In the Pipeline: 12/13/12

How do you like ‘dem apples?: “Hollywood wimps out and makes a formula film.” WSJ (12/12/12) reports: “If you somehow missed the twists and turns, Mr. Damon, who played a genius in “Good Will Hunting” and a master spy in the “Bourne” movies, has pled ignorance of the fact that financing for his movie came partly from Abu Dhabi, which, as the Heritage Foundation puts it, has a “direct financial interest” in fanning opposition to domestic energy development.”

Absolutely.  We should definitely hear more about Price Waterhouse’s green practice.  And for sure we should learn about how accountants and economists (like Rachenda Pauchauri) think about global warming. Energy & Commerce (12/11/12) reports: “The recently released PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) fourth annual Low Carbon Economy Index 2012 report “Too late for two degrees?” finds that the world economy must now decarbonize at an unprecedented rate of 5.1% per year to maintain an even chance of limiting warming to 2 [degrees Celsius].”

Senator Coburn makes it happen, which makes us happy. Senator Coburn (12/12/12) reports: “Attached is a list of tax earmarks set to expire at the end of the year, that if allowed to do so, could save $18.5 billion without raising tax rates on any hard working Americans. Beyond these expiring tax earmarks, there are plenty of other loopholes and giveaways in that tax code that could be axed, which could reduce the deficit by as much as $100 billion over ten years.”

Excellent. National Center for Policy Analysis (12/11/12) reports: “Though I don’t believe we’ll see a bill along the lines proposed passed in this Congress, at least one legislator gets it – he’s on the right track: Republican Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas has called for the end to subsidies for all energy sources.  I have suggested this a number of times, most recently in a critique I provided of former presidential  candidate Romeny’s energy plan.”

Deutsche Bank?  Aren’t they the crew with the big global warming office? BBC News (12/12/12) reports: “German prosecutors have raided offices belonging to Deutsche Bank as part of an investigation into a tax evasion scheme involving the trading of carbon permits… The Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said 25 employees of the bank were suspected of serious tax evasion, money laundering and obstruction of justice.”

These “people” are vile.  When do you figure national environmental groups are going to say something about these thugs? Independence Institute (12/11/12) reports: “For a community with an “Office of Human Rights” and is home to a university with a multi-million dollar diversity department, Boulder was anything but an atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance of diverse opinions during a December 4 public hearing on land use and hydraulic fracturing… Newspaper (Denver Post, Daily Camera) accounts of what happened that night do not adequately convey how quickly events spiraled out of control, so much so that anti-fracking activists, including children, took over and forced Boulder County Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner, and Will Toor from the room.”

Rational, market-based rules?  What a brilliant idea.  But don’t get too excited – these free market dudes think taxpayer funded subsidies are the key to success here. NYTimes (12/12/12) reports: “In Germany, where sensible federal rules have fast-tracked and streamlined the permit process, the costs are considerably lower. It can take as little as eight days to license and install a solar system on a house in Germany. In the United States, depending on your state, the average ranges from 120 to 180 days. More than one million Germans have installed solar panels on their roofs, enough to provide close to 50 percent of the nation’s power, even though Germany averages the same amount of sunlight as Alaska. Australia also has a streamlined permitting process and has solar panels on 10 percent of its homes. Solar photovoltaic power would give America the potential to challenge the utility monopolies, democratize energy generation and transform millions of homes and small businesses into energy generators. Rational, market-based rules could turn every American into an energy entrepreneur.”