Australian Climate Madness: No matter how cool, the alarmists will always find an angle . . .

2008 is shaping up to be the coolest year since 2001, and yet the media can always dig up an alarmist who can spin it into bad news, to keep the AGW bandwagon of doom rolling (and of course, the cash flooding in). The alarmist in question is Prof Barry Brook, whose amusing title is "Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change" at Adelaide University, which the Adelaide Advertiser (probably the worst newspaper in Australia) reports without question, under the doom-laden headline:

   "Year of extremes sparks climate woes"...

Burning Coal at Home Is Making a Comeback - The New York Times

With the cost of heating oil and natural gas prone to spikes, some are deciding coal is worth the trouble.

Investor's Business Daily -- Ethanol Bailout? Time To Shuck Corn

Energy Policy: The heavily subsidized ethanol industry is the latest to seek a federal bailout. If there is any industry that deserves to go bankrupt, it's this one. Time has come to stop putting food in our gas tanks.

Investor's Business Daily -- Reality For Radicals

The president-elect is also having to rethink his anti-industry energy policies. With crude under $40 a barrel, he won't pursue a windfall-profit tax on oil companies, which he'd hoped would fund new green initiatives and other domestic programs.

And a planned assault on the coal industry is also on the back burner. It would likely mean higher utility bills and more pain for depressed regions that depend on coal mining.

The cooling climate is also giving Obama fits. With snow falling from New Orleans to Las Vegas and Malibu, Calif., efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions now seem forced.