Source:  Lew Rockwell.com

The New York Times and Lies about ‘Acid Rain’

by William L. Anderson

As one who often reads the Newspaper of the Ruling Class, the New York Times, I tend not to be surprised when the “Newspaper of Record” distorts the record. Furthermore, one could do nothing but write comments refuting the various economic fallacies and outright distortions that accompany each edition of the Grey Lady.

However, in a recent editorial, the NYT managed to distort the record so much that I find it hard even to know how to answer, except to say that some of us have not lost our memories of what happened 30 years ago. Entitled “Acid Rain 30 Years On,” the editorial starts with the following statement:

Just over 30 years ago, a skeptical Daniel Patrick Moynihan persuaded his Senate colleagues to approve a major study to see whether a relatively unknown phenomenon called acid rain was worth worrying about. The study, completed in 1990, showed that pollution blowing eastward from coal-fired power plants was killing off aquatic life. One-quarter of the Adirondacks’ 3,000 lakes and streams had become too acidic to support fish life, or were headed that way. (more…)

Source:  SEPP

ACID TEST

by William Anderson

Published in Reason Magazine, January 1992

Although unpolluted by acid rain, this clearwater stream in Australia is highly acidic.

Some people don’t like what Edward Krug has to say about acid rain. That was apparent when he spoke at a seminar on the subject last April in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Krug, a soil scientist who had helped conduct a 10-year federal study of acid rain, spoke with some expertise. He told his audience that he and his fellow researchers on the National Acid Rain Precipitation Assessment Project had determined that acid rain was an environmental nuisance, not a catastrophe.

It was a message that environmentalists didn’t want to hear. One woman hissed at him, “You need to take a reality check.”

Unfortunately for Krug, she isn’t the only one who doesn’t like his ideas. Congress ignored NAPAP’s findings, and when Krug tried to point out that the federal government is forcing utilities to spend billions of dollars to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, a federal agency did everything in its power to keep the media from listening to him. Krug’s research has upset the plans of some of Washington’s most powerful bureaucrats, and they aren’t happy. Because of them, the 44-year-old Krug has experienced numerous reality checks. (more…)

SPPI Reprint Series:

America’s Ruling Class and the Perils of Revolution by Angelo Codevilla.

This extensive essay, which covers a number of fronts, provides some essential insights for understanding the global warming scare, its promotion by national governments and international organizations, and why “climate science” focused on catastrophic global warming is a special interest creation/fantasy by and for the “ruling class.” It also provides insight into why non-alarmist, non-ruling-class scientists and spokespersons must be vilified and silenced by advocates for and fellow-travelers of the ruling class in business and government.

Some key excerpts:

Once an official or professional shows that he shares the manners, the tastes, the interests of the class, gives lip service to its ideals and shibboleths, and is willing to accommodate the interests of its senior members, he can move profitably among our establishment’s parts.
If, for example, you are Laurence Tribe in 1984, Harvard professor of law, leftist pillar of the establishment, you can “write” your magnum opus by using the products of your student assistant, Ron Klain. A decade later, after Klain admits to having written some parts of the book, and the other parts are found to be verbatim or paraphrases of a book published in 1974, you can claim (perhaps correctly) that your plagiarism was “inadvertent,” and you can count on the Law School’s dean, Elena Kagan, to appoint a committee including former and future Harvard president Derek Bok that issues a secret report that “closes” the incident. Incidentally, Kagan ends up a justice of the Supreme Court. Not one of these people did their jobs: the professor did not write the book himself, the assistant plagiarized instead of researching, the dean and the committee did not hold the professor accountable, and all ended up rewarded. By contrast, for example, learned papers and distinguished careers in climatology at MIT (Richard Lindzen) or UVA (S. Fred Singer) are not enough for their questions about “global warming” to be taken seriously. For our ruling class, identity always trumps. (more…)

Washington State’s Climate Exec Order Challenged

By Paul Chesser

Today the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Constitutional Law Center announced they would, on behalf of Washington State taxpayers, sue Democrat Gov. Christine Gregoire because last year she issued an executive order implementing climate change measures that the Democrat-run state legislature had rejected.

“We believe Gov. Gregoire’s climate change executive order is an unconstitutional order,” said Michael Reitz, director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Constitutional Law Center, who represents the taxpayers in this case. “Gov. Gregoire violated the doctrine of separation of powers by snatching a failed bill out of the legislative process and issuing it in the form of an executive order. If the governor wants to pass laws, she’s in the wrong branch of government.” (more…)

Source:  Evergreen Freedom Foundation

OLYMPIA—Today a group of six taxpayers filed a lawsuit to invalidate an executive order issued by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

“We believe Gov. Gregoire’s climate change executive order is an unconstitutional order,” said Michael Reitz, director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Constitutional Law Center, who represents the taxpayers in this case. “Gov. Gregoire violated the doctrine of separation of powers by snatching a failed bill out of the legislative process and issuing it in the form of an executive order. If the governor wants to pass laws, she’s in the wrong branch of government.”

During the 2009 legislative session, the Washington State Legislature considered a bill from Gov. Gregoire that addressed climate change issues. Despite vocal support from the governor, SB 5735 did not pass out of the Legislature.

Undeterred, on May 21, 2009, Gov. Gregoire issued Executive Order 09-05, entitled “Washington’s Leadership on Climate Change,” ordering the Departments of Ecology and Transportation to take action to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions and increase transportation and fuel-conservation options. In a press release the governor claimed the executive order would produce environmental and economic benefits: “It will protect our natural resources, while creating thousands of green-collar jobs and strengthening our state’s competitiveness in the global race for a clean energy economy.”

Gov. Gregoire stressed that Executive Order 09-05 was intended to replace her failed legislation. At her press conference, Gregoire said, “What we’ve done in the executive order is everything that was in that final bill—plus. Plus. There’s more in the executive order than what was in the final bill that did not pass the Legislature.” (more…)