http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/27/sad-eyed-greens-bemoan-obama-energy-remarks/

Sad eyed greens bemoan Obama energy remarks

POSTED AT 11:00 AM ON JANUARY 27, 2012 BY JAZZ SHAW

 

The Green Warriors turned out to have a fairly short lived celebration after Barack Obama kicked the Keystone XL can down the road yet again. What looked like a victory for the environmental lobby was quickly thrown into a tailspin when the President gave his State of the Union address. In it, he spoke some fairly heartening words about an, “all of the above” energy policy – something we’ve been pushing for here since the beginning of his administration. Of course, whether words translate into action this year remains to be seen.

Still, those few phrases on Tuesday night were apparently enough to set off a wave of despair in some quarters. At WNYC in New York, Justin Krebs takes to his keyboard to mourn the apparent death of the green energy movement.

President Obama’s decision last week to halt the Canadian tar-sands pipeline project was the right choice for the environment, a win for environmentalists – who had staged incredible acts of civil disobedience protesting the project — and a talking point of attack for GOP candidates through the debates and South Carolina speeches that followed…

However, the Keystone Pipeline was just one very extreme front in this fight, and as environmentalists realized just a few days later, it’s not a fight that they are winning. In his State of the Union, the president showed his support for more domestic energy exploration — which many understand to include controversial franking [sic] techniques and ever-deeper and riskier oil drilling. We may have stopped one pipeline, but we haven’t changed a system that demands us to pipe more oil and natural gas further distances to power our everyday lives.

The pouting continues for some time, going on to blame the GOP for “hyperventilating” and “pounding the administration” over the failures at Solyndra. (Apparently things at the solar panel plant would have been just fine had it not been for you meddling conservative kids, Shaggy.) He then goes on to re-run the mantra that solar, wind and geothermal are ripe and ready to solve all of our problems if only Obama would act “forcefully and decisively” enough. (I assume some amount of clapping until Tinkerbell comes back to life will also be involved, but the author doesn’t specify.)

But even the “victory” portion of this diatribe may wind up being off the mark. President Obama didn’t really deliver some bold, green energy stand in nixing Keystone. He attempted a blatantly obvious political ploy, trying to have it both ways by allowing for a fresh request of the Keystone project at a later date, hoping against hope that he can somehow keep this off the front pages until after the election. If he had truly been supporting the green lobby, he would have proclaimed the pipeline to be “a bad thing” and said it wasn’t going to happen. That’s not what he did, and all the wishing in the world isn’t going to make it so.

Will we see concrete action on a new, more viable domestic energy policy this year, to the great dismay of Mr. Krebs and his friends? Anything is possible, I suppose, and if it happens I will be the first one to step up here and congratulate President Obama on his wise decision. But I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it.

TAISUN, biggest crane in the world assembles D90, biggest drilling rig in the world

REDRANT: SCARAEO 9 IS THE RIG THAT IS IS IN CUBA TO START DRILLING BETWEEN HAVANA AND KEY WEST.  GREG LANG

TAISUN, the biggest, strongest crane in the world sets a crane heavy lift world record by lifting the 17,100 metric ton topsides of the Saipem-owned "Frigstad D90" semi-submersible "Scarabeo 9". 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4GOPvYuGUo

Newt Gingrich in 2008: Update on 'Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIjyT5_2N_I

Al Gore to set sail for Antarctica

Redrant: "In theory treaties, if enforced, should prohibit (alleged) “crazed sex poodle” Al Gore from stepping foot on Antarctica. International treaties ban dogs from Antarctica."


http://junkscience.com/2012/01/20/gore-to-set-sail-for-antarctica/comment-page-1/#comment-22775


Scientists, celebrities to cruise with Gore to Antarctica
Lauren Morello, E&E reporter
E&ENews PM: Friday, January 20, 2012
Updated at 6:07 p.m. EST.

Former Vice President Al Gore is taking his fight against climate change to Antarctica next week as part of a cruise organized by his Climate Reality Project.

Gore and more than 100 fellow travelers will depart from Argentina late next week. Scientists, including climatologists James Hansen of NASA and Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, will give talks during the journey.

Other attendees include Bangladesh’s minister of environment and forests, Hasan Mahmud, and British billionaire Richard Branson, who blogged about the trip last month.

“Today is the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen and his team’s successful trip to the South Pole. Next month I’m going to Antarctica with [my family] to celebrate that trip and also Capt Robert Scott (who was a relative of ours) incredible voyage there,” Branson wrote on Dec. 14. “Sadly as you know he perished on the way home. We’re going on a boat organised by Al Gore to learn as much as we can from scientists and experts about where we are in the worrying cycle of Global Warming.”

The Antarctic voyage is part of a larger campaign to focus attention on the threat climate change poses to the world’s ice sheets and glaciers — a subject Gore highlighted in his 2007 documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and at a 2009 conference he convened with Norway’s foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

“This winter we will be talking about Antarctica as part of our ‘Living on Thin Ice’ campaign which will focus on how people around the globe are being impacted by the melting of the world’s ice,” Climate Reality Project spokesman Eric Young said. “As part of that effort, we are journeying to Antarctica with our chairman, Vice President Gore, and leading scientists and thinkers to see firsthand how the climate crisis is unfolding.”

Antarctica is not the only stop for Gore’s campaign, Young said, which has convened events in Ecuador, the Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn and is planning trips to Nepal and the Alps.

Occupy '"FLEABAGGERS".

Occupy Wall Street Backlash: The 53 Percent

http://news.yahoo.com/occupy-wall-street-backlash-53-percent-211700653.html

The Occupy Wall Street movement considers itself the voice of the 99 percent, the people not among the richest one percent of the population. But a new group has sprung up to oppose Occupy Wall Street. Calling itself the 53 percent, the group claims to speak for the 53 percent of Americans who pay federal income taxes.

'53 Percent' Origins

Mike Wilson, maker of "Michael Moore Hates America," started the 53 percent movement after seeing a photo of conservative blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson, editor of RedState online, holding up a note. The note describes Erickson as working 3 jobs, owning a home he can't sell, and facing outrageous insurance costs. Yet he says he doesn't blame Wall Street and is subsidizing those who are hanging out there complaining. Wilson started a Twitter hashtag #iamthe53.

53 Percent's Perspective

The perspective of the 53 percent of Americans shouldering the country's tax burden is presumably no more unified than that of Occupy Wall Street. But Wilson's group appeals to those who like him want to distance themselves from Occupy. He suggests they're a bunch of slackers looking for a handout. And he says the Occupy protests are really opposing the 53 percent not the 1 percent at the top of economic spectrum.

Erickson suggests that protesting K Street and Congress is okay, but not protesting Wall Street. What seems to really get his goat is Occupy members bashing those who have it better than them instead of directing frustrations at government policymakers.

53 Percent: Fact or Fantasy?

The New York Times pointed out last year the misleading nature of saying that 53 percent of Americans foot the bill for federal taxes. While the statistic is accurate with respect to federal income taxes, the Times said when you take into account payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security and other federal obligations like investment, gas and excise taxes, that number jumps. Taking the bigger picture into account, the Times says that only about 10 percent of American households pay no net federal taxes.

The 53 percent apparently isn't carrying the weight for quite so many Americans -- regardless of whether they're workers desperate for a job or slackers -- as the reliance on federal income tax data alone suggests.

Microsoft Patents ‘Avoid Ghetto’ Feature For GPS Devices

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2012/01/06/microsoft-patents-avoid-ghetto-feature-for-gps-devices/

Stock Image of recently released Microsoft mobile phones. (Photo Credit: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA / AFP / Getty Images)

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REDMOND, Wash. (CBS Seattle) – Microsoft has been granted a patent for its “avoid ghetto” feature for GPS devices.

A GPS device is used to find shortcuts and avoid traffic, but Microsoft’s patent states that a route can be plotted for pedestrians to avoid an “unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures.”

Created for mobile phones, the technology uses the latest crime statistics and weather data and includes them when calculating a route.

The patent, written in a combination of tech-speak and legalese, was awarded to Microsoft earlier this week. It also described other uses for the new GPS technology.

One section of the patent mentioned that advertisers can use the technology to navigate a user through a newly set up ad campaign.

Microsoft declined to comment to CBS Seattle.

51% See Occupy Wall Street Protesters As Public Nuisance

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2012/51_see_occupy_wall_street_protesters_as_public_nuisance

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Enough is enough as far as most voters are concerned when it comes to the Occupy Wall Street protesters.  In fact, 51% of Likely U.S. Voters now view the protesters as a public nuisance. Only 39% see them as a valid protest movement representing the frustrations of most Americans.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also finds that just 24% think the Occupy Wall Street protesters who first began their protests in early October have gotten their message across to the American people. Fifty-three percent (53%) say they have not gotten their message across, and another 24% are not sure.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters still share at least a somewhat favorable opinion of the protesters while 58% regard the protesters unfavorably. Those figures include just 14% with a Very Favorable view and 34% who have a Very Unfavorable opinion of the movement. This represents a slightly more negative view of the protesters compared to November and marks a noticeable change from early October when 33% viewed them favorably and 27% unfavorably with the rest undecided.

Democrats continue to view the national protest movement more favorably than do Republicans and voters not affiliated with either of the parties, but even most voters in President Obama’s party don’t think the Occupy protesters have gotten their message across. Sixty percent (60%) of Democrats view the protesters as a valid protest movement, while 76% of GOP voters regard them as a public nuisance. Unaffiliated voters lean toward the view that they’re a public nuisance but by a much narrower 45% to 41% margin.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

REDRANT:  IT MIGHT BE $4.50 HERE IN THE TWIN CITIES, MN BECAUSE WE GET VIRTUALLY ALL OF OUR GAS FROM THE DAKOTAS OR CANADA.  GREG LANG
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/01/02/analysts-say-we-could-see-5-a-gallon-for-gas-in-2012/

$5 A Gallon For Gas? It Could Happen In 2012

January 2, 2012 11:59 PM

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ReportingMonique Griego

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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Five dollars a gallon for gas? Analysts say it could happen this year.

Monique Griego has more on why gas prices could soon explode.

Just this weekend, the president signed new sanctions against the country of Iran. Now, Iran is firing back with a threat that could send gas prices higher than ever.

Prices at the pump already have drivers in pain.

“I can barely afford it now,” said one driver.

“Three dollars a gallon…I mean, five dollars gets you what, a gallon and a half?” said another.

But if Iran follows through on a threat to shut down one of the world’s most important oil routes, analysts say prices here could skyrocket by summer.

“If it gets to $5, that would be hurting the pockets very bad,” said Paul Rozanski, Severna Park.

Threats of five dollars a gallon has Rozanski reconsidering his ride.

“I just like the SUV because of the wintertime, but definitely in the summertime, get another car. Get a Prius or something,” he said.

In just the past week, gas prices have gone up nearly seven cents and there is no sign of them coming down any time soon.

According to AAA, the average for a gallon of regular is $3.25, compared to $3.07 this time last year.

“Iran’s saber-rattling. I think that could have an impact,” said Pete Horrigan.

Horrigan, who’s with the Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Distributors’ Association, says he won’t go as far as five dollars a gallon, but does expect prices to go up.

“We certainly have enough issues going on in the world and in this country that it could certainly be higher,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate in this country because in European countries, they’ve been paying a lot more than that for a long time.”

Many drivers are now hoping that good fortune holds out.

The U.S. penalties against Iran don’t take effect for six months and even then, the president can waive them for national security reasons.

The European Union is also considering new oil sanctions against Iran.