And so what the hell is a Key bird?
When a key bird fly’s through the air on a very cold day he has a distinctive call.
key…key…key…keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiisssssssst It is COLD!!!!!!!
Climate Change
TAX EEEEVIIIIILLLL CARBON!
In a 2007 decision The Supreme Court of the Unites States declared the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a pollutant. Under broad definitions It could be classified as such. In 2014 the SCOTUS reaffirmed this decision but did pull the EPA’s reins back a little.
But can one make money from Climate Change? Of course.
About 60 people gathered at the Old Labor Hall in Barre on Tuesday for a presentation, “Everyone’s Economic Opportunity in Climate Action, ” to discuss strategies for slowing down climate change and making money in the process.
Sponsored by Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and Vermont Natural Resources Council, the proceedings were moderated by Daniel Barlow, public policy manager for VBSR.
Of course it all starts with GOVERMENT.
Barlow explained the forum is aimed at bolstering planned legislative action to create a “carbon-pricing mechanism.”
Several bills have been introduced, including:
— H.394, an act relating to a carbon tax and cap and a trade study in the Joint Fiscal Office.
— H.531, relating to a carbon pollution fee in Vermont.
— H.532, relating to replacing statewide education tax revenue with a fee on carbon tax pollution.
— H.533, relating to eliminating Vermont’s sales and use tax and replacing it with a carbon fee on corporations.
The meeting raised the point that a carbon tax could help people with limited means.
“Low-income Vermonters are especially at risk due to climate change,” Barlow said. Therefore, he said, finding ways to leverage the situation into job growth is essential.
At least 19,000 Vermonters work in fields related to energy efficiency, such as Green Mountain Power employees, lawyers who represent energy efficiency, wind and solar developers, and wind and solar power manufacturing and installation, Barlow said in a telephone interview prior to the event.
The “clean energy economy” has grown while other sectors are struggling, he said.
Well it would stand to reason that the “clean energy economy” is growing when it’s subsidized by the government with other peoples money.
Where this all leads I have my guesses. It won’t make a difference in the grand scheme one way or the other. But people that have political power need to use it now and then. For the greater good, of course.
“I hear my train a coming…It’s coming round the bend..”
WILLISTON — Vermont visionary David Blittersdorf has bad news and good news
The bad news, he says, is that the nation and world will run out of oil and face catastrophic collapse at local, national and global levels. The good news is that a combination of conservation and renewable energy sources can avert a crisis, but it will require a concerted effort — and commitment — to do so.
Blittersdorf’s latest pitch on the renewal energy front is to bring back passenger rail service in central Vermont with 1950s-era self-propelled diesel rail cars. It’s his latest salvo that has included pioneering progress in wind and solar energy programs in the state. For Blittersdorf, the writing is on the wall, but he hopes to help rewrite the dismal history of the future.
More than once, he described his plan as “Back to the Future” that will transform the way Vermonters travel while helping to cut the state’s dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change in an effort to become 90 percent net-zero carbon free by 2050…..
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He said “Peak Oil” — when demand exceeded supply — occurred in 2007, only delayed by the fracking of oil and gas for another 10-15 years, with an exponential increase in carbon emissions and untold environmental damage.
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“IntheAmericanempireand where we think we are, we’re going down the other side… we don’t have the resources in the future that we think we have,” Blittersdorf said. “Everyone thinks we can grow into infinity forever. Sowe’resettingourselves upfor something really bad.
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“We have to start somewhere, and the efficiency gain over getting people out of cars is we can be 50 to 100 times more efficient, so we’ll cut emissions immediately, and we can do it as a reasonable price. That’s key,” Blittersdorf said.
Here is a rebuttal..
From the Ethan Allen Institute.
It is a canon of Green theology that irresponsible, selfish Americans must be taxed or subsidized out of their personal vehicles and into a group carriage like a rail car, all to save the planet from the menace of global warming.
Guess who is behind the new push for commuter rail? Mr. Green enterprise himself, VPIRG donor David “Wind Farm” Blittersdorf. He laid out $6 million for some reconditioned rail cars from Dallas in the hope of marrying them with the state owned rail lines and stations, to whisk commuters to Burlington from Rutland and maybe Montpelier.
And here’s the inevitable kicker: Blittersdorf “readily acknowledged that he won’t get this project rolling without public or private subsidies, or both. He imagines that some of Vermont’s large employers such as UVM, Global Foundries and state government will subsidize the trains in exchange for free transit for their employees.”
Oh, really? Are Vermonters dumb enough to fall for this costly foolishness all over again?
Let me state one thing from the beginning…I love trains/railroads. As a kid I would hear a train whistle in the distance. I would get on my bike and race down to the bridge that went over the tracks. When I would first see the head light from the locomotive then hear it’s roar I would get tense from excitement. I would wave to the engineer and he would wave back. I would listen to the click-ity clack of the wheels and try to count the freight cars. I would then wave at the guys in the caboose (yes..it was a long time ago).
Commuter trains certainly have there place…in large populated urban centers. of which Vermont is not one…yet. Perhaps if we only allow another 200,000 refugees from the middle east and central America to come to Vermont for a better life, commuter trains will be a much positive asset.
When Mr. Blittersdorf and the state of Vermont work out the details I and I’m sure many others will have to check it out and take a ride just for the joy of riding the rails. And I’m sure more then a few will utilize it for regular commuting.
But I certainly doubt that it’d going to break even cost wise. And Vermont taxpayers will be forced to watch public money used to subsidize a religion, the church of climate change.
But this is what “Progressives” consider progress.
Found this on my lawn this morning
Time marches on and waits for no one. Chapter 3 of 2017 is about to start.
Also winter has apparently come early to the artic.
I wonder what the climate prophet Al Gore will say? One thing for sure the climate change scam has certainly been profitable for Al Gore.
This BUDD’s for you!
Many years ago when I was just a wee lad, the year was 1959 and it had been announced that the Budd car passenger rail service up the Connecticut River from White River Jct. to St. Johnsbury was to be terminated. This was several years before Interstate 91 even crossed the Mass. border into Vermont but by now the automobile was king. It was just not profitable anymore. My Parents decided to take me on the last run to give me the experience of riding a train. I remember still watching my Aunt and Uncle follow us in their car up Route 5 which ran parallel to the track. It was great fun. After that rail travel went extinct.
Fast forward to today.
From the Times Argus
MONTPELIER — “Back to the Future” is how officials described the return of an old technology to power a future transportation system with the arrival of 1950s-built, independently powered rail cars in the Barre-Montpelier area on Tuesday.
The Budd rail diesel cars — or Budliners — are among 10 purchased to run passenger rail service in both central and western Vermont that could pave the way to meet net zero-energy emissions goals in the state.
The driving forces behind the program are venture capitalist David Blittersdorf and Montpelierbased Net Zero Vermont.
Blittersdorf is the former CEO of NRG, a successful wind-energy company, who subsequently launched AllEarth Renewables — both based in Williston — to build energy-efficiency enterprises that reduce fossil-fuel demand and slow climate change.
“The vision of the future is that we have to get back to mass transit, we have to get back to train, so I call this ‘Back to the Future,’” Blittersdorf said. “What settled Vermont, what settled the U.S. and even the world were the rail lines and the river and boat traffic.”
He said the old technology would make a comeback because it’s the most efficient way to move people and freight.
“Vermont is so small and we can innovate. With the rail, we are going to lead,” Blittersdorf added.
He spent over $4 million to buy 12 Budliner rail cars from a Texas company that had restored them. The cars are individually powered by diesel engines and do not require a locomotive to pull them. The cars can carry 80 passengers and provide an alternative to people driving cars.
Additional photos here.
So basically what we have are buses that run on railroad tracks. That Mr. Blittersdorf used his own money to purchase them is commendable.
The only problem with rail is…and now don’t get me wrong, I’ve a lot of experience with railcars, and I have nothing against the concept of mass transit, is that unless your going to have a flexible schedule, i.e. a single RDC leaving Barre-Montpelier every hour for Burlington, and vice versa, people are forced to accommodate their schedule to the trains.
And after you arrive at your destination and your job is miles away from the rail station…TAXI!
And a little bit more of your freedom disappears.
Since the RDC’s will be going back and forth on a single track, and sharing it with freight trains and Amtrak safety will need to be of prime concern. These cars were built in the 1950’s, will they be upgraded with 21st century technology? That won’t be cheap.
Will there be local and express trains? One stopping in every town and one direct to the big city?
What will be the price of tickets? What happens went the novelty wears off. What happens if the whole enterprise is awash in red ink? Every rail service in the entire world requires subsidizes i.e. taxpayer money.
But remember, we have to save the planet,
Well, I wish them luck in their endeavor. While riding the rails one will be able to look out the windows and see acres and acres of corn and cows solar panels may not be as green as you think.
I will be looking forward to giving it a ride someday. If only to reminisce about that day long ago. And what America was.
This is why people must be made stupid.
The UN’s controversial agenda, also dubbed the “Sustainable Development Goals” or SDGs, is basically a recipe for global government, technocracy, and socialism. And it includes the UN’s vision of “education” at the heart of it all. Under Agenda 2030, children are described as “critical agents of change” whose “infinite capacities for activism” will be weaponized and channeled by the UN’s “education” schemes into advancing the planetary entity’s vision of the future.
The whole program, and especially the education component, is being justified under the guise of imposing “sustainable development” on the world. And as far as the nebulous, totalitarian concept relates to education, the UN has already made clear that more education is actually a threat to sustainability.
They don’t even bother to hide it anymore.
Look at NORWAY!!! Now that’s commitment.
Vermont, it’s time you stopped pussyfooting fooling yourself. Yes I know solar panel farms are sprouting faster then Pot plants, micro-breweries, wineries, and distillers combined. Well your giving yourself until the year 2050 to achieve a 90% renewable energy goal.
How can this be reconciled with what the priesthood of science have proclaimed, that we only have 10 years left in which to save the planet.
Well compared to Norway, Vermont is still trying to get out of the starting blocks. Norway is going to ban the use of heating oil.
The Norwegian Government hopes that the upcoming ban will result in a reduction of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by 340,000 tons per year, compared to overall national emissions of 53.9 million tonnes in 2015.
Environment Minister Vidar Helgesen said:
Those using fossil oil for heating must find other options by 2020. Recommended alternatives to oil-based products include heat pumps, electricity from the country’s hydroelectric grid and even special stoves burning wood chips. Additional measures could include limitations on the use of natural gas for heating.
Lets see 340,000/53,900,000 equals a .0063079777% reduction
That’s right. Now here is a little problem, Norway exports North Sea oil to earn revenue. Will they stop selling it? Wouldn’t that be like the drug dealer who sells his poison but doesn’t touch the stuff himself.
If I ran heating oil business in Vermont I might be just slightly nervous.
You never know what might be coming down the pike.
Climate change again rears its ugly head
From the Winnipeg Free Press
The University of Manitoba’s multi-year, multi-million dollar climate change study has been put on ice for a year — because of climate change itself.
David Barber, the university’s renowned Arctic researcher, and chief scientist of the BaySys project, said 40 scientists on the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Amundsen made the decision to postpone the $17 million project until next year after two weeks onboard because they realized the ship was needed elsewhere due to the continued extreme ice conditions in southern waters around Newfoundland and Labrador.
Emphasis mine.
The ice is too damn thick.
Of course later they say…
But Barber said once out on the water the scientists realized this wasn’t the usual sea ice, which would be relatively easy for the icebreaker to plow through, but thicker ice from further north which had broken off because of climate change.
If the Ice is to thin, it’s climate change. To thick? Climate change.
Read the whole piece.
Climate change is the chameleon of science it can be whatever you want it to be.
If this isn’t Treason I don’t know what is.
From Frontpage Mag.
Scotland and Norway’s environmental ministers have mentioned a focus on individual American states. And the secessionist governments of California, New York and Washington have announced that they will unilaterally and illegally enter into a foreign treaty rejected by the President of the United States. The Constitution is very clear about this. “No state shall enter into any treaty.” Governor Cuomo of New York has been equally clear. “New York State is committed to meeting the standards set forth in the Paris Accord regardless of Washington’s irresponsible actions.”
Cuomo’s statement conveniently comes in French, Chinese and Russian translations.
“It is a little bold to talk about the China-California partnership as though we were a separate nation, but we are a separate nation,” Governor Brown of California announced.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, the radical leftist described California as “a real nation-state”.
Brown was taking a swing through China to reassure the Communist dictatorship of California’s loyalty to an illegal treaty at the same time as EU boss Juncker was bashing America and kissing up to Premier Li Keqiang at the EU-China summit. It’s one thing when the EU and China form a united front against America. It’s quite another when California and China form a united front against America.
The Climate Alliance of California, New York, Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Virginia and Rhode Island looks a lot like the Confederacy’s Montgomery Convention. Both serve as meeting points for a secessionist alliance of states to air their grievances against the Federal government over an issue in which they are out of step with the nation.
“We’re a powerful state government. We have nine other states that agree with us,” Brown boasted.
Two more and Jim Jones’ old pal could have his own confederacy.
Read it in its entirety.
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Like the slaveowner class, leftist elites are letting the arrogance of their wealth lead them into treason. And as they look out from their mansions and skyscrapers, they should remember that the majority of working class people in California and New York will be far less enthusiastic about fighting a war to protect their dirty investments in solar energy plants and carbon credits funded by taxes seized from many of those same people in these left-wing slave states.
Just what does the science say?
Vermont is said to be on of the most secular states in the nation, but that certainly doesn’t mean that Vermont doesn’t have religion. Vermont is joining an alliance…
From the Times Argus.
The alliance, which included 10 states as of Monday, is committed to upholding the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce emissions in the United States between 26 percent and 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025. The goal is optional and not mandatory.
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“If we’re actually going to meet the goals set forth in the Climate Alliance, or even Vermont’s own plans and laws, we’re going to need to see a lot more,” Walsh said.
Still, joining the Climate Alliance shows that Vermont is committed to its own energy goals, which include getting 90 percent of energy used in Vermont from renewable sources by 2050.
“That sends a very clear message the U. S. isn’t retreating, even if the president would like us to,” Walsh said. “Is it sufficient? Absolutely not. Paris by itself is actually not as strong as it ultimately needs to be, but the fact that so many states and cities have stood up is a very good indication that the U.S. isn’t actually going to be sitting the climate fight out.”
Optional but not mandatory???? You would think that with the planet in such danger of perhaps becoming like its sister planet Venus.
And what’s this talk about 2050 when we only have 10 years left. It looks to me that in order to “save the planet” we’re going to need some draconian laws, along with draconian enforcement, followed by draconian punishments.
Which is nothing new for the left, it’s their modus operandi.
But Science practiced via the “scientific method” and not politicized says something completely different.
From the website no tricks zone.
Last year there were at least 60 peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals demonstrating that Today’s Warming Isn’t Global, Unprecedented, Or Remarkable.
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Just within the last 5 months, 58 more papers and 80 new graphs have been published that continue to undermine the popularized conception of a slowly cooling Earth temperature history followed by a dramatic hockey-stick-shaped uptick, or an especially unusual global-scale warming during modern times.
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Yes, some regions of the Earth have been warming in recent decades or at some point in the last 100 years. Some regions have been cooling for decades at a time. And many regions have shown no significant net changes or trends in either direction relative to the last few hundred to thousands of years.
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Succinctly, then, scientists publishing in peer-reviewed journals have increasingly affirmed that there is nothing historically unprecedented or remarkable about today’s climate when viewed in the context of long-term natural variability.
Of course this “science will be ignored. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
Climate change is a religion. And its goal is to establish a progressive-socialist-Marxist heaven on earth run by elites who will share no part in the misery that will follow.