Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
ERIC W. DOLAN, - The Raw story
Stephan: It is a sign of the corruption of the Congress, and the breakdown of a meaningful two party system that the Republican Party nominates and supports men and women as stupid as this. Oklahoma seems to specialize in these cretins.
Click through to see the video of the actual speech.
In a speech on the House floor Tuesday, Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) called on President Barack Obama to apologize to the people of Oklahoma for funding climate change research.
The freshman congressman claimed global temperatures stopped rising a decade ago. He said variations in the Earth’s temperature were the result of solar output and ocean cycles.
‘Even climate change alarmists admit the number of hurricanes hitting the U.S. and the number of tornado touchdowns have been on a slow decline for over 100 years,
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Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
MICHAEL FITZPATRICK, - CNN Money
Stephan: The Germans have done it. The Japanese are doing it. We remain in the grip of the carbon energy barons.
FORTUNE — Until recently less than 1% of Japan’s electrical power output came from renewables. But following the catastrophe of Fukushima and the power blackouts that followed, Japan has seen an explosion in investment in alternatives. Solar, in particular, in this averagely photon-blessed country, has seen a seismic rise of late and is this year poised to become the world’s largest solar market in volume after China.
According to a report by energy analyst IHS on Japan’s energy mix, Japan’s solar installations jumped by ‘a stunning 270% (in gigawatts) in the first quarter of 2013.’ That means by the end of 2013 there will be enough new solar panels equal to the capacity of seven nuclear reactors. Such massive growth will allow Japan to surpass Germany and become the world’s largest photovoltaics (PV) market in terms of revenue this year.
‘Japan is forecast to install $20 billion worth of PV systems in 2013, up 82% from $11 billion in 2012,’ IHS said. ‘In contrast, the global market is set for tepid 4% growth. The strong revenue performance for Japan this year is partly driven by the high solar prices in the country.’ Germany still leads with the total number of units and […]
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Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
LENNY BERNSTEIN, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Here we can see the battle with old centralized energy which is shaping up. Commonsense would suggest that it is in society's interest to come up with a new economic model, and a sensible way to move to that new model. But we no longer seem to have the political will to form a collective intention, so it is going to be a nasty battle. This is why, despite the many benefits, it is going to be so hard in this country to make the energy transition to nonpolluting technologies.
It’s a sight that would bring joy to anyone who has ever paid an electric bill: that little wheel on the meter outside your home literally spinning backwards, signaling a reduction in your payment and the distribution of excess electricity to your neighbors.
Yes, that actually happens at a few hundred thousand homes across the United States that have rooftop solar panels and are part of an arrangement known as ‘net energy metering.
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Stephan: An example of what can be done if we jettison our sexual dysfunction and religious bias. People are going to have sex. You did, I did, most of the people you know have. And if you are like most Americans the first occurrence was somewhere in your teens. This decision will do more to reduce abortions than any other social policy. I consider it very good news.
The federal government on Monday told a judge it will reverse course and take steps to comply with his order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.
The Department of Justice, in the latest development in a complex back-and-forth over access to the morning-after pill, notified U.S. District Judge Edward Korman it will submit a plan for compliance. If he approves it, the department will drop its appeal of his April ruling.
According to the department’s letter to the judge, the Food and Drug Administration has told the maker of the pills to submit a new drug application with proposed labeling that would permit it to be sold ‘without a prescription and without age or point-of-sale prescriptions.’ The FDA said that once it receives the application it ‘intends to approve it promptly.’
Last week, an appeals court dealt the government a setback by saying it would immediately permit unrestricted sales of the two-pill version of the emergency contraception until the appeal was decided. That order was met with praise from advocates for girls’ and women’s rights and with scorn from social conservatives and other opponents, who argue the drug’s availability takes away the rights of parents of girls […]
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Stephan: Here is the latest on Monsanto and The GMO Experiment Trend. The court's decision, that Monsanto pledged not to sue farmers in whose crops their genes occurred, so the farmers needn't fear being sued, covers only half the story. What is missing, notable particularly with the Oregon wheat event as context, is that it shows Monsanto has considered it likely the genes would spread. What does that mean? No one knows. We are playing around with the fundamental building blocks of nature, with very little understanding of what the out-years look like.
Monsanto Co. on Monday won another round in a lawsuit brought by U.S. organic growers as an appellate court threw out the growers’ legal challenge to prohibit the biotech seed company from suing them.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a federal court ruling out of New York that found organic growers had no reason to try to block Monsanto from suing them as the company had pledged it would not take them to court.
Organic farmers and others have worried for years that they will be sued by Monsanto for patent infringement if their crops get contaminated with Monsanto biotech crops.
In its ruling Monday, the appellate court said the organic growers must rely on Monsanto assurances on the company’s website that it will not sue them so long as the mix is very slight.
‘Monsanto’s binding representations remove any risk of suit against the appellants as users or sellers of trace amounts (less than one percent) of modified seed,’ the court stated in its ruling.
Monsanto has developed a reputation for zealously defending patents on its genetically altered crops, which include patented ‘Roundup Ready’ soybeans, corn and cotton, genetically altered to tolerate treatments of its Roundup weedkiller.
The crops are […]
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