All Solar, Et Al, In 12 Years?

[Randolph Kinney]

Despite hype of El Niño Grande, California rainy season starts with a whimper

Many Californians have already mentally deposited oceans of rainwater into our depleted reservoirs, thanks to the hype surrounding a projected Godzilla El Niño this year. The only problem is that actual deposits haven't really amounted to much just yet.

Bay Area National Weather Service officials released a friendly reminder Monday that we haven't really seen any relief from our drought at this (very early) point in the rainy season. In fact, we are pacing well behind normal yet again.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Despite-hype-of-El-Nino-Grande-California-rainy-6593533.php

Global Warming and Climate Change computer simulations predict temperatures which are not very realistic or accurate. So too are the computer models of El Nino and rain.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

El Niño Will Lead to Flooding in California This Winter, FEMA Says

It's probably not the message many of parched California's residents expected to hear: buy flood insurance, or else.

But that's exactly what the Federal Emergency Management Agency is telling the Golden State, according to the Los Angeles Times. With a strong El Niño pattern in place, this winter is likely to bring wet weather to California that could cause serious flooding, even in low-risk areas. That means it's time to prepare and buy flood insurance.

AOL.com reported 50 to 70 percent of residents who live in high-risk areas currently don't have flood insurance, and it might be a tall task to convince people that they should buy this type of insurance during a historic drought. More than 97 percent of California is currently in a drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

It's the drought that's causing some of the worries, as the parched ground can act like asphalt when heavy rain falls, the L.A. Times also said. If there is little moisture in the soil, it can harden and won't be as capable of absorbing the rainfall, and this is what led to some of the problems seen in Southern California just days ago during a large mudslide.

"Although the downpour was unrelated to El Niño, it demonstrated how four years of drought and widespread wildfires had impaired the land's ability to absorb large amounts of rainfall," the L.A. Times report said. "Unable to percolate into the soil, the rain raced over the earth, picking up loose soil as it moved to lower elevations."

http://www.weather.com/safety/floods/news/el-nino-california-drought-flooding-FEMA

Good luck with that message of El Nino and Global Warming. Just buy the damn flood insurance.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

$68-billion California bullet train project likely to overshoot budget and deadline targets

Save the planet from global warming bullet train was funded in part by cap and trade revenue

The monumental task of building California's bullet train will require punching 36 miles of tunnels through the geologically complex mountains north of Los Angeles.

Crews will have to cross the tectonic boundary that separates the North American and Pacific plates, boring through a jumble of fractured rock formations and a maze of earthquake faults, some of which are not mapped.

It will be the most ambitious tunneling project in the nation's history.

State officials say the tunnels will be finished by 2022 — along with 300 miles of track, dozens of bridges or viaducts, high-voltage electrical systems, a maintenance plant and as many as six stations. Doing so will meet a commitment to begin carrying passengers between Burbank and Merced in the first phase of the $68-billion high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

However, a Times analysis of project documents, as well as interviews with scientists, engineers and construction experts, indicates that the deadline and budget targets will almost certainly be missed — and that the state has underestimated the challenges ahead, particularly completing the tunneling on time.

"It doesn't strike me as realistic," said James Monsees, one of the world's top tunneling experts and an author of the federal manual on highway tunneling. "Faults are notorious for causing trouble."

The California High-Speed Rail Authority hasn't yet chosen an exact route through the mountains. It also is behind schedule on land acquisition, financing and permit approvals, among other crucial tasks, and is facing multiple lawsuits. The first construction began in Fresno in July, 2 and 1/2 years behind the target the rail authority had set in early 2012.

A confidential 2013 report by the state's main project management contractor, New York-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, estimated that the cost of building the first phase from Burbank to Merced had risen 31% to $40 billion. And it projected that the cost of the entire project would rise at least 5%.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cost-final-20151025-story.html

Wait until a tunnel is being bored through a mountain full of vertical slip faults. That should kill all the crew in the tunnel when either a quake or disturbance of tunneling causes a release of energy stored in the rock formation.

The bullet train was justified by the amount of reduction of plane and car traffic between Los Angeles and San Francisco reducing CO2 emissions.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

$2.2B in cap-and-trade funds begins flowing, boosting rail, housing, clean cars

California is starting to dole out nearly $2.2 billion generated by its cap-and-trade program to cut carbon emissions, allocating funds to hundreds of projects. Winners include regional rail, electric car rebates and rooftop solar for low-income residents.

Revenue from auctions of pollution permits under the system has bolstered the state's budget. A database compiled by ClimateWire shows for the first time precisely where funds have been directed. It reveals that more than $1.4 billion has been pledged to more than 350 recipients.

The biggest beneficiary is the state's high-speed rail line, which so far has reaped $750 million.

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060023868

Money money money. Save the planet from global warming by giving tax benefits to the wealthy to buy electric cars and wealthy homeowners to buy solar panels by taxing electricity and gasoline using cap and trade. Of course the poor and middle-class pay for those benefits to the wealthy but they get the satisfaction of knowing they saved the planet from global warming.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Agency won’t give GOP internal docs on climate research

The federal government’s chief climate research agency is refusing to give House Republicans the detailed information they want on a controversial study on climate change.

Citing confidentiality concerns and the integrity of the scientific process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it won’t give Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) the research documents he subpoenaed.

At the center of the controversy is a study that concluded there has not been a 15-year “pause” in global warming. Some NOAA scientists contributed to the report.

Smith, the chairman of the House Science Committee, vehemently disagreed with the study’s findings. He issued a subpoena for communications among the scientists and some data, leading to charges from Democrats that he was trying to intimidate the researchers.

NOAA spokeswoman Ciaran Clayton said the internal communications are confidential and not related to what Smith is trying to find out.

“We have provided data, all of which is publicly available online, supporting scientific research, and multiple in-person briefings,” she said.

“We stand behind our scientists who conduct their work in an objective manner. It is the end product of exchanges between scientists — the detailed publication of scientific work and the data that underpins the authors' findings — that are key to understanding the conclusions reached.

"There is no truth to the claim that the study was politically motivated or conducted to advance an agenda,” she said. “The published findings are the result of scientists simply doing their job, ensuring the best possible representation of historical global temperature trends is available to inform decisionmakers, including the U.S. Congress.”

Smith defended his investigation, saying NOAA’s work is clearly political.

“It was inconvenient for this administration that climate data has clearly showed no warming for the past two decades,” he said in a statement. “The American people have every right to be suspicious when NOAA alters data to get the politically correct results they want and then refuses to reveal how those decisions were made.”

Smith also said NOAA’s assertion of confidentiality is incorrect.

“The agency has yet to identify any legal basis for withholding these documents,” he said, adding that his panel would use “all tools at its disposal” to continue investigating.
Smith has been communicating with NOAA about the research since it was published in the summer, and their exchanges have grown increasingly hostile.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-en...nt-give-gop-internal-docs-on-climate-research

Oh yes, it is confidential why altering historical data that has been published for 20 years was done and is in contradiction to satellite data that has yet to be altered.

What a bunch of dopes.

 

[Meandering]

The silo guys just altered their data in July.

.

 

[Meandering]

Beware of the pumpkins! Department of Energy blames Jack O'Lanterns for climate change

• A message on the government website said that 254 million tons of pumpkin waste went into landfill in the United States last year
• The pumpkins decompose into methane, 'a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change'
• The agency asked that trick-or-treaters do something with the vegetable that can have 'a positive environmental and energy impact'
• Experts say its an overreaction

The scariest thing you will come across this Halloween is a Jack O'Lantern, because they are having a huge effect on climate change.

That's the message that has gone up on the Department of Energy's website this week, warning people to be wary of pumpkins on All Hallows Eve.

According to the agency, 'millions of pounds of pumpkins have turned from seasonal decorations to trash destined for landfills, adding to more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year'.

The site says that the waste then decomposes into methane, 'a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide'.

However, the department offers a solution.

They say they are developing two integrated biofineries that will be 'facilities capable of efficiently converting plant and waste material into affordable biofuels, biopower and other products'.

However neither of the facilities are up-and-running yet.

'This Halloween, think of turning this seasonal waste into energy as a very important 'trick' that can have a positive environmental and energy impact,' the message said.

However, experts say it is an overreaction.

Larry Checkon, vice president of the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Association, said pumpkins should hardly be a focus point in the fight against climate change.

'They are a small part of the biomass that is out there, and this is just one of those things the government kind of clues in on occasionally, something new to pick on,' Checkon told Fox News.

'When you consider grass clippings, leaves and garbage, I really don't think pumpkins are the problem.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-Jack-O-Lanterns-causing-climate-change.html

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Report: Obama’s Paris Climate Change Plan to Cost Up to $45 Billion Per Year
Reduces global temperatures less than two-tenths of one degree

Meeting the climate change goals proposed by President Barack Obama for the upcoming United Nations conference in Paris will cost up $38 to $45 billion annually and reduce global temperatures by less than two-tenths of one degree, according to a report released Thursday.

The report, by the American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, calculated the costs of past and pending regulations the administration is planning to use to go around Congress to meet international goals to reduce carbon emissions.

“As the world meets in Paris at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Climate Change during the first two weeks in December, it is important to take note how the U.S. has already regulated greenhouse gases (GHGs),” the report, written by Sam Batkins, AAF’s director of regulatory policy, said. “According to American Action Forum (AAF) research, regulators have already imposed $26 billion in annual costs to limit GHGs and have proposed an additional $1.7 billion. However, to meet President Obama’s climate goals the nation will have to spend up to $45 billion more each year by 2025.”

“What are the benefits of these investments? According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates, previous actions will avert a combined 0.0573 degrees Celsius of warming,” Batkins continued. “Meeting the president’s 2025 goals could add reductions up to 0.125 degree Celsius.”

“In other words, full achievement of the president’s climate goals will cost more than $73 billion in annual burdens to alleviate less than two-tenths of one degree of warming,” he wrote.

If the president achieves his goals, global temperatures will be reduced by 0.1823 degrees.

The report noted that the Obama administration has issued 15 final regulations that relate to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, totaling more than 3,000 pages.

“The total cost from these 15 measures is $230 billion in net present value costs, more than $26 billion in annual burdens, and 2.9 million paperwork burden hours,” AAF said.

The American Action Forum analyzed the costs of regulations already in place, which include CAFE standards for reducing car and truck emissions and rules for power plants.

President Obama’s plan submitted for the COP21 United Nations climate talks in Paris this December is based on regulatory action to work around the Republican-controlled Congress. The goal to reduce carbon emissions by an additional 1.2 billion tons by 2025 involves regulations already in the works, including the EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” targeting emissions from power plants.

Administration officials are banking on pushing through several regulations before Obama leaves office, to reduce the chances they can be undone by the next administration.

“We can achieve this goal using laws that are already on the books, and it will be in place by the time the president leaves office,” said Brian Deese, Obama’s senior adviser on climate change, when the president’s plan was released in March.

“Undoing the kind of regulation we’re putting in place is very tough,” added Todd Stern, the State Department’s chief envoy on climate change.

The report said that climate change rules have already been costly.

“After $28 billion in annual regulatory costs to address climate change, the U.S. is hardly finished if it wants to meet the president’s goals,” the report concluded. “As much as $45 billion per year in regulatory burdens will likely be required to meet the 2025 benchmark, with just a 0.125-degree temperature reduction as a reward. As the U.S. approaches another round of climate negotiations, these figures demonstrate the American people have already shouldered a heavy burden to reduce emissions.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/report...hange-plan-to-cost-up-to-45-billion-per-year/

The cost of EPA regulating CO2 is paid back by the health benefits, so they say. Just remember, ObamaCare will save you $2,500 a year and keep health expenditures from exploding.

Now scientists are claiming that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide are not only heating the planet, they’re making people dumber.

A new study by the Harvard School of Public Health claims “carbon dioxide (CO2) has a direct and negative impact on human cognition and decision-making,” according to ThinkProgress, a left-wing advocacy website.

Cronies get rich from government regulations. Just add that benefit in the pay back of CO2 regulations.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Russia’s Putin Says Global Warming Is ‘A Fraud’

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes global warming is a “fraud” — a plot to keep Russia from using its vast oil and natural gas reserves.

Putin believes “there is no global warming, that this is a fraud to restrain the industrial development of several countries, including Russia,” Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and Putin critic, told The New York Times.

Putin has been casting doubt on man-made global warming since the early 2000s, according to the Times. In 2003, Putin told an international climate conference warming would allow Russians to “spend less on fur coats,” adding that “agricultural specialists say our grain production will increase, and thank God for that.”

Putin’s comments likely came after his staff “did very, very extensive work trying to understand all sides of the climate debate,” according to Andrey Illarionov, Putin’s former senior economic adviser, who’s now a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.

“We found that, while climate change does exist, it is cyclical, and the anthropogenic role is very limited,” Illarionov said. “It became clear that the climate is a complicated system and that, so far, the evidence presented for the need to ‘fight’ global warming was rather unfounded.”

http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/29/russias-putin-says-global-warming-is-a-fraud/

Countries that need to industrialize to give their population a higher standard of living will benefit by ignoring the United Nations and the U.S. on global warming. While the U.S. reduces the standard of living of its population with laws and regulations over CO2 emissions, countries like Russia, China and India will benefit from those actions. More jobs will be exported to those countries to make the solar panels and bullet trains while selling them to the U.S.

The U.S. grows weaker economically while its adversaries grow stronger economically.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

MIT professor: global warming is a ‘religion’

Throughout history, governments have twisted science to suit a political agenda. Global warming is no different, according to Dr. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Global climate alarmism has been costly to society, and it has the potential to be vastly more costly. It has also been damaging to science, as scientists adjust both data and even theory to accommodate politically correct positions,” writes Lindzen in the fall 2013 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

According to Lindzen, scientists make essentially “meaningless” claims about certain phenomenon. Activists for certain causes take up claims made by scientists and politicians respond to the alarmism spread by activists by doling out more research funding. — creating an “Iron Triangle” of poor incentives.

“How can one escape from the Iron Triangle when it produces flawed science that is immensely influential and is forcing catastrophic public policy?” Lindzen asks.

Lindzen compares global warming to past politicized scientific movements: the eugenics movement in the early 20th Century and Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union under Stalin. However, the MIT professor argues that global warming goes even beyond what these past movements in terms of twisting science.

“Global Warming has become a religion,” writes Lindzen. “A surprisingly large number of people seem to have concluded that all that gives meaning to their lives is the belief that they are saving the planet by paying attention to their carbon footprint.”

“There may be a growing realization that this may not add all that much meaning to one’s life, but, outside the pages of the Wall Street Journal, this has not been widely promulgated, and people with no other source of meaning will defend their religion with jihadist zeal,” he added.

A recently leaked report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims there is a 95 percent chance that human activity — mostly from burning fossil fuels — is the main cause of global warming.

However, there has been no rise in global temperatures for the past 15 years.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/29/an-insane-amount-of-people-failed-this-common-tech-security-test/

The update for that 15 year period now shows global warming, no pause comrade. Time to bow down to the god of global warming and be thankful that your tongue has not swollen up to protrude from you face like a sausage, a cause of global warming.