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Energy and Environment: Around The Interwebs

Amplify’d from thechillingeffect.org
  • Today’s NYT demand for overhaul: ‘The U.S. needs a climate bill that engages the whole economy and forces technological change”
  • Most important story from last week, courtesy of the New York Times: “Ten moderate Senate Democrats from states dependent on coal and manufacturing sent a letter to President Obama on Thursday saying they would not support any climate change bill that did not protect American industries from competition from countries that did not impose similar restraints on climate-altering gases.”
  • Lawmakers’ Global-Warming Trip Hit Tourist Hot Spots
  • You know it’s bad when even a Reuters environment blog notices: “it does seem like an exquisite irony that, with the best of environmental intentions, the Obama team may have stomped all over the United States with a heavy-duty carbon footprint.”
  • NOAA Lowers Hurricane Season Outlook…
  • … and How Sensitive is the Earth’s Climate?
    • Read more at thechillingeffect.org
     

    Cash for Clunkers: What Are the Facts?

    Amplify’d from app.e2ma.net
    The government, and sympathetic media outlets, would tell you that the program is wildly successful and popular, stimulating the economy and saving the environment in one fell swoop.
    Others would argue that the program is a poorly run government bailout that’s done more to stimulate foreign car manufacturers than American ones.  Who’s right?
    First: is the program actually popular?  According to Rasmussen, the answer is a hearty “no.”  54% of those polled opposed the program, and only 35% supported it.  Any claims that it is a popular program have no basis in polling.
    Second:  Is the program stimulating the economy?  According to the AP, maybe briefly yes, but in the long term, definitely no:
    All this will help the economy grow faster in the second half of the year than previously forecast. Yet the rebates will also steal economic growth from the future: They make car sales happen now that would have been made later anyway.
    But that’s only one facet of the economy - new car salesmenRead more at app.e2ma.net
     

    What about used car salesmen and used-parts dealers, whose livelihoods depend on these cars and parts?  Every car traded in through the Cash for Clunkers program must be “scrapped, crushed, or shredded.”  As much as the program may be temporarily helping one part of the economy, it is permanently hurting the good men and women whose livelihoods depend on older cars and parts.


    Question 3:  Does Cash for Clunkers actually help the environment?  According to Gwen Ottinger, a researcher at the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Center for Contemporary History and Policy in Philadelphia, the answer is hazy at best:


    Building a new car, washing machine or refrigerator takes energy and resources: The manufacture of steel, aluminum and plastics are energy-intensive processes, and some of the materials used in durable goods, especially plastics, use non-renewable fossil fuels as feedstocks as well as energy sources. Disposing of old products, a step required by most incentive and rebate programs, also has environmental costs: It takes additional energy to shred and recycle metals; plastic components often cannot be recycled and end up as landfill cover; and the engine fluids, refrigerants and other chemicals essential to operating products end up as hazardous wastes.”



    And what about the new cars being bought?  Are Americans trading in their Ford Explorers and going home with Toyota Priuses?  Well, here’s where the data gets dicey.  According to the official government list, the answer is yes: seven of the top ten sellers were small cars.  However, according to the way car sales are usually tabulated, two of the top three  and three of the top five sellers under the program were actually SUVs or trucks.  The government counted two wheel drive and four wheel drive versions of the cars separately, meaning the Ford Escape only made the government list in seventh position (the four wheel drive version) despite having sold more actual cars than any other make and model.


    The funny thing about this government recalculating is that if they had just released the traditionally tabulated list, it could have been a PR coup for them.  On the traditional list, seven of the top ten sellers were American cars.  But on the government’s list, only three of the ten were.  The government chose to prioritize small car sales over American car sales.  And that illustrates the priorities of the radical green agenda, our activist government, and President Obama:  Environment first, country later.