Miss Kelly

Get Ready to Lobby Your Senators Against Carbon Tax Bill

Sadly, the House narrowly passed the carbon tax/cap-and-trade bill today, 219-212.  Jill at Business of Life has a good wrap-up of the issues around the Economic Suicide Act here.  And The Club for Growth has a great list here, Fifteen Reasons to Oppose the Climate Bill. 

Honestly, Obama and Congress seem intent on further wrecking the economy, don't they?  Please burn the phone lines to your senators.  Write, e-mail, call. 

Are Solar Panels Made in Factories Fuled by Solar Power?

I'm a frayed knot. 

Hat tip to Kathy Shaidle, who posed this question in response to this blog post about the enormous tax credits offered to retailers (WalMart, Kohls, Macy's, Safeway, etc.) if they install their solar panels by December 31, 2008.  See this NY TImes article about same.  Comparative costs, cited in the NY Times:

"Coal generation costs about 6 cents for a kilowatt hour, which is enough electricity to run a hair dryer for an hour. Natural gas generation costs about 9 cents a kilowatt hour, said Reese Tisdale, a senior analyst with the consulting firm Emerging Energy Research. In comparison, 'best case' for power from solar panels is about 25 to 30 cents a kilowatt hour, he said."

Oil Company Excecs Remind Senate About Supply and Demand

My colleague Omnia21 had a good write-up of Day 1 of the Senate Judiciary Committee on rising oil prices.  Sounds like the oil company execs are fighting back.  From Omnia21:

Once again Congress hauled energy company executives before them to blame them for high prices for gasoline and other fuels. As usual, they were attacked.  Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, set the tone:

"You have to sense what you're doing to us - we're on the precipice here, about to fall into recession.  Does it trouble any one of you - the costs you're imposing on families, on small businesses, on truckers?"

The “costs you’re imposing” charge said it all. For once, the oil executives firmly but  clearly told Congress that in large part it was to blame. The problem is too much world demand and U.S. law and regulations have constricted supply, thus placing pricing power in the hands of Middle East nations, Russia and Venezuela.  There are hundreds of billions of barrels of oil in deep water off both the east and west coasts, off  the west coast of Florida and  in the Rocky Mountains, to say nothing of ANWR, in which oil companies are prevented from exploring and drilling.

Former Tree-Hugger Promotes Nukes!

Patrick Moore, co-founder of GreenPeace, writes andop-ed for the Washington Post promoting nuclear energy, for environmental and geo-political reasons.  Cool!  He makes a persuasive argument to go nuclear to protect environmental quality, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce the US's dependence on foreign oil.  He debunks the myths about nuclear energy - that it's expensive (not), dangerous (compared to coal mining?), the waste will be dangerous for thousands of years (not), and nuclear reactors are vunerable to terrorist attack (watched Fox's 24 lately?).   Good sign that some environmentalists are opening up their minds!