Gas stations to post signs: ‘Californians are paying collectively $2 billion per year in higher gas prices’ because of global warming regs
Sonora, CA — We reported previously that Republican lawmakers at the state capitol were pushing a bill that would have required service stations to post how much money the state’s Cap and Trade program increases gas prices.
The information would be in addition to the excise sales tax figures that stations are already required to post. The bill passed an early committee test, but supporters say it was later quietly killed without a vote of the legislature. Yesterday, the California Independent Oil Marketers Association announced that it will voluntarily start disclosing the information at the pumps. The group represents a quarter of the 10,000 service stations in California.
Association Spokesperson Jay McKeeman says, “Californians are paying collectively $2 billion per year in higher gas prices because of the Cap and Trade program, according to well-founded and publically-available estimates. We want to be transparent with our customers about the components of the price they are paying. That’s why we are fulfilling this responsibility for our members and the general public.”
State officials have estimated that Cap and Trade increases the gas tax by about 10-cents.
…‘It shows that Paris was a sham’ – Scientists: Already Too Late To Meet Obama’s ‘Global Warming’ Goal
Scientists found in a new study it’s already too late to meet President Barack Obama’s Paris global warming agreement goals.
The study, authored by an international team including scientists from nine different countries and published in Nature Wednesday, found limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius — the goal of the Paris agreement — is already essentially impossible according to the best available science.
Many scientists believe the United Nations global warming goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius was both politically motivated and not scientifically plausible. Previously, the U.N. defined a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius as the threshold for “dangerous global warming” and stated a lower target was unfeasible and “naive.” The 1.5 degree target is so close to temperatures today, that it is effectively impossible to meet.
“It is impossible for a number of reasons,” Dr. Pat Michaels, director of the Center for the Study of Science at the libertarian Cato Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “First, the negotiators at Paris assumed that ALL warming since the industrial revolution was caused by greenhouse gases. This includes the 0.4 [degrees Celsius] of warming that occurred from 1910 to around 1945. If that were the case, the sensitivity of temperature to carbon dioxide would be incredibly high (very little was emitted by 1910) and it would be hotter than heck by now.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/30/scientists-already-too-late-to-meet-obamas-global-warming-goal/#ixzz4D63Xjmbi…
Sen Whitehouse: It’s a ‘problem… that the uniformed military has been reluctant’ to ‘fight’ climate change
After claiming that climate denial in the US “hurts” American soldiers deployed overseas, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse says it’s a “problem” that America’s “uniformed military has been reluctant” to engage in the “fight” against climate change. Whitehouse also says that the Navy is “starting to evaluate their base commanders on how well they communicate the risk of climate change”.
SENATOR SHELDON WHITEHOUSE: “The problem has been that the uniformed military has been reluctant to put its voice into– or its image into this fight. So, you’ve got the civilians, you’ve got the Quadrennial Defense Reviews, you’ve got the intelligence estimates, you’ve got the statements from our head of CINCPAC back when Admiral Locklear that this was the threat in the Pacific more than any other likely to disrupt things in a way that would disturb American interests. But, it’s hard to put a panel of people in uniform in front of the Environmental and Public Works Committee and say, you know, I’m a general, I’m an Admiral, I’m the head of the Marine Corps, we’re telling you–. What the Navy has done that’s been really interesting, Ray Maybus said he’s starting to actually evaluate his– you know, the military lives by evaluation– they’re starting to evaluate their base commanders on how well they communicate the risk of climate change about the base. So, if you’re the base commander of Norfolk, or of Naval Station Newport, or of– what is it, Cherry Creek Marine Air Station in North Carolina– you are suddenly have on your checklist of what you’re evaluated on how well you’ve communicated what the risk of climate change is. And, for those bases, for Navy bases particularly, it’s a really real risk. They’re on the sea. Sea level rise is going to swamp what they do. It’s really practical. So, when people hear it from as trusted a source as a uniformed military officer it will make a big difference, and they have not been very forward about it from the uniform side of the military. DOD has been good. Mabus has been the best.”
Time to Wake Up
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
June 17, 2016…
WaPo: Claim that jet stream crossing equator is ‘climate emergency’ is utter nonsense
Two bloggers have made a stunning claim that has spread like wildfire on the Internet: They say the Northern Hemisphere jet stream, the high-altitude river of winds that separates cold air from warm air, has done something new and outrageous. They say it has crossed the equator, joining the jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere, which signifies that it is ‘wrecked‘ and that we have a “global climate emergency.”
But these shrill claims have no validity — air flow between the hemispheres occurs routinely. The claims are unsupported and unscientific, and they demonstrate the danger of wild assertions made by non-experts reaching and misleading the masses.
The two bloggers who have perpetuated this misinformation are Robert Scribbler, who describes himself as ” a progressive novelist, non-fiction writer and emerging threats expert,” and Paul Beckwith, who is working on a PhD with “a focus on abrupt climate system change” at the University of Ottawa.
I reached out to several atmospheric scientists, who have graduate degrees and are trusted sources in the profession, for their reaction to these claims. Without exception, they said air flow between the hemispheres is not at all uncommon.
“This is total nonsense,” said Cliff Mass, a professor of meteorology at the University of Washington. “Flow often crosses the equator.”
Mass added that the cross-equator flow identified by Scribbler and Beckwith is not between mid-latitude jet streams, as claimed. “The analysis is making mistakes that even one of my junior undergrads would not make,” Mass said.
Ryan Maue, a senior meteorologist with a doctoral degree who works at WeatherBell Analytics, agreed with Mass that the cross-equator flow is totally normal and not evidence of a joint hemispheric jet stream. “Cross-equatorial flow at both upper and lower levels is part of the seasonal transition of the Western Pacific monsoon through boreal summer,” he said.
“Sometimes the flows connect up with each other and make it look like a larger flow structure is causing the jet stream to flow from one hemisphere to the other, but it’s in no way unprecedented,” Roy Spencer, a professor of atmospheric science at University of Alabama-Huntsville, explained on his blog.