Voice For Liberty in Wichita

Or at least it should be, unless you’re a global warming alarmist. Then it’s okay to use September temperatures for missing October observations.
That’s what the Investor’s Business Daily editorial Cold, Hard Facts reports happened. Really.
The editorial is based on Steve McIntyre’s research, reported on his site Climate Audit in the post Did Napoleon Use Hansen’s [...]

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Does climate change offer an opportunity to spend ourselves out of a possible recession? John Stossel doesn’t think so, and in his piece The Fallacy of “Green Jobs” he lays out the case.
Key points:
“The fallacy is the same in every case: Even if the program creates jobs building bridges or windmills, it necessarily prevents [...]

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From our friends at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, one of the many outstanding state-level research institutes working for liberty and free markets.
A Change in Climate for Climate Change Policy
By Kathleen Hartnett White
November 5, 2008
Come what dramatic political and economic changes may occur, a refrain persists within the media, industry, and the U.S. Congress that [...]

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When evaluating the claims of radical environmental extremists, people need accurate and reliable information about global warming and climate change. To this end, I’ve started a Climate Change Resource Center page, where readers can find links to reliable sources of information.
If you know of other sources or articles that should be listed, please send them [...]

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Kansas Liberty posts Tax incentive for wind energy producers set to expire.
This post explains that without subsidy, wind power generation facilities will likely not be built. Supporters of these tax credits, which are payments from the federal government through the tax system. These payments, termed “incentives” by their supporters, make wind power economically feasible. Without [...]

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An op-ed in the Wichita Eagle (Amy J. Blankenbiller: Cap-and-trade would be harmful to Kansans) makes the case that some cures for global warming may cause more harm than good.
The author warns that “we could be heading toward ’solutions’ that are much more harmful to Kansas consumers and businesses than the environmental benefits they aim [...]

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A recent article in USA Today (Renewable energy firms clamor for tax breaks) reports on the uncertainty of whether the U.S. Congress will extend the tax credits that subsidize solar and wind power investment. From the article:
Some $500 million in investment and production tax credits will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress renews them. Without that [...]

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One of the things about radical environmentalists is that they seem to learn a lesson, only to fail to learn from it. What do I mean?
Recently, New York Times writer David Pogue rehashed in a column titled The Bottom Line of the Eco Balance Sheet the “calculus of green” as it relates to the age-old [...]

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A recent op-ed piece in the Wichita Eagle (Reader View: Give up on Climate Efforts?) makes the case that it is still important to fight climate change at the local level, here in Kansas. “When millions of people act, even in small ways, it has a cumulative effect on the planet.”
The problem is that most [...]

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An article from the Foundation for Economic Education warns us to be cautious when considering the plans of oilman T. Boone Pickens:
Pickens’s commercial no doubt causes FEE readers’ classical-liberal antennae to stand at attention. The word “plan” alone rightly provokes worries of coercive schemes. The notion of being independent of energy or any other commodity [...]

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Kansas Liberty reports on the wide variance in conclusions drawn by two studies on the effect of climate change in Kansas in the post Will climate change impact Kansas? The fact that such variation exists tells me that we should proceed cautiously before committing Kansas to a costly process that, in the end, makes no [...]

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Nancy Jackson of the Climate and Energy Project in Kansas has some tips for citizens and candidates to use when talking about global warming. The article Tips for citizens and candidates - talking about the Production Tax Credit contains warnings about what will happen if the Production Tax Credit (PTC) isn’t extended beyond its scheduled [...]

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Earlier this year, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius created the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group (KEEP) and appointed Cessna Aircraft Company chairman, president and chief executive officer Jack Pelton as its leader.
This was a smart political move by Governor Sebelius. She appears to have put the planning for our state’s energy future in the [...]

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CBS News picks up on a National Review Online story about the idealogical bias of Wikipedia when it comes to the subject of global warming.
On Wikipedia, regular folks like me who make changes to articles are known as “editors.” When we make these edits, they are subject to review and possible revision or deletion [...]

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What is the attitude of Kansans toward coal-fired power plants?
Opponents of these plants have polls purportedly telling us that a majority of Kansans are opposed to them. See the press release Kansans Support Denial of Coal Plants, Want Wind Power for New Electricity from GPACE, a group headed by Scott Allegrucci, a former actor [...]

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In a January 17, 2008 Wichita Eagle editorial, Nancy Jackson of the Climate and Energy Project of the Land Institute claims that Roderick L. Bremby, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, did not create regulatory uncertainty when he denied the permit for the expansion of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas.
A dubious [...]

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Yesterday I posted Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius at Earthjustice, about Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius speaking at a event hosted by Earthjustice, a group that I believe has a radical environmentalist agenda.
Just what is the agenda of the group? Do they have the interests of Kansas in mind, or something else?
I asked a few blogger [...]

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On May 1, 2008, the Americans For Prosperity Hot Air Tour made its stop in Wichita, Kansas. It was too windy for the big hot air balloon (who could have guessed that might be the case in the Kansas springtime?) but the speakers spoke as planned, and that’s the important part of this event.

Some photos that I took may be viewed here.

Some of the material from AFP:

Climate alarmists have bombarded citizens with apocalyptic scenarios and pressured them into environmental political correctness. It’s time to tell the other side of the story.

Climate Schemes Mean Higher Taxes

• A cap-and-trade system would amount to a $1.19 trillion tax hike over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
• Energy taxes would drive gas over $8.00 per gallon and more than double electricity bills, according to a study by the American Council for Capital Formation.
• Revenue from energy taxes or permit sales will be used by bureaucratic central planners to pick politically-favored but horribly ineffective alternatives, like ethanol.

Cap-and-Trade is a Massive Job-Killer

• The hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity destroyed by the cap-and-trade tax scheme translate into millions of lost jobs for American workers.
• We would trade millions of productive private sector jobs, for a smaller number of jobs created by a government regulatory scheme.

Climate Alarmism Threatens Freedom

• The inevitable result of energy regulation is centralized control of the economy and our lives. The government has already banned incandescent light bulbs even though replacements, compact fluorescent bulbs, contain toxic mercury.
• California wants to place radio control devices in thermostats so the government can set the temperature in homes and businesses.
• Higher energy costs will increase the price of any product that is transported to market; these effects will ripple through the economy. Food prices have been especially hard hit, with milk prices up 20% in the last year.
• State climate panels want to return to 55 MPH speed limits.

Radical Proposals will have Very Little Impact

• Cap and trade policies are already failing to reduce CO2 emissions in Europe. In fact, emissions covered under their legislation in Europe have gone up according to the think tank, Open Europe.
• Even if the cap and trade scheme actually reduce emissions in the United States – despite failures in Europe, climate models show that the reductions would have an impact of approximately 0.1 degree Celsius in the year 2100.

Low-Income Families will be Hit Hardest

• Low-income families pay a much larger share of their income on goods that will be affected by these policies.
• Higher energy and food prices are a genuine hardship for low-income Americans, even if they are an affordable indulgence for Al Gore, who already spends tens of thousands of dollars on his home energy bills.

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Those sounding the alarm over global warming are full of evidence of rising temperatures and man’s contribution to them. Rarely, however, do I read of what these advocates proscribe as the cure for global warming, and if one is given, we don’t often hear of the grave damage the cure would do to our economy and standard of living.