By Dr. Roy Spencer In the early 1990s I was visiting the White House Science Advisor, Sir Prof. Dr. Robert Watson, who was pontificating on how we had successfully regulated Freon to solve the ozone depletion problem, and now the next goal was to regulate carbon dioxide, which at that time was believed to be the sole cause of global warming. I was a little amazed at this cart-before-the-horse approach. It really seemed to me that the policy goal was being set in stone, and now the … [Read more...]
What Will DC Circuit Do with Clean Power Plan?
Tomorrow the DC Circuit Court will hear, en banc, a case in which 28 states are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), alleging that it lacked statutory authority to impose President Obama's landmark environmental regulation, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), on the states. EPA claims the authority under an obscure piece of the Clean Air Act, Section 111(d), but a straight reading of that section in context with the rest of the Act implies otherwise. Congress never intended to … [Read more...]
What Would the Precautionary Principle Imply for Ethanol?
In 2007 Congress passed a law requiring the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study and report every three years to Congress on the environmental impact of EPA’s ethanol mandate. And in the intervening nine years, EPA has complied with the law once—in 2011. Now it says it’ll be 2024 before it can manage it again. So by the time it should have filed five such reports and be working on its sixth, EPA expects to file its second. Meanwhile, multiple studies not done by EPA have … [Read more...]
How are Climate Alarmists Like Icarus?
In Greek mythology, the god Icarus tries, with his father Daedalus, to escape from Crete by flying, using wings Daedalus made from wax and feathers. Proudly ignoring his father's warning not to fly too close to the sun lest the wax in the wings melt, Icarus did so and fell into the sea. Ever since then, Icarus has been synonymous with hubris---a foolish combination of pride and over-confidence. Michael Hart, Professor Emeritus and inaugural holder of the Simon Reisman chair in trade policy at … [Read more...]
Is the Democratic Party’s Climate and Energy Platform Defensible?
Pressured by radical environmentalists and multi-billionaires like Tom Steyer who stand to profit, the Democratic Party has issued a new platform statement on climate and energy: Moving beyond the “all of the above” energy approach in the 2012 platform, the 2016 platform draft re-frames the urgency of climate change as a central challenge of our time, already impacting American communities and calling for generating 50 percent clean electricity within the next ten years. The Committee … [Read more...]
Thank You, America—By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
Lord Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount of Brenchley and a frequent writer on climate-change science, is a good friend of the Cornwall Alliance. In honor of our Fourth of July he published this excellent piece on WattsUpWithThat.com, which we are pleased to reproduce here: For my final broadcast to the nation on the eve of Britain’s Independence Day, the BBC asked me to imagine myself as one of the courtiers to whom Her Majesty had recently asked the question, “In one minute, give three … [Read more...]
A Ground-Level View of the Cost of Unwarranted Regulation—and How to Reduce It
Many complaints of the costs of environmental (and other) regulations give us the view from 30,000 feet. In his new article "The Long Arm of the European Community," at American Thinker, Norman Rogers paints the picture at ground level---and it isn't pretty. It's not just that the regulations impose enormous costs but also that they often are based on complete, or nearly complete, ignorance of the activities being regulated. From his 25 years of experience heading a small electronics … [Read more...]
Open Letter to Attorneys General about Climate Change
Dear Attorneys General, You’re not stupid. Stupid people don’t graduate from law school. Neither are you generally ignorant. You know lots of law. But the day of the “Renaissance man,” vastly learned across all fields of knowledge, is long gone. All intelligent and learned people are ignorant about some things. So, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and members of Attorneys General United for Clean Power, take no offense when I tell you that your intent to investigate and … [Read more...]
Climate Litigation in a Topsy-Turvy World
Last month federal magistrate judge Thomas M. Coffin ruled that a lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 children and teenagers seeking damages from the federal government for its failure to fight climate change (enough) could go forward. His decision surprises many legal scholars, but Michael B. Gerrard, Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (I can't resist the temptation to refer to King Canute!) commented, It is the first time a federal court has suggested that government may have a … [Read more...]
Can We Defend Liberty against a Militarized EPA?
Did you know that the federal Environmental Protection Agency spends millions of dollars on guns, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear, and other military-style weaponry and surveillance activities? You read that right—EPA, not the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Why? Because EPA regulations are so ubiquitous, so onerous, and so contrary to the spirit of our freedom-loving nation that ordinary Americans find … [Read more...]
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