Crony Capitalism Underwritten By Junk Science

In 2008, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts signed the Global Warming Solutions Act. The stated purpose of the act was to make Massachusetts one of the first states in the nation to move forward with a comprehensive regulatory program to address Climate Change.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal posted an opinion piece on October 6th entitled, “Five Truths About Climate Change.”

Some basic facts pointed out in the article:

Here’s a reality check: During the same decade that Mr. Gore and the IPCC dominated the environmental debate, global carbon-dioxide emissions rose by 28.5%.

Those increases reflect soaring demand for electricity, up by 36%, which in turn fostered a 47% increase in coal consumption. (Natural-gas use increased by 29% while oil use grew by 13%.) Carbon-dioxide emissions are growing because people around the world understand the essentiality of electricity to modernity. And for many countries, the cheapest way to produce electrons is by burning coal. 

China’s emissions jumped by 123% over the past decade and now exceed those of the U.S. by more than two billion tons per year. Africa’s carbon-dioxide emissions jumped by 30%, Asia’s by 44%, and the Middle East’s by a whopping 57%. Put another way, over the past decade, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions—about 6.1 billion tons per year—could have gone to zero and yet global emissions still would have gone up.

The science is not settled, not by a long shot. Last month, scientists at CERN, the prestigious high-energy physics lab in Switzerland, reported that neutrinos might—repeat, might—travel faster than the speed of light. If serious scientists can question Einstein’s theory of relativity, then there must be room for debate about the workings and complexities of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

Please follow the link to the Wall Street Journal to read the entire article. Global warming is NOT settled science.

Meanwhile, back to Massachusetts. Many of the solar and wind energy companies have received grants from the state and from the federal stimulus program. When you look at the officers of these companies, you find that many of them went from state government to ‘green energy’ and took government money with them. There are some questionable connections here. In March of this year, the Hawaii Free Press reported:

Paul Gaynor, CEO of First Wind stood comfortably with Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, Rep Mazie Hirono, and HECO CEO Dick Rosenblum at the grand opening of the Kahuku Wind energy project on Oahu’s North Shore Thursday.   As he should. 

First Wind–formerly known as UPC Wind–got its start in wind energy by launching Italy’s IVPC–a company now subject to a record breaking asset seizure by Italian police.  The Financial Times September 14, 2010 explains:

Please follow the links to read the entire story. Paul Gaynor was appointed by Governor Patrick to be Co-chair of “The Climate Protection Advisory Committee” under the Global Warming Solutions Act.

I think it’s time to re-evaluation the entire ‘green energy’ idea. We don’t need another place for politicians to line their pockets at the expense of taxpayers.

For more information on the ‘follow the money’ aspect of green energy, see rightwinggranny post of August 14, 2010. Also, please understand that Solyndra was counting on the passage of Cap and Trade legislation so that they could increase the price of their product and make a profit. If Cap and Trade had passed through Congress, we would probably have never heard of Solyndra. That may be one reason President Obama is attempting to virtually pass Cap and Trade by using EPA regulations to do the same thing.

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