CFACT just released a troubling report by Senior Advisor David Wojick about the dramatic threat wind turbines pose to bald and golden eagles.
Federal regulators concluded that the golden eagle population cannot survive increased kills from human activity and also determined that wind turbines substantially increase eagle deaths.
The feds then offered a solution only a bureaucrat could love: Don't protect the eagles from turbine strikes, but “offset their deaths by reducing electrocutions from power poles.
Government being as efficient as it is, they then underestimated the number of power poles that would need to be made safe by a factor of as much as 241 and failed to save any meaningful number of eagles.
As the report concludes, the Fish and Wildlife Service should issue no new wind power eagle-kill permits until the glaring issues uncovered in this study are resolved
Time for FWS to Stop Wind Power Eagle-Kill Permits.
A renewable energy company was given five-year probation and ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines after the deaths of 150 bald and golden eagles on their wind turbines. NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy pleaded guilty to violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, per a press release from the Department of Justice. The Act prevents anyone
from killing or taking parts from protected birds without permission from the federal government. Golden and bald eagles are further protected by federal law. The company pleaded guilty to three specific deaths, which prompted the fines, per the DOJ. As part of...To Read More....
President Obama and his obedient lap dogs are out in full force this week attempting to convince voters that those evil guys on Wall Street have moved on from destroying the value of their homes to artificially raising the price of gasoline. Soon they are coming for your first born. From one of Obama’s speeches this week:
….. It’s less embarrassing when you realize this is nothing more than a political stunt designed to convince voters that Obama is doing something about high gasoline prices. From here we take it away to an excellent post by an economics professor/blogger on a similarly ridiculous op-ed in the NYT:
Jay Carney made some extraordinary statements about the Keystone provision on Friday. According to the Hill, Carney said that permitting the 1700-mile pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf coast would be “preemptively sacrificing American sovereignty” and that it would be “a foreign pipeline built by a foreign company emanating from foreign territory to cross U. S. borders.”
Carney also said that Rep. Terry’s amendment had been added to the highway bill in a “highly politicized, highly partisan way.” That is odd, considering that increasing numbers of Democrats in the House support overriding President Obama’s opposition to permitting the pipeline. One supporter is Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the Democratic Whip. The Senate narrowly defeated an amendment to permit the pipeline last month on a 56 to 42 vote (with 60 required for passage). Eleven Democrats voted for the amendment. That’s about as bi-partisan as the Senate gets these days.
Earth Day is every day under the Obama administration — with an overgrown U.S. Forest Service and an overzealous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Here’s a list of the top 10 earth-related snafus — in no particular order — from the view of Americans for Limited Government (ALG):
The U.S. Green Building Council has begun floating a series of progressive amendments to its building certification program, stirring controversy within the construction, forestry and chemical industries that warn the proposal is radical environmentalism masquerading as reasonable regulation. The proposed changes to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, administered by the private USGBC group but since adopted by the federal government, disallows the use of over 75 percent of America’s certified forests and the third most commonly produced plastic worldwide.
A DEAD wedge-tailed eagle, chicken eggs without yolks and a dysfunctional village with residents bursting to flee. This is the clean-energy revolution Waterloo-style, where the nation's biggest wind turbines have whipped up a storm of dissent. Village resident Neil Daws is concerned his chickens have been laying eggs with no yolks. Ironically called wind eggs, the yolkless eggs can be explained without wind turbines.But together with a spike in sheep deformities, also not necessarily connected to wind, reports of erratic behaviour by farm dogs and an exodus of residents complaining of ill health, Waterloo is a case study of the emotional conflict being wrought by the rollout of industrial wind power.When Adelaide University masters student Frank Wang surveyed residents within a 5km radius of the Waterloo wind turbines he found 70 per cent of respondents claimed they had been negatively affected by the wind development and the noise, with more than 50 per cent having been very or moderately negatively affected.
My Take- I am still waiting for the activists to storm the halls of power demanding that windmills be dismantled.If this was near a chemical facility, an oil well or a nuclear plant they would have already called Erin Brockovich and demanded compensation in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the Wildlife Service would have fined them tens of thousands of dollars over the bird kills.
By Dr. Glen Barry
The world’s pre-eminent environmental organizations, widely perceived as the leading advocates for rainforests and old growth, have for decades been actively promoting primary forest logging [search]. Groups like Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Environmental Defense Fund actively promote industrially logging Earth’s last old forests. Through their support of the existing “Forest Stewardship Council” (FSC), and/or planned compromised “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD), they are at the forefront of destroying ancient forests for disposable consumer items – claiming it is “sustainable forest management” and “carbon forestry”.
My Take – Amazing! A greenie attempting to vilify a whole mess of other greenies, who are clearly corrupt hypocrites, without sounding too condemnatory.This was supposed to be a sacrosanct issue with the greenies…. in spite of the fact that the world’s forests aren’t really disappearing….another greenie lie.
The federal government is proposing to grant a first-of-its-kind permit that would allow the developer of a central Oregon wind-power project to legally kill golden eagles, a regulatory move being closely watched by conservationists. The Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released a draft environmental assessment that would allow West Butte Wind Power LLC to kill as many as three protected golden eagles over five years if the company fulfills its conservation commitments.
My Take - We have lost our minds. The greenies ranted tht DDT had to be eliminated to save the world....including the golden eagle, and they rend their garments over some stupid beetle that an oil line from Canada my upset...but now there is going to be a pass on some stupid green energy project that will never be profitable without subsidies, tax breaks or both. We have lost out minds. Why do we listen to these people? RK
[In] 2007…..Leader Reid…resorted to the extraordinary tactic of keeping the Senate in pro-forma session so as to prevent the imperial Bush from doing an end-run around the confirmation process. The move was celebrated by liberal commentators as a brave and necessary assertion of congressional power and was supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama…..Fast-forward to this week. The Senate has once again been in pro-forma session in order to keep President Obama from making recess appointments. Reid….arguing [now] that the maneuver is nothing more than a gimmick…..Reid immediately endorsed the president's decision, accepting the logic that calls a maneuver he invented a sham.
The agency has the power to regulate any practices it deems "unfair" -- primarily the practices of institutions and businesses that had nothing whatsoever to do with the financial crisis.
Indeed, it has blank-check power to write the rules it wants to enforce. Worse, it cannot be reined in by Congress, because Dodd-Frank gave it a self-funding mechanism. It can simply take up to 12 percent of the Federal Reserve's operating expenses to do whatever it wants. The power of Congress is ultimately the power of the purse. But in their finite wisdom, Democratic lawmakers gelded themselves. They also insulated the rogue agency from the courts, requiring that judges defer to the CFPB's legal theories.
My Take -Please follow the claims and the counterclaims in this link, including Pelosi's irrational proclamations. It does amaze me at the statements made by these people. I can’t help but wonder if they are insane. There are a number of things that are clear that drawS me to a final conclusion.
1. So much of what they say is blatantly false
2. Those who attempt to tell the truth are eviscerated by the media.
3. This must be deliberate because;
(a) They clearly aren't stupid, at least as far as IQ goes.
(b) We clearly know that they have access to all the facts.
(c) Therefore they must know the truth.
As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama promised that if he was elected president he would not issue obscure declarations known as signing statements that thwart the intent of laws passed by Congress. But [now] on at least 20 occasions Obama has embraced the same tactic [his] most recent signing [was]when he autographed a 13-paragraph memorandum declaring he did not intend to follow several sections of the National Defense Authorization Act that funded the military for 2012. The president said his lawyers had concluded the provisions interfered with his constitutional duties to carry out foreign policy. The signing statement essentially declares Obama’s intention to ignore requirements in the law, including restrictions on data transfers to Russia, new authorities to detain suspected members of al Qaeda, and sanctions against the central bank of Iran. The move has alienated members of Congress who claim the White House reneged on promises it made during backroom negotiations to get the long-stalled legislation passed just before lawmakers left for the holidays.
SOCIALISM
Russia’s Democratic Winter
This is not how the New Year was supposed to begin for Vladimir Putin. The official script was clear enough. After presiding over his United Russia party’s now-routine rigging of the December 4th parliamentary elections, Putin was supposed to sail to victory in the coming March presidential race, resuming the office that he never truly relinquished to his longtime deputy, Dmitry Medvedev, while a passive Russian public looked on. But that script, so familiar in recent years, has been rejected by an unlikely source: a fed-up and suddenly politically conscious Russian middle class.
ESA TODAY
More of State’s Species May Be Endangered
Near a glade of blackened pines, a Ph.D. student at Texas State University used microchip technology to search for an endangered Houston toad. Her device beeped as she held it over a carpet of pine needles, and after a bit of digging, a live toad emerged, half-buried in dirt.If the toad becomes extinct, Texas will lose a creature with a unique call, Dr. Forstner said, and it will also be a worrying indicator of the health of the piney ecosystem. ....“Losing the toad is losing a native Texan,” Dr. Forstner said.
My Take -This is what happens when we begin to embrace pseudo-pagan concepts that animals are equal to people. Primitive peoples believed that they had spirits and they had to be careful not to offend them. The tools are different, but the style is the same. These people are modern Druids with their own sacred tenets, language and actions. I am fast coming to the conclusion that Ph.D. is another term for high priest. RK
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Announces Finding on Status of Broad-snouted Caiman
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced a 12-month finding on a petition and a proposed rule to reclassify the broad-snouted caiman population in Argentina from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This will also constitute a five-year review for the species.
Breeding program for endangered Sonoran pronghorn begins in southwestern Arizona
Endangered Sonoran pronghorn are now living in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona. It's the first time in more than 100 years the black-horned animal has been found in the refuge's King Valley. The Sonoran pronghorn have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1967. The U.S. population of the Sonoran pronghorn was on the brink of extinction in 2002 because of human disturbance, loss of food and water sources, and drought, among other reasons.
Sacramento group vows suit over endangered beetle
The legal foundation on Wednesday delivered a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service, a prerequisite under the Endangered Species Act. "We didn't want to have to file this" said Brandon Middleton, an attorney for the legal group. ...
Salazar pushes for coordination on Rio Grande
Questions were raised about whether using mechanisms under the Endangered Species Act would make the best foundation for solving wide-ranging management and conservation issues along the Middle Rio Grande. The discussion will be difficult because so ...
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Endangered Woodpecker From Excessive Logging on ...
The Endangered Species Act requires agencies to re-consult on plans where new information reveals impacts to an endangered species that were not previously considered. Despite the steady decline of this very rare woodpecker since completion of the 2004 ...
In December 2011, Sahar Gul, a 15-year-old Afghan girl and underage bride, was freed by Afghan police after having been severely tortured for six months by her in-laws in an attempt to force her into prostitution. During her captivity, Sahar had been kept locked in a basement, tortured with hot irons, her fingers broken and fingernails ripped out….Afghanistan still remains one of the world’s most dangerous places for women. According to the UN’s Gender Inequality Index, Afghanistan ranks as the world’s sixth-worst country for women due to violence — including domestic abuse — sexual harassment, poverty and lack of healthcare. Editor’s Note: This story get worse. Please read the whole article! RK
The Nigerian church bombings, wherein the Islamic group Boko Haram killed over 40 people celebrating Christmas mass, is just the most obvious example of anti-Christian sentiment in December. Elsewhere around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of increased threats, harassment, and fear, which is not surprising, considering Muslim clerics maintain that “saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone.” A few examples:
Thirteen months after a Tunisian street-vendor immolated himself and sparked the revolutions in the Middle East dubbed the “Arab Spring,” the bipartisan celebrations that attended those events last year appear premature, if not delusional. Now that Islamist parties are consolidating their power in the wake of the regime changes in those countries, President Obama’s claim that Egyptians merely wanted “a government that is fair and just and responsive,” or Senator John McCain’s assertions that Libyans were aiming for “lasting peace, dignity, and justice,” or Senator Joseph Lieberman’s article in Foreign Affairs that summarized the Arab Spring as a struggle for “democracy, dignity, economic opportunity, and involvement in the modern world” each reflects dangerous wishful thinking rather than sober analysis.
My Take – I never cease to be amazed at the level of stupidity of those who are at the center of information. In every case where Islamic societies had the opportunity to vote in their leadership they chose hard line Islamists. After that they didn’t have to worry about any difficult decisions about voting any more.
Why would anyone think it would be different now?
Islam is a secular religious movement. As a result it becomes heresy to demand new leadership. This is a cultural paradigm! It has always been a cultural paradigm, and as long as they are Islamists it will always be a cultural paradigm. So why would Obama, McCain and Lieberman think this would be any different? They gotta be dumb as dirt! RK
