Report States Keystone KL Will Have No Impact On Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By William Teach August 9, 2013 – 8:37 am

So far, every environmental and global warming study has found Keystone XL to be not an issue. Here’s another one

(The Hill) The Keystone XL oil sands pipeline “will not have any impact” on greenhouse gas emissions, a report released by prominent energy industry consulting group IHS CERA said Thursday.

The report said that’s because Canada’s oil sands, which are more carbon-rich than conventional oil, will come out of the ground with or without Keystone.

“In the absence of Keystone XL, we would expect similar volumes of heavy Canadian oil sands to be produced. Industry would turn to alternative pipeline projects and rail for oil sands transportation,” the report said.

IHS CERA said it prepared the report in response to President Obama’s June statement that he’d oppose the controversial Canada-to-Texas pipeline if it “significantly exacerbates” carbon pollution.

Part of the reason is that, as noted, the tar-sands oil is coming out one way or another. The question is “who gets it?” Oil Sands Fact Check notes

As IHS CERA points out, there are two key reasons that Keystone XL will not significantly impact the climate: 1) heavy crude oil will be refined in the U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) refineries regardless – but without Keystone XL, much of that crude will be imported from Venezuela instead of Canada and 2) Canadian oil sands will be transported via rail or other pipelines with or without Keystone XL.

The report also notes that the #1 recipient of a negative Keystone XL decision will be Venezuela.

With the release of this important study, it’s worth pointing out that the Keystone XL debate has never really been about whether the pipeline would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions – it won’t.  It has always been about off-oil proponents using Keystone XL as a “symbol” to pursue their agendas.

And don’t take our word for it.  Just this week, a Nature article featured several climate experts conceding that point.

  • David Keith, a Canadian climate scientist at Harvard said, “The extreme statements — that this is ‘game over’ for the planet — are clearly not intellectually true…”
  • David Victor, a climate-policy expert at the University of California explained, “As a serious strategy for dealing with climate, blocking Keystone is a waste of time. But as a strategy for arousing passion, it is dynamite.”
  • Ken Caldeira, climate researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California put it this way: “I don’t believe that whether the pipeline is built or not will have any detectable climate effect.”

The opposition to Keystone XL has always been about typical unhinged hatred of fossil fuels by the Warmists, who were looking to gin up yet another fake issue to keep the Warmist masses engaged as the climate refuses to cooperate with computer models, going up a statistically insignificant 0.14F since 1997 and just 0.28F since 1990. Yet, these same Warmists are going off to the anti-Keystone rallies in their own fossil fueled vehicles and/or taking fossil fueled flights.

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Obama To Hold Rare Press Conference Friday Afternoon

By William Teach August 9, 2013 – 8:13 am

Where he’ll pull his typical schtick and bloviate on questions for 5-10 minutes without actually answering any tough questions

(ABC News) The news conference scheduled for 3 p.m. EDT also comes a day before Obama leaves Washington for a nine-day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

First question: “why were you so late to your own announced PC”? I’m placing my bet on 3:22 for when he shows up. What’s your guess?

The Hill offers 10 questions for the PC, which include:

  • How significant is the Middle East terror threat, and what does it mean for U.S. progress in the fight against al Qaeda? (I’d refer you to the DoD for that answer)
  • What can the United States do about Edward Snowden, and are you concerned about more leaks? (wags finger at Putin)
  • Has the White House been forthcoming about the extent and scope of the National Security Agency surveillance? (I’d refer you to the NSA for the answer)
  • Should the Washington Redskins change their team name? (he’d love this puff question, and would expound on it at length)

How about this one from Hill reader weinermobile

How about … “Please explain to us why Congress and staffers are now exempt from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act?”

And from PopTheLid

Can you provide us an update on Benghazi and bringing the murderers of American citizens to justice.

Politico also offers 6 questions , none of which include notions such as

  • Why are you taking yet another super expensive 1%er vacation in the middle of economic stagnation where many Americans can’t even afford to take a week off work, much less even a staycation?
  • What have you done to stop the abuses by the IRS, which is, in case you didn’t know, a federal agency under your command, which is supposedly still targeting Conservative groups?
  • When you refer to “phony scandals”, which ones are you referring to?
  • Since you think Benghazi is a “phony scandal”, would you be willing to meet with the mother of Sean Smith, killed during the action? Have you even called her?
  • Do you have any actual new and actionable ideas for the economy, rather than just speeches?
  • Why is the implementation of your signature legislation, Obamacare, such a miserable failure, and will you sign up on the exchange yourself? Follow up: why are costs spiraling out of control? Follow up: why can’t we keep our health plans and doctors after your saying over and over that we could?
  • What’s up with the growing Democrat opposition to “death panels”? Oh, and would you care to apologize to Sarah Palin for all the grief you and Dems gave her over this?

What questions would you ask?

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Bummer: Slate Will No Longer Refer To Washington Redskins As Redskins

By William Teach August 8, 2013 – 5:14 pm

You know, because everyone looking for Redskins football coverage automatically goes to Slate first (and because having solved every world problem, Slate can now deal with this)

This is the last Slate article that will refer to the Washington NFL team as the Redskins.

I wasn’t aware of the first Slate article, because I’d generally go to CBS Sports, ESPN, or dozens of other sites regarding sports. Not that I’d look up Redskins news in the first place.  So, I’m generally not bummed, because I refer to them as the Deadskins. BTW, this article is by David Plotz, the editor of Slate.

I’m a lifelong fan of the team, and Snyder and his players should be justly proud of the way their team bridges black and white Washington

Well, if you find the name so racist/bigoted, you’d move on to a different team. Also, it’s funny how Plotz Blames Snyder, when the name goes back to 1937, and Snyder wasn’t born till 1964.

So while the name Redskins is only a bit offensive, it’s extremely tacky and dated—like an old aunt who still talks about “colored people” or limps her wrist to suggest someone’s gay.

Wait, I’m confused: I thought it was mega-huge offensive and people should be offended just to see the logo, and so bad that Slate will no longer use the name?

And what should replace Redskins? A D.C. city councilmember cleverly proposed “Redtails,” the nickname of the Tuskegee Airmen. It nods at the city’s African-American heritage, and would allow Snyder to keep a feather in the logo. If he doesn’t like that, he could call them the Snyders, a name that would sate even his ego. But here’s my choice: If the team’s star quarterback works out as well as Snyder hopes, there’s a perfect name that would allow the team to keep the feathers and the ferocity: the Washington Griffins.

I still prefer Deadskins. Or, how about “It’s OK, little buckaroos, there’s always next year?” But, I think that might be taken by the Cowgirls, er, boys.

Interestingly, Slate has no problem when Democrats, including (NMP) Obama, slur Conservatives.

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Posted in Liberal World, Sports | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 8, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a drought world being overtaken by 500 feet of rising seas, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny, with a post that cracks Obama’s czars

Read: If All You See… »

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Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations By Time Period

By William Teach August 8, 2013 – 11:09 am

Tom Nelson says “not to miss this”

He’s right. I’ve cut the chart in two below the fold so we can look at it in a larger format

Read More »

Read: Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations By Time Period »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming, Science | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Tom Harkin Proclaims Some Unknown Southern Senator Called Obama “Exotic”

By William Teach August 8, 2013 – 9:00 am

Harkin’s apparently attempting to earn his race card, despite being whiter than 2 week old floater (if that’s too gross, just think whiter than cotton), along with pumping up the liberal base

(Des Moines Register) U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin provided some behind-the-scenes insight into the partisan animosity that continues to follow Barack Obama in his second term as president.

Harkin, a Democrat, met Wednesday morning with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board. Responding to a question from a columnist about why Republicans seemed determined to see Obama fail, he described a scene from the closed-door meeting among senators that took place last month in the Old Senate Chambers.

During that July 15 meeting – which concerned filibuster rules and included no press and no staff – one senator suggested his constituents still couldn’t identify with Obama.

“I’m not naming any names, but one senator got up from a southern state and said, ‘Well, you’ve got to understand that to my people down here, Obama seems like’ – he thought for a second and he said – ‘like he’s exotic.’”

A spokeswoman for Harkin declined to offer further detail on the exchange, noting that it occurred in a closed-door meeting with only senators present.

He’s not naming names, we’re just supposed to take his word for it that this actually occurred. And his spokeswoman won’t give further details, because it was behind closed doors, even though Tom was giddy enough to throw out this supposed racist tidbit, which is giving liberals, like at The Political Carnival, The Raw Story, comments in the story and at The Daily Caller, the race-baiting vapors

We kind of laughed at that – what’s that mean? Exotic? That he’s just exotic, that he doesn’t share our values and that kind of thing. It was kind of a strange comment.

Let’s see: born in Hawaii, father Kenyan, raised partially in Indonesia, then in Hawaii, and now is a guy who shares few values with roughly half the country, a half which Obama continuously demonizes and denigrates. I’m pretty sure no liberal actually gets to that paragraph before going off in moonbat rage.

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WalMart Applauds The Nation For Finally Paying Its Interns The Minimum Wage

By William Teach August 8, 2013 – 8:16 am

The far left leaning magazine The Nation has been a long time WalMart opposing group (like so many liberals), and has been calling WalMart out saying they need to pay their employees more. Because people who ring things up at a register somehow deserve the same wage as someone filing legal briefs. WalMart states that it pays it’s employees $12-$13 an hour on average. An outside group, IBISWorld, claims that the average associate makes $8.81 an hour.

The Nation recently posted an open letter to company CEO Mike Duke and the Walmart board of directors demanding that Walmart start paying its workers a minimum wage $12 an hour. The letter also includes an online petition that readers can sign.

Walmart is clearly growing tired of being a punching bag and poster child for low wages. So on Wednesday morning, Steven Restivo, a senior director of communications at Walmart, sent out a snarky email directed at The Nation under the subject line: “people who live in glass houses…”

The Nation—“America’s leading progressive print and online magazine”—recently encouraged its readers to sign an open letter demanding that Walmart increase wages to $12/hour and this article called our company one of the “biggest abusers of low-wage labor.”

In an ironic twist, ProPublica recently reported that starting this fall, “interns at the Nation Institute will be paid minimum wage for the first time in the history of the 30-year-old program.” As ProPublica noted, The Nation has been paying its full-time interns a weekly stipend of $150 per week—less than the current federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour.

Is anyone truly stunned to learn that a far left organization whining about income inequality are themselves cheapskates? I’m sure, like with most Liberal hypocrites, whether it be paying more taxes, living the carbon neutral life, paying their employees well, The Nation will have some sort of excuse as to why they weren’t even paying their interns the minimum wage.

Most obviously, there is a difference between full-time Walmart employees, who are trying to support a family on their wages, and The Nation’s interns, who are there mostly for experience and exposure. According to the Nation Institute: “The difference here is that what The Nation has challenged Walmart on is low wages for people in perpetuity as their full-time employment. These are wages that are meant to support families working at Walmart with no end in sight. Our internship is an educational, time-limited engagement that provides a unique training experience for participants. They are wholly different issues.”

And there’s the excuse. Because interns shouldn’t make money to support their families or something. But, WalMart employees also have access to health insurance that starts at $17 a pay period, a 401K plan, and a 10% discount on merchandise, among others. 75% of the management team started as hourly associates. And they like women

Women make up more than 57% of our U.S. workforce, 27% of our corporate officers, and comprise 20% of our Board of Directors – outperforming the U.S. retail industry and Fortune 500 average.

Can The Nation say that? They can say that, with the wage boost, they are only hiring 10 interns instead of 12, which validates the notion that if a company pays more than the position is worth something has to be cut, which is usually either the number of hours worked or number of jobs.

There’s also a basic premise: no one should be applying for a basic job making low wages as a means to support a family. Of course, in the Obamaeconomy, what is is there?

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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DUmmy Wonders If “This Is The Final Question That America Is Asking Itself”

By William Teach August 7, 2013 – 5:48 pm

It’s been awhile since I’ve featured the DUmmies. Here’s one that amused me

I guess this is the final question that America is asking itself.

Does anyone have a right to a place to live, food for themselves and their family, clean water, an education for their child, or the benefit of representation in their own Government if it is not profitable for someone else?

If the answer is yes, that a person has a right to all of those things without concern that someone must profit from it for it to happen, then we have one hell of a lot of changes that must be made.

But, the answers, except for that last one, are “no.” Can you take someone else’s home, their food? No. There is no “right” to education.

But said DUmmy put it in terms of someone profiting. I always get a kick out of this, because, for one, these same lefties are posting using corporate made laptops, tablets, and smartphones, wearing corporate made clothes, living in some sort of domicile, using corporate owned Internet, all provided for because THEY made a profit doing whatever job they do.

Second, liberals are the least charitable. Study after study confirms this. Liberals are fine with giving away Other People’s money, but not their own. Even Democrat politicians are cheapskates. Until election time comes around.

Of course, most of the DUmmies were thrilled by this. But none are saying they will give up their own profit. Almost none of the liberals in Hollywood, music, sports, etc, are willing to give up tons of their own money. Except to elect Democrats. But not help others. Nor will they take paycuts. This is always for Someone Else.

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 7, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a drought world that will soon be swallowed by rising seas, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Bookworm Room, with a post noting that Obama would prefer that Americans die in terrorist attacks.

Read: If All You See… »

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World Continues To Broil Or Something

By William Teach August 7, 2013 – 11:07 am

No, seriously, despite there being, as the article notes, no warming in at least 10 years. This comes from one of the biggest “climate change” at the AP, Seth Borenstein, continuing his practice of activist journalism

World continues to broil, NOAA’s 2012 report on warming finds

A new massive federal study says the world in 2012 sweltered with continued signs of climate change. Rising sea levels, snow melt, heat buildup in the oceans, and melting Arctic sea ice and Greenland ice sheets, all broke or nearly broke records, but temperatures only sneaked into the top 10.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday issued a peer-reviewed 260-page report, which agency chief Kathryn Sullivan calls its annual “checking on the pulse of the planet.” The report, written by 384 scientists around the world, compiles data already released, but it puts them in context of what’s been happening to Earth over decades.

So, activism from the NOAA. I wonder if they noted the cool temperatures in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East last year? How about the cool in the Southern latitudes? How about Antarctica continuing to cool down? How about the dearth of landfalling tropical systems? Fewer tornadoes?

(National Climatic Data Center director Tom) Karl says surface temperatures haven’t risen in the last 10 years, but he notes that is only a blip in time due to natural variability. When looking at more scientifically meaningful time frames of 30 years, 50 years and more than 100 years, temperatures are rising quite a bit, Karl said. Since records have been kept in 1880, all 10 of the warmest years ever have been in the past 15 years, NOAA records show.

Two points: first, over the past 50 years we’ve seen “climate scientists” and media types concerned about a coming ice age, due to a typical short term variability last from the 1940’s to the late 1970’s, which then turned towards more warming, with a big uptick lasting from the late 1970’s to early 1990’s. Since 1990, though, there has only been an uptick of .28F, and .14F since 1997. Not something to actually freak out about. Overall, there’s really only been an uptick of 1.4F since the end of the Little Ice Age, which, again, is not that big of a deal compared to previous warm periods.

Second, perhaps Mr. Karl should review the data from his own NCDC, which shows that 3 of those record years (it appears that he is referring to US lower 48 records) occurred well before CO2 at 350ppm. These include 1934, 1921, and 1931.

Depending on which of four independent analyses are used, 2012 ranked the eighth or ninth warmest year on record, the report says. Last year was warmer than every year in the previous century, except for 1998 when a record El Nino spiked temperatures globally. NOAA ranks 2010 as the warmest year on record.

WTF? Eight or ninth warmest on record, but still warmer than every year in the 20th? BS.

While the report purposely doesn’t address why the world is warming, “the causes are primarily greenhouse gases, the burning of fossil fuels,” Arndt says.

So, the report is about advocacy, not science. I wonder how they’ll treat 2013, considering that it has been very cool around most of the globe….oh, right, I forgot, the heat is doing a Where’s Waldo in the deep oceans.

(BTW, we can’t necessarily blame the headline for the article on Borenstein, since headlines are most often written by someone else when it comes to news organizations)

More: NoTricksZone highlights that 2012 was one of the coolest of the 21st century, and provides much more in destroying the report

For example the NOAA writes that the Arctic sea ice extent last year reached a record low “during the satellite era“. However, the satellite era only goes back 33 years, and the NOAA couldn’t be bothered to tell readers that low Arctic sea ice also persisted in the 1950s and is all part of natural cycles, and is thus not “unprecedented“. Also read here.

Make sure to read the whole article.

Read: World Continues To Broil Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming, New Climate Deniers | 2 Comments | Trackback URL
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