We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 9 Comments

Real Clear Energy;

“I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate,” Warren Buffett told Fortune recently. “For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”
Buffett’s evaluation is being borne out dramatically as the wind construction industry collapses without the tax subsidy. Congress failed to renew the production tax credit in 2013 and the installation of new windmills plummeted from 8,385 megawatts in the 4th quarter of 2012 to 1.6 in the first quarter of 2013. The huge run-up at the end of 2012, of course, was driven by developers getting things into the ground to qualify before the credit expired. A similar blip occurred in the 4th quarter of 2013 when there was speculation that the tax credit might be renewed. This time the blip only amounted to 1,016 MW.

Related: energiewende kaput?

You Keep Using That Slur.

Political Animal 16 Comments

I do not think it means what you think it means;

Labour and Conservative polling is showing that attacks claiming Nigel Farage is a racist have backfired since voters do not regard him as such and see the assaults as a sign members of the political establishment are ganging up to undermine him.
The apparent backlash is coming to both parties from telephone polling and focus groups, which say that the attacks have raised Farage’s profile and confirmed him as the anti-establishment candidate. It does not tally with published opinion polls that show the Ukip lead in the European elections narrowing slightly.

Is There Nothing The Obamas Can’t Do?

Forward! 18 Comments

Reason;

A series of emails disclosed this week indicate that officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) don’t particularly like conservative reporters and in at least one case told a scientist to lie in order to avoid answering questions.
The Daily Caller discovered this after being subject to one of the federal agency’s “freeze-outs.” The right-wing website was skeptical of a CDC study that purported to show obesity rates in 2- to 5-year-olds dropping by 43 percent, and of subsequent claims that First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign played a role in the decline.

If obesity has dropped, it’s due to food inflation.

Renegade Regulator

CSA 11 Comments

Cross-Border Influence;

Last year, the National Post reported our growing suspicions about [Canadian Standards Association’s] relationship with foreigners. In response to the Post’s queries about CSA selling influence to foreigners, the CSA’s Anothony Toderian claimed that “its simply not possible for us to do that. There’s no way that we can give influence over the Canadian Electrical Code to anybody because its developed by an open and transparent process…” (etc. and so forth).
Well, during 2012, Mr. Tom Buchal of Intertek Energy Services was “given influence over the Canadian Electrical Code.” In fact, the CSA lists him as an author of that legislation. And he lives on US Route 11 in Cortland, New York.
Then there’s Watts Reliant, Inc., whose Engineering Manager, a man named Dustin Allcorn, was also given influence over the 2012 Code. He’s from Springfield, Missouri. Mr. Dave Clements is another author, and he lives in Richardson, Texas. […]
Then there’s the really awkward part. The CSA knows that its not supposed to be giving influence over Canadian law to foreigners, much less selling that influence. They know this, they’ve admitted this internally. We know they know. Know why?

Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?

Chief Big Screen TV 26 Comments

Now is the time at SDA when we juxatpose!
Assembly of First Nations, May 16th;

“Today’s RCMP report reaffirms the magnitude of the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and clearly indicates the urgent need for action by many different players, including First Nations, governments, police services and others,” said AFN Regional Chief Alexis, who leads the AFN work in the area of justice and policing.

Canadian Press, May 15th;

“We had the blessing of the chief, we had the blessing of the organization to come in and do a review,” said Pringle. “Then when I go out to Yorkton a week ago, I’m told by the FSIN that, ‘You’re an outsider. You don’t have any jurisdiction here. And we don’t have to talk to you and we’re not going to accept your report.'”

h/t Norm

This Is My Brother Mohammed, And This Is Constable Mohammed

More Pavilions At Folkfest Religion Of Submission 14 Comments
Torontistan;

The “Draw Mohammed Day,” marked on May 20, was started as a demonstration in defense of free speech, inspired by the so-called Danish cartoons, which depicted the founder of Islam. Needless to say, that didn’t work well – the usual Muslims response when their religion is discussed in an unflattering way is threats and more threats. Because of the Muslim death threats, Molly Norris, who started the event, had to go into hiding and change her name. She disappeared completely and nobody knows whether she is dead or alive.
In Toronto the event was marked by the free speech activist Eric Brazau. Again, needless to say, that event didn’t go well either…

 draw-mohammed-day-3.jpg

This problem could be solved overnight, if evangelicals would just pick up their game.

Restoring Sanity To Its Rightful Place

Y2Kyoto 29 Comments

Climate Change Research Axed in Australia;

The budgetary facts are inescapably grim for researchers and scientists based in renewable energies and research. The funding for all government programs related to climate change is set to shrink at an alarming rate, going from $5.75 billion this year to a scant $500 million in the next four years. Additionally, the Emissions Reduction Fund which is meant to help lower greenhouse gas emissions in Australia is going to be reduced to only $1.14 billion. This was devastating news after Environment Minister Greg Hunt had gone on record promising to provide $2.55 billion to fund the program. Nevertheless, it is not only climate change programs that are feeling the pinch of the Abbott budget. The Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, will have $111 million worth of funding slashed over the next four years, which will affect an uncertain number of programs and a loss of tenth of the CSIRO workforce.

Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors

Freespeechers Media 26 Comments

Dear Borg member,

The CBC is calling for a national discussion about its future. Like any other citizen in this country, you have the right to be heard in this ongoing discussion about CBC, and you can share your views about the public broadcaster with your friends, neighbours and people in your community.
As a CBC employee, you have a unique understanding of our national public broadcaster and its place in Canada. It’s important any public comments do not reflect negatively on the Corporation…

Oh, Frack!

Drill, Baby, Drill Ethical Energy 10 Comments

Things you’ll never see at the CBC;

In a 2012 ruling, Judge Loftin wrote that Lipsky did “intentionally attach a garden hose to a gas vent – not to a water line… This demonstration was not done for scientific study but to provide local and national news media a deceptive video, calculated to alarm the public into believing the water was burning.”
That ruling was issued in 2012. But Josh Fox, the anti-fracking extremist who produced the movie, still included it in Gasland 2 – which wasn’t released until 2013.

The “W” Word

The "W" Word The Tolerant Left 18 Comments

Rex Murphy;

Could there be a better definition of racism, a better example of a purely racist concept, than this, the holding that all a person does and is springs from the colour of his skin?
The entire notion is called “white privilege.” In our moderns seats of learning, with their skyrocketing tuition rates, and celebrity professors, do they ever test an idea? Do they ever ask the questions that even a 10-year-old would ask about this concept of “white privilege?”
Do they ask: What part of the great DNA chain, specifically, houses the gene for white privilege? How does skin colour and privilege interlink, and why does privilege always follow only one skin colour? Do individuals always and only reflect the characteristics of their skin-colour group? Do “whites” have any qualities or achievements at all that do not spring only from their skin colour?

It reminds me of an amusing debate that took place some years ago in the comments of the great Cjunk blog – in which John “Dr. Dawg” Baglow argued that a) there is no such thing as “race”, and b) whites are inherently racist.
h/t Gord Tulk

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