Climate Change and the Media
Last month CBS aired a ‘special’ on global warming. The program featured Dr. James Hanson, Director of the Goddard Space institute and a leading climate scientist. If you’ve been reading this column you will recognize the name – we refer to him frequently. The problem was, CBS published an interview which was very distinctly dated. Once upon a time perhaps Jim Hanson thought we had a fair amount of time to get our ducks in a row. The last thing I reported on him – about a month ago, was that Hanson said he now thought the trigger point for irreversible climate change might be as low as 350 ppm carbon dioxide. The level is now 380; if true, we’d have to fly back in time to do any good.
CBS did portray the administration’s political commissar sitting in a nearby chair, glowering at the camera and Jim Hanson. CBS stated that her presence was required for any interview with Jim. The administration doesn’t like it when Jim Hanson shoots off his mouth, and clearly she was there to prevent just that. Read the rest of this entry »

I am not entirely naive about politics: in 1971 I was given a brief course in government operations in Washington, D.C., the most intensive course of instruction I’ve ever been involved in. Days began at around 5:00 a.m., and rarely ended significantly before midnight. We met with a shrink daily for attitude adjustment, as well as with very high officials in the legislative and administrative branches of government. At the conclusion of the course we were expected to be effective lobbyists. The training has assuredly increased my effectiveness in helping to shape public policy on occasion. I am speaking as a former, and I think effective, environmentalist.

But I’ve never been an elected official. Couldn’t be. Wrong personality entirely. I can only read about that kind of a life. And read I do. A splendid short piece landed in the “Commentary” section of the Sunday Register-Guard (Jan. 10), reprinted from the Hartford Courant. It’s by Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut. He speaks of his experiences as a successful politician.
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The Volt is the unit of electric potential difference or electromotive force, named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), inventor of the first modern chemical battery.

It’s fitting that the Chevrolet Volt should invoke his name, because this vehicle is a breakthrough design that will redefine the concept of electric transportation. The low suggested price of the Volt, and the 640 mile range (greater than most gasoline-powered autos), will make it attractive to the general public. Technically synergistic, the Chevy Volt was inspired by the Tesla Roadster, yet it incorprates innovations that will influence future designs by Tesla and other auto companies. What sets the Volt approach apart from the standard hybrid is that a powerful electric motor propels the vehicle at all times. A small gas engine is used only to charge the batteries. The Prius hybrid, by contrast, uses a small electric motor when going slow, and a gasoline engine kicks in when accelerating. The all-electric mode of the Volt can be sustained for 40 miles before recharging, which is accomplished from a 110 Volt outlet. Numerous Chevy Volt forums exist already in anticipation of its release in 2010.

The disastrous state subsidies for agrofuels piled on top of the federal ones.  Here’s a must-read story on Another pair of studies showing that ethanol–both corn AND switchgrass flavors–is WORSE for climate change than petroleum.

In other words, Big Ag has persuaded us to pour gas on the climate fire.

Spending millions to prop up climate-destroying ethanol plants while rationing access to health care through a lottery.  Truly shameful.

I have become involved with a political issue. The issue has nothing whatever to do with partisan politics. It has to do with how elections are financed, whether by wealthy individuals, special interest groups or otherwise. I see a more than superficial attraction in public campaing financing. I intend to speak of it over the next few months.

On that issue, Oregon’s major metropolitan daily has problems. One is certain consistency on their editorial page.

An 12/12/07 they noted in their editorial headline “For city council hopefuls, it’s all about the Lincolns,” They said it was going to be pretty tough for candidates to find a thousand registered voters to sign a petition and pony up five bucks to accompany their signature. Doing so would qualify the candidates for public campaign support.

Then on 12/24/07 they complained bitterly that nearly all the candidates were qualified to campaign as voter-owned candidates. The Oregonian termed public funding “a municipal status symbol, sanctimoniously billed as a sort of City Hall purification system,” a “luxury item,” a “frill.”
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Here’s a note from Ellen Pinney of the Oregon Health Action Campaign.

The Oregon Health Plan Standard reservation list is open!

In one week over 41,164 people have signed up in hopes that they will be one of the lucky 10,000 people who will be able to enroll in Oregon Health Plan Standard because their name will be selected, they got to apply and they were found eligible.

But there are thousands more who should be offered a chance to have their name drawn to receive an Oregon Health Plan Standard application. Read the rest of this entry »

Coal
The hard energy news of the moment: The price of coal threatens to reach $300 a ton this week. That’s a sudden tripling in the price of the stuff (see EB 2/4) . For those depending on cheap coal to solve future energy problems, put that in your stack and smoke it.

Oil
Financier Matthew Simmons told the Minnesota Legislature that demand for oil is rising but production is not, and that reserve stocks are at this point quite low and steadily falling. Prepare to run out of fuel, he told them. Shell Oil holds similar views.

Peak Oil
The Register-Guard recently published a guest column by a pair of graduate students at The Duck Club, i.e. the University of Oregon. Doggone if their piece didn’t make it to the Energy Bulletin on 2/5 under the title “Peak Oil: Will we see it coming?” They investigated the possibility of predicting peak oil. They concluded given necessary but privileged and not released information it was not possible to predict peak oil. Kenneth Deffeyes would not agree, but let’s not go there. Deffeyes did predict a date, but it will take time to prove him right or wrong, at least five years after the event is commonly supposed. And really, what does it matter?
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The Tesla Roadster: it’s ready!

For the curious, here’s a pleasantly readable plethora of information about the managed battery system in the Tesla Roadster.

And more news, the Tesla Whitestar, due in 2009, will have two options, totally battery-powered or as a gas-electric hybrid configuration known as REV for Range Extended Vehicle.

Beyond Super Tuesday: consider that the issues this country is facing transcend the unique physical traits of the candidates. Avoid the paralysis of weighing the incomparable and imponderable; let’s focus on the issues instead. Amazingly, the Democratic candidates will likely be courting Oregon this May.

In the darkest days of world history, distinguished leaders blazed a path, illuminated by truth, to guide the lost through turbulent times. Alas, the heroes of yesterday have ridden into the sunset, and who will take their place?

Today, youth are lost in a sea of conflicting and groundless stereotypes either created or amplified by the media, producing a perfect storm of degenerative behavior. In television and movies, violence and criminal lifestyles are constantly rewarded. Violent video games further reinforce the sociopath as a role model, where any crime justifies the means. The problem is, without a solid foundation of reasoned values, today’s youth have no way to put this fiction into perspective, and like a feather in the wind, those without any moral reference will fall prey to any negativity that is dramatized.
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STATEWIDE CALL TO ACTION
“NO LNG IN OREGON”
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6
11 AM TO 2 PM
CAPITOL STEPS, SALEM

Our friends at LNGPollutes.org hope you will join them to say NO to high risk gas terminals and pipelines and land condemnation!
For more info on LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) in Oregon, please visit the Onward Oregon LNG web page.

• Tell Oregon’s Governor and elected leaders not to put Oregon at risk for California’s gas.
• Stand up to NW Natural & Oregon LNG, who want to create pipeline right-of-ways by condemnation of Oregon farm & forest lands.
• Protect our property values.
• Protect family farms from the pipelines.

Join with Oregonians from across the state — including landowners from Southern Oregon fighting the Coos Bay LNG terminal who are also facing a 200 mile pipeline across their land — to deliver a message to Oregon politicians that people do not support LNG terminals and the pipelines that come with them.

For more info on the rally, please visit www.LNGPollutes.org.