President Obama built this. We did not. IER (7/24/12) reports: “In addition to Solyndra, Beacon Power, and a host of other “Stimulosers,” we can now add solar panel manufacturer Amonix to the list of federally-backed alternative energy companies jeopardizing taxpayer funds. The latest embarrassment is especially relevant in light of this week’s planned vote on the “No More Solyndras Act” [.pdf], which would discontinue new loan guarantees and would limit the DOE’s discretion in approving pending applications.”
No doubt Josh Fox, the Russians, the Qataris, and others opposed to production from the shale formations will have something contrary to say. But the evidence continues to mount: production is good for economic growth and is being safely regulated by the States. AP (7/25/12) reports: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it has completed tests on drinking water in the northeastern Pennsylvania village of Dimock and has determined it is safe to drink, despite the claims of some residents who say it has been polluted by gas drilling.”
Brookings has decided that AEI shouldn’t be the only think tank advocating an energy tax. Let me spare you the read. Economic growth goes down. Government revenue goes up. The use of energy goes down. Wages go down. What a shocker. Brookings (7/24/12) reports: “We find that the carbon tax will raise considerable revenue: $80 billion at the outset, rising to $170 billion in 2030 and $310 billion by 2050. It also significantly reduces U.S. CO2 emissions by an amount that is largely independent of the use of the revenue. By 2050, annual CO2 emissions fall by 2.5 billion metric tons (BMT), or 34 percent, relative to baseline, and cumulative emissions fall by 40 BMT through 2050.”
Andy Revkin puts the wood to NASA and those who intentionally twisted the press release on Greenland. NYTimes (7/25/12) reports: “Unprecedented means “never done or known before.” Yet the news release beneath the headline directly undercuts that description of this melting event, saying that it is rare — the last wide surface melt was in 1889, recorded in separate ice cores at the Greenland ice-sheet summit and in the northwestern part of the vast frozen expanse — and has happened roughly every 150 years over a long stretch of centuries, as recorded deeper in the ice.”
Inexplicably, neither Dan Kish nor Tom Pyle is on this list. The Hill (7/25/12) reports: “Forget the Loaded Potato Skins. Max Engling was surely the best thing to come out of an Indianapolis TGI Friday’s, where he was waiting tables when a diner with ties to the modeling industry discovered him.”