One of the most difficult things in writing a blog post is to do research. So often it feels like finding a string, following it and pulling on it and then discovering the ball of yarn. And you just can’t stop.
Global warming is a scam. ( What a treat to have someone like Alec Rawls posting here.) The scam has earned such bad publicity that the phrase “climate change” was substituted for “global warming.”
Barack Obama wanted desperately to impose a Cap and Trade system upon this country. It would have been one of the worst things that could have happened to us. It would little to nothing at a gigantic cost. The underpinning of the system is carbon trading, or carbon offsets or carbon credits.
But let’s look at just how much of a farce this is. From the Times-News Magic Valley (H/T IOTW)
One Idaho wind company has a plan to get more green for each gust.
Idaho Winds LLC, representing eight local wind farms, has petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve its unconventional plan to sell renewable energy credits in California.
In its Dec. 15 request, Idaho Winds proposed to sell wind energy and related renewable energy credits to a third party. The catch was Idaho Winds would instantly buy the power back, leaving just the credits, which the third party would sell to a California utility.
In essence, no energy would be sold — just California credits for wind power sold in another state.
The looney bin that is California has its own Cap and Trade system and a specific law which says:
California, along with most Western states, has a law requiring that renewable sources provide a certain percentage of the state’s energy needs. With every unit of renewable energy it buys or produces, a utility receives a renewable energy credit. At least 20 percent of California’s energy needed to come from renewable sources this year, with that percentage jumping to a full third by 2020.
As it stands, California utilities buy the energy and energy credits together. But after the initial purchase, the credits can be “unbundled” from the energy so utilities can just buy the credit. That’s the loophole Idaho Winds hopes to use.
So Idaho fabricates energy credits out of thin clean air and sells them to California utilities which pass those costs on to consumers.
And the air doesn’t get one carbon molecule cleaner.
And this is just a small piece of the overall scam.
At WIRED, Spencer Reiss notes this about carbon offsets:
A few fun facts: All the so-called clean development mechanisms authorized by the Kyoto Protocol, designed to keep 175 million tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere by 2012, will slow the rise of carbon emissions by … 6.5 days. (That’s according to Roger Pielke at the University of Colorado.) Depressed yet? Kyoto also forces companies in developed countries to pay China for destroying HFC-23 gas, even though Western manufacturers have been scrubbing this industrial byproduct for years without compensation. And where’s the guarantee that the tree planted in Bolivia to offset $10 worth of air travel, for instance, won’t be chopped down long before it absorbs the requisite carbon?
Abd guess who stands to become the first “Green Billionaire” ?
None other than Al Gore.
Al Gore, the former US vice president, could become the world’s first carbon billionaire after investing heavily in green energy companies.
From Dan Riehl
Former Vice President Al Gore has built a Green money-making machine capable of eventually generating billions of dollars for investors, including himself, but he set it up so that the average Joe can’t afford to play on Gore’s terms. And the US portion is headed up by a former Gore staffer and fund raiser who previously ran afoul of both the FEC and the DOJ, before Janet Reno jumped in and shut down an investigation during the Clinton years.
As Bill Hobbs first pointed out, Gore supposedly pays for his extra-large carbon footprint through Generation Investment Management (GIM) – and if you’re looking to go green, and have your wallet go along with Gore, think again – average people are too insignificant to play – verifiable from this pdf.
Generation is based in London, with its U.S. offices in Washington, DC. The firm will manage the assets of institutional investors such as pension funds, foundations and endowments, as well as those of select high net worth individuals.* Generation expects to make extensive use of long-term performance based fees. Generation will begin its investment management business in early 2005.
So playing in this carbon trading sandbox is limited to the astronomically rich, and not you and me or even those awful people making $250,000 a year.
Riehl lists a number of companies who have invested large sums of money in Al Gore’s control. One of them is General Electric. Jeffrey Immelt is the CEO of GE.
In early 2009 Jeffrey Immelt was appointed to Barack Obama’s Economic Advisory Board. About the same time Immelt chewed out NBC reporters for negative stories about Barack Obama. In April of 2009 Immelt was identified as one of the few Fortune 500 CEO’s who supported Obama.
In 2007 the Climate Action Partnership was formed by several corporations to come up with a solution to curbing greenhouse gases, aka CAP. One of the largest corporations that is part of this organization is GE. GE currently is also the largest manufacturer of clean energy equipment such as windmills, natural gas and nuclear power. Since GE already has the technology that will be required for other companies to purchase, with the sales of its products alone in order for companies to abide by any Cap & Trade laws, GE stands to make billions. GE has spent a cool million dollars the past year alone touting their green energy initiatives in a marketing blitz, as if their corporate policy is ‘caring about the environment.’ Immelt is quoted as saying “I didn’t come to this as an environmentalist, I come to it as an industrialist,” “I’m a capitalist, plain and simple.” While I totally agree with capitalism and think it’s great he wants to earn cash for GE, I don’t agree that it should be on the backs of the American people who will truly pay the price for Cap & Trade.
The trade part of Cap & Trade is where companies like Goldman Sachs come into play. You see, those companies that do not use their entire allotment of emissions, can sell them to other companies who may need more. Yes, Wall Street is also in on Cap & Trade. Wall Street will be trading these ‘excess allotments’ as commodities. The very Wall Street companies that Obama constantly derides and claims consist of greedy people who hurt Americans will be earning billions thanks to his plan. One industry analyst believes that this Cap & Trade trading on Wall Street could turn into a $2 trillion business within five years.
Goldman Sachs. I’ll be getting back to them in a couple of days.
Joe Weisenthal says Obama’s Climate change policy is a gift for GE :
GE needs all the help it can get right now, with its stock hurtling closer towards $0 on a daily basis. The company obviously stands to benefit from infrastructure buildout, and from capturing its share of green (energy) dollars. The more wind-turbines we erect, the better for GE.
But there’s a nexus between its green ambitions and its finance unit in the form of a new venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which will facilitate the trade of carbon tax credits.
Thus as Tim Carney* notes, GE has been lobbying heavily for a cap-and-trade system, rather than a straight tax system which wouldn’t require a market. And of course they got their wish:
GE — a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade — leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions.
In the fourth quarter of 2008 as the company’s stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying.
Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gore’s agenda. GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,” “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.”
GE contributed over half a million dollars to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign.
And that new entity, Greenhouse Gas Services? Guess who else is part of that?
Google to Use Greenhouse Gas Services’ Standard of Practice for Emissions Reduction Project
ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Greenhouse Gas Services LLC (GHGS), a venture between GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE (NYSE:GE), and The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES), announced today that it has signed a master agreement with Google to co-develop projects that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and produce GHG credits. The initial project will capture methane gas at the Mount Herman landfill in Caldwell County, North Carolina.
“We’re working with Google at the site level to create GHG credits that are certified to our Standard of Practice, ensuring they represent a real and permanent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions”
.As one of the first emissions reduction co-development projects in the US, Greenhouse Gas Services (GHGS) will design, build and operate the facility that will capture more than 120,000 tons of landfill gas over ten years. The project will use the GHGS Standard of Practice to govern the creation, management and retirement of the credits. Google will add these offsets to its carbon portfolio to advance its goal of company-wide carbon neutrality.“We’re working with Google at the site level to create GHG credits that are certified to our Standard of Practice, ensuring they represent a real and permanent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mauricio Vargas, CEO of GHGS.
GE and Google will be seeking control of Renewable Energy Credits market.
Eric Schmidt of Google supported the Presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. Google contributed $800,000 to Obama’s campaign. Google pays 2.4% in taxes.
And now you know the rest of the story. The biggest screwing of your life is coming to a town near you. This has nothing to do with the environment. It’s all about making the very most wealthy even more wealthy with the money of those with less.
Much less.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
@Nick Machiavelli: #49
I first have to ask you if you own stock, or have anything to do with any of the companies that would profit from such devices? So many times we find out this is the driving force: Global warming and Al Gore’s carbon credits, GE’s wind generators, etc. Then we find out that it was all faked to make money.
Many years ago each house was going to have their own hydrogen powered electricity. Many other devices have been proposed. Before we get too hopeful on any new products, lets first make sure it isn’t a ripoff scheme or a way for somebody to get Federal development money and then use it on themselves. I will wait and see. When you are as old as I am and have seen things like this come and go, that is the best policy.
Will you let them store the nuclear waste near your house? You haven’t answered that question yet. I think every person who wants nuclear power expanded should sign a contract stating that they will allow the waste to be within a certain distance from them.
Even if it is stored far away from populated areas, 10,000 years from now that area might be a lake, or lave could have crept upward and it became a volcano. Earthquakes happen in unexpected places. One could easily open up a storage area no matter how deep we bury it. Let’s find a way to get rid of the waste before we make any more of it.
This means that there will be thousands of vehicles all over the USA and other countries with nuclear fuel to deliver. If you don’t see the problem with this, I ain’t going to try to explain it.
I’m done talking about this subject.
Home basement mini-power plants.
LichtBlick AG has been promising the Germans that for years now.
Their latest promise is that folks keep a VW natural gas motor in the basement to heat and light their home.
Unfortunately they keep taking the money and making the promises, but never deliver a thing.
2009:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2009/gb2009099_395466.htm
Last week:
http://energyforthetaking.com/general/mini-power-plants-run-on-vw-natural-gas-motors-made-in-germany/
Obama told Sen. Reid he intended to kill Yucca Mountain, so why did he propose to spend nearly $200 million on it in his 2010 budget?
Why did he work with Congress in February to agree to spend $288 million this year?
He has no alternative.
And unless he keeps it open the federal gov’t must send money to every nuclear power plant in the USA, money for defaulting on the gov’t’s promise to dispose of the waste.
Research has already been done, for decades, at a cost of billions.
Yucca Mountain can safely hold our nation’s nuclear waste.
Obama used to promise he wanted science back in gov’t.
Wha happened?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70G0VB20110117?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Reuters is reporting ……….
that a conservation group (no, not me! 😉 ) is suing the feds (including, but not limited to: U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service) for racing to license a solar power plant in a CA desert where our migratory birds, desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, rare plants and other stuff will all be negatively impacted.
This is not one of the other 6 solar plants Obama is rushing into that are being sued by Native American groups….for pretty much the same reasons.
Seems Obama is throwing environmental groups under the bus for his Soros/Gore/carbon trading buddies with the deep pockets.
With ANYTHING there are ALWAYS trade-offs- there is a negative for every positive, you get nothing for nothing.
Nuclear power means that there is waste to dispose of- that is a given- what is not seems to be whether anyone would want it dumped into a hole near them.
Solar is a pipe dream, at least until they get a cost efficient solar “film” developed that you could “Wrap” your ride in, or coat on a metal roof on your house.
Wind? Fuggidaboutit- Just the bird strikes alone have the eco- nuts biting their behinds like rabid curs, and even I am not too crazy about a power source that is sometimes not there, and sometimes too much for the turbines to take.
Hydrogen would be good, but that is the future- that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work on it until we have run out of fossil fuel, but we should be researching it ALONGSIDE existing drilling technologies, all done domestically.
Most people are too young to remember how dirty our environment USED to be- we had rivers that you could set on fire, and the smog was FAR worse than it is now- we have done much, and we need to keep it up, but not with stifling regulations.
Co2 a poison? I bet our plant life would respectfuly disagree.
@Blake: Blake, I live between the Kaw and the Missoura River at the break between our states. I’ve had to endure the spill-over from urban debauchery. You would be outraged to see their behavior. I pray you are either “ignorant” or “clueless”.
@KansasGirl: Ignorant or clueless regarding just what, exactly? The amount of trash that others throw away carelessly? I know about THAT- human behavior is the same the world over, and we, as people, treat virtually everything like dixie cups, all disposable.
But what I was relating to is the fact that I was raised in Houston, where, on certain days, you could TASTE the air from the refineries. I grew up on Buffalo Bayou, which was an untreated storm sewer outlet, rather than the creek it used to be, and now is again.
So we have come a long ways- and the purpose of my previous post was just to point out that, contrary to many a liberal, we have not sat idle, but then we have not needed the govt.’s “boot on our throats” to get the job done, either.
@Blake: sounds to me like you are allowing the government to put a “boot on your throat”. That is your choice, not mine.
No, I have no boot on my throat, but the govt. wants to do this to you, me, and everyone else, by declaring Co2 a poison gas- that is just ridiculous, and only a simpleton with NO botany or biology understanding would think that way.
You see, that is the major trouble with progressive liberals- they believe that they, and ONLY they, know what is best for us, and the rest of us should sit down and shut up.
There are many ways that man screws up the environment, and many ways we could begin to “fix” the problems, but none of THESE ways are of financial benefit to these progressive elites, and don’t lead to control of the mob (us) by nudging us to where they, the elite snobs, want us to go.
Now, if you believe I am “clueless”, then that is your opinion- just remember, everyone has one.
Danny: There is another more stelthy level at which Green Power operates to transfer wealth as well as inflate prices of good and commodities. If electricity prices are raised, money is siphoned out of people’s bank accounts to pay for high priced green power. Not only goes the cost of Green Power inflate nearly everything but the price of energy from conventional oil and natural gas power plants also increases. In California for example, Tom Steyer put $5 million to defeat the opposition to Green Power on the ballot in November 2010 (Prop 23). Stevyer is the external fund manager for Cal_PERS pension fund that lost 25% of its portfolio value in 2008. By using California’s Green Power Law to blockade the cheapest forms of power – coal and hydropower – there is no competition for high priced conventional and green power and their price will thus inflate. By arbitraging in the stock market Stever aims to reap a windfall from Green Power through the stock market and plug the deficit in the Cal-PERS pension fund. This is called “rent seeking” in economics, which means parasitism. Without going to electric ratepayers, the Public Utilities Commission or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Green Power can plunder everyone’s pocketbook with a rate increase that will backfill the Cal-PERS pension fund through stock arbitraging. One could say this is all for the good because taxpayers didn’t have to increase taxes to pay for California’s lucrative pensions. But taxpayers are also utility ratepayers. So without a public vote, with public notice, or public hearings, Green Power is a tool for “rent seeking” and picking of everyone’s pocketbook. This is how we got into the meltdown of the financial system in 2008 when the scheme to suck money from pensions and savings of the elderly into mortgages to encourage affordable housing and family formations to prop up Social Security failed. Green Power in California will likely have the same consequence as sub prime loans for affordable housing.
wow, you tinfoil hat wearing wingnuts are a hoot.
if you think that oil and nuke power and natural gas are not MASSIVE receivers of corporate welfare, I have a half finished bridge in Alaska to sell you.
@Sean Tq: I notice you didn’t provide any evidence for your assertions. But even if what you allege was true, does it make proper to repeat it with a newer scam? Is that what you’re saying?
Dr John
Be cautious my friend. That is the path to madness, to attempt to discern rationality or logic in the rantings of a liberal hack. If you are really intent on jumping down that rabbit hole, tie a climbing rope to your ankle first so we can pull you back.
@TSgt Ciz: Point taken.