Washington’s War Against Your Air Conditioner
By TERENCE JEFFREY
Between now and when they face their final judgment, Barack Obama and John Kerry will never be forced to endure extreme heat — because they will always be able to afford air conditioning.
If they follow the standard pattern, they are sure to get richer when they leave public office because they served in public office.
In a corollary pattern, people grow wealthy in and around Washington, D.C., by taking — directly or indirectly — the tax money other Americans must send to Washington, D.C.
That is why the latest Census Bureau data for median household incomes by county shows that five of the nation’s eight richest counties are suburbs of Washington.
It gets hot in those suburbs in summer time, but the bureaucrats and politicians and contractors who live there have air conditioning in their homes — even if they work for the Environmental Protection Agency.
But if Obama and Kerry have their way, you may not have it in yours someday.
Twenty-eight years ago, the Senate ratified and President Reagan signed a treaty called the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This treaty was designed to stop the use of chlorofluorocarbons, a coolant used in air conditioners and refrigerators that depleted the ozone layer.
The treaty worked. CFCs were replaced with hydrofluorocarbons, which do not deplete the ozone layer.
But then, as John Kerry explained in a speech in New York last month, the Obama administration targeted HFCs.
Kerry conceded that since ratification of the Montreal Protocol “nearly 100 of the most ozone-depleting substances have been completely phased out. As a result, the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking and on its way to full repair.”
“The bad news is that the substances banned by the Montreal Protocol have been replaced by substances that cause a different kind of danger,” Kerry said. “HFCs may be safer for the ozone, but they are exceptionally potent drivers of climate change itself, often thousands of times more potent than, for example, carbon dioxide.”
On Saturday, in Rwanda, the Obama administration and the other governments that are party to the Montreal Protocol agreed to an “amendment” to the protocol that, as a White House “fact sheet” puts it, is designed “to cut the production and consumption of HFCs by more than 80 percent over the next 30 years.”
So, the Obama administration and its global …
Global deal reached to limit greenhouse gases from fridges and air conditioners
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Nearly 200 nations have reached a deal, announced Saturday morning after all-night negotiations, to limit the use of greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide in a major effort to fight climate change.
The talks on hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were called the first test of global will since the historic Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions was reached last year. HFCs are described as the world’s fastest-growing climate pollutant and are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. Experts say cutting them is the fastest way to reduce global warming.
President Barack Obama, in a statement Saturday, called the new deal “an ambitious and far-reaching solution to this looming crisis.” The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it “critically important.”
The agreement, unlike the broader Paris one, is legally binding. It caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process beginning by 2019 with action by developed countries including the United States, the world’s second-worst polluter. More than 100 developing countries, including China, the world’s top carbon emitter, will start taking action by 2024, when HFC consumption levels should peak.
A small group of countries including India, Pakistan and some Gulf states pushed for and secured a later start in 2028, saying their economies need more time to grow. That’s three years earlier than India, the world’s third-worst polluter, had first proposed.
“It’s a very historic moment, and we are all very delighted that we have come to this point where we can reach a consensus and agree to most of the issues that were on the table,” said India’s chief delegate, Ajay Narayan Jha.
Environmental groups had hoped that the deal could reduce global warming by a half-degree Celsius by the end of this century. This agreement gets about 90 percent of the way there, said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.…
Statewide blackout plunges Australia into renewable energy debate
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-storms-idUSKCN11Z06O
| SYDNEY
An unprecedented power outage across South Australia state has stopped production at major miners BHP Billiton and OZ Minerals and left one steelmaker struggling to prevent molten steel from hardening and damaging its factory.
The statewide outage sparked political calls on Thursday for an inquiry into the power sector and questions over the state’s reliance on renewable energy. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was a “wake-up call” to ensure energy security.
Although power has been restored to 90 percent of the state after Wednesday’s statewide blackout, caused by severe storms, industrial areas north and west of the state capital Adelaide and the steel city of Whyalla are still without power.
Whyalla steelmaker Arrium Ltd said it had a blast furnace and four ladles full of molten steel and desperately needed to restore power.
“The situation is quite serious and a lot will depend on what happens in the next hour or two,” said a company spokesman.
The outage has halted more than 300,000 tonnes of annual copper production capacity and knocked out the state’s only lead smelter.
In the city of Port Pirie, the 185,000-tonnes-per-year lead smelter run by Nyrstar NV will be out of action for up to two weeks, the company said on Thursday.…
EPA Quietly Passes New ‘Climate Change’ Regulations for Household Appliances
EPA Finalizes Two Rules to Reduce Use and Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gases
WASHINGTON- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized two rules that will reduce the projected growth and emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a class of chemicals commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning that are potent greenhouse gases and can be hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide. These rules are the latest in a series of actions demonstrating continued commitment by the United States to reduce emissions of climate-damaging HFCs at home, while working with other countries to amend the Montreal Protocol to address HFCs globally.
“These two rules demonstrate the United States’ continued leadership in protecting public health and the environment,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “We are reducing emissions of HFCs that are harmful to the climate system and showing the world that we can do this responsibly and thoughtfully by working with businesses and environmental groups. I’m especially excited that we have taken these actions ahead of next month’s Montreal Protocol negotiations.”
Under Section 612 of the Clean Air Act, EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program is adding to the list of safer and more climate-friendly chemicals for use in the refrigeration and air conditioning and fire suppression sectors; listing several new substitutes as unacceptable in specific end-uses in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector; and changing the status of a number of substitutes that were previously listed as acceptable in the refrigeration and air conditioning and foam blowing sectors. Foam products that contain unacceptable foam blowing agents are also listed as unacceptable.
In each instance where EPA is listing a substitute as unacceptable or changing the status of a substitute from acceptable to unacceptable, EPA has determined that there are other alternatives that pose lower risk overall to human health, the environment, or both. This rule results in environmental benefits from avoided HFC emissions of up to 7 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent (MMTCO2eq) in 2025, equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from 1.5 million cars in one year.
In today’s second action, EPA is strengthening the refrigerant management program under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act and extending the regulations to non-ozone depleting substitutes such as HFCs and other substitutes. This action will lead to reductions in emissions by lowering …
Green Fraudsters: US Calls Out Europe For Emissions Cheating
…Physicist: Proof that alternatives burn more fossil fuels
By Physicist Denis G. Rancourt, PhD
I provide a proof that alternative energy production technologies (wind, solar, ocean energy, biofuels, etc.) necessarily burn more fossil fuel, per quantum of energy generated, than the energy production technologies that directly burn fossil fuel.
(Note: Hydro-electricity is “renewable” but it is not an “alternative” energy.)
If this were not the case, or if there was a realistic potential for this not to be the case, then alternatives could be more economical on a true-coast basis and would be experiencing a consequential surge in development and implementation, without disproportionate (per energy quantum) public investment.
Whereas, the global reality looks like this:
The increases in the insignificant alternatives are tied to disproportionate government investment, incentives, and subsidies, which transfer artificially high costs to citizens and users. As soon as government commitments are reduced or terminated the sector crashes [1].
Here is the said proof.
The true (no public subsidy) cost of any “alternative” is a fair proportional measure of the fossil-fuel expenditure needed to create and maintain the said “alternative”.
This is true because a large fraction of the said true cost is to buy the mechanical (machine) work to entirely manufacture and maintain the alternative technology.
The said mechanical work is needed for every aspect of the production, from mining and transporting ore (or raw material), to making materials from the ore, to making components from the materials, to assembly of the components, to computer design (having built the computers), to feeding and clothing and housing and transporting all the workers involved… (i.e. labour costs), to installing the technology, and to maintain the technology. Operational life-time and disaster installation-replacement must also be counted, as part of “maintenance”.
Maintenance costs are significant. Here are a few provocative pictures that illustrate the point:
The required said mechanical work is energized by the available energy sources. Since 87% or so of energy used, which powers all machine activity, is fossil fuel (not to mention hydro and nuclear), therefore the said mechanical work is mostly energized by burning fossil fuel.
Since the true cost of alternative energy produced is higher than the true cost of fossil fuel energy produced, since true cost is a measure of available energy consumed in producing the energy, and since available energy is mostly (87%) from fossil fuels, it follows that alternative technologies burn more fossil fuel …
NEWSWEEK: ‘CLIMATE CHANGE STUDY FINDS LAST FOSSIL FUEL CAR MUST BE SOLD BY 2035 TO MEET TEMPERATURE GOALS’
Transportation is responsible for 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emission and a new study has found that in order to reach global warming goals—set by world leaders last year—the last fossil fuel car would have to be sold by 2035. The report, which has been backed up by three European research groups, spotlights the importance of transitioning to clean electric cars. Last December, world leaders met in Paris to discuss the climate and rising temperature. Collectively, members attending the summit set a goal: to limit rising temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above temperatures during the pre-industrial era.
“We calculate that the last gasoline/diesel car will have to be sold by roughly 2035,” the CAT report said, adding that it assumes fuel-based vehicles will be on the road until 2050. The findings of this report are significant, as most car makers do not intent to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Toyota, for example, intends to reduce emissions by 90 percent (from 2010 levels) by 2050.
“It’s striking that it’s so early—it means a huge change in the whole automobile industry,” NewClimate Institute’s Niklas Höhne told Reuters.
Already, many experts are concerned that reaching the more ambitious goal—limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius—is near impossible. Reaching this goal would require swift action and sophisticated technology that can efficiently capture carbon.…
WaPo: ‘With more people hitting the road, it’s time for a carbon tax’
…We’re Saved! Massachusetts ‘to fight climate change with sweeping executive order’ – ‘Getting serious about meeting its climate goals’
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed an executive order last week directing state agencies to take steps to ensure the state reaches its 2020 emissions reductions goals, study the state’s vulnerability, and plan proactively for climate mitigation.
Baker called the order “an important step to protect public health and safety, local infrastructure, small businesses, and our state’s abundant natural resources” from climate change.
“Combatting and preparing for the impacts of climate change will require a holistic approach across state and local government and collaboration with stakeholders from all corners of the Commonwealth,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this year, a court found the state failed to put in place regulations that would enable it to achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. In 2050, emissions are to be reduced by 80 percent. The state legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2008.
“The purpose of [the law] is to attain actual, measurable, and permanent emission reductions in the Commonwealth, and… to ensure that legally mandated reductions are realized by the 2020 deadline,” Justice Robert J. Cordy wrote at the time. The court ordered the state to address these regulations.…