Snow Puts a Freeze on Many Businesses|ABC 13

Lynchburg, VA - Local store owners are shuddering at the prospect of another snowy weekend. At least one business owner fears many more weekends like this could have her business closing for good.
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"You can comprehend people who don't have money to spend, but when it is literally a barrier of ice and snow that is keeping your customers away- that is beyond tragic and frustrating," Cardwell said.

Express.co.uk - UK News :: Energy bills to soar 25 per cent

FAMILIES face a 25 per cent leap in energy bills because of a looming supply crisis which is threatening a return to 1970s-style blackouts if drastic action isn’t taken quickly.
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Several factors threaten ­supplies. They include ageing power stations being mothballed, growing reliance on imported gas instead of North Sea supplies and the credit crisis.

These are coinciding with the green energy drive, which is creating tough and expensive carbon and emissions reduction targets.

Energy regulator warns of power blackouts and renationalisation - Times Online

Lord Lawson of Blaby, the Conservative former Energy Secretary, an architect of energy market deregulation in the 1980s, rejected Ofgem’s analysis and accused it of being subject to political interference. He said: “It’s not the free market that has failed but political opposition to nuclear, coal and other forms of carbon power ... Ofgem just feels it has to trim its sails to the prevailing political wind.”

Ofgem: 'Only state intervention can prevent power cuts' - Home News, UK - The Independent

Coal Coal still rules, generating 35 per cent of UK power. But many plants are coming to the end of their lives and new stations are controversial, given their high greenhouse emissions. E.ON abandoned its plan for a new coal-fired station at Kingsnorth, Kent, last year after environmental protests.
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Renewables Privatised suppliers have failed to meet their renewable targets and only 5.5 per cent of the UK's energy comes from wind, solar, hydro and other green sources. Ministers plan thousands of offshore wind turbines, but they are more expensive than fossil or nuclear alternatives.

The global warming guerrillas | The Spectator

Matt Ridley salutes the bloggers who changed the climate debate. While most of Fleet Street kowtowed to the green lobby, online amateurs uncovered the spin and deception that finally cracked the consensus