Climate scientists release study saying that in order to save the planet fossil fuels need to stay right where they are. In other words, for God sakes stop drilling!

Courtesy of National Geographic:  

Canada's tar sands need to stay in the ground, the oil beneath the Arctic has to remain under the sea, and most of the world's coal must be left untouched in order to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2°C, a study released Wednesday says. 

The research, unlike other bleak assessments of the world's climate predicament, zeroes in on which regions should halt their production of coal, oil, and gas—and by how much. It comes ahead of climate talks in Paris later this year that aim to broker a new global accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions. 

.....

In addition to abandoning more than 80 percent of current global coal reserves, the researchers say, the world should forego extracting a third of its oil and half of its gas reserves before 2050.

And that my friends is why the "Drill Baby, Drill" philosophy should be shoved out onto the same iceberg of irrelevancy that Sarah Palin currently occupies.

By the way Climate Scientists are not the only scientists pushing the panic button: 

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced Jan. 22 that it is moving the hand of the “Doomsday Clock” two minutes closer to midnight. Through a combination of nuclear weapons and increasing global warming, the Bulletin’s executive director Kennette Benedict said that there were some “truly terrible prospects” for the fate of humanity on the horizon, and implored “the citizens of the world to think clearly” about its future.

The threat of nuclear war was also mentioned, though the panel suggested that the global inclination to replace carbon-based power plants with nuclear power was more of an issue. The panel was concerned with the Russian incursion into Crimea, but was less concerned that someone was “going to press the button” on a nuclear weapon, and more concerned that about having to maintain nuclear material at all, which increases “the prospect for nuclear accidents,” Benedict said. 

Great so now we are less in danger of being blown up by enemies then we are of killing ourselves due to ignorance.

How comforting.

If only we would have listened.

The future of car manufacturing is just around the corner.

Courtesy of BBC News:  

Japanese carmaker Toyota has said it is looking to start commercial sales of fuel cell-powered cars by 2015. 

Toyota set the target as it unveiled a concept fuel cell powered car, called the FCV, at the Tokyo Motor Show. 

Its cells can be recharged within minutes and it can cover about 500km (300 miles) on a single charge, according to the firm. 

Earlier this week, rival Hyundai said it plans to start mass production of such cars as early as next year. 

The South Korean company has announced plans to start commercial sales of a fuel cell-powered version of its sports utility vehicle, the Tucson, in the US market. 

Honda Motor is also expected to unveil its latest concept version of a fuel cell-powered vehicle later this week. 

Many carmakers have been looking to develop the fuel cell technology further and bring it to mass production. 

One of the main reasons is that it is emission-free. 

The technology uses hydrogen to generate electricity to power the engine and the waste products are heat and harmless water. 

At the same time, fuel cells charge much faster and travel a longer distance after being charged, compared with battery-operated electric cars.

I have to admit that I have been waiting for some real movement on this front for quite some time now.  As a matter of fact I have been keeping my Durango tuned up and in good repair hoping that it will last long enough for me to move to a non-fossil fuel powered car with my next purchase.

I had some hopes of going electric, but this actually sounds much more promising. IF they can work out the issue of getting enough hydrogen filling stations built to meet demand.

Oh well, here's hoping that the oil companies don't do everything in their power to destroy our chances of moving to this new technology like they once did in response to the electric car.

By the way this is one of the few topics these days on which my daughter and I are in complete agreement.

Forget Sarah Palin, if you really want a leader who knows about energy in this country he is currrently residing in the White House.

Courtesy of Politico:

 A federal report released Wednesday offers the latest indication that U.S. energy production will continue to boom in the coming decades amid surging production from shale while imports plummet and gasoline consumption falls below previous estimates. 

The Energy Information Administration, in a summary of its 2013 Annual Energy Outlook, said domestic energy production will grow more quickly than consumption through 2040. And imports will fall from 19 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2011 to 9 percent in 2040.

The EIA also lowered its projections for gasoline consumption when compared with last year’s report, pointing to the Obama administration’s beefed-up fuel economy standards. Thanks to those standards, gasoline consumption in the transportation sector will fall by 0.5 million barrels per day in 2025 and by 1 million barrels per day in 2035 compared with last year’s projections. 

Renewables will also see an expansion in the coming decades, EIA says. It projects the share of generation from renewables will increase from 13 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2040. But the report says the agency is “less optimistic” about “the ability of advanced biofuels to capture a rapidly growing share of the liquid fuels market.” 

And this my friends is how you move America toward energy independence.

Somebody should go up to that Wasilla Wendigo and tell her to take her "Drill baby, drill" nonsense and put it where the sun don't shine and her husband now refuses to touch her.

Strong on defense, strong on energy, strong on tax cuts for the middle class, exactly what DO the Republicans still have in their political quiver these days? If they go with conservative social issues they will only continue to make themselves irrelevant.

So of course I think they should go with that!

There are rogue scientists paid to undermine scientific research in this country and it is making it hard to bring truth to the American people.

Courtesy of Physorg.com:  

These naysayers -- some of whom are paid by interest groups -- have helped undermine action on vital problems despite evidence of the need to respond, said Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history and science studies at the University of California at San Diego. 

They sap convictions by endlessly questioning data, dismissing experimental innovation, stressing uncertainties and clamouring for more research, she said. Over the last half-century, they have helped weaken legislative action or brake political momentum on tobacco, acid rain, protection of the ozone layer and climate change. 

"This strategy is so clever and effective," Oreskes said in an interview this week in Paris to promote a French translation of "Merchants of Doubt," a book she co-authored with California Institute of Technology historian Erik Conway. 

"It takes something which is an essential part of science -- healthy skepticism, curiosity -- and turns it against itself and makes it corrosive." 

Oreskes's book traces the starting point of professional science skeptics to when big tobacco companies were facing the first clear evidence that smoking caused cancer. 

An internal memo, written by a Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. executive in 1969, spelt out the goal of weakening this link with expert help. 

"Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy," according to the document, now placed in a US public archive. 

Oreskes said a blatant example today was the sowing of doubt about global warming. 

A "denial campaign" started to take root in the United States just before the Earth Summit of 1992 and amplified in the run-up to negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, she said. 

"They don't have to prove that they're right. They don't have to prove that there's no global warming," she said. 

"They simply have to raise doubts and questions, because if they can raise doubts and questions, then they can say, 'Well, since the science is not settled,' they allege, 'therefore it would be premature to act on it.' And so they delay action and avoid the kind of actions they would like to avoid."

Okay if THAT does not seriously piss you off then I can't imagine what would.

I think most of us have probably already reached a conclusion similar to this on our own, simply by watching the attacks on evolution in the classrooms and climate change in politics.

Essentially these people are willing to damage our ability to trust facts, simply in the name of greed.

We have seen this happen right before our eyes when it comes to regulating our food, educating our children, and protecting our environment. All powerful people have to do is purchase their own scientists and important information is brought into doubt.

In today's America it appears that money IS truth.  If you have enough of one, you are free to define the other.

The President's Weekly Address: Gas Prices & Energy Security

You know it takes a lot longer to actually spell out what we are doing to address the energy needs of this country when you don't simply rely on stupid slogans like "Drill here, drill now." But you have to admit it is also a hell of a lot more satisfying.

I am thrilled that the President is looking into so many possible alternatives to ease our reliance on fossils fuels.  In my opinion using a several pronged approach to finding new clean energy alternatives will allow these technologies to develop and then the market can decide which one makes the most economic sense.

Can't get much more American than that.

Saturday June 19, sixty one days since a hole on the ocean floor started hemorrhaging oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Latest developments as of today according to the Washington Post:

-- BP captured 25,290 barrels of oil (1.02 million gallons) over a 24-hour period ending at midnight Thursday.

-- BP should pay all damages because the disaster was caused by the company's "reckless decisions." according to Anadarko Petroleum, the Texas oil company that owns 25 percent of the well.

By the numbers

665
birds collected alive (all visibly oiled)

885
birds collected dead (212 visibly oiled)

42
birds released

All numbers are totals to date from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, reported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Cause of injury or death has not been determined.

Yesterday BP Chairman Tony Hayward appeared before Congress.

Texan Republican Michael Burgess expressed surprise when the BP chief said he had not known anything about the well in question until he was told in April that drilling had confirmed an oil discovery.

"But you're the CEO of the company," Congressman Burgess said.

"With due respect," Mr Hayward replied, "we drill hundreds of wells around the world."

"Yeah, that's what scares me right now," said Mr Burgess.

Afterwards Hayward was summarily replaced.

Hopeful estimates are that the spill will be contained by August,  however there is a growing consensus that it may in fact continue for years to come.

If this is not enough to get America to change its energy habits and look to a future with clean, renewable energy  as our goal than I simply do not know what it would take.

Seriously, has Sarah Palin been drinking?

I believe this was overheard from a semi-conscious half term governor wrapped around the bottom of a barstool in a honky-tonk located somewhere on Twitter:

Extreme Greenies:see now why we push"drill,baby,drill"of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?

You know I was going to take a break from Sarah posts for at least the rest of the day, but what the hell?

Is Palin really attempting to blame the horrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on environmentalists?  So she actually believes it is the fault of those who advocate for wind, solar, and hydro power?  Those bastards!

That is just insane!  But hey, at least we KNOW she wrote it!

Update:  By the way does anybody remember this Palin quote from the Vice Presidential debate?

Barack Obama and Senator Biden, you've said no to everything in trying to find a domestic solution to the energy crisis that we're in. You even called drilling -- safe, environmentally-friendly drilling offshore as raping the outer continental shelf.

"Uh Ms. Palin? I have Hyposcrisy holding for you on line two.  Should I just take a message?"

Joe Biden makes reference to simplicity of Palin's energy plan which inspires her ghostwriter to write him a note on Facebook.

Vice President Joe Biden showed up in New York state to provide a little support to the Democratic candidate for the Congressional seat that has received so much attention as of late.

He made a short speech in which he made this offhand remark:

“I like her. I really do – not a joke,” Mr. Biden later added. “The fact of the matter is Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was ‘drill baby drill.’ No. It’s a lot more complicated, Sarah, than ‘drill baby drill.’ ”

Essentially Biden pointed out what ALL Alaskans know to be a fact, that Sarah Palin knows NOTHING about energy development.

Apparently this angered Palin's Facebook ghostwriter who fired up her laptop and tapped out this response.

As the vice president knows, I have always advocated an all-of-the-above approach to American energy independence. Among other things, my alternative energy goal for Alaska sits at 50 percent because Alaska reached more than 20 percent during my term in office.

(What she fails to mention however is that less than seven months after introducing this plan she quit her job and left it up to others to move the ball forward. And while she was in office what did she really do to accomplish her goal?)

The Obama-Biden administration, on the other hand, recently announced a renewable goal of only 25 percent. However, domestic drilling should remain a top priority in order to meet America’s consumption and security needs.

The vice president’s extreme opposition to domestic energy development goes all the way back to 1973 when he opposed the Alaska pipeline bill. As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Biden cast one of only five votes against the pipeline that has produced more than 15 billion barrels of oil, supplied nearly 20 percent of this nation’s oil, created tens of thousands of jobs, added hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and reduced money transfers to the nation’s enemies by about the same amount.”This nonsensical opposition to American domestic energy development continues to this day.

(By the way let me take a moment to say "Thank you" to Joe Biden for voting against the oil pipeline. There were a lot of promises made to the Alaskan people by the oil companies before we allowed them to come up here and rape our land and not very damn many of them were kept. They NEVER provided the jobs promised to the native people whose land they took, and instead hired hundreds of people from the lower forty-eight who treated my state like a giant cash machine. They worked up here for two weeks on and two weeks off, and on the off weeks they were flown back to their homes to spend their oil money in places that were NOT Alaska. In the meantime they spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil in Prince William Sound and kept the settlement fight tied up in court for years while the boat captains, who depended on the now dead fish, lost their businesses and were forced to sell their fishing boats. In the thirty plus years since the construction of the pipeline we have seen the tough, weather hardened Alaskans become soft and portly on a steady diet of oil money and no state tax. We also found our politicians prostrating themselves for years in front of the oil giants and putting their needs ahead of the Alaskan citizens at every turn. So no, I do not believe that Joe Biden deserves to be vilified for his wariness of casting a yes vote in 1973.)

Apparently the Obama-Biden administration only approves of offshore drilling in Brazil, where it will provide security and jobs for Brazilians. This election is about American security and American jobs.

There’s one way to tell Vice President Biden that we’re tired of folks in Washington distorting our message and hampering our nation’s progress: Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!

- Sarah Palin

No Joe Biden did NOT "distort" Sarah Palin's energy policy. Her claim that she "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America" is a big steaming pile of moose shit. She does not know a damn thing about energy.

Palin pinned ALL of her political energy bona fides on her plan to build the mythical gas pipeline that inspired more GOP erections in Alaska than a whole truckload of Viagara. However as many more knowledgeable Alaskans realized, there was a reason that it had remained a myth. And as we all know Palin jumped ship before it crashed into the rocks of a huge natural gas surplus in the lower forty eight and new technology which makes it possible to remove natural gas from shale, leaving her successor, Sean Parnell, bailing like a maniac as her ship of natural gas dreams slowly sinks into obscurity.

Her claims of energy expertise were as empty as her promises to show up and give speeches around the country have turned out to be. Who in their right mind would even listen to somebody so inept that they cannot even post their OWN notes on Facebook?

Alaska lawmakers research ways to solve energy problems in rural communities.

State lawmakers are hoping to turn Alaska's energy crisis into an opportunity to wean rural Alaska off expensive diesel fuel.

A special House Energy Committee hearing was held in Bethel on Friday that lasted four-and-a-half hours. Members also traveled to Kasigluk to see how that village is fighting back.

It's all part of an ongoing effort to develop a statewide energy plan and was the third field trip for the committee.

"We toured around the windmills with the Black Hawk helicopter," Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage and committee co-chair, said.

The windmills provide Kasigluk and Nunapitchuk -- another village nearby -- almost 30 percent of their energy.

Later in Bethel, the committee heard about the benefits of wind energy.

Robert Nick, chairman of the Nunapitchuk Tribal Council, told lawmakers he was paying $300 a month for electricity before wind. Now things are a little different.

"Only once did I go over $100," he said. "My average has been about $80 to $90 a month, so that is a success story."

Area villages have been paying more than $6 a gallon for fuel to heat homes -- homes that are poorly insulated.

"What happens if we have another year of high fuel prices like we did last year?" Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham and a committee co-chair, said. "What are your communities going to do?"

I am very gratified to see our lawmakers addressing this issue now in the summer, so that hopefully by the time winter comes we will have some programs in place to address next winter's problems in the short term and hopefully some long term solutions are also coming down the pike.

In my opinion the secret is getting these communities less reliant on fossil fuel and more directed more toward renewable energy sources. And it looks like getting around that obstructionist Governor Palin may be one of the first hurdles that they need to overcome.

But it looks like they already know that.

With costs like these, Gov. Sarah Palin was taken to task for vetoing $28 million in federal stimulus money for energy efficiency.

"Living in Alaska, I can't see how she could reject that," said Myron Naneng, president of the Association of Village Council Presidents.

Lawmakers did get requests to overturn the veto, along with many others.

Sounds like they recognize the problem and her name is Sarah Palin.

If Governor Palin would just step out of the way Alaska could be in the forefront of renewable energy creation.

In the last few years Bernie Karl, the owner of Chena Hot Springs Resort, has pioneered technology to generate electricity from hot water.

But Chena Hot Springs is about much more than energy.

Karl uses his resort as a laboratory to grow new ideas.

His latest brainchild is a portable power generator that can be hooked up to an oil or gas well.
The mobile geothermal power plant is basically a power plant on a flat bed truck.

When it's hooked up to an oil well the hot water byproduct can generate enough power for 280 homes.

That's a lot of energy in a state like Texas where there are a lot of oil rigs.

That's why the Department of Energy and several private companies have put about $1.4 million to develop and test the prototype which will be hooked up to an oil well in Florida this fall.

The technology is not limited to oil wells.

Waste heat or geothermal energy can also be used to create hydrogen fuel which Chena Hot Springs plans to use to run its cars soon.

"Any waste heat stream. Go to anybody that's got an engine running, anybody that's manufacturing something. It's got waste heat," Karl said. "You back it up and turn it into electricity."

It's expensive to produce but if the energy is renewable it could pencil out especially for communities in rural Alaska that pay more than $6 a gallon for fuel.

"Hydrogen is just one more tool in your renewable energy tool box," said Karl. "Yet someday hydrogen will be the fuel of the future, you'll see."

Karl says we need two ingredients to find the fuels of the future.

"We have no vision. We have no passion," Karl told a group of state lawmakers who took Chena's energy tour this week.

This is what a TRUE Alaskan can do!

Alaska used to be famous for the tough innovative people who lived up here and the ingenious methods they came up with to battle the cold and get from place to place.

From Cessna planes wings held together with duct tape and the power of prayer, to native Alaskans who set out in a skin covered boat to bring in a bowhead whale to feed their village, Alaskans are the champions when it comes to problem solving.

When the state was devastated by the 1964 earthquake Alaskans did not sit holding their heads in their hands waiting to be rescued by the federal government. No, they started working to save lives and repair the damage almost before the shaking had even stopped. (As a matter of fact my grandmother told me once that some after shocks hit right after she had finally put her living room back together and she said some very unladylike words before setting out to fix it back up again.)

Before we sold out soul to Exxon Oil and British Petroleum Alaskans were some of the most independent, eclectic innovators on the planet. It seems nowadays that those Alaskans are much harder to find. Having been replaced by out of staters who came up here chasing the big money promised by the oil companies.

And that is why I am so stoked to see this article about Bernie Karl. Here is one of the Alaskans of my youth. Here is a man, not only thinking out of the box, but possibly reinventing the damn box!

We need more people of vision like this in Alaska! And we need politicians and investors that will listen to these new ideas and help Alaska to lead the way toward a more energy independent lifestyle. And we need fewer people who are bought and paid for by the big oil companies who refuse to finance or support ANYTHING which might take money out of the pocket of some CEO at Shell Oil.

Just think what Mr. Karl could do with a couple million dollars of that stimulus money. The mind reels.

Is Governor Palin rejecting part of the Stimulus money for political reasons, or because she is simply too ignorant to do her job?

The co-chairs of the state Senate Resources Committee sent Palin a letter Monday urging her to accept the funds, which could go for uses including energy efficiency grants, retrofitting buildings for less energy use and replacing streetlights with LED bulbs that use less electricity and last longer.

It's the only piece of the $931 million federal stimulus package Palin is turning down, saying she doesn't want the money because it requires a state energy code.

Anchorage Republican Sen. Lesil McGuire, one of the lawmakers who wrote the governor, said in an interview that Palin herself set a goal of Alaska receiving 50 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2025.

"And then to come back and reject the implementation of an energy saving code the building community hasn't rejected and that other states are readily adopting, I think it sends a hypocritical message," McGuire said.

Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said the governor's primary concern with the funds is that she believes energy codes should be a local government decision that considers local needs -- not a state mandate.

"We shouldn't have to change our local laws to accept more of this federal package, as the feds already control much of our young state, thus prohibiting our opportunities to responsibly develop," Palin said in an e-mail.

As I read this my first instinct is that Palin is refusing this portion of the money to suck up to the oil companies and to the core Republican base that relies on money from the fossil fuel pimps.

But that really does not seem to make too much sense either. Because though this money is to help our state develop more alternative sources of energy, and to become more energy efficient, it will have no real impact on the ability of the oil companies to drill for oil and continue to make money.

Here let Senator Bill Wielechowski explain it further:

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski, the other co-chair of the Resources Committee, said in a written statement that "it makes no sense to turn these funds away when they will just be given to other states. Alaskans need this money far more than residents of many other states with milder climates and substantially lower energy costs."

Wielechowski and McGuire said the state would have eight years to meet the efficiency standards and that much of Alaska already has the energy codes, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Palmer, Juneau and Skagway. Ketchikan, Soldotna and Wrangell are in the process of introducing codes. Many of the structures built in rural communities are built with public funds through agencies like the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., they said, which also already has the energy code requirement.

They said the code would need to apply only to communities with more than 2,500 people, and structures without plumbing or central heating would be exempt. The senators said the Alaska State Home Building Association presented them with a resolution supporting a statewide building code that would include an energy code. It could be tailored to the different needs of various parts of the state, the two legislators said.

Well that seems pretty straightforward doesn't it? Many of our communities are already in the process of applying new energy codes and with this Stimulus money we will have the funds to do it faster and more efficiently.  Where is the bad?

Palin's spokeswoman said the governor recognizes some Alaska communities already have energy codes and that many buildings meet the standards.

"However, this does not resolve the issue of local control versus a state mandate and enforcement of energy codes," Leighow said in an e-mail. "The fact that Alaska does not currently have a state energy code indicates that there has not been a statewide consensus for imposing such a code on local communities and Alaska residents."

Palin doesn't think it is worth accepting the federal demand that Alaska impose a statewide energy code just to keep Alaska's share of the energy money from being sent to other states, Leighow said.

So it looks like this is really a battle for control.  Palin simply does not want anybody else to have a say in how Alaska moves toward a more energy efficient lifestyle, even if they pay for the privilege.

Well if this were up to me, I would much rather have the Federal Government determining our energy policies rather than, self described "expert on energy", Sarah Palin.  The Governor has shown herself to be much too uneducated and simple minded to manage such important policies.

And the question is still out there as to whether or not it is too late to accept ANY of the Federal funds.

McGuire said Alaska was the only state to miss the initial deadline to apply for the energy money. But the U.S. Department of Energy is still holding Alaska's place open -- at least for now -- so long as the state does not officially notify the department that it is rejecting the funds. Federal energy officials aren't saying when a drop-dead date might be.

McGuire said a Palin veto of the Legislature's appropriation of the money might not even be the end of it, if the governor doesn't also write a letter to the federal government spelling out the rejection.

Do we need any more proof that our Governor is an incompetent fool who is playing fast and loose with the future of Alaskans, in deference to her own ignorance and political aspirations?

Palin to accept most, but not all, of the Federal Stimulus funds.

A spokeswoman for Sarah Palin says the Alaska governor is going to accept most federal stimulus funds.

Spokeswoman Sharon Leighow says Palin is only likely to reject nearly $29 million for State Energy Programs funds because she believes it to be tied to developing a statewide energy code.

Palin had initially indicated she did not want to accept about a third of the $930 million available to Alaska because of strings attached that would bind the state in the future.
Legislative budget leaders couldn't find those strings, however.

Lawmakers passed bills accepting nearly all funds available to Alaska. Once the bills reach Palin's desk, likely by early next week, she has 20 days to accept or veto them.

Well it looks like the Governor is taking the money for education and that is a good thing, but rejecting the funds for the State Energy Project is Sarah pandering to the oil companies.

These funds are directed to provide grants to the states to design and carry out their own renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. In other words this is money to help our state to stop sucking at the teat of big oil and develop alternate, renewable energy sources, and our Governor is standing in the way of that progress.

That is the trouble with these evangelical idiots, they think they are about to get Raptured and therefore don't believe the planet needs to be protected. That is exactly the kind of thinking that has resulted in the overcrowding of our planet and climate crisis we face today.

Our state desperately needs to move toward clean burning alternative fuel sources and our Governor is too ignorant and self involved to give a shit about it.

Lisa Murkowski positions herself as the Jolly Green Senator in an attempt to deflect a serious challenge from Sarah Palin in 2010.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, suddenly at the pinnacle of the scandal-ridden Alaska political hierarchy, is positioning herself to clean up the state’s image — and bolster her own chances for reelection.

One way to do that would be to bring a new voice to global warming and foster a close relationship with environmentalists, a class that one member of the Alaska congressional delegation once dismissed as a “self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots.”

Along the way, Murkowski, the new top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, could improve her chances of holding on to her seat in 2010.

Alaska is often viewed as ground zero of global warming, but the state’s congressional delegation has been better known for attacking other lawmakers over the environment rather than addressing it.

A moderate Republican known for her ability to balance countering opinions, Murkowski already has brought a different voice to the debate, offering support for carbon emissions reduction as the Alaskan tundra thaws and fishing villages disappear into the ocean.

I am of two minds on this report (I know that is like two more then usual isn't it?).

On the one had I am thrilled to finally have two Senators who are promoting cleaner energy for Alaska's future (Mark Begich has also talked extensively about this issue). We have for too long been identified with drilling massive holes in our pristine wilderness in search of oil and to the rest of the country we consistently appear at least a decade behind the rest of the world when it comes to environmental issues, which is ridiculously ironic considering that Alaska has been feeling the effects of climate change for at least four decades.

However I am also very wary of Murkowski's motives here. As you can probably discern from my headline I am not exactly convinced that Senator Murkowski is so much worried about the environment as she is about losing her Senate seat.

But I guess ultimately I don't care WHY the Senator is jumping on the environmentalist's bandwagon, just so long as her votes and bills support her stated convictions. And believe me Senator, we WILL be watching.

(And to my visitors who are also comic book geeks, yes I know that picture is of the She-Hulk. I find it kind of sexy. Besides you try to find a picture of a female Jolly Green Giant dressed in a business suit.)

Is the solution to the energy problems in the Yukon Delta to build wind farms?

Last week the state proposed spending $14 million to erect wind farms in six villages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, including Kongiganak. It's part of a plan for spending $100 million on renewable energy around Alaska to reduce consumption of expensive diesel fuel and bring down local electric bills.

"The wind turbine is a blessing for us," Harvey Paul, general manager of the local power company, Puvurnaq, said Monday. "We have some of the highest fuel prices in the state and some of the best winds."

No longer will seal hunters have to complain when rough weather keeps their skiffs on the beach, Paul said. "Now they'll stay home and enjoy the wind and be happy that their electric rates are going down."

The problems in rural Alaska posed by high energy costs and a poor fishing season swept into the news this month with dramatic reports from Emmonak and nearby villages on the Yukon delta. Some critics accused the state of being slow to respond to a humanitarian crisis.
But last year, with oil prices soaring, the Legislature did take aim at the long-term with the Renewable Energy Fund. Lawmakers committed $50 million for the first year, then added another $50 million during a special session on energy.

The six delta wind projects are on a list of 72 renewable energy priorities recommended by the Alaska Energy Authority last week. The list also includes wind projects around Nome and Kotzebue, wood-burning boilers in the Interior, small hydro feasibility studies and help for Railbelt utilities.

Well this is at least a proactive measure to provide a long term solution to a problem that is simply not going to go away. It is pretty clear that high fuel prices are here to stay.

In this YouTube video you can see a working wind farm just outside of Nome, Alaska.



However this is only one piece of a larger economic jigsaw puzzle which needs to be assembled to head off any future crisis situations in the Yukon Delta areas. Wind farms are a good first step, but something needs to be done about the lack of fish flowing in to this area, the lack of good jobs, and the lack of infrastructure.

But having said that I must give some props to the state of Alaska, for at least putting SOMETHING forward to deal with this complicated problem. I am a HUGE advocate for alternative energy ideas, so I am very intrigued by this plan. I like pretty much anything that begins to move us away from our reliance on fossil fuels and our subservience to the oil companies.

I really believe that Alaska can be a leader in the development of alternative fuel sources in this country and will support any plan that moves that objective forward.

Barack Obama's presidency may usher in new opportunities for Alaska which will fundamentally change our future.

The public transition leading to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month has focused so far on national security and economic issues. But below the surface, busy lobbying is under way over future environmental agendas and political jobs affecting Alaska. Key appointments are expected this week.

After eight years in exile during near-total Republican control of Alaska policies, local environmentalists were in Washington, D.C., last week hoping to help set the new Democratic administration's agenda.

Alaska Native leaders will join tribal leaders from around the country Tuesday in Washington. Among the top transition officials they'll be seeing: a Native law expert who once worked in Anchorage and represented subsistence advocate Katie John of Mentasta Lake.

One result of the transition could be less federal attention to priorities pushed by the state government, which is sometimes at odds with those environmental and Native groups. The change of focus could be even more pronounced than usual in a presidential election year, given the Democrats' stronger grip on Congress and the absence of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens' intimidating presence.

A coalition of 29 national environmental groups has drawn up a 391-page set of recommendations that place Alaska issues as a top priority for the new administration. The "Transition to Green" report calls for a comprehensive Arctic conservation and energy plan as one of its three primary interdepartmental goals.

Specifically, the groups want to cancel or postpone offshore oil lease sales scheduled for the Arctic, toughen permitting for leases already sold, and provide permanent protection for the Teshekpuk Lake region in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. They want the new administration to protect habitat for polar bears and to support extending wilderness protection to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where state officials want to drill for oil.

I have said this before but I feel it bears repeating.

Alaskans are in for a very difficult transition. Alaska has been supported almost entirely by oil money and government subsidies for decades. Now with the oil companies starting to suffer financially, and with Ted "The king of pork" Stevens no longer serving as Alaska's candy man, Alaska is going to have to start fending for itself.

For some Alaskans this may look like a dire situation indeed, and it will definitely result in some creative cost cutting in our immediate future, but for others this is the opportunity they have been waiting for.

Alaska has incredible potential for providing alternative energy sources to satisfy our own needs as well as to help meet the energy needs of the lower 48. Whether it be wind power, geothermal, hydrartes, or the much touted gas pipeline, Alaska has an almost unlimited number of potential power sources. (I have to again make the point that I have very little confidence in the AGIA deal coming to fruition, but I still believe the gas pipeline is a workable project in the right hands.)

Alaska's future looks very bright indeed with Barack Obama as our President, and Mark Begich as our new Democratic Senator. I really believe that Lisa Murkowski will not hinder any progress, as she always seemed somewhat sheeplike and will certainly sign on to whatever idea Begich and the Democrats come up with.

Which leaves as the only deterrent to our future of an oil free economy resting on the grizzled visage of still Congressman (though I don't know how) Don Young. Essentially for Alaska to embrace this exciting new future it has to shake off the Jurassic thought processes of our oil soaked past and Don Young is the tick on the ass of that idea.

Don Young has crude oil running through his veins (which may explain that greasy mop on top of his head) and he will NEVER be able to stop licking the boots of BP and Exxon long enough to support Alaska's alternative energy potential.

Alaskans need to take a long hard look at the last election and determine whether or not they really chose to keep the Don Young albatross on deck or whether in fact he was thrown overboard and the votes were tampered with instead. We cannot afford to allow ourselves to be held in place by the ancient rusty anchor that is Don Young when our sails are about to be filled by the winds of change.

Sarah Palin finds that "drill baby, drill" line will not work on everybody. Workers in a solar power plant for instance? Not so much.

Palin spoke after touring Xunlight Corp., one of a handful of solar technology startup companies in Toledo, a struggling industrial city in this swing state. The city's leaders are hoping that the solar companies will create jobs to replace some of those lost by downsizing in the auto industry.

But Palin made only a passing reference to solar power in her speech and instead renewed her call for more drilling in U.S. coastal waters. She repeated her signature anthem, "drill, baby, drill," which seemed to fall a bit flat on the audience at the plant even as it's become a popular chant at her rallies.

This is the danger of going rogue and not paying attention to the campaign handlers who are there to make sure you don't say anything stupid. If you don't listen to them you are guaranteed to say something stupid!

When I heard that the Sarah supporters were demanding that the McCain campaign let her speak for herself , and to "let Sarah, be Sarah", I was absolutely giddy with excitement.

You see I KNOW who Sarah Palin is. And now the rest of the country can see for themselves that despite $150,000 in new clothes, constant cramming for policy questions, and a high priced make up lady from "Dancing with the Stars", Palin is just an ignorant hick from Wasilla who is in way over her bouffant hairdo.

She is a mannequin. A prop. A distraction. She was never supposed to do more than provide window dressing, and she may be unqualified to do even that!

And in a little more than five days, we are going to get her back.

And I for one can hardly wait!