Pelosi stops vote on off-shore drilling Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC August 5, 2008 Despite numerous polls supporting new off-shore drilling and expanding other domestic energy resources, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared there will be no vote on the matter and adjourned the House for a five-week vacation.
Solve the energy crisis now, or else
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
August 8, 2008
America has nearly a trillion barrels of recoverable oil -- more than three times that of Saudi Arabia. Yet, our Congress and the California legislature have held a chokehold on those resources for decades, regardless of our vulnerable dependence on unstable imported oil.
Russian invasion of Georgia similar to Iraq invasion of Kuwait
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
August 19, 2008
Russia's invasion of Georgia is not so different from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. They both represented the insatiable power and greed of Putin and Saddam Hussein. Saddam wanted Kuwait's oil and used the historical excuse of reclaiming Kuwait as an original part of Iraq. Putin set-up Georgia by using Chechnyan terrorists to stir-up the unsettled area of Ossetia, then invaded.
Putin is determined to be a world economic player with Russia's extensive oil and natural industry, which supplies its neighbors and most of Europe. However, his KGB bullying tactics are classic Communist aggression and intimidation. Not unlike Saddam, Putin is a totalitarian thug who has enriched himself with $billions, and eliminates all political opposition. His intent was to occupy Georgia and its pipelines to raise the price of oil and gas, and it happened.
Daily Press
Editorial
By Steve Williams, Opinion Page Editor
July 29, 2008
An alarmist's solution to criticism
Unless you're among those who follow the global warming controversy with considerably more intensity than the average citizen, the name James Hansen probably doesn't ring any bells. But it should.
Hansen is the original global warming alarmist. He is currently the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Twenty years ago, in an appearance before several Congressional committees, Hansen warned that increasing human-generated CO2 content in the earth's atmosphere was pushing up global temperatures, and that if generation of CO2 wasn't cut back, we would face a "tipping point" from which there could be no return, and that the result of warming would doom life on earth as we know it.
He was called to testify in the early '80s because in 1981 he and a team of scientists at Goddard had concluded that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would lead to global warming sooner than previously predicted. While other climatologists had already predicted that a trend would be apparent by 2020, Hansen predicted, in a paper published in Science, that the change was already occurring and that there would be record high temperatures as early as 1990.
In June of this year Hansen again testified before a Congressional committee, on the anniversary of his first alarmist appearance. And what has happened to global temperatures in the intervening 20 years? According to the University of Alabama at Huntsville, global satellite temperature data show that earth's temperature has indeed changed; it's gone down by half a degree (Fahrenheit). So much for Hansen's prediction about tipping points, and carbon dioxide dangers, etc., etc.
But Hansen also did something else at in June. At an informal media event hosted by Worldwatch Institute, an environmental activist group, he called for criminal trials against scientists, corporate executives, and public policy advocates who disagree with him. He said skeptics are guilty of "crimes against humanity." If you oppose his theories, in other words, you're no better than Hitler, Stalin, Robert Mugabe, Papa Doc Duvalier, and the rest of history's mass murderers, and ought to be sent to jail - or worse - for holding such views.
Much of the above is from the August issue of Environment & Climate News, a Heartland Institute publication. The Heartland Institute, you may not know, is a non-profit environmental organization that challenges global warming theories. Two letters to the editor today take note of a story published in the Sunday Press Dispatch (albeit buried on D7) that some 31,072 American scientists have signed a petition rejecting Hansen's - among others - assertions that global warming has reached a crisis stage that is caused by human activity. The story about the petition originated with the Heartland Institute.
The petition puts the lie to claims such as the one by Al Gore ("The debate is over") that there's any sort of general agreement among the world's scientific community about global warming, either as to what is causing it, that it's in fact happening, or that there's anything humanity can do about it.
Hansen, you might also want to know, is indeed a scientist. He's an astronomer. But stifling dissent of this theories by shouting, "Off with their heads" does not exactly comport with scientific method. So it's no surprise to also learn he's Al Gore's adviser on science. Uh huh.
Daily Press
From staff reports
July 29, 2008
31K scientists sign petition disputing global warming
CHICAGO - Some 31,072 American scientists have signed a petition rejecting the assertion that global warming has reached a crisis stage and is caused by human activity.
"No such consensus or settled science exists," said Arthur Robinson, founder and president of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine in the July issue of "Environment & Climate News."
"As indicated by the petition text and signatory list, a very large number of American scientists reject" the hypothesis of human-caused global warming.
The institute, a nonprofit research organization, first published the names and credentials of about 17,000 scientists in 2001. The current list of 31,072 Americans with college degrees in science includes 9,021 with Ph.D. degrees in various scientific fields, according to an article published by the Heartland Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization that has challenged global warming theories.
Signers include more than 40 members of the National Academy of Sciences. Theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson and atmospheric physicist Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the prestigious scientists who have signed the petition.
Frederick Seitz, the first president of the National Academy of Sciences, signed before his death in early March.
Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute and publisher of Environment & Climate News, said "claims by partisan and extremist organizations such as Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists that their views represent the 'consensus' never should have been taken seriously."
"They are not scientific organizations, and in fact they have long records of misrepresenting science to achieve political objectives," Bast said. "This should go down as yet another case in which they were caught lying about science."
Daily Press
August 4, 2008
Ethanol and government insanity
Mandating ethanol production that would increase the current consumption of 23 percent of America's corn crop to 40 percent by 2022 -- while subsidizing ethanol production with 51 cents per gallon of taxpayer dollars -- is simply inept government regulation compounded by intentional insanity. Particularly, when it is already disrupting the corn-based food supply here and around the world.
Do the math. When our government wants the current 9 billion gallons of all ethanol stepped up to 36 billion gallons in our gas tanks by 2022 -- which will only replace 15 percent of the nation's gas consumption -- and when it costs more to produce ethanol than the energy it produces, we will be getting hosed at the pumps much worse than we are now.
Even worse, the EPA ignored the MTBE additive's destructive impact on groundwater, and they are still unclear on the toxic effects of ethanol. The solution is to stop corn ethanol production, stop costly seasonal gas additives, and put all efforts into fast-tracking domestic oil and natural gas production (1-3 years), new refineries, clean coal, oil shale and nuclear.
If any alternative energy sources are substantially subsidized to develop, they should be infinite resources such as highly efficient nano solar power, tidal energy, nitrogen fuel cells, and sun algae fuel. It just takes sane, common sense for a change. Surely, we can't afford not to.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley
Americans can solve the energy crisis
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
July 9, 2008
Since President Jimmy Carter's miserable term ending with a false promise to end our dependence on foreign oil, our inept government has not only failed to make us energy independent, it has caused us to more than triple our dependence on imported oil.
Clearly, it is time for Americans to demand results. Instead of obstructing our domestic energy resources, our government must do the following to make us energy independent: Furnish generous incentives and tax credits to our energy industries to develop our largest resources of coal, coal to fuel, oil shale and natural gas. Develop all available oil resources. Build nuclear power plants and oil refineries. And support the immediate development of high efficiency solar cells and batteries, nitrogen fuel cells, advanced wind power, and tidal power.
We must respond to what amounts to a sustained attack on America by environmentalists and foreign oil extortionists with decisive action. Stop the corn ethanol fraud and soy biofuel fraud and resume growing all corn and soy for food. Get rid of fuel additive failures.
Just do it! And while government responds to the will of the people, stop the massive spending on illegals and the undeserving, make the Bush tax cuts permanent and cut taxes for all hardworking Americans. If they don't, vote them out. All of them, if necessary. It's time to start using the muscle of democracy to make deep cuts in unnecessary government and destructive regulations.
San Diego Union Tribune
July 20, 2008
Partisan politics and foreign oil need
No excuse for energy crisis
When the OPEC oil embargo was imposed against us in 1973 for supporting Israel, we were importing about 20 percent of our oil. Since President Jimmy Carter's term ended with a false promise to end our dependence on foreign oil -- our inept government not only failed to make us energy independent -- partisan politics have caused us to more than triple our dependence on imported oil. Clearly, it is time for the American people to demand results.
Instead of obstructing our domestic energy resources, our state and federal governments must fast-track permit approvals. Provide generous incentives and tax credits for our energy industries to develop our abundant resources of coal, coal to fuel, oil shale and natural gas. Develop all available oil resources. Build oil refineries, nuclear power plants and transmission lines. And support the immediate development of high efficiency solar cells and batteries, nitrogen fuel cells, advanced wind power, and tidal power.
There is simply no excuse for our over-dependence on foreign energy resources, particularly in this era of terrorism and instability. We must become energy independent, and it must do it now, before it's too late. Partisan politics simply cannot be tolerated when our national security and our survival are at stake.
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
DDC
by: Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
June 26, 2008
In the face of rising natural gas and coal costs to produce electricity, it is baffling that President Bush's energy plan didn't include the potentially devastating impact on our cost of living. Increased demand from China and India have caused the rise in oil prices, and the rise in the prices of coal and natural gas utilities.
Half of our electricity is produced from coal, and the other half is produced primarily from natural gas. We have the largest coal reserves, followed by Russia and China, enough to power America for 200 years, yet more clean coal power plants are held back. More coal power means more natural gas available to homes and businesses, and more time to develop viable alternatives.
Coal-to-liquid fuel technology has been developed and should be used in this country. South Africa's coal-to-liquid provides 30 percent of the fuels used in their cars and trucks, and China is building coal-to-liquid fuel plants. The blame for our energy crisis must be attributed to politicians from both parties who have pandered to the obstructionist cartel of environmentalists.
Indeed, over the past three decades, they have been responsible for restrictive laws and unreasonable regulations that have prevented our ability to become more energy independent.
by: Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
June 22, 2008
Though it amounts to little more than last wishes in his 8-year job as chief executive, President Bush is correct in his proposals to lift the ban on offshore drilling, permit drilling in ANWR, the exploration of oil shale reserves, and speeding up the permit process for the construction and expansion of oil refineries.
The down side is, Congressional Democrats and the sublime ignorance of California obstructionist environmentalists will probably never let it happen, regardless of what the people want, or the national security and economic implications. Saying that it won't work because it will take too long and it won't be enough oil to matter is absurd, particularly when they are the primary reason this mess developed over that past two decades or more.
According to Utah Congressman, Chris Cannon, there are at least 800 billion barrels oil shale reserves in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Ongoing technology and processing advances will allow for significant oil production within 3 years if the 7-year permit process was cut to several months. It's time for government to start working for the people instead of against us, for a change. Just get out of the way for the sake of our national security and before the economy collapses.
When it comes to water and energy, Californians have been deceived and deluded by extreme environmentalism so many times over 30 or 40 years, that our state has been locked into what seems to be a costly, inextricable dilemma of water and energy distress. Indeed, if it were not for the selfish interests of environmentalists, our water resources would not be in peril, and our electric energy costs would be less than half of what they are now.
If it were not for environmental propaganda infecting perceptions of the proposed Pheripheral Canal, which would have bypassed the Sacramento Delta, voters would have passed Proposition 9 in 1982, and we would not be facing the 30 percent cutback in supplies from the State Water Project providing vital water resources to Southern California. Of course, the enviros and an activist federal judge are responsible for exacerbating California's water crisis with the ludicrous decision to protect Delta Smelt, a tiny fish that trumps the health and well being of millions of people who comprise the vast majority of the state's population. This is, indeed, an unconscionable, unacceptable and avoidable crisis.
Then, there is the ever-present energy crisis Californian's face, which could even be worse than the 2001 energy crisis that caused rolling blackouts and enormous price increases for natural gas and electricity, much of which remains in place today. Since then, little has changed with only a few power plants and power lines being built, barely keeping up with growth and demand. Over-reliance on natural gas for electricity is absurd. Particularly, when supply and demand are unstable, and prices are so volatile. Indeed, the need for natural gas should reduced and focused on residential, commercial and industrial requirements at less cost.
In terms of electric power costs, California's retail rates are the 8th highest in the country (12.82 cents per kwh), simply because the state's power plants rely on 48.8 percent natural gas, 14.7 percent nuclear, 1.1 percent petroleum, and 1 percent coal. In contrast, Wyoming's power costs are the 2nd lowest in the country (5.27 cents per kwh), less than half the cost of California power, because 94 percent of Wyoming's power plants are fueled by coal.
The solution is obvious. Coal provides over 50 percent of the nation's electric energy. The United States has the largest proven recoverable coal reserves in the world, enough to power the country for 200 years. With all the advances in clean coal technology, California should steadily build coal-fired power plants,which could easily be supplied from nearby resources such as Utah and Wyoming. For Southern California, power plants could be built and supplied along the railroad corridor through the Mojave Desert, far from any population centers. California could also take the lead in coal-to-fuel production, which would significantly lessen our dependence on imported oil.
Note: China, who ranks third in coal reserves behind the USA and Russia, and just above India, builds a coal power plant about every three weeks, and they don't use clean coal technology. China is the top coal producer, but exports very little. Australia is the top coal exporter. The USA exports coal, primarily to Canada.
Clearly, it's way past time for people to fight back and take on the cartel of environmental tyranny. In the over-used and abused vernacular of the current political climate, it's time for change. State Water Contractors should appeal the Delta Smelt decision. Meanwhile, the people should pass ballot measures for a peripheral canal to ensure water supplies, the construction of coal-fired power plants to provide electric energy at half the price, and to support coal-to-fuel production until alternative energy resources are fully developed.
Those who buy-into unreasonable environmental issues and the global warming hoax, and therefore oppose such solutions and measures, are living in sublime ignorance. Hopefully, it won't take an economical earthquake to shake them into reality.
Daily Press
June 14, 2008
Nether candidate will address economic disarray
No matter who is elected president in 2008, the leading candidates have made it disdainfully clear that the United States government will do nothing to save America from economic ruin. Indeed, foolish congressional ideology, judicial activism, environmental zealotry and self-serving guilt merchants have buckled our country's political will to become energy self-sufficient.
When any society, particularly America's society, is laboring under the relentless political pressure of dishonest doomsday scenarios, such as global warming and environmental habitat fear mongering -- which have the unintended consequences of social and economic collapse -- the inescapable conclusion is disastrous.
Why are the American people doing little or nothing to stop it? Are we too busy looking after selfish interests, yielding to indoctrination, and ignoring the the continuous failures of good intentions? For the answer, look in the mirror, and think about it.... before it's too late.
In the wake of ever-increasing oil demand from China and India increasing the price of oil, the solution is obvious. Stop making expensive ethanol that raises the cost of fuel and food. Lift economy-busting environmental regulations and restrictions against building new power plants, new refineries and drilling for oil. Develop nuclear energy. Expand cleaner coal power plants. Develop synthetic fuel from our vast coal resources. And open the doors to innovation and advanced energy technology. Certainly, if this had been done 10 or 15 years ago, we wouldn't be in this inexcusable mess.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Victor Valley Daily Press
June 10, 2008
Renewables cannot replace energy demand
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 11, 2008
Who's to blame, who will resolve energy crisis?
Los Angeles Times
June 14, 2008
Solving our energy problems
Contrary to popular belief, Saudi Arabia and OPEC are not responsible for America's energy crisis. The vast increase in oil demand from China and India notwithstanding, Far left environmentalists, judicial activists and Democrat-dominated government are the obstructionists in this senseless play for ruinous power.
Indeed, if it were not for the self-righteous delusionists and nature's la-la-landers preventing the development of domestic energy resources from protected areas (which few can even visit) for the past two or three decades, we would not be in this mess with disastrous consequences.
Renewable energy resources simply cannot produce the demand for energy to sustain us in the foreseeable future. Corn ethanol is an unsustainable and costly failure. We have one of the world's largest immediate energy resource in coal, clean coal and coal to fuel technologies. Surely, we must tap our own oil resources, and build refineries and nuclear power plants without delay. Failure to do so will inevitably cause our economy to collapse.
Stepping up oil production from Iraq, which has one of the largest oil reserves, would certainly help re-build and secure Iraq, while at the same time, help our immediate needs for oil.
Daniel B. Jeffs