NewEnergyNews: GREAT DEBATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE JOINED

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich (R-GA), a leader in the forging of conservative Republican thought, expressed grave doubts during an NPR interview January 19 about the ability of government to effectively administer stimulus monies allocated by Congress to President-elect Obama, and Speaker Gingrich is also on record opposing cap-and-trade for similar reasons.

Speaker Gingrich: “…Whether it’s a carbon tax, which I think is politically suicidal, or cap-and-trade which will turn out in the end I think to be a very complicated mess—both of those are designed to say, “We want to create a differentiation between non-carbon and carbon by raising the cost of carbon.” I would rather use tax breaks and prizes to lower the cost of non-carbon. You actually create the exact same differential either way.”

Frozen river carried a coach (From Oxford Mail)

With the first snow in October for 70 years and the recent cold snap, the omens may not look good.

But it is unlikely that this winter will be as cold as the one pictured above.

Temperatures dropped so low in January and February 1895 that the River Thames froze in Oxford.
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He drove a coach and four horses along the frozen Thames in 1891 – the first time the river had frozen so hard for 40 years – and repeated the exercise at least three times in 1895.

HIGH NOON–Inauguration Global Warming Temperature Watch | OpenMarket.org

It’s not scientifically meaningful, but it is interesting.
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When Bush was first sworn in, in 2001, the temperature at noon in DC was 36 degrees F. What will it be today, when he leaves office? Will the capital be warmer or colder than when he took office eight years ago?

Brian Griffiths: The End of the Innocence

Speculation about the reasons for the stand down on global warming policy aside (and I think there may be other reasons out there that I did not necessarily touch on) I find it somewhat comforting that people on the left side of the aisle are finally starting to look critically at so called arguments for global warming policy change, and are starting to take the more reasoned position that a lot of us took some time ago...