peter murphy cfukt

// aha 90% of rw punditry is just take legit crit of rt and flip it eg:

rubber inverse bizarro: remember when the libs made us feel bad for killing whales, well it turns out that...

via rww

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/offshore-wind-moratorium-whale-deaths_n_642599d9e4b02a8d518d12f0

no pix lnx twt

federal officials have repeatedly stressed that there is no evidence linking offshore wind development along the East Coast to a recent string of whale deaths.

Regardless, GOP lawmakers are citing those deaths in an effort to ban offshore wind — the latest in a growing, misinformation-rich campaign to stymie a ballooning renewable energy sector that stands to compete with America’s powerful oil and gas industry.

:{“The current system in place has allowed offshore wind to move forward too quickly & too recklessly in an attempt to solidify the legacies of green new deal advocates,”Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) wrote in a Twitter thread last week. “They hurt the environment, raise energy prices, & will destroy existing industry.”

Van Drew is part of a group of Republicans who introduced a resolution this month that calls for an immediate federal moratorium on offshore wind leasing and construction activity pending the outcome of an investigation to “determine the true impacts” of this development.}:

The resolution specifically notes that 23 dead whales have washed up along the East Coast since December and accuses regulatory agencies of having “an unclear process for determining all contributing causes of death of whales through necropsies.”

Along with Van Drew, the measure currently has five other GOP co-sponsors: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green (Ga.), Andy Harris (Md.), Chris Smith (N.J.), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Anthony D’Esposito (N.Y.).

[ pix Offshore wind energy opponents gather during a "Save the Whales" rally on Feb. 19 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.]

To be clear, there are a lot of unknowns about how offshore wind will impact wildlife and marine ecosystems in the short and long term. Like all other offshore industries, wind development has the potential to disrupt and harm whales and otherwise negatively impact the ocean environment.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and independent scientists have for months been pushing back against sweeping claims that offshore wind activities, including sonar surveys, are to blame for recent whale deaths. Such misinformation has featured prominently on Fox News and other conservative media in recent months.

“When you think about this obsession with green energy — the argument is always like ‘oil and gas is so bad for the environment,’” Fox News host Laura Ingraham said on her show March 10. “How ironic that what they are doing is almost certainly killing large swaths of the whale population.”

Greene, one of Congress’ proudest conspiracy theorists, has peddled similar nonsense. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in February, she claimed — again, without evidence — that whales are washing up because of “wind farms that are being placed all over the ocean.”

“People are calling the alarms over how [wind farms] are not only killing unknown thousands of bird species but also causing whales to beach themselves at record numbers,” Greene said.

There are only two small wind farms in operation in U.S waters, one off the coast of Rhode Island and another off Virginia. Together, they have just seven turbines and a capacity of 42 megawatts.

More than a dozen other large-scale projects are in various stages of permitting and development, but none are currently under construction — a reality that makes the conservative narrative particularly deceitful.

As part of a broader climate agenda, the Biden administration set a goal of securing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes for a year and cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. So far, it has granted final approval to two major offshore wind projects: the long-stalled Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, and South Fork Wind project off Rhode Island.

The recent whale strandings are part of what federal authorities have classified as an “unusual mortality event” that dates back to 2016.

“At this point, there is no evidence that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys,” reads an FAQ on the NOAA’s website.

Rather, officials have pointed to vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear— the two biggest human threats to whales, including humpbacks and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.At least 190 humpback whales have died along the East Coast since 2016. Forty percent of the animals that underwent necropsies showed signs of being struck by a boat or an entanglement.

“Since December 1, 2022, injuries consistent with vessel strike were identified in many of the animals necropsied,” Lauren Gaches, spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, told Inside Climate News this month.

Conservative lawmakers and media outlets are following the lead of fossil fuel-allied groups in exploiting whales to fight offshore wind. As HuffPost reported in November, anti-offshore wind groups, including some of the nation’s most hard-line climate change denial outfits, have branded themselves guardians of the endangered right whale as they threaten legal action against newly approved offshore wind projects.

Meanwhile, these same groups have advocated for increased offshore drilling while remaining silent about the documented threats to whales posed by oil and gas development.}: The NOAA estimates that 22% of the population of the endangered Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico was lost as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

[The Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States.

Those groups include the Heartland Institute and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, better known as CFACT, both of which have long histories of peddling climate change disinformation and cheerleading for the fossil fuel industry. In one of the more ironic and laughable moves of this anti-wind crusade, Peter Murphy, a senior fellow at CFACT, labeled the Biden administration “deniers” on par with the tobacco industry.

motherfucker: “As with the tabacco [sic] companies of yesteryear that disputed their product caused cancer,the Biden NOAA and climate-change cohorts are deniers, claiming there is ‘no evidence’ off-shore wind sites are harming whales,” Murphy wrote in a March 18 post to CFACT’s website, without presenting evidence to the contrary. “Rather, the agency attributes some of whale fatalities to ‘pre-mortem vessel strike,’ while conceding ‘more research is needed.’”

It is no secret that the tobacco and fossil fuel industries have a shared playbook for downplaying and dismissing the harm they have caused. In fact, a trove of documents compiled in 2016 by the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law, or CIEL, showed that tobacco and oil giants have worked collaboratively for over half a century, sharing marketing and advertising strategies, research institutes, PR firms and even scientists.

CFACT is a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of conservative charities and nonprofits “focused on dispelling the myths of global warming,” according to its website. Between 1997 and 2007, CFACT received nearly $600,000 from oil giant ExxonMobil.}:

Few if any oil companies have done more to sow doubt about human-caused climate change than ExxonMobil.

In this July 31, 2010, file photo, a dolphin swims through an oil sheen from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off East Grand Terre Island, where the Gulf of Mexico meets Barataria Bay, on the Louisiana coast.

In his post, Murphy concluded that “at the very least, there needs to be amoratorium on construction of off-shore wind turbines, which from a climate perspective alone are ineffective and a colossal waste, and now hazardous to the largest mammals on the planet.”

Three days later, Republicans introduced their resolution for an offshore wind moratorium.}:

Among other things, the resolution declares that “Atlantic coast offshore wind leases represent a transformative industrialization of vital environmental and maritime resources of the United States.”

There is no question wind farms will industrialize large swaths of U.S. waters. But one of the biggest threats to global ocean health is the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels. Oceans have absorbed an estimated 93% of the excess heat from human-caused climate change. This ocean warming has come with devastating impacts, from mass bleaching of coral reefs to the collapse of fisheries.

The NOAA notes on its website that whales, including the endangered right whale, are particularly vulnerable to climate change, as warming ocean temperatures impact the availability of zooplankton and other prey.

Without a herculean global effort to shift away from fossil fuels and halt planetary warming, scientists warn the impacts to the ocean and marine life will continue to mount.

“The percentage of animal species exposed to potentially dangerous conditions increases significantly the faster the world warms,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe tweeted this month, summarizing a finding of the latest United Nations climate report. “In general, ocean species like coral and tropical species are most at risk.”

Offshore wind could ultimately help rein in fossil fuel emissions and combat the global crisis — if disinformation doesn’t get in the way.

Media Matters, a media watchdog group, published a report last week that found that of the 288 Facebook posts from right-wing media in January and February that mentioned wind energy, a whopping 84% included unsubstantiated claims that offshore wind farms impact whale populations. The most popular post was a clip from Fox News’ Jesse Watterstitled “Wind Surveying is KILLING our Whales.”

Republican Party

renewable energy

Whales

wind power

Climate Deniers Exploit Endangered Whales In Bid To Kill Offshore Wind

:{COP 26: CFACT In Search of “Loch Ness Monster”

By Peter Murphy}:

The beat goes on with the catastrophic climate narrative, as does the Loch Ness myth.

cOP 26: CFACT In Search of “Loch Ness Monster”

By Peter Murphy|November 11th, 2021|Comments Off on COP 26: CFACT In Search of “Loch Ness Monster”

Drumnadrochit, Scotland U.K. [pix with morano in tourist cosplay w/ monsters]

The business of the 26^th United Nations Climate Summit took a lull in the action, which allowed for some light-hearted business mixed with sight-seeing by the CFACT crew.

We decided to go in search of the legendary, cryptic “Loch Ness Monster,” which took us to the northern Scotland village of Drumadrochit, a three-hour drive from Glasgow through the Scottish countryside in a fossil-fueled vehicle.

And we found it!!

From the 16^th century ruins of the Urquhart Castle on the west bank of Loch Ness Lake, CFACT leadership, dressed in Scottish kilt, hit pay dirt. They not only located the Loch Ness monster, but befriended this beast and its new friend, the visiting Sasquatch!!

The story of the Loch Ness monster, affectionally known as “Nessie,” dates back to 1933 when s/he was supposedly sighted, with a famous photograph taken the following year. There also are stories of encounters with a mysterious animal in the area that date further back to the 1800s and to Scottish folklore from the sixth century.

The search for this Loch Ness creature has eluded pursuers ever since, right through September, even with deployment of sonars and drones. Nearly 90 years after that dubious photo, a mini-industry of search parties has continued for this elusive being or, presumably, Nessie’s offspring.

The climate change issue is the Loch Ness legend on a far grander scale. We are now in at least the fourth decade since politicians and hucksters alike sounded the alarm about inexorable global warming, which followed a generation of know-it-alls who predicted an upcoming ice age, planetary starvation from overpopulation, and related calamities. In many respects, there is about as much reason to believe a disastrous, imminent global warming apocalypse as there is a Nessie and Big Foot roaming about Earth.

Global doomsday remains 10 or 30 or 80 years away, depending on who is talking. We need “Climate Action Now!,” we’re told, including imposing full socialism to control society. That certainly was the message of the thousands of protesters on the streets of Glasgow over the weekend, which continues that tradition around UN climate conferences.

Climate is changing, but in a natural and historically consistent way with mankind’s influence tangential at best and insignificant regardless.

But the beat goes on with the catastrophic climate narrative, as does the Loch Ness myth. The latter story has playfully become a tourist attraction; the former is soon getting to the point of parody.

Author

Peter Murphy Peter Murphy is Senior Fellow at CFACT. He has researched and advocated for a variety of policy issues, including education reform and fiscal policy, both in the non-profit sector and in government in the administration of former New York Governor George Pataki. He previously wrote and edited The Chalkboard weblog for the NY Charter Schools Association, and has been published in numerous media outlets, including The Hill, New York Post, Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal. Twitter: @PeterMurphy26 Website: https://www.petermurphylgs.com/

link fail

ref

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/nov/9/bidens-climate-fraud/

i fixed

by Ronald Kessler - - Tuesday,November 9, 2021

OPINION:

If you want to know why President Joe Biden’s entire climate agenda is a fraud, read the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Buried inside both papers were news stories reporting that despite the unprecedented shutdown of worldwide economies because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remained unchanged or increased slightly.

The news reports were not based on information on a right-wing website. Instead, they reported on readings from the official U.S. government source for carbon dioxide measurements in the atmosphere.

“Economies worldwide nearly ground to a halt over the 15 months of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a startling drop in global greenhouse gas emissions,” the Washington Post’s story last June 7 said.

“But the idle airplanes, boarded-up stores and quiet highways barely made a dent in the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Monday had reached the highest levels since accurate measurements began 63 years ago,” the Washington Post story said.

Similarly, the New York Times reported last June 4, “Despite the economic collapse resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to sharp declines in carbon dioxide emissions, the amount of the greenhouse gas has continued to climb.”

Indeed, “Scientific instruments atop the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii showed that levels of carbon dioxide in the air averaged 419 parts per million in May, the annual peak, according to two separate analyses from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” the New York Times story said. “Those readings are about half a percent higher than the previous high of 417 parts per million, set in May 2020.”

Even National Public Radio, in a more recent story on Oct. 25, reported the startling findings.

In other words, even though automobile traffic ground almost to a halt, airlines canceled flights, train schedules were curtailed, and offices, schools, and factories were shut down during the pandemic, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was not affected.

Of course, climate scientists have tried to explain away the failure to see a change in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is the main component of greenhouse gases that are believed to trap heat from the planet’s surface that would otherwise escape into space.

“People may be surprised to hear that the response to the coronavirus outbreak hasn’t done more to influence CO2 levels,” said Ralph Keeling, a geochemist who runs the Scripps Oceanography CO2 program, according to the New York Times story. “But the buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill,” he said. “As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up. The crisis has slowed emissions, but not enough to show up perceptibly at Mauna Loa.”

Yet, in a news release, Scripps scientists offered an entirely different explanation: that even a sharp drop in emissions from human activity “is overshadowed by natural variability in carbon emissions from vegetation and soil in response to seasonal changes in temperature and soil moisture.”

So the main culprit allegedly causing global warming is not human activity, as we have been told by Mr. Biden and almost every media outlet, but rather our vegetation and soil.

The fact is that while average global temperatures have increased 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century, the idea that human activity is responsible for global warming has always been merely a theory. Now we know the answer.

When carbon emissions declined drastically during the pandemic, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere remained unchanged or actually increased, demonstrating that human activity has nothing to do with carbon dioxide levels that according to the dogma cause climate change.

The corollary to that is that all the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on electric cars, charging stations, solar panels, and retrofitting homes and offices to combat global warming will be a colossal waste of money.

As Mr. Biden himself said in unscripted remarks that few in the media picked up during his State of the Union address, “The United States accounts, as all of you know, for less than 15 percent of carbon emissions. The rest of the world accounts for 85%. That’s why I kept my commitment to rejoin the Paris Accord because if we do everything perfectly, it’s not going to matter.”

If ever there was a need for pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, this is it.

Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the author of “The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game.”

renewable energy has significant downsides

ByCFACT Ed, Peter Murphy|January 5th, 2020| Comments Off on Renewable energy has significant downsides

Wind and solar power will not replace fossil fuels—oil, coal and natural gas—any time soon; not in twelve or 30 years, and likely not in anyone’s lifetime who is alive today. The pursuit of solar and wind power also comes with a steep price, not just in higher utility bills and taxpayer-financed subsidies, but to people, wildlife and the balance of nature itself.

The proposed Gemini solar farm in southern Nevada, near Las Vegas, is the latest example of the environmental tension resulting from this renewable energy.

Solar “farms” take up a lot of land. In Gemini’s case, more than 7,000 acres, which would be the largest in the country and equivalent in size to a small city (e.g., larger than Schenectady, New York).

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is poised to approve Gemini, which would provide enough solar energy to power 130,000 homes. Anyone traversing through Las Vegas at night surely knows it will take a lot more power than a large solar farm to keep the lights on, but it’s a start.

The BLM’s own environmental impact statement documents that the solar farm also will impact endangered species and plants, including the desert tortoise, kit fox and a rare plant I never heard of called the threecorner milkvetch.

Conservation and wildlife organizations are not pleased about this project, including the Defenders of Wildlife, even as it supports renewable energy in the abstract.Instead of disturbing endangered species and plants in vast desert lands, some organizations advocate the unrealistic alternative of having solar energy placed on every home.

Solar and wind energy projects also face a not-in-my-back-yard (“NIMBY”) problem. While the western half of the United States has more open desert space, the NIMBY issue has surfaced in the east, such as in rural Spotsylvania County, Virginia and elsewhere.

Last April, the County Board of Supervisors approved, over stiff local opposition, a solar farm project comprising more than 3,000 acres. As states like Virginia, Nevada, New York and others impose renewable energy quotas,the Spotsylvania NIMBY battle portends ongoing struggles to fulfill renewable mandates throughout the country, as CFACT has discussed.

Perhaps the most famous NIMBY example of opposition to renewable energy occurred off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts where wealthy residents, including the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, opposed the Cape Wind offshore wind farm. After years of litigation, Energy Management, the company behind the project, pulled the plug in 2017.

Still, wind power is expanding throughout the U.S. as it produces more than _{six percent}_ of the nation’s electricity. It is expected to grow exponentially worldwide in the next twenty years, according to the International Energy Agency. Like solar power, wind energy raises similar alarms about the amount of land-use and harm to wildlife.

Wind turbines are killing hundreds of thousands of bats and birds on an annual basis. More wind turbines mean millions more winged creatures dying every year. Wind turbines also are harming other animals, including dogs and other pets. The turbines themselves require considerable energy to produce and are not easily disposed of, bringing still more environmental concerns.

Wind power also may be causing increased temperatures, NOT YET AGAIN NO EVIDENCE which would be a facetious irony absent the seriousness of the issue. The big reason for this forced transition from fossil fuels to renewables is to supposedly reverse “man-made” global warming, yet wind power is expanding to the point where it could be contributing to warming. Go figure.

Then there is the environmental concern about batteries used to complement renewable energy sources when it is not windy or sunny. Batteries, of course, come from mining the ingredients necessary, such as cobalt and lithium. Moreover, the cost and quantity necessary for batteries to make wind and solar power viable are enormous and downplayed as politicians continue to force-feed renewable energy mandates on the public.

The environmental downside of wind and solar energy development alone is not a reason for abandoning these sources of energy. Rather, it is an argument for lowered expectations and realism. Renewable energy is not going to bring us a carbon-free world any time soon, absent corresponding harm in a variety of ways. Accordingly, scientists and policymakers should slow down the wind and solar freight train to balance more carefully the costs and benefits to people, wildlife and nature writ larg

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:{COP 26: CFACT In Search of “Loch Ness Monster”

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The beat goes on with the catastrophic climate narrative, as does the Loch Ness myth.

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