The original doc. at http://freeassemblage.blogspot.

com/2009/02/obamas-science-is-
political-as-politics.html contains hyperlinks to references.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Obama's Science is Political--As Politics Invariably Makes It

>Let us never say that we have not been warned<

"Consider that it takes about 1,000 wind turbines, occupying tens of thousands of
acres, to produce as much electricity as just one medium-sized, coal-fired power
plant. And that's if the wind is blowing: the intermittency of wind wreaks havoc
on electricity grids, which need a stable flow of power, thus requiring expensive,
redundant backup capacity or an unbuilt, unproven "smart grid."

"Or consider the "promise" of solar. Two projects in development will cover 12.5
square miles of central California withsolar cells in the hope of generating about
800 megawatts of power (as much as one large coal-fired plant). But that power
output will only be achieved when the sun is shining brightly--around noon on
sunny days; the actual output will be less than a third that amount. And the
electricity will cost more than market price, even with thel ife-support of
federal subsidies that keeps the solar industry going. The major factor driving
the project is not the promise of abundant power but California's state quota
requiring 20 percent "renewable" electricity by 2010.

"There is a reason why less than 2 percent of the world's energy currently comes
from "renewable" sources such as wind and solar--the very sources that are
supposedly going to power the new green economy: despite billions of dollars in
government subsidies, funding decades of research, they have not proven themselves
to be practical sources of energy. Indeed, without government mandates forcing
their adoption in most Western countries, their high cost would make them even
less prevalent.

"Will a green energy industry be an engine of economic growth? Many want us to

think so, including our new President. Apparently a booming green economy with
millions of new jobs is just around the corner. All we need is the right mix of
government "incentives."

"These include a huge (de facto) tax on carbon emissions imposed through a cap-
and-trade regulatory scheme, as well as huge government subsidies for "renewable,"
carbon-free sources. The hope is that these government sticks and carrots will
turn today's pitiful "green energy" industry, which produces an insignificant
fraction of American energy, into a source of abundant, affordable energy that can
replace today's fossil-fuel-dominated industry. This view is a fantasy--one that
could devastate America's economy. The reality is that "green energy" is at best a
sophisticated make-work program. [condensed from the Ayn Rand Institute]

President Obama guarantees "to inflict untold damage on his own country and many
others, on the basis of claims so demonstrably fallacious that they amount to a
string of self-deluding lies...

"Mr Obama begins by saying that "the science is beyond dispute and the facts are
clear". "Sea levels," he claims, "are rising, coastlines are shrinking, we've seen
record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each
passing hurricane season."

"Delegates from 190 countries met in Poznan, Poland to pave the way for this
year's UN conference in Copenhagen at which the world will agree on a successor to
the Kyoto Protocol on climate change," heard Mr. Obama speak these words.
"Mr Obama has again been taken in over hurricanes. Despite a recent press release
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claiming that 2008's
North Atlantic hurricane season "set records", even its own release later admits
that it only tied as "the fifth most active" since 1944. NOAA's own graphs show
hurricane activity higher in the 1950s than recently. A recent Florida State
University study of tropical cyclone activity across the world (see the Watts Up
With That? website) shows a steady reduction over the past four years.

"Alarming though it may be that the next US President should have fallen for all
this claptrap, much more worrying is what he proposes to do on the basis of such
grotesque misinformation. For a start he plans to introduce a "federal cap and
trade system", a massive "carbon tax", designed to reduce America's CO2 emissions
"to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 per cent by 2050".
Such a target, which would put America ahead of any other country in the world,
could only be achieved by closing down a large part of the US economy.

"Mr Obama floats off still further from reality when he proposes spending $15
billion a year to encourage "clean energy" sources, such as thousands more wind
turbines. He is clearly unaware that wind energy is so hopelessly ineffective that
the 10,000 turbines America already has, representing "18 gigawatts of installed
capacity", only generate 4.5GW of power, less than that supplied by a single giant
coal-fired power station.

"He talks blithely of allowing only "clean" coal-fired power plants, using "carbon
capture" - burying the CO2 in holes in the ground - which would double the price
of electricity, but the technology for which hasn't even yet been developed. He
then babbles on about "generating five million new green jobs". This will
presumably consist of hiring millions of Americans to generate power by running
around on treadmills, to replace all those "dirty" coal-fired power stations which
currently supply the US with half its electricity." [condensed from
Telegraph.co.uk]

Let us never say we have not been warned.

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