In the Pipeline: 11/19/12

It may be a little difficult to follow this, so we will make it easier.  It appears that Administrator Jackson may have created and used secret email accounts using a pseudonym (Richard Windsor) for the specific purpose of evading Freedom of Information requirements.  She was not alone. Washington Times(11/17/12) reports: “A House committee has launched an investigation into whether EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used an email alias to try to hide correspondence from open-government requests and her agency’s own internal watchdog — something that Republican lawmakers said could run afoul of the law.”

But, then again, Administrator Jackson would not be the first EPA Administrator to evade Freedom of Information Act requirements. Daily Caller (11/12/12) reports: “You remember Ms. Browner, the lady who suddenly ordered her computer hard drive reformatted and backup tapes erased, hours after a federal court issued a ‘preserve’ order … that her lawyers at the Clinton Justice Department insisted they hadn’t yet told her about?” Horner told TheDC News Foundation. “The one who said it’s all good because she didn’t use her computer for email anyway? That one.”

Europe is doomed.  I mean, not as doomed as California, but it’s close. The Telegraph (11/18/12) reports: “Effectively, the policy goal is to phase out fossil fuels from power generation within 15 years. And the cost ? We’re looking at over £100bn in the UK just to get to the 2020 milestone and at least the same again in the next decade. Which brings us nicely to the problems faced by the Coalition Government.”

We like Geoff Davis. RealClearEnergy (11/16/12) reports: “Already, many small business owners are announcing they will be forced to lay off workers to get below the 50-employee threshold set by ObamaCare to avoid the law’s costly regulations, which will take effect in January. A more immediate threat, though, are the reckless anti-coal regulations that are expected to be released before the end of November that will make it cost-prohibitive to build any new coal-fired plants, and further drive up consumer and industrial energy prices.”

Feed-in tariffs are helping to bankrupt Europe.  Maybe we should test them someplace, preferably near where the author lives.SmartPlanet (11/14/12) reports: “The revenues collected would go into a dedicated national Energy Trust Fund, just as a portion of our gasoline taxes go into the national Highway Trust Fund. And like the latter, they would then be disbursed to states who elect to implement FiTs meeting or exceeding the federal guidelines. The states would not be required to implement FiTs, but if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be eligible for the federal funds. The funds collected would only be used for renewable generation capacity and building efficiency upgrades.”

That’s odd. We thought everybody loved wind turbines and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. GlobalWarming.org(11/2/12) reports: “A major disagreement erupted this week in the British government over future onshore windmill installations.  The number two minister in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, John Hayes, MP, declared that “enough is enough,” and that no more wind farms needed to be built in the United Kingdom.  Hayes complained that wind turbines had been “peppered across the country” without regard for public opinion.”

Climatologist Curry to Obama: Hmmmmm…   Judith Curry (11/17/12) reports: “What we do know is the temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted even 10 years ago,” Obama stated. “We do know that the Arctic ice cap is melting faster than was predicted even five years ago. We do know that there have been an extraordinarily large number of severe weather events here in North America, but also around the globe.” Hmmmmm. . .   I wonder what his source was on the bolded statement.