… Continue Reading“Climate researchers … have a pretty good understanding of how the climate system works on average, but the reasons for small, long-term changes in climate system are still extremely uncertain.”
“The total amount of CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere in the last 100 years has upset the radiative energy budget of the Earth by only 1%. How the climate system responds to that small ‘poke’ is very uncertain. The IPCC says there will be strong warming, with cloud changes making the warming worse. I claim there will be weak warming, with cloud changes acting to reduce the influence of that 1% change.”
” … those of us who are skeptical of mankind’s influence on climate have a wide variety of views on the subject…. [I]t only takes one of us to be right for the IPCC’s anthropogenic global warming (AGW) house of cards to collapse.
“The Indiana Petroleum Association, whose members feared the combination of locational convenience and discount prices from cost economies, lobbied the state Fire Marshall who warned of the hazards of self‑service. Effective June 1, 1930, a statewide regulation allowed only station owners or regular employees to dispense gasoline.”
“For a price premium estimated to be between three-to-five cents per gallon, the benefits of Oregon’s longstanding self-service ban are said to be less spillage, less risk of fire, and a trained person ‘to maintain a clear view of and give undivided attention to the pumping process’.”
The rise and legalization of self-service at the service station is one of the longest and most colorful episodes in the history of US oil and gas regulation. Until recently, only New Jersey (1948–) and Oregon (1951–) still had laws making it illegal to offer serve yourself gasoline and diesel.…
Continue Reading“This house believes that subsidizing renewable energy is a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels.”
– ECONOMIST magazine, Online debate, November 8–18, 2011
[Ed. Note: Six years ago, the prestigious Economist magazine held an on-line debate on the future of energy policy. Despite a loaded affirmative motion (above), an upset victory was achieved with 8,916 votes opposed and 8,346 in favor of the proposition. The third most votes of 92 such debates, 70,000 visits produced 448 comments. Jon Boone’s writeup of the debate is reproduced below.]
Last month, The Economist magazine conducted a two-week Oxford style online debate over the proposition “that subsidizing renewable energy is a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels.”
“Renewable” in this case is really politically correct renewables: basically wind power, with some solar and a bit of of biofuel/geothermal thrown in.…
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