Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off? | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

Those who hate environmentalism have spent years looking for the definitive example of a great green rip-off. Finally it arrives, and nobody notices. The government is about to shift £8.6bn from the poor to the middle classes. It expects a loss on this scheme of £8.2bn, or 95%. Yet the media is silent. The opposition urges only that the scam should be expanded.

On 1 April the government introduces its feed-in tariffs. These oblige electricity companies to pay people for the power they produce at home. The money will come from their customers in the form of higher bills. It would make sense, if we didn't know that the technologies the scheme will reward are comically inefficient.

The people who sell solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and micro wind turbines in the UK insist they represent a good investment. The arguments I have had with them have been long and bitter. But the debate has now been brought to an end with the publication of the government's table of tariffs: the rewards people will receive for installing different kinds of generators. The government wants everyone to get the same rate of return. So while the electricity you might generate from large wind turbines and hydro plants will earn you 4.5p per kilowatt hour, mini wind turbines get 34p, and solar panels 41p. In other words, the government acknowledges that micro wind and solar PV in the UK are between seven and nine times less cost-effective than the alternatives.

Maybe Gore Still Needs to Thaw « The Enterprise Blog

The Times was careful to edit out the sighs and the huffs, but you can still sense the presence of the irritated schoolmarm in the prose.
...
Perhaps the most significant revelation in Gore’s piece, however, is that he doesn’t realize that the rhetorical context of the debate has changed. Maybe he still needs to thaw out.

EPA passes out $7.8 million to combat non-existent Anthropogenic Global Warming | CLIMATEGATE

Need to pay to get your house repainted? It can wait. The most important thing is that your tax dollars go to helping others improve their homes. You guessed it, tax payer money will be going to communities under the “green” cause. Doesn’t sound like socialism to me Al. But at least we might be one step closer to saving our planet from that overwhelming science.