In the Pipeline: 2/11/13

If some is good, more is better. Free Beacon (2/8/13) reports: “Interior secretary nominee Sally Jewell previously served on the board of an environmental group that has filed dozens of lawsuits against the federal government, including against the Department of Interior. Jewell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama Wednesday, joined the board of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) in 2004 and currently serves as one of the group’s vice-chairs.”

If China is beating us at the clean energy race, as His Majesty claims, then why is their air getting dirtier while our air quality continues to improve? Heritage Foundation (2/8/13) reports:  “A cloud of photochemical smog from China drifted into Japan this week. The story highlights the fact that air pollution in China is getting worse—despite lamentations that the “world is passing us by” in clean energy. That quote came from Steven Chu, President Obama’s then-Secretary of Energy, in 2009. Chu tendered his resignation last Friday in a letter suggesting that those who disagreed with him were living in the ‘Stone Age.’”

Don’t worry, this private airport proposal is also part of Google’s overall green initiative because buried in the details is the fact that the new buildings will be Gold LEED certified. CBS San Francisco(2/7/13) reports: “San Jose should accept an offer by a major airport operator to build an $82 million private airport for executives of Google Inc. at Mineta San Jose International Airport, a city official said. Signature Aviation, a British firm, wants to construct an executive terminal, hangars and ramp space “accommodating the largest business jets” for Mountain View-based Google at the San Jose airport, William Sherry, the city’s director of aviation, wrote in a memo.”

Whether it’s too cold or too hot, too wet or too dry, climate change is behind it all. Think Progress (2/8/13) reports: “Like a baseball player on steroids, our climate system is breaking records at an unnatural pace. And like a baseball player on steroids, it’s the wrong question to ask whether a given home run is “caused” by steroids. As Trenberth wrote in his must-read analaysis, “How To Relate Climate Extremes to Climate Change,” the “answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be.'”

ICYMI, IER dropped a bombshell last week. IER reports: “While headlines have reported a boom in US oil and gas production, that boom has been related exclusively to exploration and development on private and state lands and waters. Even that limited expansion has had profound effects. Opening up Federal resources — in addition to private and state resources — to exploration and development can accelerate all of those trends. But recent administrations have yet to follow through on promises to allow access to Federal resources, instead proposing to levy increased taxes on oil and gas production.”