

Anti-Fracking Lawmaker Admits to Using Fake Names to Attack Opponents Online
Sean Higgins, Washington Examiner, 30 May 2013

Solar Industry Worried about Defective Panels
Todd Woody, New York Times, 28 May 2013

Climate Better Than “We” Thought
Marlo Lewis, National Journal, 28 May 2013

The Climate Change Skeptics Are Winning
Liam Dennis, Independent, 28 May 2013

My Scientists Made Me Shrink Your Car
Patrick Michaels, Washington Times, 28 May 2013

Obama’s Electric Vehicles Program Is a Failure
Paul Chesser, National Legal and Policy Center, 28 May 2013

400 Year Old Moss Frozen by Glacier in Little Ice Age Revived
Sheila Pratt, National Post, 28 May 2013

News You Can Use
Carbon Tax Cost through 2100: $100 Trillion

According to an economic analysis published this week by the Heritage Foundation, adopting climate legislation sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would cost the global economy $100 trillion through 2100.

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

CEI files suit for text messages from EPA nominee Gina McCarthy

The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit in federal court this week to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request for any text messages sent or received by Gina McCarthy on the eighteen days when she testified before Congress while serving as Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation.  McCarthy’s nomination to be EPA Administrator is pending before the Senate.

To quote CEI’s press release: “EPA must produce these records under the Freedom of Information Act and, in the process, admit one of two scenarios: either EPA has maintained text messages as required by law but has chosen repeatedly to withhold them in the face of FOIA and congressional oversight requests for “all records” or “all electronic records,” or EPA has destroyed the texts, with possible criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 2071 (Concealment, removal, or mutilation of federal records).”

Further: “CEI submitted its request specifically for some of McCarthy’s texts in April after being credibly informed EPA warned her to stop texting and that the messages she was sending about Members of Congress during hearings posed great risk to her and the agency. EPA has failed to turn over these messages, but it has acknowledged it could do so with less than two hours of work.”

This is only the latest suit in a series filed by CEI to try to get the EPA and several other federal agencies to stop stonewalling FOIA requests. The most famous follows from my CEI colleague Chris Horner’s discovery that then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson had used a false-identity e-mail account to conduct official business under the alias “Richard Windsor.” 

The EPA, under court order, has turned over in full only about one third of the nearly 12,000 of the “Richard Windsor” e-mails, while heavily redacting (often for what appear to be specious reasons) the others that it has released.  In addition, the EPA has not informed CEI of how many e-mails it is withholding in full, as is required by law. Many of the redacted e-mails are to or from McCarthy, and it seems likely that quite a few of those being withheld are also to or from McCarthy. 

As I reported last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has announced that he will delay the floor vote on McCarthy’s confirmation as EPA Administrator until after the week-long Fourth of July recess. In my view, Senators would be well advised to put holds on McCarthy’s nomination until the EPA removes the redactions from the “Richard Windsor” e-mails to or from McCarthy, turns over the text messages from McCarthy, and explains why it has not been producing text message in response to FOIA and congressional oversight requests. Reading those communications will give Senators a better idea of the extent to which McCarthy has actively participated in the EPA’s chronic flouting of transparency laws, including the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Records Act. EPA policy specifically charges McCarthy with ensuring compliance with the requirement that her office properly maintain and produce such agency records.

Across the States
William Yeatman

Virginia Candidate for Governor Shows How Winning Votes Makes Democrats Seem Normal on Energy Policy

E&E EnergyWire (subscription required) this week reported that Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has endorsed federal legislation that would open offshore Virginia to oil and gas drilling. This is a major shift from his failed 2009 campaign, during which he opposed offshore drilling. On energy policy, McAuliffe also has done a U-turn on coal. In 2009, he pledged to never allow a coal fired power plant; now, he doesn’t mention coal-fired power, but his campaign does support increased coal exports.

McAuliffe’s abrupt shift on energy policy mirrors President Barack Obama’s performance during campaign debates with GOP candidate Mitt Romney in late 2012. During his first term, President Obama’s administration imposed a suite of policies meant to inhibit hydrocarbon energy production in the United States. Yet during the debate, when American voters were paying attention, the President championed his supposed support for more oil and gas drilling, and even claimed to back the coal industry.

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.

Cooler Heads Digest 24 May 2013

24 May 2013

Announcement

A team of independent filmmakers are raising funds through crowd funding to produce a short film depicting the irrational basis for climate change mitigation policies. “50 to 1” will show that “it is 50 times more expensive to try and stop global warming than it is to adapt to it as (and if) it happens.” To learn more, click here, where you can also donate to the project.

In the News

Carbon Tax: Just Say No
Robert Bradley, Jr., Master Resource, 24 May 2013

The Enviro Fix Is in
Jillian Kay Melchior, National Review, 23 May 2013

Peak Oil Columnist Should Say “Never Mind”
Sam Kazman, Falls Church News-Press, 23 May 2013

Alarmism Makes for Poor Policy
Rep. Lamar Smith, Washington Post, 21 May 2013

Global Warming Revised Downward
Ron Bailey, Reason, 21 May 2013

Soaring Energy Costs Are Making Europeans Poor
Milton Catelin, EurActiv, 21 May 2013

Arctic Council Meeting Proves It’s a Circular World
Teresa Platt, National Center Blog, 17 May 2013

News You Can Use
Sequester Is Working

Due to the sequester, the Environmental Protection Agency furloughed nearly all its employees without pay for one day on May 24th. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) quipped to Politico that, “China will be unhappy if the EPA closes down on Friday. That’s fewer jobs that they’ll be getting from us.”

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

Reid Delays Vote on McCarthy Nomination till July

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week that confirmation votes on several of President Obama’s nominees for top positions, including Gina McCarthy for EPA Administrator, would be delayed until July.  Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters that he wasn’t sure that McCarthy and Labor Secretary nominee Thomas Perez had the sixty votes necessary to invoke cloture and proceed to a final vote. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, Senator Durbin also speculated that, “Unless we start seeing a more co-operative atmosphere around here … there’s going to continue to be speculation about changing the rules.”  This refers to the so-called “nuclear option”—changing Senate rules so that confirmation votes cannot be blocked by a 41-vote minority.

Heritage Action for America has joined eleven other non-profit groups officially opposed to McCarthy’s confirmation.

Congressional Budget Office Kinda Likes a Carbon Tax

The Congressional Budget Office this week released a study on the “Effects of a Carbon Tax on the Economy and the Environment.”  CBO admits that a carbon tax would raise the costs of producing goods and services and raise consumer prices.  On the other hand, some of the negative effects could be offset by using the revenues generated to lower the federal deficit and to lower marginal rates of other damaging taxes, such as corporate and individual income taxes.

In terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the best the CBO can come up with is this: “Given the inherent uncertainty of predicting the effects of climate change, and the possibility that it could trigger catastrophic effects, lawmakers might view a carbon tax as a reflection of society’s willingness to pay to reduce the risk of potentially very expensive damage in the future.”

Professor Robert Murphy commented on the CBO study for the Institute for Energy Research here, and Dr. David Kreutzer of the Heritage Foundation posted his comment here.

Another contribution to the carbon tax debate from earlier in the month has just come to my attention.  On 2nd May, fifty-four trade groups sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee explaining why they are opposed to a carbon tax.  Attached to their letter is a study produced by NERA Consulting earlier this year for the National Association of Manufacturers that details the negative economic effects of a carbon tax. 

House Passes Keystone Pipeline Permitting Bill Again

The House of Representatives on 22nd May passed a bill to permit the Keystone XL Pipeline by a vote of 241 to 175. Only 19 Democrats voted for H. R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act, which is intended to put pressure on President Barack Obama to relent and grant the permit. The White House announced that the President would veto the bill if the Senate also passes it.  Sixty-two Senators, including 17 Democrats, voted for an amendment to their budget bill earlier this year approving the Keystone Pipeline from Canada’s oil sands to the U. S.

Boxer and Whitehouse Blame Republicans for Oklahoma Tornado

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) were quick to use the giant tornado that obliterated Moore, Oklahoma to chastise Republican members of Congress for failing to get on board the global warming bandwagon.  Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) noted that he has seen a lot of tornadoes during his lifetime in Oklahoma and called the attempt to make tawdry political points out of the Moore tragedy “outrageous” and “immoral.”

For the record, the Digest noted two weeks ago that tornado activity in the past twelve months had been the lowest in 60 years.  If the tornado that hit Moore can be attributed to global warming, then so too must the low level of activity across the U. S. in the past year.  Anthony Watts compiles the facts here, while James Delingpole tees off on Boxer in his Telegraph blog.   

Are House Republicans Going Green?

National Journal published an article in their 18th May issue titled, “The GOP Energy Tent Is Slowly Getting Bigger.”  Reporter Coral Davenport, who is a reliable promoter of environmentalist views, writes a puff piece on House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) efforts to add a green tinge to the House Republicans’ wardrobe. 

In the last Congress, McCarthy, who is number three in the Republican leadership, started the House Energy Action Team (HEAT) in order to develop messaging points for the 2012 election.  Now, he is trying to broaden HEAT’s messaging to include support for subsidies for renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.  That is no surprise: McCarthy is not a movement conservative, but he does have the country’s largest concentration of wind farms in his Bakersfield-area district.  McCarthy has received many major campaign contributions from the wind industry.

Davenport’s story includes a long quote praising McCarthy’s green turn: “‘I think it’s smart,’ Republican strategist John Feehery said of McCarthy’s new tactics. Republicans’ aggressive campaigning against Obama’s clean-energy agenda was ‘an overreaction,’ Feehery said. ‘It made us seem like enemies of the environment. The idea that government has absolutely no role, that the climate is absolutely not changing—it’s not smart,’ he said. ‘It’s also not smart if you’re talking about all the farmers in red states that make money off windmills. A lot of the base is there.’  Davenport does not mention that Feehery is a top lobbyist at Quinn Gillespie, who represents clients in the renewable energy industry and started a front group to lobby for the wind production tax credit and other subsidies called the Red State Renewables Alliance.

Across the States
Anthony Ward

Rich States, Poor States

The American Legislative Exchange Council this week released the latest version of its “Rich States, Poor States” report, which compares the economic performance of the fifty States.  It finds that eight of the top ten States for economic growth are controlled by Republican elected officials, while eight of the ten bottom States are controlled by Democrats.  Not co-incidentally, energy costs are lower in the States with the strongest growth.  Nine of the top ten States have lower electric rates that the average of the bottom ten.

Around the World
William Yeatman

Rising Energy Costs Focus of EU Leaders Summit

Leaders of European Union member states met for a summit meeting this week in Brussels, and rising energy costs were the primary topic of discussions. According to The Financial Times (subscription required), “a single, eye-popping chart that has been making the rounds in Brussels” depicting the fact that, since 2005, electricity prices in the EU have increased 37 per cent relative to those in the US, and almost 20 per cent higher than those in Japan. This is a notable development. Whenever previous summits addressed energy, it was always in the context of global warming alarmism, and how “de-carbonizing” the economy would create “green jobs.” This week’s summit is the first time that EU leaders have acknowledged the fact that global warming policies result in undesirable increases in the cost of energy.

New Study: Allowing Energy Exports Would Slash Deficit

More than two–thirds of America's $750 billion annual deficit can be eliminated if the Obama administration and Congress allow expanded drilling and energy exports, according to a report published this week by the Manhattan Institute. Click here to read “The Case for Exports: America’s Hydrocarbon Industry Can Revive the Economy and Eliminate the Trade Deficit,” by Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Mark Mills.

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.

Cooler Heads Digest 17 May 2013

17 May 2013

Announcements

The Competitive Enterprise Institute will hold a Congressional staff and media briefing on “EPA’s FOIA Scandals: ‘Richard Windsor,’ Gina McCarthy, and the Abuse of Power,” given by Chris Horner, author of The Liberal War on Transparency and CEI Senior Fellow, from 3 to 4 PM on Monday, May 20, in room 406 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. Please email mebell@cei.org from more information.  

In the News

Vitter: EPA FOIA Scandal ‘No Different than the IRS Disaster’
Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 17 May 2013

No Fine if Wind Farm Kills Endangered Condors
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 17 May 2013

Wind Behaving Badly
Lisa Linowes, Master Resource, 16 May 2013

North Dakota Proves Obama Doesn’t Get Energy
Thomas Pyle, Real Clear Energy, 16 May 2013

Obscure White House Climate Warrior Wields Vast Powers
Ron Arnold, Washington Examiner, 16 May 2013

Ex-EPA Region 8 Administrator To Receive Award, Despite Resigning in Transparency Scandal
William Yeatman, Energy Policy Center, 16 May 2013

From the IRS to the EPA?
Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal, 15 May 2013

Wind Farms Get a Pass on Eagle Death
Dina Cappiello, Associate Press, 14 May 2013

Farm Bill Wastes More Taxpayer Money on Green Subsidies
Nicolas Loris, The Foundry, 13 May 2013

News You Can Use
EPA Demonstrates IRS-Like Bias on FOIA Requests

The IRS isn’t the only federal agency to discriminate against conservative groups. The EPA waived fees from Freedom of Information Act requests by green groups 92% of the time. Meanwhile, EPA denied fee waiver requests from the Competitive Enterprise Institute 93% of the time.

Inside the Beltway
Myron Ebell

EPW Committee Sends McCarthy’s EPA Nomination to Senate Floor on Party Line Vote

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on 16th May approved the nomination as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency of Gina McCarthy on a straight party line vote of 10 to 8.  This sends the nomination to the Senate floor for a vote on confirmation.

Last week, the committee could not take a vote because all eight Republicans boycotted the meeting, thereby denying a quorum.  This week they showed up for two reasons.  First, the Democrats managed to get Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) down from his sickbed in New Jersey to the meeting.  Lautenberg’s presence meant that all ten Democratic members and thus a majority of the committee were present, which under Senate rules constitutes a quorum.  Thus the Democrats could vote the nomination out whether the Republicans were present or not.

Second, Senator David Vitter (R-La.), ranking Republican on the committee, announced in a press release that real progress had been made in a meeting with EPA Acting Administrator Robert Perciasepe on complying with their five requests for greater transparency at the agency.  When the committee met, Vitter went on to say that if Perciasepe commits to making further significant progress, then he will not try to block a floor vote on confirmation by requiring cloture (which requires 60 votes rather than a majority), and that if the EPA fully satisfies all five requests, then he would vote to confirm McCarthy.

A loose coalition opposing McCarthy’s confirmation is forming.  Here are the non-profit free market and conservative groups that I know are opposed: American Commitment, American Conservative Union, American Energy Alliance, Americans for Limited Government, Americans for Tax Reform, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Freedom Action, Let Freedom Ring, National Center for Public Policy Research, and 60 Plus Association. 

Carbon tax drumbeat continues

The apparently well-funded effort to convince conservatives to support a carbon tax continues.  This week, Ike Bannon, a senior fellow and research director at the R Street Institute, published an op-ed titled, “Why you just may come to like a carbon tax.”  Bannon makes a point that I have made many times: in putting together a comprehensive tax reform or budget deal, the only huge new source of additional revenues on the table is a carbon tax.  Unlike me, however, Bannon thinks that that is a good thing.

Even worse, Bannon argues that a big advantage of a carbon tax is that it’s hidden and therefore people won’t notice that it’s why they are paying more for energy and other goods and services.  He writes: “Besides its intended purpose of reducing carbon emissions, it is politically advantageous, in that it is a tax that is relatively hidden.”  If any conservatives in Congress fall for this, they deserve what voters will give them. 

Across the States
William Yeatman

California Governor Brown Takes  Enviro Heat for Endorsing Fracking

California Governor Jerry Brown (D) this week caused a stir among environmentalists by mildly endorsing more drilling in the Golden State. California’s Monterey Shale, which covers much of the southern half of the State, is believed to hold as much as 15.5 billion barrels of petroleum that has become recoverable only in the last half decade, with the development of smart drilling technology. Governor Brown told EnergyWire (subscription required) that the Monterey Shale could be a “fabulous opportunity.” This is an uncharacteristically sound energy policy pronouncement by the Governor, who during his two stints as the State’s chief executive has done more than anyone to implement the environment regulatory regime that chased away the State’s heavy industry.

Naturally, Governor Brown was quickly rebuked by both the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity. He’s likely to hear further protests next week, when he’ll be in Maryland for the Democratic Governor Association’s spring policy session. On May 22, the alarmist activist group 350.org will hold a protest at National Harbor, near Washington, D.C. to pressure Democratic Governors “to stop fracking.”

Around the World
Myron Ebell

Matt Ridley Warns that Rising Energy Prices Threaten UK Economy

Matt Ridley, the highly regarded science writer, devoted his maiden speech in the British House of Lords to the threat that rising energy costs pose to the British economy.  According to NE Business, the fifth Viscount Ridley said that, “Household energy costs have doubled in the past 15 years. In the US, where [natural] gas prices used to be the same as they are here, they are now one-quarter or one-fifth of the level here.  That is an enormous competitive advantage to the US and a disadvantage to us.  The chemical industry, as a result, is very keen to move to the United States, and other industries, including the cement industry, are feeling the pinch from high energy costs.” 

Ridley continued: “Near where I live at Lynemouth on the North East coast, the country’s largest aluminium smelter recently closed with the loss of 515 jobs, largely due to the rising cost of energy.  A nation can compete on the basis of cheap labour or cheap energy, but if it has neither,then it is likely to be in trouble.”

Ridley, who earned a Ph. D. in zoology, writes a column for the weekend Wall Street Journal and is the author of several books, including Genome, Nature versus Nurture, and most recently The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves.  He is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Hayek Prize and CEI’s Julian Simon Memorial Award.  Here is the sparking lecture about the bogus claims of eco-pessimism and global warming alarmism that Ridley gave at the Simon Award presentation in 2012.    In 2011, he gave the Royal Scottish Academy’s Angus Millar lecture on the subject of “Scientific Heresy.” 

Science Update
Anthony Ward

Greenland Expected to Have Little Effect on Sea Level Rise

According to a study published in Nature, melting ice in Greenland will make an insignificant contribution to sea-level rise. Researchers now predict the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will cause sea-level rises amounting only to 0.75 to 1.25 inches by 2200.

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.