More evidence that there is no man made global warming. Via The Hockey Schtick:
The predictions for Solar Cycle 24 have plummeted from “one of the most intense” to now one of the least intense cycles of the past 400 years. If the anemic activity continues, the sun may be entering a quiet phase similar to the Dalton Minimum, characterized by approximately 50 sunspots/month at the peak of the solar cycle. (emphasis added)
Energy is fundamental to any economy. When energy prices climb it impacts every corner of the economy, from the prices paid at retail shops to the costs of manufacturing goods sold in the shops. Higher energy costs drain money from the entire economy.
The best quote I have seen regarding the importance that energy plays in an economy was in Pravda (yes; that Pravda):
That brings us to Cap and Trade. Never in the history of humanity has a more idiotic plan been put forward and sold with bigger lies. Energy is the key stone to any and every economy, be it man power, animal power, wood or coal or nuclear. How else does one power industry that makes human life better (unless of course its making the bombs that end that human life, but that’s a different topic). Never in history, with the exception of the Japanese self imposed isolation in the 1600s, did a government actively force its people away from economic activity and industry.
Even the Soviets never created such idiocy.
As pointed out before, Spain pushed to become the leader in ‘green energy’ several years ago and the results have been disastrous. Spain now has Europe’s highest electrical utility rates and its highest unemployment rate (20%). Furthermore, Spain is close to becoming the EU’s next Greece.
According to leaked Spanish government internal documents, the Green energy initiative Spain undertook is the primary cause for their economic distress.
Via Pajama Media:
But today’s leaked document reveals that even the socialist Spanish government now acknowledges the ruinous effects of green economic policy.
Unsurprisingly for a governmental take on a flagship program, the report takes pains to minimize the extent of the economic harm. Yet despite the soft-pedaling, the document reveals exactly why electricity rates “necessarily skyrocketed” in Spain, as did the public debt needed to underwrite the disaster. This internal assessment preceded the Zapatero administration’s recent acknowledgment that the “green economy” stunt must be abandoned, lest the experiment risk Spain becoming Greece.
The government report does not expressly confirm the highest-profile finding of the non-governmental report: that Spain’s “green economy” program cost the country 2.2 jobs for every job “created” by the state. However, the figures published in the government document indicate they arrived at a job-loss number even worse than the 2.2 figure from the independent study.
This document is not a public report. Spanish media has referred to its existence in recent weeks though, while Bloomberg and the Washington Examiner have noted the impact: Spain is now forced to jettison its plans — Obama’s model — for a “green economy.” (emphasis added)
And the bizarre twist to this story is that Obama is pressuring Spain to cut its public debt. And the main driver for Spain debt problems is their Green Energy initiative. The same initiative that Obama (and Michigan’s very own Jennifer Granholm aka “The Worst Governor in America”) is modeling his energy policy on.
An item which has been covered widely, however, is that President Obama is now pressuring Spain to turn off its spigot of public debt in the name of averting a situation similar to that of Greece.
Also covered widely is Obama’s promotion of the American Power Act — the legislation which would replicate Spain’s current situation in the United States.
Put simply, Obama is currently promoting a policy in the U.S. which is based on a policy that he wishes to see Spain abandon. Welcome to Obamaland (emphasis added)
The Green Energy movement is a prescription for high deficits, economic contraction, high unemployment and inflation for years to come. And our government, lead by liberal academics, is myopically focused on copying Europe’s failed policies.
Further reading @ MCT:
The Detroit Free Press Wants Its Hope And Change And It Wants It Now!
Going ‘Green’ Without Thinking Things Through
The Long Shadow Of The Progressives: Jimmy Carter And Energy
Remember when the Three Stooges were on TV after school and Sunday mornings.
Clip from Uncivil War (1946)
Clip from Cookoo Cavaliers (1940)
And a great clip from Disorder in the Court (1936)
Why do Liberal Democrats continue to push for recreating failed European socialist programs? Via Eurosavant:
Nothing ironic about this latest news from Der Spiegel, though. That’s what those Europeans get for making health care something overwhelmingly (although usually still not exclusively) a public matter: when those authorities have their budgets squeezed and must cut back, the health system feels it. The article mainly keys off of a new survey among German hospital administrators and patients from Ernst & Young. German hospitals were already disappearing at a steady rate – 2381 total in 1992, down to 2083 in 2008 – but that trend is supposed to accelerate now that the local governments that pay for them are increasingly under financial pressure, and smaller hospitals are said to be particularly vulnerable even though they often turn out to be the most efficient. For those hospitals that do carry on, more than a third of them expect to have to cut personnel, and a fifth of them even plan to reduce their number of doctors.
Also, costs have risen 20% over the last decade. So much for the Germans being able to “bend the cost curve.”
Three reasons the Democrat ‘Health Care Reform’ is going to cost Americans a boatload of money. Just like Germany.
