“Big Green consists of several ‘environmental’ organizations, including Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), each with $100+M budgets, each springing from high-minded useful beginnings, each with more high-priced lawyers than you can shake a stick at. EDF … was chief architect of the disastrous Kyoto lemon. NRDC proudly claims credit for Obama’s EPA strategy and foolishly allows it to migrate to Paris.”
“The danger is that Paris will lay a Kyoto.”
– James Hansen, “Isolation of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: Part I,” November 27, 2015.
James Hansen speaks truth to power when it comes to the politics of climate change. (On the science, he has staked out an alarmist position that he cannot seem to shake, even at this late date.) In previous posts, I have noted Hansen’s recalcitrance toward cap-and-trade, whether federal, state (California), or in another country (Australia or Quebec/Ontario).…
“Mounting evidence suggests that the United States is approaching (if not beyond) the level where further energy growth costs more than it is worth.”
– John Holdren. “Too Much Energy, Too Soon, a Hazard.” Windsor Star, August 11, 1975.
John Holdren in 1975 was assistant professor of energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Forty years later, he is in his seventh year as the science advisor to President Obama.
What has not changed is an his anti-energy philosophy, as evidenced by this long-forgotten 1975 essay. It is reproduced in its entirely to add to the Holdren record, one that he has chosen not to renounce or demote in his present capacity.
The United States is threatened far more by the hazards of too much energy, too soon, than by the hazards of too little, too late.…
“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face — not acting.”
– President Obama, “Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline,” November 6, 2015.
” … if Keystone had been in operation it would have lowered Koch Industries’ overall profits by $260 million per year.”
– Charles Koch, Good Profit (New York: Crown Business, 2015), p. 46.
In 1959, Fred Koch purchased an interest in Great Northern Refinery in Minnesota to turn Canadian crude oil into refined products for the Midwest. At the beginning (1955), the facility refined 25,000 daily barrels. Full control by Koch Industries came in 1959. Today, the renamed Pine Bend Refinery has a daily capacity of 339,000 barrels of crude oil that can be turned into 14 million gallons of petroleum products.…