And with the snowfall in the city of Philadelphia Thursday, a 130-year-old record was shattered. For the first time in the city’s history, there have been four 6+ inch snowfalls or more in season. In addition, we are now in the top 5 snowiest winters of all-time.It has to be global warming!
In 2012, a surprising twist and without ever ratifying it, the United States became the first major industrialized nation in the world to meet the United Nation’s original Kyoto Protocol 2012 target for CO2 reductions.
The largest drop in emissions in 2012 came from coal, which is used almost exclusively for electricity generation (see figure below). During 2012, particularly in the spring and early summer, low natural gas prices led to competition between natural gas- and coal-fired electric power generators. Lower natural gas prices resulted in reduced levels of coal generation, and increased natural gas generation—a less carbon-intensive fuel for power generation, which shifted power generation from the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel (coal) to the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel (natural gas).
We know that the increased supply of natural gas in the US economy resulted from advances in, and the increased use of, hydraulic fracturing techniques, which unlock reserves that were previously inaccessible. We also know that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques became economically viable because of the recent increase in energy prices. Higher prices created an incentive to invest in fracking. Fracking increased supply, which, along with innovations spurred by competition, resulted in lower natural gas prices, and that prompted energy producers to switch from coal to natural gas.
Pres Obama likes to take credit for the increase in petroleum and natural gas production in the US over the last four years. What he leaves out is that, as Mitt Romney pointed out during the debates, the Obama administration cut drilling permits on federal lands by 36%. The increase comes from private and (some) state lands. Now that he doesn't need to run for re-election, Pres Obama plans to cut federal drilling permits even further.The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.
The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation.
A Utah coal company owned by a vocal critic of President Barack Obama has laid off 102 miners.
The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine are effective immediately, according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, two days after Obama won re-election.
The layoffs are necessary because of the president's "war on coal," the statement said. The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down "204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014" and for drastically reducing the market for coal.
"There is nowhere to sell our coal, and when we can, the market prices are far lower," the statement said. "Without markets, there can be no coal mines and no coal jobs."Then-Sen Obama did promise in January 2008 that his policies would "bankrupt" coal power plants and cause energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket". So credit him with one promise kept.
Here is a coal barge on the Ohio River, today.
I note that they are flying the Gadsden flag.
I hope they and their families, and other like-minded folks in Ohio and Pennsylvania, vote to end the self-inflicted war on American energy production.
Thanks to ChicagoBoyz reader Bob Skinner for the picture. Bob half-expected our Commander in Chief to call in a drone strike on these guys, partly for the yucky coal, but mostly for the flag.
Recent remarks by President Obama to a Denver-based TV anchor stand in stark contrast to new emails obtained by CompleteColorado.com.
This past Friday, President Obama told KUSA's Kyle Clark, in response to a question on the federally-backed but failed Colorado company Abound Solar, "And these are decisions, by the way, that are made by the Department of Energy (DOE), they have nothing to do with politics."
Abound Solar... counts major Obama bundler Pat Stryker among its early backers
What? I thought that "these... decisions... are made by the Department of Energy", not the White House! Say it ain't so!You better let him know the WH wants to move Abound forward.
On Friday, Delaware Online reports, 12 more workers – including engineers and maintenance technicians – were laid off at the plant, leaving "only a small maintenance team" left there. One of those let go was Jeff Garland, who had been working on community affairs and business development efforts in Delaware. He said the plant is currently "absolutely empty." This is because Fisker has taken out the old GM equipment but has not yet installed the machines it would need to build the Atlantic.Again, if Pres Obama invests his own money in failing "green" ventures, that's his business, but that's not what he did. He invested your money and mine - half a billion Dollars of it. Did he ask your permission? He didn't ask mine.
They're nearly extinct in their native habitats of the African savanna. But because of an unusual exemption under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, these animals have thrived into the thousands by being hunted legally on sprawling ranches in the United States. In all, there are more than 5,000 such ranches in Texas, mostly in the south-central region known as Hill Country.
Alongside the antelope exist exotic animals of every stripe, including zebra, African bongos, kangaroo and regal rare Pere David's deer, which are extinct in the wild.
This particular exotic 3,000-acre ranch, like many in Texas, is for sport hunting, what Morani River Ranch owner and master bow-hunter Kevin Reid calls "re-creating the African experience."
The Texas game ranches have the cachet of the wild, providing hunters with the experience, game and trophies of endangered and extinct-in-the-wild animals they want without leaving the United States. A successful trophy hunt can cost up to $15,000, depending on the beast.These ranchers keep animals that are endangered - or extinct - in the wild alive by the thousands to profit from them. Environmentalists must be thrilled that someone provides this invaluable service to the Earth's ecological diversity, right?
Animal activists counter that conservation doesn't mean raising an animal to kill it and put its head on the wall.
"A Texas game ranch is not an ecosystem wherein animals are protected," said Priscilla Feral, the president of Friends of Animals, which successfully sued the government to force the rule change on the African antelope. "They're a commercial product."Yes, they're a commercial product. No kidding, genius. That's why they're alive, because they're economically valuable, and people protect that which is economically valuable to them. Most environmentalists would rather see these animals go extinct, than live to be profitable.
