A legal setback for the Crazy People;

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot impose a mandate for a non-existent product and then punish companies for failing to use said non-existent product, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled.
That non-existent product? Cellulosic biofuels, a type of ethanol made from non-food sources such as wood chips, switchgrass, and non-edible feedstock.
The court ruled that the EPA can set renewable fuel production standards as a means to stimulate economic development, but it cannot punish companies who fail to meet those standards.
“Do a good job, cellulosic fuel producers. If you fail, we’ll fine your customers,” the judges wrote.

“To make this the greenest Super Bowl, the New Orleans Host Committee has partnered with fans and the community to offset energy use across the major Super Bowl venues. The exterior of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome features more than 26,000 LED lights on 96 full-color graphic display panels, designed to wash the building in a spectrum of animated colors, patterns and images. The system draws only 10 kilowatts of electricity — equivalent to the amount of energy used by a small home — and the lights are expected to last for many years before needing replacement.”

Via American Thinker.

Reuters;

Despite the promise of “green” transportation – and despite billions of dollars in investment, most recently by Nissan Motor Co – EVs continue to be plagued by many of the problems that eventually scuttled electrics in the 1910s and more recently in the 1990s. Those include high cost, short driving range and lack of charging stations.
The public’s lack of appetite for battery-powered cars persuaded the Obama administration last week to back away from its aggressive goal to put 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015.
The tepid response to EVs also pushed Nissan’s high-profile chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, perhaps the industry’s most outspoken proponent of battery cars, to announce in December a major strategic shift toward more mainstream gasoline-electric hybrids, which overcome many of the shortcomings of pure EVs.
The move was widely seen as a tacit acknowledgement by Ghosn that his all-or-nothing, multibillion-dollar bet on EVs is falling far short of his ambition to sell hundreds of thousands of battery-powered Nissan Leafs.

More – Electric car sales plummet in January

“Never mind a million EVs by 2015.”

…the DOE backpedals furiously from a goal set out in a 2011 State of the Union speech, where President Barack Obama announced what he called “Apollo projects of our times.” One of them was the goal for the United States to be “the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”
“Whether we meet that goal in 2015 or 2016, that’s less important than that we’re on the right path to get many millions of these vehicles on the road,” an unnamed Energy Department official told Reuters.
Reuters notes that “demand for hybrids and electric vehicles has been weaker than expected. Government money was poured into black holes.

Think of the billions that could be saved if governments were to run their ideas by Saskatchewan blogs prior to implementation. For one thing, the advice would be free. (h/t)

Oops.

Calgary Sun;

Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on Sunday.

Meanwhile, can I get some wings with those fries?
h/t johnbrooks

Lorrie Goldstein;

Not only are the Liberals forcing electricity consumers (us) to spend outrageous amounts of cash buying wind power via the 20-year, no-cut contracts they’ve signed with the wind industry, they’ve also stipulated that whenever wind power is produced, it has to be bought before all other forms of energy.
And since we have an energy surplus in Ontario because of our depressed economy, when the province buys wind power, it has to dump cheaper forms of energy like hydro power, or sell it, often at a loss, to Quebec or the U.S.

When we are warned of the dangers of government intervention in the marketplace, most assume the unintended consequences pertain to obscure, off-the-radar effects. In reality, regulatory oversights tend towards the blindingly obvious, like “laws of physics” or “toxicity“;

Canada’s mercury-waste facilities are either patchwork or non-existent as millions of light bulbs containing the highly toxic chemical are set to flood the marketplace.
That’s a key finding of a report commissioned by Environment Canada in the run-up to a major change in the way Canadians light their homes.
Beginning next January, a new regulation will effectively ban the sale of standard incandescent bulbs in favour of energy-efficient versions, most of which contain mercury.

Of course, this only applies to those of you who haven’t already stockpiled a lifetime supply of incandescents. Governments are turning us into preppers, one stupid regulation at a time. (h/t Dan T)

Dead Parrot Motor Company: “Electric car is not dead”

IMPOSSIBLE.

With energy costs escalating, more Germans are turning to wood burning stoves for heat. That, though, has also led to a rise in tree theft in the country’s forests. Woodsmen have become more watchful.
With snow blanketing the ground, it’s the perfect time of year to snuggle up in front of a fireplace. That, though, makes German foresters nervous. When the mercury falls, the theft of wood in the country’s woodlands goes up as people turn to cheaper ways to heat their homes.

Germans have wind power to keep them warm.

The Economist;

The amount of electricity generated from coal is rising at annualised rates of as much as 50% in some European countries. Since coal is by the far the most polluting source of electricity, with more greenhouse gas produced per kilowatt hour than any other fossil fuel, this is making a mockery of European environmental aspirations.

And not a moment too soon!
(h/t Rob)

A new study for the American Tradition Institute;

… finds that on a full cost basis, wind electricity is nearly twice as expensive as what is typically reported. “The Hidden Costs of Wind Electricity” provides an analysis of three major costs that past estimates have ignored.

Wind turbine company Nextera & MNR destroy Bald Eagle Nest & Habitat in Haldimand Cty, ON

The car with the $23,000 battery;

When the new plug-in sales share of the total market is only a pathetic 0.65%, this is hardly shocking:

Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf Prove Tough Resells – Used EV Market Less Than Booming […]

Of course all new cars lose roughly 20% of their value the moment they roll off the lot. But there are a lot of used plug-in-specific problems.
You don’t get the $7,500 federal bribe on the used ones.

On this infrared video taken at night, one can see bats “investigating” the moving blades of a wind turbine. Strikes are also recorded.

“OK, Bob. Throw the switch…”

Global warming in Germany, December 9th. Click for photo gallery. (h/t maz2)

This is odd…

[Rita Van Geffen] tapped her retirement nest egg to build her ground-mounted solar project, spending just over $100,000.
The Ontario Power Authority had conditionally approved their projects in 2010, but they were later rejected by the local utility, provincially owned Hydro One. As a result of these and numerous other cases, the province revised rules in December, 2010, no longer issuing conditional offers before a grid connection was secured.
“I believe in green energy and I thought it was a safe investment,” said Ms. Van Geffen, 63, a former sheep farmer. With the legislature prorogued and the governing Liberals searching for a new party leader, she is worried a resolution will be delayed further.
“It’s been two-and-a-half years since I started this,” she noted. “I just want to get out. I just want to get my money out and put it into something else.”

You’d think she’d know a sheep when she sees one.
Related: Why Everyone Is Losing Hope For Green Energy
h/t North_of_60

Ugh.