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Thank you for your service, Mr. Romesha. Washington Free Beacon(2/11/13) reports: “Former Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha (ROE-muh-shay), 31, will receive the Medal of Honor today for heroic actions during the day-long attack on Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan… More than 300 Taliban attacked Keating early in the morning of Oct. 3, 2009, from all four sides and from higher ground. Armed with recoilless rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, machine guns, and rifles, the Taliban swarmed the site, occupied by only 53 Americans and two Latvians. A score of Afghans stationed there had abandoned the site. Mortars hit Keating every 15 seconds during the first three hours of the attack. Taliban breached the site and destroyed 70 percent of Keating with a fire… He left the Army in 2011 as a staff sergeant and now works in North Dakota where he oversees safety and security procedures for KS Industries, an oil company.”

Let’s recap: It’s cool to transport toxic solar panel sludge from California to Rhode Island, but it’s not cool to transport oil through a pipeline like Keystone XL.  Excuse our French, but we’d like to point out that some people are a little two-faced. ABC News (2/10/13) reports: “Homeowners on the hunt for sparkling solar panels are lured by ads filled with images of pristine landscapes and bright sunshine, and words about the technology’s benefits for the environment — and the wallet… What customers may not know is that there’s a dirtier side… While solar is a far less polluting energy source than coal or natural gas, many panel makers are nevertheless grappling with a hazardous waste problem. Fueled partly by billions in government incentives, the industry is creating millions of solar panels each year and, in the process, millions of pounds of polluted sludge and contaminated water.”

The Tesla is a technological marvel that rivals some of the greatest transportation innovations like horse-drawn carriages and dog sleighs. NYTimes (2/8/13) reports: “I drove a state-of-the-art electric vehicle past a lot of gas stations. I wasn’t smiling… Instead, I spent nearly an hour at the Milford service plaza as the Tesla sucked electrons from the hitching post. When I continued my drive, the display read 185 miles, well beyond the distance I intended to cover before returning to the station the next morning for a recharge and returning to Manhattan… I drove, slowly, to Stonington, Conn., for dinner and spent the night in Groton, a total distance of 79 miles. When I parked the car, its computer said I had 90 miles of range, twice the 46 miles back to Milford. It was a different story at 8:30 the next morning. The thermometer read 10 degrees and the display showed 25 miles of remaining range — the electrical equivalent of someone having siphoned off more than two-thirds of the fuel that was in the tank when I parked.”

Ethanol kills ducks.  Along with engines, gaskets, seals, the environment, and probably humans.  Other than that, it is golden.The Times-Picayune (2/5/13) reports: “Larry Reynolds is a reasoned, respected scientist who isn’t prone to hyperbole, but the state’s waterfowl study leader is also a passionate duck hunter. That’s why he can’t really understand the apathy he’s seen from his fellow waterfowlers as the continent moves headlong into a very preventable duck disaster… The problem stems from the fact that the federal government is mandating ethanol usage in the country, a move begun in the Bush administration that has accelerated under President Obama. As every grocery shopper knows, the use of corn in the production of ethanol has caused a severe spike in grain prices.”

Why do the greens hate hydraulic fracturing so much?  Because it opens up vast new energy resources and would give Britain a possible 5.3 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. The Times (2/9/13) reports: “Britain could have enough shale gas to heat every home for 1,500 years, according to new estimates that suggest reserves are 200 times greater than experts previously believed. The British Geological Survey is understood to have increased dramatically its official estimate of the amount of shale gas to between 1,300 trillion and 1,700 trillion cubic feet, dwarfing its previous estimate of 5.3 trillion cubic feet.”

We do recognize the consequences of carbon use Ms. Jewell.  One such consequence is the ability to camp out in the wilderness for fun rather than out of necessity. CNSnews.com (2/9/13) reports: “At the University of Denver’s ‘Voice of Experience’ speaker series on October 17th, 2011, Sally Jewell, who Pres. Obama recently nominated for Interior Dept. secretary, said that ‘none of us are paying for the consequences of our carbon use… Government does play a role’ in ensuring that we do pay, and she’d like to see ‘some mechanism is put in place’ to make us recognize carbon consequences, Jewell said.”