By David Middleton – Re-Blogged From WUWT
Brookline passes bylaw banning future use of oil, gas in new buildings
BROOKLINE, Mass. — A Massachusetts town overwhelmingly voted Wednesday night to ban the future installation of oil and gas pipes in future construction projects as well as in renovations of existing buildings.
The bylaw, which passed the Brookline town meeting with 210 votes in favor and just three opposing, would be the first such prohibition in the state of Massachusetts.
By Ken Haapala, President of SEPP – Re-Blogged From WUWT
Quote of the Week: “We know what’s happening now. It’s the past that keeps changing.” – Old Russian Joke
Number of the Week: 110 million people now drowning?
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Grim Future? Historical discussions of the human condition reveal that humans tend to identify themselves as members of like-minded groups. As discussed in the June 1 TWTW, in his farewell address, George Washington called such groups “factions.” Christopher Booker identified the common thinking of such factions as groupthink. In a post on his web site discussing Climategate, Roy Spencer addresses this issue stating that one of the few scientists who changed their mind after Climategate was Judith Curry: “She is now a well-informed and unabashed skeptic of the modern tendency to blame every bad weather event on humans.” He goes on to write:
Consumers are getting caught in the crossfire of environmental activists’ war against natural gas and the new battlefield is in the kitchen.
Environmentalists began collaborating with state government officials from across the United States at a closed-door gathering in New York this summer to lay out the plans for policies that would prevent consumers from using natural gas to cook their food or heat their homes.
The conference included representatives from the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Energy Foundation, and the World Research Institute among others, according to open records recently obtained by free market group Energy Policy Advocates and reviewed by the Washington Times.
By Chris White – Re-Blogged From WUWT
October 09, 2019 2:00 PM ET
Massachusetts’ past reliance on Russian natural gas to keep citizens warm in the winter could cause some damage to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose presidential campaign is tied to the anti-fracking movement.
Warren is introducing a bill Wednesday with fellow Massachusetts Democrat, Sen. Ed Markey, that would block construction on ports that export natural gas. She is pegging her campaign to ending oil as her state recovers from an energy crunch that tossed Massachusetts into the cold in 2018.
By Malcolm Carter – Re-Blogged From WUWT
Not everything in politics is easily understood or even meant to be understood, however some things are more obscure than others.
Why, for example, does the Trudeau government have a seemingly schizophrenic attitude towards our economy? On the one hand, like other parties, they voice the need for wages, benefits, jobs, heath services, education, protection of the environment … all the wonderful benefits of an industrial society, but on the other hand they seem to be trying to stick it to Alberta.
Just in case you have been at the cabin and there hasn’t been enough wind to recharge the batteries, Alberta has been trying to get more of its petroleum resources to tidewater, so that it can sell its products to other markets besides the US.
Despite the need, and after years of study, the Northern Gateway pipeline was axed, the Energy East pipeline was slashed and the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline almost bled to death. There was a lot of hand-wringing and whingeing in Ottawa, fingers pointed at BC and Quebec, “What can we do?” but there were only feeble attempts to resurrect these projects.
The Week That Was: July 13, 2019, Brought to You by www.SEPP.org
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal,” he said, “is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all. … Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? … Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.” – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti to Governor Jay Inslee’s climate director Sam Ricketts, as reported by David Montgomery of the Washington Post.
Number of the Week: Between 11 and 48,000 deaths
Groupthink or Bureaucratic Science: The death of exceptional journalist Christopher Booker is an unfortunate loss for those who dare think on their own. As his friend Andy Shaw relates, Booker was working on a book on Groupthink, which was based on work by psychologist Irving Janis. Booker was greatly expanding his paper on groupthink and climate change, which was published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). Fortunately, we have that paper, the executive summary of which states:
Brought to You by www.SEPP.org, The Science and Environmental Policy Project
By Ken Haapala, President
Quote of the Week: “I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth, if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.” – Leo Tolstoy [William Readdy]
Number of the Week: Up to 100 times more
Why I Don’t “believe” In …: Judith Curry brought up a thoughtful essay by Robert Tracinski illustrating how politicians and the like try to persuade others to accept their views by manipulating meaningful terms to the point of rendering the terms meaningless. Currently it is fashionable to invoke the term “science” to justify one’s political policies and beliefs.
