EPA Whistleblower Criticizes Global Warming Science and Policy in New Peer-Reviewed Study

Study Shows Claims of Catastrophic Warming Are Overwhelmingly Contradicted By Real-Word Data
Competitive Enterprise Institute

By Christine Hall

April 01, 2011

Washington, D.C., April 1, 2011 – The scientific hypotheses underlying global warming alarmism are overwhelmingly contradicted by real-world data, and for that reason economic studies on the alleged benefits of controlling greenhouse gas emissions are baseless.  That’s the finding of a new peer-reviewed report by a former EPA whistleblower.

Dr. Alan Carlin, now retired, was a career environmental economist at EPA when CEI broke the story of his negative report on the agency’s proposal to regulate greenhouse gases in June, 2009.  Dr. Carlin’s supervisor had ordered him to keep quiet about the report and to stop working on global warming issues.  EPA’s attempt to silence Dr. Carlin became a highly-publicized embarrassment to the agency, given Administrator Lisa Jackson’s supposed commitment to transparency.

Dr. Carlin’s new study, A Multidisciplinary, Science-Based Approach to the Economics of Climate Change, is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.  It finds that fossil fuel use has little impact on atmospheric CO2 levels.  Moreover, the claim that atmospheric CO2 has a strong positive feedback effect on temperature is contradicted on several grounds, ranging from low atmospheric sensitivity to volcanic eruptions, to the lack of ocean heating and the absence of a predicted tropical “hot spot.”

However, most economic analyses of greenhouse gas emission controls, such as those being imposed by EPA, have been conducted with no consideration of the questionable nature of the underlying science.  For that reason, according to Dr. Carlin, the actual “economic benefits of reducing CO2 emissions may be about two orders of magnitude less” than what is claimed in those reports.

Sam Kazman, CEI General Counsel, stated, “One of the major criticisms of Dr. Carlin’s EPA report was that it was not peer-reviewed, even though peer-review was neither customary for internal agency assessments, nor was it possible due to the time constraints imposed on Dr. Carlin by the agency.  For that reason, we are glad to see this expanded version of Dr. Carlin’s report now appear as a peer-reviewed study.”

Read the full report: A Multidisciplinary, Science-Based Approach to the Economics of Climate Change

See also the CEI OnPoint, “Clearing the Air on the EPA's False Regulatory Benefit-Cost Estimates and Its Anti-Carbon Agenda” by Garrett A. Vaughn

Enterprise Institute's Fred Smith: Strip EPA Before It Kills Economy

Newsmax.com

Friday, 01 Apr 2011

By Henry J. Reske and Matthew Belvedere

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an out-of-control operation that imperils America’s future as it crusades to regulate every aspect of life, from light bulbs to washing machines, Competitive Enterprise Institute President Fred Smith tells Newsmax.TV.

“The first thing that needs to be done is to strip the EPA of its ability to destroy America’s energy future and therefore America’s economic future,” said Smith, who founded the nonprofit public policy group in 1984.

The EPA is “hell-bent” on regulating CO2, Smith said during a Newsmax interview at a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., adding that allowing the EPA to regulate every use of energy in the country is a massive expansion of government authority “much bigger than Obamacare, which in its own way is every bit as destructive.”

Story continues below video.



“The EPA is a rogue organization,” he said. “It is totally out of control. It’s trying to basically micromanage everything from light bulbs, to the air conditioners we sell, to the washing machines, to our lives. I mean probably our very lives because there are too many of us; they want less of us on our planet.”

Smith’s Competitive Enterprise Institute promotes free enterprise and limited government and deals in a wide range of policy issues including energy, environment, and business and finance. The group also focuses on regulatory agencies, Smith said.

“Regulation is the tool of death to any smaller firm and entrepreneurial firms are always small,” he said. “You stomp out the seeds of tomorrow and you have no plants for tomorrow.”

As to efforts to reduce government spending, Smith said, “Republicans and Democrats and America has to recognize that when you have got a $1.5 trillion deficit and you’re worried about cutting the budget by $60 or $70 billion, you’re a way from being serious about the issue.”

“There is sort of a mock show going on. We haven’t even talked about entitlements, we haven’t talked about the military budget, how many wars can American fight without declarations of war and so on . . . All of that together means America is nonsustainable. It must stop; it will stop. What Congress had to realize is if it doesn’t move quickly, and the administration doesn’t move quickly that crash could be disastrous to the stability of our economy.”

Radioactive Water From Crippled Nuclear Plant Leaking Into Pacific, Japan Officials Say

FOXNews.com

Published April 02, 2011

Associated Press

April 1: Workers for the company experimentally spray adhesive synthetic resin over the ground at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, northeastern Japan. TEPCO expects the resin spraying to prevent dust exposed to radiation materials from spreading out of the premises. (AP/TEPCO)

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan –  Japan's prime minister surveyed the damage in a town gutted by a massive tsunami, as officials said Saturday that highly radioactive water was leaking into the sea from the nuclear plant stricken by the disaster.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex has been spewing radioactivity since March 11, when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing wave knocked out power, disabling cooling systems and allowing radiation to seep out of the overheating reactors.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan went to the plant and flew over the tsunami-damaged coast soon after the wave hit, but Saturday was the first time he set foot in one of the pulverized towns.

Dressed in the blue work clothes that have become almost a uniform for officials, Kan stopped in Rikuzentakata, where the town hall is one of the few buildings still standing. All its windows are blown out and a tangle of metal and other debris is piled in front of it.

The prime minister bowed his head for a minute of silence in front of the building. He met with the town's mayor, whose 38-year-old wife was swept away in the wave and is still missing. Officials fear about 25,000 people may have been killed, many of whose bodies have not been found.

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Plosser, Lacker: Inflation May Prompt Fed to Raise Rates in 2011



Federal Reserve



Moneynews.com

April 1, 2011

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser and Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker said Friday the central bank might raise interest rates before the end of the year in response to a growing economy and rising inflation.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if we need to act before the end of the year,” Lacker said today in a CNBC television interview. “Inflation is the bigger risk this year. That is what you have to keep your eye on.”

Meanwhile, Plosser said an increase in growth or inflation could require the Fed to begin withdrawing record monetary stimulus and possibly raise its main interest rate by the end of this year.

“Signs that inflation expectations are beginning to rise or that growth rates are accelerating significantly would suggest that it is time to begin taking our foot off the accelerator and start heading for the exit ramp,” Plosser said today in a speech in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“It’s certainly a possibility” that the Fed will need to raise rates before the end of 2011, Plosser told reporters after the speech. “In my mind it’s definitely on the table but it will depend on how things play out over the next few months.”

As Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and the Federal Open Market Committee near the completion of a $600 billion bond buying program, some central bankers are focusing on the strategy and timing for shrinking the Fed’s record $2.63 trillion balance sheet and eventually raising interest rates above the zero to 0.25 percent range that has been in place since December 2008.

“We should not be too sanguine in believing that such a time is a long way off or that the process will only be gradual,” he said. “A stronger rebound in the economy or inflation than some now expect could require policy actions to be taken sooner and more aggressively than many observers seem to be anticipating.”

At the FOMC’s last meeting on March 15, Plosser, 62, joined the rest of the committee in unanimously reaffirming plans to buy Treasuries while saying the recovery is gaining strength and that the effects of higher energy prices will be “transitory.”
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17 National Debt Statistics Which Prove That We Have Sold Our Children And Grandchildren Into Perpetual Debt Slavery

The Economic Collapse

March 30, 2011

What we have done to future generations over the past 30 years is absolutely criminal.  30 years ago the U.S. national debt was a bit under one trillion dollars, and at that time it was considered a huge national crisis.  Today, the national debt is 14 times larger and the years ahead look absolutely apocalyptic at this point.  We have literally sold our children and our grandchildren into perpetual debt slavery. 

We have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and our children and our grandchildren will be burdened with it for the rest of their lives.  All of our politicians keep talking about how it is vitally important that we do something about all of this debt "soon", but they just can't seem to stop wildly spending our money.  They keep telling us that now is not the time for deficit reduction because it would harm "the economic recovery", but the "right time" for deficit reduction never seems to come along. 

The national debt statistics in this article are meant to shock you.  Hopefully they will shock you enough to actually take action.  Up to this point, the vast majority of Americans have been extremely apathetic about the horrific crime that we are committing against future generations.

How would you feel if you found out one day that your parents had run up a million dollars in debt that now you were obligated to pay off?

Would you be absolutely furious?

Of course you would be, and rightly so.

So how do you think future generations will feel about us?

We were once the wealthiest nation on the planet, but we have taken that great inheritance and we have squandered it.

Now we are handing our children and our grandchildren the largest debt the world has ever seen.
How in the world can we do that?

How can we consign our descendants to perpetual debt slavery and still feel good about ourselves?
The America that we have all been enjoying so much today is going to be wiped out by all of this debt.
We have literally stolen the future.

We just had to keep spending more and more and more and more.
The greed of this generation will be remembered for a very, very long time.
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Webster Tarpley: Al Qaeda does US dirty work in Libya

RT
March 31, 2011

It’s been nearly two weeks since the US entered Libya and there is still no clear indication on who the rebels really are. Webster Tarpley, an investigative journalist says the US is supporting al-Qaeda, and racists on the ground. The world should ask America, “What are you doing arming and promoting al-Qaeda fighters in Libya?” he said.

Going Broke: Treasury Down to $58.6B in Cash, $130.5B Borrowing Authority



Then House Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and President Barack Obama on Jan. 29, 2010. (Associated Press photo)


CNSNews.com
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) - Imagine that you had an average monthly income of about $170 balanced against average monthly expenses of about $940--and that you were more than $14,000 in debt.
Then imagine that as of today, you had only $58.60 in cash left in your bank account and $130.50 left on your line of credit.

Now multiply these numbers by 1 billion and you will have the up-to-date financial situation of the U.S. government.

According to the Daily Treasury Statement released by the U.S. Treasury Department today at 4:00 p.m., the Treasury had $58.6 billion in cash in its accounts as of the close of business on Tuesday. That was down from $190.6 billion at the beginning of March and $309.8 billion at the beginning of this fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2010.

In the first five months of this fiscal year (Oct.-Feb.), the federal government averaged $169.6 billion per month in revenue. (During these months, the Treasury brought in a cumulative total of $845.3 billion—including all moneys from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, excise taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, estate taxes and other taxes.)

In the same five months that it was averaging this $169.6 billion in revenue, the federal government was averaging $943.4 billion in monthly spending. (During those months, the Treasury actually spent $4.717 trillion—including, for example, $2.492 trillion to pay off the holders of Treasury securities that had matured, $245.7 billion in Social Security benefits, $212.8 billion in Medicare benefits, $158.4 billion to pay defense contractors, $113.0 billion for Medicaid benefits, $111.6 billion for Department of Education programs, $94.3 billion in interest on debt, $73.4 billion in salaries for federal workers, and $26.7 billion in insurance benefits for federal workers.)
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