Question Earthority!

As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy — wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.

That’s Barack Obama, in his speech accepting the Democratic Party’s 2008 presidential nomination.

I think of myself as a generally well-informed voter, but for the life of me I don’t remember hearing the parts of Obama’s biography that include an advanced degree in nuclear engineering and a net worth sufficient to enable a $150 billion plus investment portfolio.

By “find ways to safely harness nuclear power,” of course, Obama actually means “throw taxpayer money into the sinkhole of government-sponsored research that routinely underperforms private sector efforts.”

And by “invest,” of course, Obama means “subsidize with your money.”

Folks, that’s the kind of thinking that got us where we are in the first place.

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“The economy may have gone to pot and the country’s future leadership may be wildly unclear, but there’s one thing we can count on: Halloween. Yes, October 31 is a holiday of certainty, full of ringing doorbells, sweet treats, and tiny ghosts and witches (or, more likely, Kung Fu Pandas and Hannah Montanas). But All Hallow’s Eve has a spooky flip side, laced with refined sugar, vinyl costumes, and other horrors that can give you the eco-shivers. If you want a greener fright night, here’s how to start.”

“A recent study by researchers from the U.K. Meteorological Office’s Hadley Center and Environment Canada have compared over fifty years of data records from Antarctic weather station and a century’s worth of weather data from the Arctic. By comparing the data between the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as against several computer climate simulations, the researchers have determined that natural influences, such as amount of sunlight or volcanic eruptions, could not account for the warming trends. The data didn’t match the measured temperature change until increasing levels of greenhouse gases were added to the equation. Peter Stott, climate modeler for the Hadley Centre and co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience says ‘We have detected the human fingerprint in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions.’” (11/20/08)

“After the excitement of scraping up slivers of what turned out to be ice on Mars this summer, NASA announced late Thursday that it has discovered vast glaciers hidden under rubble. One glacier is three times the size of the city of Los Angeles and up to a half-mile thick, according to an alert from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The glaciers were spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which in late September also sent back information about fractures in the surface of the Red Planet that once directed water flows through underground sandstone.” (11/21/08)

“A Palo Alto start-up with powerful backing on Thursday unveiled an ambitious $1 billion plan to help make the Bay Area the nation’s electric-car capital. Endorsed by all three of the Bay Area’s big city mayors, the plan would provide the re-charging infrastructure that must be in place before most consumers would consider buying or leasing an electric car.” (11/21/08)

“Madeleine Pickens, wife of Texas billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, said Tuesday that she plans to build a refuge for America’s wild horses, potentially saving thousands of them from slaughter. Pickens, a longtime horse enthusiast, hit upon the idea after she heard that the federal agency charged with managing the animals was considering euthanasia as a way to grapple with a looming budget crisis. ‘This is a solution, and it’s a solution that will work,’ Pickens told The Arizona Republic in a phone interview. ‘This is our heritage, and I am very excited about what we can do.’ Pickens said she plans to purchase between 500,000 and 1 million acres of Western land for her sanctuary, which would also house public-education and recreation programs.” (11/19/08)

“A balloon-borne instrument soaring high over Antarctica has found evidence of a possible large clump of mysterious so-called dark matter relatively close to our solar system, scientists said on Wednesday. … Scientists think perhaps 25 percent of the universe is made up of dark matter, which responds to gravity the same way as does regular matter such as stars and planets and the like. While the stuff is thought to be strewn throughout the cosmos, it is invisible and poorly understood. Scientists have struggled to find any solid evidence of dark matter, and the new study could represent a major step forward in that effort.” (11/19/08)

“German solar powerhouse, SolarWorld issued a press release yesterday, stating that the company plans to bid on four German production facilities and Opel’s Ruesselsheim development center and headquarters. (Opel is a German automaker that was acquired by GM in 1929, and continues to operate as a subsidiary) The company wants to make this Europe’s first true ‘green’ auto company. Here’s what SolarWorld representatives had to say about their plans: ‘With the restructuring of the product pallet, the traditional German auto builder would offer in future especially electric and hybrid automobiles and the newest technology combining extended-range electric and combustion motors highly efficiently.’ Had GM just gone this route a decade ago, the company would likely be able weather today’s market meltdown. Even with all those costs attributed to higher wages (in comparison to their Japanese counterparts) and bloated benefits packages the company had to contend with, they still would’ve had cars to sell — instead of trucks and SUVs sitting on dealership lots, collecting dust.” (11/20/08)

“Controversy over the location and operation of gravel pits illustrates an exceedingly important, widely neglected, and oft misunderstood principle of economics: clear and enforceable property rights minimize conflict. Their absence or ambiguity fosters all manner of negative feelings and behavior, sometimes even violence. The Indian Wars of the 1800s, Israeli-Palestinian conflicts over settlements, and the turf battles of drug dealers are horrific examples. Our controversies over billboards, methane drilling, stream access, and gravel pits are smaller in scope and lower in intensity, but the underlying principles are constant.” (11/19/08)

“House Democrats unceremoniously dethroned John Dingell (D-Mich.) as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, installing Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) in his stead — a move that will have resounding implications for climate and energy policy going forward and demonstrates growing strength among the party’s more liberal wing, especially when it comes to climate policy.” (11/20/08)

“So, US crude oil production increased 182,000 barrels (or .01 percent) in 2007 compared to 2006. Good news, right? It would be, if that were not the first time production has increased since 1991, and only the tenth time that annual oil production has grown since it peaked in 1970. In fact, production has never reached the 1970 number of 3.52 billion barrels, and has lost an average of 1.8 percent per year in production since 1985. So why are we allotting a $24 billion budget to the US Department of Energy — which was set up specifically to reduce dependence on foreign oil — when, clearly, no progress is being made? Great question.” (11/21/08)

“Underlying the failure of fuels supply expansion to keep up with economic expansion was a widespread desire to reduce global warming by diminishing the use of carbon fuels. Indeed, the victors of the recent election talk as if they have only just begun to get America off carbon fuels. It now seems apparent that such a course of action may impose costs on a scale of those suffered during the Great Depression.” (11/20/08)