Climate Witch Hunt | The New Inquisition
Photo | Salem Massachusetts Witch Trial
Inquisition -- During most of the 16th and 17th centuries, fear of heretics spreading teachings and opinions that contradicted the Bible dominated the Catholic Church. They persecuted scientists who formed theories the Church deemed heretical and forbade people from reading any books on those subjects by placing the books on the Index of Prohibited Books. A type of war between science and religion was in play but there would be more casualties on the side of science.
John's weekly update on graft, corruption and waste in clean energy.
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If Climate Skeptics Can Be Prosecuted, So Can The Alarmists
If Democratic attorneys general can pursue climate change skeptics for fraud, then also at risk of prosecution are climate alarmists whose predictions of global doom have failed to materialize. The “cuts both ways” argument was among those raised by 13 Republican attorneys general in a letter urging their Democratic counterparts to stop using their law enforcement power against fossil fuel companies and others that challenge the climate change catastrophe narrative.
Consider carefully the legal precedent and threat to free speech, said the state prosecutors in their letter this week, headed by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange.
“If it is possible to minimize the risks of climate change, then the same goes for exaggeration,” said the letter. “If minimization is fraud, exaggeration is fraud.”
MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL JOINS GLOBAL WARMING WITCH HUNT
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is now the latest state prosecutor to start investigating conservative groups with supposed ties to ExxonMobil, after she issued a subpoena for 40 years of internal company documents and communications with a handful of think tanks.
Healey’s office subpoenaed Exxon as part of a multi-state effort among liberal attorneys general to investigate Exxon for allegedly trying to cover up global warming science.
Schneiderman, [NY AG], hosted a conference in March with other AGs, including Healey and Walker, where it was announced that more prosecutors would probe Exxon and fight back against Republican attacks on federal environmental regulations.
Former Vice President Al Gore attended the event, as did a group of environmental activists — though Schneiderman’s office tried to cover up eco-activists’ involvement. At the event, Schneiderman even suggested global warming skeptics should be put in jail.
Exxon has also filed a complaint against Healey, alleging her investigation is nothing more than a predetermined political stunt.
Exxon’s complaint even notes how Maura basically announced the results of her investigation before she even sent her subpoena to the company.
“We can all see today the troubling disconnect between what Exxon knew, what industry folks knew, and what the company and industry chose to share with investors and with the American public,” Healey charged at the March event hosted by Schneiderman.
“Remarkably, she also announced, in advance, the findings of her investigation weeks before she even issued the [civil investigative demand],” Exxon’s lawyers wrote in their complaint, a copy of which was obtained by TheDCNF.
Maura Healey's Remarks at NECA Renewables Converence 2015
What follows is a copy of Attorney General Maura Healey’s prepared remarks to the NECA Renewables Conference minus her introductory statement.
Today, I would like to talk to you about my vision for a clean energy future and my plan to serve as a 21st Century ratepayer advocate.
The clean energy sector is now a $10 billion dollar industry in Massachusetts, employing 88,000 workers in 6,000 firms, primarily in the renewable energy and energy efficiency fields. Between 2013 and 2014, clean energy employment grew by 10.5 percent—that is eight times faster than the state’s overall job growth rate. This year, clean energy employers expect to add another 11,700 jobs. These are good, quality, long‐term jobs.
The clean energy sector is vitally important to our future. This dynamic growth was driven in part by smart state policies—such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Green Jobs Act, renewable portfolio standard, Global Warming Solutions Act, and Green Communities Act.
Al Gore And Coalition Of AG's Team Up To Combat Global Warming
NEW YORK – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today joined Attorneys General from across the nation to announce an unprecedented coalition of top law enforcement officials committed to aggressively protecting and building upon the recent progress the United States has made in combatting climate change.
Attorneys General Schneiderman, William Sorrell of Vermont, George Jepsen of Connecticut, Brian E. Frosh of Maryland, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Mark Herring of Virginia, and Claude Walker of the US Virgin Islands were joined by former Vice President Al Gore for the announcement in New York City. Today’s announcement took place during a one-day Attorneys General climate change conference, co-sponsored by Schneiderman and Sorrell.
Maura Healey Has Some Real Scientific Frauds To Address
For the second time in recent years, prosecutors across Massachusetts are confronting the possibility that thousands of drug investigations may have been built on flawed scientific ground — raising the specter of convictions being thrown out.
That potential emerged amid disclosures that a former chemist at a Department of Public Health lab in Amherst was regularly high on the job and dipped into the lab’s stash of drugs for her own use. Those revelations have cast doubt upon tests performed at the now-shuttered lab.
Kids Climate Crusade Keeps Rollin Through The Courts
During the year 1212 A.D. about 30,000 French children assembled in bands and marched through the towns and villages, carrying banners, candles, and crosses and singing, "Lord God, exalt Christianity. Lord God, restore to us the true cross. The French children, set out from the place of rendezvous for Marseilles. Those that sailed from that port were betrayed, and sold as slaves in Alexandria and other Mohammedan slave markets. (Source)
In another surprising victory for children suing the government over climate change, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last Friday found in favor of four youth plaintiffs against the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
The Court found that the DEP was not complying with its legal obligation to reduce the State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ordered the agency to “promulgate regulations that address…greenhouse gas emissions, impose a limit on emissions that may be released…and set limits that decline on an annual basis.”
This case is one of several similar cases in federal district courts in Oregon and Washington, and in the state courts of North Carolina, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
Alex Epstein Has Recieved A Subpeona For His E-Mails from Healy: This Is His Response
Alex Epstein, who got a subpoena, posted his response on Twitter:
Former ACLU President: Abuse Of Power In AG's Probe
The demand from Healey’s office mirrors ones filed by attorneys general in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands that press ExxonMobil on what its internal research dating back to 1976 said about climate change versus what the oil company said publicly.
Civil rights attorney Harvey Silverglate called the ExxonMobil climate-change investigations “pure harassment.”
“It is outrageous for any law enforcement official to be seeking to win this battle for minds by flexing law enforcement muscle and trying to shut up the other side,” Silverglate told the Herald. “It’s not the way scientific or factual or even political battles are settled in this country, which last I checked is still a free country.”
Huff Po: OK To Lie About Climate
So much of what drives the cult of climate fear is the rewarding affirmation that they are intellectually gifted. “Pat me on the back! Tell me how smart I am!” It fills the low-self-esteem vacuum of a B-grade brain or an untrained naive mind. It’s a sugar-hit to the undisciplined being, looking for the easy road to social acceptance and glory.
The New Nostradamus of the North has caught a Huff Po comedian Xavier Toby suggesting that “maybe we need to lie” for the climate. There is no sign of satire.
In order for us to start acting on climate change then, maybe we need to tell a few lies.
Academics Prove It's Ok To Lie About Climate Change
The debate over climate change is fraught with accusations that the other side is willfully lying about the facts in order to win. Now there are two academics out with a paper justifying lying about climate change in order to convince global governments to "do something" about it.
Fuhai Hong and Xiojian Zhao, economists at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology respectively, are publishing a paper in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics called "Information Manipulation and Climate Agreements," which argues that manipulation of information by the media will "enhance global welfare" by inducing countries to agree to environmental accords (IEAs).
We show that the exaggeration of climate change may alleviate the problem of insufficient IEA participation. When the mass media has private information on the damage caused by climate change, in equilibrium they may manipulate this information to increase pessimism regarding climate damage even though in actual fact the damage may not be that great. Consequently, more countries will be induced to participate in an IEA in this state, thereby leading to greater global welfare ex post.
The article purports to prove, with an economic model, that the urgency of climate change and the necessity of international agreement makes it okay to lie about the projected consequences of climate change.
Wind Energy News
India Owes RS 1000 Crore to Wind Developers
NEW DELHI: Wind energy developers in Maharashtra have alleged that the state power distribution utility owes them more than Rs 1,000 crore as it has stopped paying them since October last year, and said most projects are on the verge of collapse.
"We're disappointed with what is happening in Maharashtra. Wind projects there are on ventilator. All assets will soon start defaulting and the state will be responsible," said Sunil Jain, president of Wind Independent Power Producers Association.
A senior executive at a leading wind farm developer said the approach of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co (MSEDCL) has impacted huge investments in the sector. "Top global investors such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, IFC, CDC and more have put money into these projects. What will happen to their investments?" the person said.
Gamesa/Siemens To Combine Wind Turbine Business
Germany's Siemens and Spain's Gamesa announced plans to create the world's biggest builder of windfarms on Friday, seeking to combine their respective strengths in offshore wind power and developing markets.
Engineering company Siemens, which has struggled to make its wind turbine business profitable, will take a 60 percent stake in the combined company, a person with knowledge of the deal told Reuters.
In return for taking the leading role, Siemens will pay Gamesa's shareholders, which include Spanish utility Iberdrola, 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in the form of an extraordinary dividend, the source said.
Gamesa/Iberdrola/Deutsche Bank
Cause And Contributing Factors Of Wind Turbine Failure (Part 1)
The geared wind turbines continue to be plagued by numerous gearbox (more accurately the bearings within the gearbox), blade, mechanical, weather-related (e.g. lightning), design and maintenance issues. The failure of the bearings located within the gearbox is the most significant problem associated with the turbines This year, Siemens, a main manufacturer of wind turbines, reported a charge of 48 million Euros for inspecting and replacing defective main bearings in some onshore wind turbines. Structural and mechanical failures (which can result in a tower collapse) are primarily due to control system errors and lack of effective maintenance. If it was not for the government subsidizing of these systems, they would have never been built that way. This blog addresses the major causes of failure of wind turbines.
Green Jobs Hazards: Wind Energy
Wind Energy workers are exposed to hazards that can result in fatalities and serious injuries. Many incidents involving falls, severe burns from electrical shocks and arc flashes/fires, and crushing injuries have been reported to OSHA. Some examples are given below:
Windmill Catches Fire Near Palm Springs more with photo's here
Wind Project Killed in The Pocono's
NC Senate Tentatively Approve Wind Farm Restrictions
Largest US Offshore Boondoggle In The Works. Billions To Be Pissed Away.
Pattern Energy Buys Maine Development Rights From SUNE
Sun Edison Spars With Shareholders
Bankrupt SunEdison's situation amounts to "hopeless insolvency," and therefore its shareholders should not have an official committee representing them in its Chapter 11 case, the renewable energy company said in court papers.
SunEdison said in papers filed on Tuesday it faces more than $4.2 billion in prepetition claims, compared with $850 million it anticipates it can distribute after paying off its debtor-in-possession loan.
Energy Finance
Cool Futures: Worlds First Hedge Fund Aims To Pop Climate Bubble
Hedge funds generate wealth from imbalances and economic inefficiencies. The man-made global warming scare distorts information flows, misallocates capital, and feeds corruption — and these burdens are becoming a big drag on western economies. The idea that mankind should try to change the global climate with expensive electricity is a luxury of the once rich West. As the budget screws tighten, the economic damage caused by the global warming industry will only hasten its own decline.
Every year about 1.5 trillion US dollars are directed to inefficient, subsidy-dependent businesses, at the expense of consumers and real market-driven enterprises. This destroys wealth and costs jobs.
Note: This is not to imply an endorsement.
Energy Market News
Ca Governor Want To Expand Grid (Back To Enron Era)
FERC Revokes Market Based Rate Authority For Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Restricted in 4 Western BAA's
ISO-NE: The Challenge Of Keeping The Lights On
Read John's report from last week:
Alberta Passes Carbon Tax, Who's Next?
Jun 18, 2016 at 11:17 AM
Reader Comments (26)
Let's not hold out breath.
Miffed Climatologists want UW-Madison to Revoke Global Warming Skeptic's PhD
http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2009/12/miffed-climatologists-want-uw-madison-to-revoke-global-warming-skeptics-phd/
Some prominent Climatologists who subscribe to the theory of man-made global warming want the University of Wisconsin to consider revoking Patrick Michaels' Doctorate, according to leaked emails uncovered as part of the brewing 'climategate' scandal.
Who is Patrick Michaels?
Michaels received his PhD in ecological climatology from UW-Madison in 1979 after he earned his A.B. and S.M. degrees in biological sciences and plant ecology from the University of Chicago. Since then he's served as a climatologist for the state of Virginia, a professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, and was a contributing author and reviewer of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He's currently a senior fellow at the CATO Institute and is a Distinguished Senior Fellow in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.
According to his official biography, Michaels' writing has been published in the major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science, as well as in newspapers such as The Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, and Journal of Commerce. He was an author of the climate "paper of the year" awarded by the Association of American Geographers in 2004.
With all these bona fides, why would his peers contemplate waging a campaign to undermine his credibility?
Michaels is also a global warming skeptic.
Questioning Man Made Global Warming
In September, he wrote an article for National Review accusing Phil Jones, a climatologist at the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia, and his colleagues of losing or destroying surface temperature data they used to develop their theories. You can read the whole article by clicking here.
The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia explained on their website "Since the 1980s, we have merged the data we have received into existing series or begun new ones, so it is impossible to say if all stations within a particular country or if all of an individual record should be freely available. Data storage availability in the 1980s meant that we were not able to keep the multiple sources for some sites, only the station series after adjustment for homogeneity issues. We, therefore, do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (i.e. quality controlled and homogenized) data."
That data was incorporated into a report by the IPCC in the 1990s, which in turn was used by the EPA in drafting its "Endangerment Findings." The endangerment findings determined that greenhouse gases are at unprecedented levels and are endangering the health and welfare of the public.
Now, Michaels and the Competitive Enterprise Institute are petitioning the EPA to reopen the public comment period, because the data supporting the findings are unreliable.
That allegation did not sit well with Phil Jones and his colleagues.
Ben Santer, a climatologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Jones in an email on October 9, 2009 "I'm really sorry that you have to go through all this stuff, Phil. Next time I see Pat Michaels at a scientific meeting, I'll be tempted to beat the crap out of him. Very tempted."
"It is our freedom as Americans, particularly the freedom of speech, which generally allows us to express our views without fear of government sanction."
— United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,
October 28, 2015
http://www.akdart.com/warming5.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/punishing-climate-change-skeptics-1458772173
The authors of the above article founded this organization:
http://www.freespeechinscience.org
http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/18/renewable-energy-yieldcos-may-not-be-as-safe-as-yo.aspx
According to Moody's, TerraForm Power faces potential default on 10 project-level loans because of different clauses, and TerraForm Global faces the same problems with five loans. And it's that project-level debt that could end up costing them millions in reserves, triggering higher interest rates, or even pulling them into bankruptcy.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/20/greenpeace-co-founder-pens-treatise-on-the-positive-effects-of-co2-says-there-is-no-crisis/
Dr. Patrick Moore sent me this last week, and after reading it, I agree with him in his initial note to me that
This is probably the most important paper I will ever write.
Moore looks at the historical record of CO2 in our atmosphere and concludes that we came dangerously close to losing plant life on Earth about 18,000 years ago, when CO2 levels approached 150 ppm, below which plant life can’t sustain photosynthesis. He notes:
A 140 million year decline in CO2 to levels that came close to threatening the survival of life on Earth can hardly be described as “the balance of nature”.
Now, with 400ppm in the atmosphere, the biosphere is once again booming (see figure 8 below). He also points out how environmental groups and politicians are using the “crisis” of CO2 increase to feather their own nests:
A powerful convergence of interests among key elites supports and drives the climate catastrophe narrative. Environmentalists spread fear and raise donations; politicians appear to be saving the Earth from doom; the media has a field day with sensation and conflict; scientists and science institutions raise billions in public grants, create whole new institutions, and engage in a feeding frenzy of scary scenarios; businesses want to look green and receive huge public subsidies for projects that would otherwise be economic losers, such as large wind farms and solar arrays. Even the Pope of the Catholic Church has weighed in with a religious angle. Lost in all these machinations is the indisputable fact that the most important thing about CO2 is that it is essential for all life on Earth and that before humans began to burn fossil fuels, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was heading in a very dangerous direction for a very long time. Surely, the most “dangerous” change in climate in the short term would be to one that would not support sufficient food production to feed our own population
A link to the full report follows. I highly recommend it as a sensible and practical take on the issue. – Anthony Watts
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/16/quote-of-the-week-best-response-to-rico20-exxonknew-attorney-generals-ever/
Lots of hot air will be released in Boston in 2017-
'Major climate summit coming to Boston next year'
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/06/07/boston-host-major-climate-summit/UvMXXRV3Q5w7OIm4Cc2ZqJ/story.html
John Kerry is an absolute LOON: Boston is “in the eye of the climate change storm.”
And, Max Baucus, also involved in the climate catastrophe summit, probably doesn't want to discuss Goldwind USA, the Chicago front for Goldwind of Xinjiang, that never did roll out manufacturing as Baucus told us would happen in the U.S.
Hawaii Free Press 'Meet the Environmental Protest Industry' reveals how conflicted and unhelpful NGOs can be. They appear everywhere in the media to promote industry v wildlife and humans. The degree to "Witch" they are willing to use fear as a tool to green-wash and separate citizens from our money is disturbing.
"The activists need a bad guy and will create that narrative."
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/17713/Meet-the-Environmental-Protest-Industry.aspx?utm_source=June+19%2C+2016+News+from+Hawaii+Free+Press&utm_campaign=June+19%2C+2016+Email+&utm_medium=email
Thanks again, John. I appreciate the sunlight!
http://spectator.org/54969_eric-schneiderman-crook/
Is the Attorney General of New York a crook?
Who is Neal Kwatra?
Who is Melvin Lowe?
What exactly was that federal sentencing memorandum all about?
Why isn’t Jon Corzine being prosecuted?
And exactly what went on in a closed-door meeting between New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and President Obama — hours before Schneiderman filed a Saturday afternoon lawsuit against Obama’s famous critic –- Donald Trump?
Sources say the ‘investigate Schneiderman’ movement is gaining traction among congressional Republicans, particularly in the House Financial Services Committee. One obvious reason: Schneiderman, a Democrat, seems to spare no expense in attacking critics of President Obama but hasn’t lifted an investigative finger when it comes to the sleaze involving fat cats in his own party.
Gasparino goes on to suggest as Exhibit One of Schneiderman failing to have “lifted an investigative finger when it comes to the sleaze involving fat cats in his own party:
The case of Jon Corzine.
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Schneiderman sex scandal…
http://www.nyshame.com/tag/schneiderman/
http://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/historyculture/the-prometheus-story.htm
Estimated to 5,000 years old.
http://www.arizona.edu/keepers-prometheus-worlds-oldest-tree
A lot of stuff happened in this trees time and it was fit to make a table. A geek tragedy.
http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/06/21/sunedison-sale-of-aroostook-wind-farm-concerns-somerset-county-activists/
The sale is the latest move by SunEdison, which declared bankruptcy in April, to rid itself of its Maine assets. In 2015, the company also sold its Bingham and Oakfield wind projects to a division of J.P. Morgan and withdrew a Department of Environmental Protection application for a project in Hancock County.
A 26-turbine wind farm has been planned by SunEdison in the Misery Ridge area of Somerset County, near Moosehead Lake.
Terraform Power, a subsidiary of SunEdison, owns four other projects in Maine — in Mars Hill, Stetson, Blue Hill and Rollins.
http://www.suncommercial.com/news/article_50c2c60e-37df-11e6-a981-d74a7c1edfc4.html
Towering turbines that sprouted from the ground in Northern Indiana were heralded by some as a green energy cash crop that paid leases to landowners and, by extension, property taxes to local governments.
But as industrial wind energy tries to blow into other parts of the state, it’s running into resistance from communities that fear those turbines will overrun the landscape.
Private developers are in an aggressive push to double the number of Indiana’s wind farms. But they must contend with neighbors, lawsuits and the fickle support of elected officials who once welcomed them — but are now changing their minds.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/22/environmental-conflict-goes-nuclear-a-civil-war-erupts-over-co2-reduction-strategy/
The proposal exposes the corruption of IBEW 1245 leadership and IBEW 1245’s failure to represent its members. IBEW 1245 lied to its workers when it claimed to be fighting to keep the plant open; has violated its moral duty to represent its workers interests; and may be in violation of state and federal laws.
Way off the grid: Bucks native Ron Melchiore lives on remote lake in Saskatchewan
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/mc-off-grid-ron-melchiore-saskatchewan-20160617-story.html
When seeking a quiet getaway, most people head to a beach house, cabin in the woods or another secluded spot to connect with nature.
Bucks County native Ron Melchiore is not most people. And he was not looking for a vacation when he ditched his humdrum days of working in electronics for a life of self-sufficiency in the great outdoors more than 35 years ago.
Melchiore, who was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Warminster Township, bought a 120-acre property in unorganized territory west of Bridgewater, Maine, in 1979.
There, he made soap, raised animals and mastered other homesteading skills in preparation for his next remote residence, northern Saskatchewan, Canada, where he has lived with his wife, Johanna, since 1999.
Here is Ron's site:
inthewilderness.net
Here is something you may find interesting pertaining to the fairy dust of the clean energy types. No matter how much it fails it will probably be blessed as success do to the Agenda 21 and Rio Accord crowds that own almost all politicians;
http://www.uncsd2012.org/content/documents/194Synthesis%20Agenda%2021%20and%20Rio%20principles.pdf
Skeptics Win! AG pulls #ExxonKnew subpoena
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/29/skeptics-win-ag-pulls-exxonknew-subpoena/
Climate change prosecutors suffer defeat as attorney general pulls Exxon subpoena
Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude E. Walker agreed Wednesday to withdraw his climate-related subpoena of ExxonMobil, a stunning reversal that delivered a blow to the Democratic-led effort to prosecute climate change dissent.
In the Joint Stipulation of Dismissal, Mr. Walker said he would pull his March 15 subpoena of the world’s largest energy company, which had challenged the subpoena as unconstitutional.
“After conferring on this matter, the parties mutually agreed that Attorney General Walker will withdraw the subpoena and ExxonMobil will stipulate to the dismissal without prejudice of this action,” said the four-page document filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
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The alarmists knew damn well that pursuing this would backfire horribly in their faces resulting in their being sued under RICO etc.. The witch hunt is not over as the Dem(agouges)-crats have officially adopted persecution of science minded individuals who question the known false /manipulated data and narrative as the official party platform.
RICO Charges Against ‘Climate Deniers’: A Case of Goose and Gander
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/08/29/rico-charges-against-climate-deniers-a-case-of-goose-and-gander/
As the people in power, like Al Gore and the White House, see the false claim of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) losing public interest they resort to nastier tactics to win the day. It won’t. Instead, it makes more people aware that something is wrong. People despise bullying and when the force of government and the courts are used to silence or intimidate they side with the oppressed. As Shakespeare said in Measure for Measure,
O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.
Consider the recent use of RICO, defined as the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act: a U.S. law, enacted in 1970, allowing victims of organized crime to sue those responsible for punitive damages.
Technically, the charges were filed under Criminally Influenced and Corruptions Organizations Act (CICO) because the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands brought them. One media outlet reported that,
A group of Democratic state attorneys general and former Vice President Al Gore have announced the creation of a coalition of “top law enforcement officials” to investigate whether oil companies committed fraud in order to hide the effects their businesses have on global climate.
Speaking at a press conference at his Manhattan office Tuesday afternoon, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the group would look for “creative ways” to use existing law to investigate whether “fossil fuel companies” have “profited from the confusion” those companies have allegedly sown over global warming.
Extensive debate ensued over the suppression of free speech, control of science, and other restrictive practices in a supposedly free society. It caused retraction of many of the charges and exposure of apparently unethical or even illegal activities by those bringing the charges. WUWT did a good job reporting and exposing the sequence of events.
Did Exxon or any of the climate change deniers ever do anything like this? Is this committing fraud? Hansen’s information was apparently designed to “hide the effects of climate change,” natural climate change that is. It was designed to allow “profit from the confusion.” The profit was political at first, but became financial later for many like Gore and others.
Hansen continued his distortion of the science even though, as Wirth said, he was working for the Federal government. He also continued his activism, including protesting and being arrested outside the White House in contradiction of the Hatch Act.
Exxon or climate change deniers didn’t alter official modern weather records or alter historic records by eliminating decade long warm periods. They didn’t create a panel to study causes of climate change that only considered human causes. They didn’t let the public believe the panel was studying all causes of climate change. Exxon reportedly spent $16 million on climate research with virtually none of it going to deniers. Meanwhile, from the time Hansen appeared before the Senate Committee in 1988 to 2009, Gore, Wirth, and their political partners directed $79 billion to promotion of the unproven AGW hypothesis. It remains unproven. The total cost to societies from the implementation of unnecessary energy and environmental policies is in the trillions.
It is clear who the racketeers are. But then, it may not be racketeering but politics as usual.
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The Peril Of Consensus
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/08/29/the-perils-of-consensus/
The film, “The Big Short,” and the book, “No One Would Listen,” offer instructive object lessons on the dangers of blindly accepting a consensus, no matter how convincing it might sound.
The following is lightly edited version of a comment originally submitted to the RealClimate blog, but predictably it wound up in the “Bore Hole”:
I recently had the opportunity to view, for the second time, the very amusing and instructive film, “The Big Short.” And, by coincidence, I just completed the fascinating book, “No One Would Listen,” by would-be whistle blower Harry Markopolos. And I could not help but notice a theme common to both works: the potential dangers involved in uncritically accepting a widely held consensus view.
Harry Markopolos is a financial expert who, many years ago, figured out, on the basis of a critical analysis of the data, that Bernie Madoff was a fraud. Yet no matter how many times he tried (as I recall it was 8 times in all, dating back to 1999), he was never able to convince the Securities and Exchange Commission to properly investigate. Nor was he able to convince almost anyone investing with Madoff to look more closely into his operation. Why?
Once again, the consensus of just about everyone in the financial world was that Madoff was honest, forthright, solid, reliable and completely trustworthy. After all, he had produced impressive returns year after year for a very long time, he’d been “investigated” by the “experts” at the SEC (in a half-hearted effort that turned out to be a sham), and passed with flying colors. Markopolos was routinely ignored, mocked, and dismissed as some sort of crackpot. After all, he was bucking an overwhelming consensus in the world of finance that Madoff could do no wrong. Ironically it was not Markopolos, who had him figured out from the start, but Madoff himself, who finally blew the whistle. There was literally too much at stake for anyone else to do so.
The financial crisis anticipated by the protagonists of The Big Short shook the entire world and is still having dire repercussions everywhere. And if Bernie Madoff’s scam had been allowed to progress for another few years, his collapse might have had equally disastrous repercussions.
I’ll leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions regarding any possible parallels with the consensus on climate change.
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Journalist: #ExxonKnew is ‘completely unraveling’
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/08/29/journalist-exxonknew-is-completely-unraveling/
Interview with Business World Columnist Holman Jenkins Jr. of the Wall Street Journal on how #ExxonKnew “is completely unraveling.”
Host: “It’s an attack on Big Oil and on free speech. Here to tell us about it is our columnist Holman Jenkins Jr, I should say. Holman, great to have you on Opinion Journal. Mary Kissle is out today, but we are fortunate to have you. We’ve been tracking this amazing series of events with the state Attorneys General demanding documents and files on pretty much anybody who has had a dissenting opinion on global warming, and has had some communication with the oil companies or think tanks that also share some skepticism. Leading the fight has been New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. What’s the latest on this Holman?”
Holman Jenkins Jr.: “Well the latest is that his campaign is completely unraveling. First of all, it was a phony-bologna case to begin with, that Exxon had done these studies in the 70s on climate change and then lied to the public about what it had found. It didn’t. It published these studies in journals and made them available to everybody and they’ve been available ever since, so there was no mystery here.
But the other this is that Eric Schneiderman claimed he had assembled 17 Attorneys General – all the Democratic Attorneys General in the state, in the US – to follow this case with him, and it’s increasing clear that that was just a lie. He committed his own fraud. Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands signed on for a while, but now they’ve melted away. California claimed it was going to launch an investigation and it never did. The rest never signed up at all. I mean we have these private lawsuits that have now brought out all these private emails, like ones between the Iowa Attorney General’s staff saying that Schneiderman himself was the wildcard and that they didn’t want to participate in this charade.”…
VIDEO: http://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-journal-attacking-big-oil/E7F0FDC1-2C51-4A80-AE01-568FD74B26FB.html
http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/washington-wire/201609158556/lawmakers-probe-tax-incentives-received-by-solar-energy-firms.aspx
The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday sent letters to seven foreign and domestic companies in the solar industry, expanding a more limited probe started earlier this year.
The recipients included three firms in the residential solar industry, SolarCity Corp., Sunrun Inc. and Sungevity Inc., and four solar utility companies -- SunEdison Inc., Abengoa SA, NextEra Energy Inc. and NRG Energy Inc.
A spokesman for SolarCity said the "answers to the questions posed are fairly straightforward, and we will provide them as requested."
Officials at SunEdison, Abengoa and NRG Energy declined to comment. NextEra, Sunrun and Sungevity didn't respond to requests for comment.
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http://www.pressherald.com/2016/09/15/as-plan-for-maine-wind-fought-new-owner-arriving/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/10/13/federal-court-delivers-stunning-b...
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/10/the-doe-vs-ugly-reality/
Over at the Washington Post, Chris Mooney and the usual suspects are seriously alarmed by a memo sent out by the Transition Team at the Department of Energy. They describe it in breathless terms in an article entitled “Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings“. The finest part was this quote from Michael Halpern:
Michael Halpern, deputy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy, called the memo’s demand that Energy officials identify specific employees “alarming.”
“If the Trump administration is already singling out scientists for doing their jobs, the scientific community is right to be worried about what his administration will do in office. What’s next? Trump administration officials holding up lists of ‘known climatologists’ and urging the public to go after them?” Halpern asked.
Oh … you mean like say the Attorneys General of a bunch of states holding up their lists of known “denier” organizations and tacitly urging the public to go after them? You mean like government officials of a variety of stripes ranting about how “deniers” should be brought to trial or otherwise penalized? You mean like having sites like DeSmogBlog making ugly insinuations and false statements about every known opponent of the climate party line? You mean like Roger Pielke being hounded out of his job by the climate mob?
Questions for DOE
This memo, as you might expect, is replete with acronyms. “DOE” is the Department of Energy. Here are the memo questions and my comments.
1. Can you provide a list of all boards, councils, commissions, working groups, and FACAs [Federal Advisory Committees] currently active at the Department? For each, can you please provide members, meeting schedules, and authority (statutory or otherwise) under which they were created?
If I were at DOE, this first question would indeed set MY hair on fire. The easiest way to get rid of something is to show that it was not properly established … boom, it’s gone. As a businessman myself, this question shows me that the incoming people know their business, and that the first order of business is to jettison the useless lumber.
2. Can you provide a complete list of ARPA-E’s projects?
Critical information for an incoming team.
3 Can you provide a list of the Loan Program Office’s outstanding loans, including the parties responsible for paying the loan back, term of the loan, and objective of the loan?
4 Can you provide a list of applications for loans the LPO has received and the status of those applications?
5 Can you provide a full accounting of DOE liabilities associated with any loan or loan guarantee programs?....
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There are over 60 very concise and pointed questions in the above article. It is an ABSOLUTE MUST READ.
http://www.marketvisual.com/Search/Results?searchString=John+Halpern
Federal judge in Boston hand blow to climate witch hunt:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/13/thwack-federal-judge-deals-major-blow-to-gore-and-exxonknew-crusaders/