Energy Sec. now admits he was ‘Silly’ to call for $8 per gallon gas in U.S.

Excerpt from House Energy & Commerce Committee release:

Key Excerpt: REP. STEARNS: No. But somehow, your statement, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the ($8 a gallon) levels in Europe,” doesn’t that sound a little bit silly in retrospect for you to say that?

SEC. STEVEN CHU: Yes.

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Scenes from An Earth Day Hearing, Part II

House Energy & Commerce Committee, April 21-23

April 23, 2009

Is $8 gas good or bad? Energy Secretary: ‘Yes’

REP. CLIFF STEARNS, R-Fla.: Last September you made a statement that somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe, which at the time exceeded $8 a gallon. As Secretary of Energy, will you speak for or against any measures that would raise the price of gasoline?
SEC. CHU: As Secretary of Energy, I think especially now in today’s economic climate it would be completely unwise to want to increase the price of gasoline. And so we are looking forward to reducing the price of transportation in the American family. And this is done by encouraging fuel-efficient cars; this is done by developing alternative forms of fuel like biofuels that can lead to a separate source, an independent source of transportation fuel.
REP. STEARNS: But you can’t honestly believe that you want the American people to pay for gasoline at the prices, the level in Europe?
SEC. CHU: No, we don’t.
REP. STEARNS: No. But somehow, your statement, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” doesn’t that sound a little bit silly in retrospect for you to say that?
SEC. CHU: Yes.

Full Press Release here:


Related Links:

Sec. Chu’s assertions ‘quite simply being proven wrong by the latest climate data’

Arctic could ‘lose the WINTER sea ice’ suggests Obama’s Science Advisor John Holdren! – Warns of Year round ICE FREE Arctic

Flashback: Dem. Senator calls cap-and-trade ‘the most significant revenue-generating proposal of our time’

The Washington Post – April 3, 2009

Article Excerpt: Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) called cap-and-trade “the most significant revenue-generating proposal of our time,” and said it would be difficult to pass without reconciliation because Democrats would be forced to accommodate a handful of Republicans as they did in the debate over the president’s stimulus package. Although winning use of the maneuver is unlikely, Cardin said, “a lot of us don’t want to give up without a fight.”

Full article here:

Sec. Chu’s assertions ‘quite simply being proven wrong by the latest climate data’

Energy Secretary Offers Dire Global Warming Prediction – FoxNews.com – By Major Garrett – April 19, 2009

FoxNews.com Excerpt: Caribbean nations face “very, very scary” rises in sea level and intensifying hurricanes, and Florida, Louisiana and even northern California could be overrun with rising water levels due to global warming triggered by carbon-based greenhouse gases, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday. […] Conservative climate change skeptics immediately denounced Chu’s assessment of the threat and potential consequences of global warming. “Secretary Chu still seems to believe that computer model predictions decades or 100 years from now are some sort of ‘evidence’ of a looming climate catastrophe, said Marc Morano, executive editor of ClimateDepot.com and former top aide to global warming critic Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.

“Secretary Chu’s assertions on sea level rise and hurricanes are quite simply being proven wrong by the latest climate data. As the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute reported in December 12, 2008: There is ‘no evidence for accelerated sea-level rise.'” Morano said hurricane activity levels in both hemispheres of the globe are at 30 year lows and hurricane experts like MIT’s Kerry Emanuel and Tom Knutson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “are now backing off their previous dire predictions.” He said Chu is out of date on the science and is promoting unverified and alarming predictions that have already been proven contrary. End Excerpt.

Full Fox News article here:

Sampling of scientific background of the latest sea level and hurricane data:

Sea Level:

‘No evidence for accelerated sea-level rise’ says Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute – December 12, 2008
Excerpt: In an op-ed piece in the December 11 issue of NRC/Handelsblad, Wilco Hazeleger, a senior scientist in the global climate research group at KNMI, writes: “In the past century the sea level has risen twenty centimeters. There is no evidence for accelerated sea-level rise. It is my opinion that there is no need for drastic measures. It is wise to adopt a flexible, step-by-step adaptation strategy. By all means, let us not respond precipitously.”

U.S. Senate Report on Scientists Counter Computer Model Sea Level Rise Fears – September 26, 2007

Excerpt: Nearly two dozen prominent scientists from around the world have denounced a recent Associated Press article promoting sea level fears in the year 2100 and beyond based on unproven computer models predictions.

Hurricane/Warming Link:

Florida State University: “Global [both Southern and Northern Hemisphere] Tropical Cyclone