Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Global warming? Baltic Sea ice cover largest since 1987


Baltic Sea, Saulkrasti, Latvia, 1998.
According to the Baltic Times, Finnish meteorologists say the ice cover on the Baltic Sea is the largest it has been since 1987. Last week the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute estimated the ice cover at 155,000 square miles, which is a little larger than Montana, and the scientists said the ice pack could grow even bigger.

Click here for a graphic display of the ice cover.

That's your global warming news for today.

Yes, that's really me--along with Little Marathon Pundit--in the photograph, on a summer day on the Baltic many years ago.

Related post:

Twenty years ago: Latvia's Barricade Days

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 1 comments

Welcome back, Carter; Landrieu presses Interior on drilling permatorium

Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey tells us, via Steve Forbes, that President Obama is as bad as Jimmy Carter when it comes to energy policy. To be fair to Carter, Obama still has two years to reach a new low.

Part of Obama's foolhardy and expensive energy policy is the "permatorium" on new oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

But not all Democrats are on the failure bandwagon, such as Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who confronted Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar at the capitol today.

From the Daily Caller:

During Wednesday’s hearing, the senator asked Salazar point-blank how he planned to begin issuing more drilling permits, criticized him for creating uncertainty in the oil industry and scolded him on his agency’s message after the first permit was issued earlier this week.

Landrieu showed clear frustration with questions like: "What are you specifically doing to get these permits increased so people can get back to work?"

And: "Eighteen deep-water permits have been applied for … and you have issued one. And the industry is saying, 'They're returning them to us because we are not sure of the requirements they are requesting of us.'"

"What I [am] hearing from the industry is uncertainty," she said. "In January 2009 there were 16 permits issued. The next year there were 12 and this January, only two. We're so far off the historic level. We've got to get it back up as quickly as possible."
Yes, senator, we've got to get it back up as quickly as possible.

Regular gasoline is going for $3.69 a gallon where I live.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 1 comments

Senate passes two week gov't funding; Roskam issues statement

Earlier today the Senate passed a stop-gap spending bill, which includes $4 billion in spending cuts, which keeps the government running for two weeks. President Obama is expected to sign it.

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton), the Chief Majority Whip and Illinois' top-ranking House member, issued a statement about the bill, which avoids, for now. a government shutdown.

I applaud the Senate for passing the House Republicans' plan to avoid shutting down the government while also cutting $4 billion in spending. With two extra weeks, the Senate now has more than enough time to debate and vote on the original seven-month continuing resolution that cut $100 billion – important cuts that begin to remove barriers to job creation. Since the Senate has now accepted the premise that we need to cut $4 billion over two weeks, they should easily support the seven-month CR which cuts spending at the same rate. My constituents have made it very clear they want Congress to tighten its belt, live within its means, and reduce spending and regulations to remove barriers to job creation.
Technorati tags:
Posted by at 0 comments

Barbour: Obama wants higher gas prices

Drill here, drill now, pay less
Speaking to CNN, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour says our president wants higher gasoline prices. To be sure, Obama isn't doing anything to lower them, such as ending the "permatorium" against drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

With price of gasoline rising for the eighth consecutive day, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour accused the Obama administration of hiking energy costs in an effort to promote alternative fuels.

"In 2008, four dollar gasoline brought my state to its knees, before Wall Street melted down, and we have blown through three dollars a gallon on our way to four," Barbour, a Republican who is seriously considering a White House bid, said Wednesday in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We don't need that where I am."

"But this administration's policies have been designed to drive up the cost of energy in the name of reducing pollution, in the name of making very expensive alternative fuels more economically competitive," he said.

As evidence, Barbour referenced a 2008 comment by Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu. At the time, Chu was still director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He told the Wall Street Journal that "somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" in order to force consumers to be more fuel-efficient.
The price of regular gasoline in Morton Grove is hovering around $3.69 a gallon.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 0 comments

Fred Phelps' Westboro wins in SCOTUS

Westboro Church, July, 2007,
Banner reads, "Godhatesamerica.com"
The US Supreme Court ruled today that the First Amendment protects the vile protests of the so-called Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. The church is led by the Rev. Fred Phelps; members often show up at funerals of soldiers carrying signs that say "God Loves Dead Soldiers" and "God Hates America."

The Supreme Court threw out a judgement that awarded $5 million to the father of a soldier whose funeral was preyed upon by Westboro.

Below you will find my 2007 entry about Phleps' church.

Related post:

My Kansas Kronikles: Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 1 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)