In the wake of the astronomical prices at the pump, McCain stood aboard an offshore rig and repeated his 27 year old policy of “lifting the drilling bans covering the federal Outer Continental Shelf off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.”

McCain’s visit came a day ahead of the Minerals Management Service’s lease sale in New Orleans to auction off 18 million acres of the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling. The tracts could potentially yield as much as 400 million barrels of oil, but that amount would only meet the nation’s oil needs for about 19 days, and it would be at least seven to 10 years until oil started flowing.

Ah yes… were the 400 million bbls the only source, that 19 days argument may make sense. But McCain’s recent change of heart, recognizing the importance of drilling as part of a larger energy package, is the approach most polled American’s prefer… an “all of the above” plan. And what better place to showcase the latest drilling technology than aboard the Chevron Genesis.

McCain flew by chopper the 130 miles to the Gulf of Mexico platform is located south of New Orleans, in 2600 ft of water, atop an Outer Continental Shelf field estimated at 160 million bbls. Post drilling flow tests were conducted in which the field produced at rates of up to 8,300 bbl/day. These estimates proved low, and the yield is approximate 10,000 bbl/day. Production at the time of construction/drilling was estimated to peak at about 55,000bbl of oil and 72 million ft³ of natural gas per day.

Speaking from the platform, McCain said:
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(h/t Tom Nelson)

Up first is the maker of the excellent film, The Global Warming Swindle, and how he was vilified but ultimately found to be correct:

As it happens, I have made a number of science documentaries debunking irrational scare stories, and the greens have had a whack at me before – scares are the oxygen of the green movement. And I know from experience how illiberal these liberals are. But even I have been stunned by the sustained ferocity of their response to Swindle.

Besides a vitriolic campaign in the press, the instrument of their fury has been Ofcom. A swift internet campaign rallied the troops. Hundreds of complaints were sent off, many using the same phrases and displaying a surprisingly good knowledge of the Ofcom code.

Every line in the film was subjected to scorn. The contributors were all in the pay of baby-strangling capitalists. As for me? I was a member of the special steering committee of the World Congress of Science Producers. I had recently won an award from the British Medical Association for making the best science documentary of the year. But now I was “worse than a child abuser”.

One complaint stood out. It ran to 200 pages and was orchestrated by three “concerned citizens”. It claimed to be peer-reviewed, which it wasn’t. But it was backed by the great and good of the global warming brigade.

Our response was long and detailed: 300 pages, not counting supporting science papers etc. What has been the result? Read the rest of this entry »

McCain appeals for the votes of 50,000 Harley-riding Americans. Senator Obama appeals for the approval of 200,000 Germans. So which demographic would you rather have: 50,000 Harley riders casting their ballots for you on Election Day, or the support of 200,000 non-citizens who can’t cast a ballot for you?

And a 7 year old girl asks Senator Obama why he wants to run for president of the United States of America.

“America is, uh, is no longer, uh, what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, ‘I don’t want that future for my children.’”
–Barack Obama, 8/7/08, in response to the question of a 7-year old on why he was running for president.

“No longer what it could be. What it once was.”….?!?!…….sounds like he’s endorsing John McCain. He certainly isn’t taking us to a previous time in American history, since the country has never swung as hard left as his policies seem to want to take us.

There’s an interesting book by Gregg Easterbrook called The Progress Paradox How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. In it, the author talks about how it is within human nature to romanticize the past and fabricate a belief that somehow, our grandparents had it better; and that today, we are far worse off. Easterbrook points out, in so many significant ways, how the world is a far better place to live in today than it ever was in human history….even as we feel as though things are a disaster.

I believe some of that is going on here, injected by a steroid shot of BDS political hyperbolic scaremongering that for the last 8 years President Bush has become “the worst president in history”- even though his legacy’s history can’t possibly be known yet- taking the country down a dark path of misery, imperialistic overreach, ruining the economy and taking from the poor and giving to the rich, gas prices shooting up to levels paid at by so many people in other countries, failure to prevent 9/11, failure in Katrina, failure to stop global warming and ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, Terri Schiavo, causing Americans to be hated around the world, taking us lying us into war, abu Ghraib and human rights violations through Gitmo and rendition programs, stripping away our civil liberties, the Constitution’s just a piece of paper, and seizing unprecedented presidential powers. I’m sure I missed a few.

If I had the time on my hands, I’d go through and point out statistical comparisons and facts that on so many points, the BDS sufferers have placed personal politics over reality, because it’s all happening under Bush’s watch.

If these last 8 years have been the worst years in American history due to the leadership of one man, I’d say give me more of the same. Give me more of the McSame over Barack Obama, any year of the decade.

Newt:

He does a great job describing some of the Democrats who have some common sense and being pro-energy while describing Pelosi as the measly little shrew she is.

The leadership, the speaker, the Senate majority leader, contemporarily avoid facing reality. It may be that speaker Pelosi believes that going on a book tour and selling her book is a better idea then solving America’s energy problem.

But it still doesn’t make amends for this embarrassing Newt moment.

Politico has a piece today that echoes my original belief that Obama’s “change” of heart on drilling is nothing but a safe political ploy for election purposes. In other words, say what the public wants to hear, and deliver nothing.

Martin Kady II and Patrick O’Conner’s dual byline, “At-risk Dems back drilling”, cites Democratic aides confirming the divide in the DNC on the issue of drillling on US territories is nothing but a sham.

California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may be trying to save the planet — but the rank and file in her party increasingly are just trying to save their political hides when it comes to gas prices as Republicans apply more and more rhetorical muscle.

But what looks like intraparty tension on the surface is part of an intentional strategy in which Pelosi takes the heat on energy policy, while behind the scenes she’s encouraging vulnerable Democrats to express their independence if it helps them politically, according to Democratic aides on and off Capitol Hill.

No surprise there. Let the safe elected ones take the heat, while those up for re’election dazzle the voters with promises that will never be fulfilled. No one could better illustrate the masking of the truth better than the DNC’s slick front man, Barack Obama. As I pointed out in my Aug 2nd post, Obama “plays” bipartisan on energy, he has placed some insurmountable caveats on what any compromise that includes oil drilling must include.

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(A big hat tip to Tom Nelson for the following stories)

First up! Mr. Al Gore:

The head of a group founded by Al Gore told lawmakers on Thursday that the former vice president’s goal of generating all U.S. electricity from clean, renewable sources within 10 years is ambitious but attainable.

Cathy Zoi, CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection, told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that there were no technological or other obstacles in the way of clean power.

Now that is news. The head of a group founded by Gore endorses Gore’s idea. Just shocking!

More Gore:

As the Official Carbon Advisor, Camco Global will “work with the DNCC to estimate the Convention’s carbon footprint.” Who is Camco Global? One of Al Gore’s investments, of course. The Blood and Gore team (Generation Investment Management, with chairman Al Gore and managing partner David Blood – a former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management) has purchased almost ten percent of Camco Group…

Bias and swindling….Gore’s specialties. Read the rest of this entry »

Comes as no surprise that Obama reconsiders oil in an energy package, as I’m sure the handlers are ever keeping an eye on poll opinions on energy.

His restrictive energy plan, consisting of alternative energies only, isn’t going to fly in the face of Americans’ financial reality, so BHO has reversed course and said he would accept an expansion of offshore oil drilling as long as it was part of a broader package of measures that would free the logjam of energy bills in Congress.

“My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. “If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well-thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”

But he has a few caveats…

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Latest video after the uproar from the gallery from CSPAN above.

For the lead up to this moment in time, see Curt’s post, Shocking “Do Nothing” Congress

And for the print version of the “power outage” story, see Wordsmith’s Political theater I can believe in.

More groundwork from the path leading to today’s uproar… from yesterday’s Union Leader op-ed page:

Outrageously and indefensibly, the Democratic majority in Congress callously plays politics while the people burn their paychecks on $4-a-gallon gasoline.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are desperate to avoid a vote on oil drilling before the November elections. They know they will lose such a vote, and they fear Republicans will get credit for taking action to lower oil and gas prices.

So to prevent that electoral nightmare, they simply refuse to allow a floor vote on offshore drilling, which is now supported by more than two-thirds of the American people. Instead, they propose tighter regulations on commodities speculators. In both the Senate and the House, Democratic leaders called for votes this week and last on bills to further regulate oil speculators. They did so after the Commodities Futures Trading Commission issued a report concluding that speculators were not driving up the price of oil and gas.

Yesterday, the House voted to adjourn for its August recess and leave the oil issue unresolved. The vote was 213-212.

Both of New Hamsphire’s representatives, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, had the power to keep the House in session until oil and gas prices were addressed. They chose to go home without holding a vote on the most pressing economic problem in recent memory. They will be home for the next five weeks. You might take this opportunity to tell them what you think about their decision to head off for vacation while the average price of gas in New Hampshire sits at $3.90 a gallon.

This is how the GOP gains back seats in Congress:

House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House and turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.
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Everyone remembers this interview of Obama in which he said that he doesn’t mind the high price of gas. In fact, its a good thing. He is just annoyed it rose so fast instead of gradually:

Well, his cohorts in the Senate agreed and adjourned this session without passing any bill that would deal with energy in a responsible manner. Specifically, ensuring we are not so dependent on others oil. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the advantages of being one of Floppy Aces newest authors is the opportunity to participate in some of the phone conference Q & A sessions with our legislators. Heaven knows, getting a US Congress member, outside your district, within your voice or email for interactive communication is no easy task.

So I welcomed the opportunity to have a group phone session with the NC GOP Senator, Richard Burr, on his visions for America’s energy future. And mind you, public “speaking”… even via a group on phones… makes me nervous as a kitten. So getting out a couple of questions with this shyness handicap proved to be a large hurdle for me personally. Yet the Senator was accommodating, exhibiting southern charm directness with the 13 or so bloggers and print media representatives on the conference call.

But first, to bring you up to speed - excerpts from an interview a few days ago with Sen. Burr from the BlueRidge Now Times-News to introduce you to the Senator and his plans for an energy “blueprint”.

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The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine - an organization poo poo’ed by AGW proponents as insignificant, ties to “big oil”… the usual mantra - has released the results of their petition drive to American scientists. 31,072 of them who reject the assertation that global warming is a crisis, or that it is caused by human activity.

The release of the list has managed to elude most MSM outlets, but can be found reported in Heartland Organization’s July 2008 newsletter, Environment & Climate News.

Tho SourceWatch has a less than complimentary review of both the OISM and it’s head, Arthur Robinson, the petition has garnered the support of credible scholars.

The current list of 31,072 petition signers includes 9,021 PhD; 6,961 MS; 2,240 MD and DVM; and 12,850 BS or equivalent academic degrees. Most of the MD and DVM signers also have underlying degrees in basic science.

All of the listed signers have formal educations in fields of specialization that suitably qualify them to evaluate the research data related to the petition statement. Many of the signers currently work in climatological, meteorological, atmospheric, environmental, geophysical, astronomical, and biological fields directly involved in the climate change controversy.

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As Curt points out in his post a round up of the AGW and energy news, the debate is raging in Australia , where they are finding resistance to their AGW mandates in the wake of Dave Evans (the man who designed FullCAM - the model that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol) - switch from proponent to skeptic

Meanwhile, enviros and agenda driven pols around the world do their level best to halt any constructive means of affordable, clean energy production, as well as increasing the world’s supply of oil.

There’s no dearth of “cures” offered by “the debate is settled” crowd. And one of these is everyone’s favorite - the electric car. To this I can only say… where is the logic?

To draw the parallel between the “problem” and “cure”, we need to talk water vapor. According to the pro AGW EurCarbon

Greenhouse gases (GHG) are gaseous components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth (not including clouds); carbon dioxide, which causes between 9-26%; and ozone, which causes between 3-7%, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, and chlorofluorocarbons. The greenhouse gases, once in the atmosphere, do not remain there eternally. They can be withdrawn from the atmosphere:

Some of the beef of many skeptics is that water vapor is not included as mitigating factor in the IPCC’s “consensus” of perceived global warming - now called “climate change” since the 10 year global cooling, most likely to protect the activists/alarmists’ credibility.

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Harry Reid lost it with reporters today after their failed attempt to produce a energy bill without legislation that would end a Congressional moratorium on off-shore drilling. Republicans vowed to defeat any bill that did not include this, and they did. Which sent Reid into a bit of a tizzy:

At a “pen and pad” — a more casual, off-camera chat with reporters — Reid attacked and scolded correspondents in attendance, telling them he’s “really disappointed” in how they have been writing his energy plans, which include a bill to reign in speculation in the energy futures markets. Read the rest of this entry »