LIGHTHOUSE BLOG

Mouse Gets $30 Million of Stimulus

Talk about a pet project. A tiny mouse with the longtime backing of a political giant Nancy Pelosi may soon reap the benefits of the economic-stimulus package.  Read story...

FEMA Preparing Well For Gustav

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing diligently for the potential hit of Gustav, the tropical storm expected to once again turn into a hurricane.  Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is personally managing the potential crisis, and people are already on the ground in the target areas.

Unlike in 2005 when Louisiana officials rejected Federal preparation advice and planning, Louisianans are being led by a competent Governor.  And though the Mayor of New Orleans is not a bright light, he does at least have the experience of Katrina to guide him.  Further, it appears the Feds are not waiting to be called in, as was required by law in 2005, and ineptly rejected by the then governor who has since been replaced.

That all said, the biggest test will be whether the citizens will heed the evacuation directives this time and get the hell out of there.  Those who do will of course be safe.  Those who don't will be saved, again, and then harassed by the media until they blame George Bush for another natural disaster over which no human has power.

Wilderness Society Lost in the Wilderness

 I received the below press release from the Wilderness Society today, though I don't know how I got on their misinformation SPAM list.   The Wilderness Society is spamming Americans trying to establish that this one small poll is indicative of the nation as a whole, labeling the answers under the guise of "the public believes." The poll was taken of 821 "Americans" who were so lonely they needed someone to talk to.  

Even worse than that, the poll fails to ask the obvious questions such as would those being polled be for drilling if drilling could be done safely and protect wildlife and beautiful natural environments, as has been done for decades.   It also failed to ask if those polled were OK with drilling if they thought the price of gas would cease going up.  It also failed to ask if those being polled agreed with the ban on oil drilling in areas where China and Venezuela are drilling without the environmental safety concerns that would be used by US companies.  In other words, are those being polled OK with those countries taking oil off our shorelines while we Americans cannot.

These type of bogus polls only hurt the cause of protecting the environment because they show a zero tolerance policy by environmental groups for anything that could be in the public's economic interest.  They are extremist, plane and simple, and lead to people believing there is no middle ground, which isn't the case.  The fact is that we can drill and protect the environment.  It's been done for decades, can be done on a much broader scale, and could help our economy.  Groups such as The Wilderness Society, though, are so left-wing in their beliefs that they can't understand reason.  It's a shame, because some of those groups used to do some real good in the world before they themselves got lost in the wilderness.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 24, 2008

CONTACTS:  Kathy Westra, The Wilderness Society, (202) 429-2642 or kathy_westra@tws.org

                        Cindy Shogan, Alaska Wilderness League, (202) 544-5205 or cindy@alaskawild.org

 

Americans  Don’t Believe Bush, Industry Claims on Gas Prices, Poll Shows

Majority Says New Drilling Would Enrich Oil Companies Rather than Benefit Consumers,

and 76 Percent Support New Technology Development Over Drilling

 

Washington

,

DC

—The American public is not buying the arguments of President Bush and the oil industry that new drilling will lower gas prices, a new poll finds. Despite a well-funded campaign to convince lawmakers to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in

Alaska

and the offshore waters of the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling, and to allow new oil shale projects in the Rocky Mountain West, a majority (54%) of Americans do not see more drilling as a solution to high gas prices. Instead, the public overwhelmingly believes (76% to 19%) that policymakers should focus on investing in new energy technologies including renewable fuels and more efficient vehicles rather than expanding exploration and drilling for more oil. These findings were reported in a national poll conducted over the past week by Belden Russonello and Stewart, and released today.

 A significant majority of Americans (63%) said that the President’s proposal to open up public lands to oil and gas drilling is “more likely to enrich oil companies than to lower gas prices for American consumers.” A substantial majority (66%) said that “the small percentage of public lands still protected from oil drilling should remain off limits because they are valuable natural resources that cannot be replaced.”

When asked the question, “Do you think that allowing oil companies to drill in public lands and offshore areas that are currently off limits to drilling will result in lower gas prices for American consumers or not?”, 54% of poll respondents said they did not believe more drilling would lower gas prices. Although Americans were initially divided on a general question of opening protected public lands and offshore areas to drilling, with a slight majority (53%) in favor, and 41% opposed, the poll found that support for drilling weakened significantly when those polled were presented with other energy policy options. When asked the question: “Looking to the future, which one of the following do you think should be a more important priority for government: Investing in new energy technology including renewable fuels and more efficient automobiles, or expanding exploration and drilling for more oil?”, more than three-quarters (76%) of respondents favored new technology and renewables, and only a small number (19%) favored expanded oil drilling.

 ###

The poll, conducted by

Washington

,

D.C.

, research firm Belden Russonello & Stewart, was a nationally representative telephone survey of 821 adults between July 16 and 20, 2008. The margin of sampling error is

± 3.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. A copy of the complete survey is attached.

Drew F. Bush

Communications Associate

The Wilderness Society

drew_bush@tws.org

Phone: (202)-429-7441

Fax: (202)-429-3945

The Wilderness Society's mission is to protect wilderness

and inspire Americans to care for our wild places.

Weather Channel Founder Says Global Warming a Fraud

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

Weather Channel founder John Coleman is calling global warming a fraud and says the station he founded needs to stop telling people what to think about climate change. The Business and Media Institute reports Coleman was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's Climate Change Conference in New York. Coleman was referencing what some call the Weather Channel's global warming alarmism.

One of its meteorologists suggested two years ago that weathercasters who have doubts about global warming should lose their certification. Coleman advocates suing people who sell carbon credits — including Al Gore — because the attention in the courts could, in his words, "put some light on the fraud of global warming."

The two-day conference is actually getting quite a bit of media coverage — with stories in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Sun and many others.

Polar Ice 20cm Thicker Than Last Year

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

New information from the U.S. National Climatic Data Center indicates much of the world is suffering through record cold and snow this winter. Snow cover over North America and much of Asia is greater than at any time since 1966. The average January temperature was three-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit colder than the average for the 20th century. China is said to be experiencing its must brutal winter in 100 years.

And despite fears by some that the Arctic ice pack is melting — one senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service tells the National Post that ice is up to 20 centimeters thicker in many places than at this time last year. Experts from the National Research Council — and the Russian Academy of Natural sciences — both predict global cooling in the near future if sunspot activity does not increase soon.

Ethanol Harmful to Environment and Dangerous

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

Recent reports have said that the use of ethanol may cause more harm than good to the environment — and now there is word that the transportation of ethanol also poses a real danger.

It turns out that ethanol fires are harder to put out than gasoline fires. Water cannot be used — and the foam that is sprayed on gasoline fires does not work on ethanol. Many fire departments do not have the ethanol foam — or have not been trained how to use the foam or approach the fires. The foam is 30-percent more expensive than the foam used on gasoline fires. Experts say wrecks involving cars and trucks are not the major concerns. But fires involving tankers transporting large amounts of ethanol can pose significant dangers.

We're Cooling Again, Sorry Al

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

Tuesday we told you about several areas around the planet experiencing record cold and snowpack — in the face of all the predictions of global warming.

Now there is word that all four major global temperature tracking outlets have released data showing that temperatures have dropped significantly over the last year. California meteorologist Anthony Watts says the amount of cooling ranges from 65-hundredths of a degree Centigrade to 75-hundreds of a degree.

That is said to be a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. It is reportedly the single fastest temperature change ever recorded — up or down.

Some scientists contend the cooling is the result of reduced solar activity — which they say is a larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases.

If lack of snow signifies global warming, then snow in new places signifies global cooling

The organizers of the famous Alaskan Iditarod Sled Dog Race have shortened the race again this year because of what they claim is global warming and over-development near the course.   Basically, there is not enough snow, thus proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that global warming is the culprit.  Got the logic?

It snowed in Baghdad this week for the first time in living memory, during record low temperatures.  And no one on the planet claims Muslims have short memories.   Since this is the case, this is obviously evidence of global cooling.   Great, so we have most Christians believing in global warming and some Muslims now believing in global cooling.   Just what we needed, another divisive issue.

The hottest year on record in Phoenix was........

1989.   That's 17+ years ago.

The Pope Urges Caution on Global Warming Frenzy

From Brit Hume's Fox News Political Grapevine...

The pope, it seems, is a global warming skeptic. Benedict XVI is warning that solutions to climate change must be based on solid science not politics and that the welfare of humans must take precedence over animals and plants.

The Vatican has released the text of the pope's annual world peace day message, to be delivered January 1.

He writes: "Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man.... It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions... it is essential to sense that the earth is our common home and... to choose the path of dialogue rather than the path of unilateral decisions."