Energy 110, The 2nd America First Energy Conference (AFEC 2018), Louisiana, August 7

Heartland Institute will organize and sponsor again a big conference, the 2nd America First Energy Conference (AFEC 2018) in Hilton Riverside Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 7.

The 1st AFEC 2017 was also organized by Heartland and was held at JW Marriott Houston, Texas on November 9, 2017. I attended that successful conference, seems I was the only Asian in the big room and I have written some proceedings in my column in BusinessWorld last year,

US energy policies and implications in Asia and Philippines

October 31, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/us-energy-policies-implications-asia-philippines/

US energy trading and implications for Asia and Philippines

November 16, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/us-energy-trading-implications-asia-philippines/

The conference also inspired me to further comment on the irrationality of carbon tax, coal tax, other watermelon (green outside, red inside) policies. Like these,

The Habito carbon tax distortion

December 7, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/habito-carbon-tax-distortion/

Energy favoritism under TRAIN

December 19, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/energy-favoritism-train/.

Website of AFEC2018 is http://americafirstenergy.org/ 

The agenda looks exciting, from the website:

BREAKFAST KEYNOTE

Opening remarks by Heartland Institute President Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D., and a keynote address by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

PANEL 1A. THE FUTURE OF COAL, OIL, AND NATURAL GAS

President Donald Trump has unleashed an Energy Freedom agenda for America with the aim of making the United States the world’s leading energy power. There is a lot of positive news on that front, and these speakers will talk about the bright times ahead for the future of coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

PANEL 1B. CARBON TAXES, CAP & TRADE, AND OTHER BAD IDEAS

Carbon taxes and “cap and trade” schemes, are NOT market-based conservative ideas. They are distortions of the market — a ruse embraced by the environmental left to enact command-and-control policies over our use of energy and the economy as a whole.

PANEL 2A. FUELING FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY

America’s freedom and prosperity is literally fueled by this country’s abundant and affordable fossil fuels — coal, petroleum, and natural gas. We’re finally going after it in ways that will fire the engine of America’s economy and still protect the environment.

PANEL 2B. FIDUCIARY MALPRACTICE: THE ‘SUSTAINABLE’ INVESTMENT MOVEMENT

Environmental activists are gaining voting power to convince corporations and universities to divest from fossil fuel companies “to save the planet.” Not only is that not scientifically necessary, publicly traded companies and organizations that divest do a grave disservice to public pensions, ordinary investors, and the American economy. You want a worthy #resistance? Resist this.

PANEL 3. WHY CO2 EMISSIONS ARE NOT CREATING A CLIMATE CRISIS

Burning fossil fuels lifted humanity out of squalor and created modern society. It also adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is now more than 400 parts per million. But is human-generated CO2 causing a catastrophic climate crisis requiring wholesale conversion of the world’s energy systems? Short answer: No, as three scientists will explain.

LUNCH KEYNOTE

Two VIPs will give speeches at this lunch.

PANEL 4A. REINING IN THE REGULATORS

The Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act) requires legislative approval of regulations that cost the private sector more than a set amount. A federal version sets the bar at $100 million. This is an essential effort that will finally put unaccountable federal and state regulators back in their place.

4B. CAFE STANDARDS: WHY THEY NEED TO GO

TBA

PANEL 5A. CLIMATE LAWSUITS AGAINST ENERGY COMPANIES AND THE GOVERNMENT

Environmental activists are losing the public debate, so (naturally) they run to the courts to get judges to enact their radical agenda. From the “climate trial” in San Francisco, to the case to preserve the planet on behalf of “the children,” the litigation seem endless. What’s the status of these cases? And will they succeed?

PANEL 5B. REAL COLLUSION: RUSSIA AND THE GREEN MOVEMENT

You want to see real Russian Collusion? Look no further than the nexus between the Russian government and radical environmental activists in the United States, the UK, and Australia. The Russians have funneled millions to groups in the West to oppose energy exploration, especially fracking. This panel will expose this woefully underreported story.

PANEL 6. REFORMING EPA: LOTS OF PROGRESS, MORE TO DO

Three members of President Trump’s Transition Team for the Environmental Protection Agency evaluate the reform victories so far, and look ahead at what else needs to be done to reverse the overreach of the Obama administration. This is a moderated plenary discussion.

DINNER KEYNOTE

Two VIPs will give speeches.

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See also:

Energy 107, Avoiding brownouts due to gensets, not solar battery, March 22, 2018 

Energy 108, On mandatory solar roof in California, May 20, 2018 
Energy 109, Sudden decline in world oil prices, May 29, 2018

BWorld 178, Top 8 energy news of 2017

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last January 2.

This should have been a “Top 10” list but due to space constraints, I limited it to only eight, divided into four news stories each for global and national.

GLOBAL

 1 “Non-news” to many media outlets but good and big news to me: NO major energy catastrophes in 2017. No major oil spill, no gas blowouts, no reactor meltdowns, no major infrastructure destroyed by natural disasters, and energy prices did not rebound to their 2014-2015 levels.

2 In June 2017, the British Petroleum (BP) Statistical Review of World Energy 2017 was released and among the highlights of that report are: (a) China and US remain the planet’s biggest energy consumers, (b) increases in oil, natural gas, nuclear and renewable energies (REs) but decline in coal use, (c) for big Asian economies, coal use remain very high especially in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia (see chart).

3 In September 2017, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its “International Energy Outlook 2017” and among its projections are (a) In 2040, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) and nuclear will supply about 83% of global total energy consumption; 8% from hydro and 9% combined from wind, solar, geothermal, other REs, and (b) coal use is projected to be stable until 2040 and declines in China to be offset by increased use in India.

4 In November 2017, the “America First Energy Conference” was organized by the Heartland Institute in Houston Texas to analyze US President Trump’s pronouncement of US global “energy dominance”. “Energy dominance” is defined on two key goals: (a) meet all US domestic demand and (b) export to markets around the world at a level where they can “influence the market.” The important lessons from the papers presented are that (i) the US can have energy dominance in oil, natural gas and coal, but (ii) US cannot and should not aspire to have dominance in nuclear and REs. It was a very educational conference and I was the only Asian in the conference hall.

NATIONAL

5 Hike in excise tax for oil products and coal under TRAIN but zero excise tax for natural gas even if it is also a fossil fuel. Diesel tax will increase from zero in 2017 to P2.50/liter in 2018, P4.50 in 2019, and P6.00 in 2020. Gasoline tax will increase from P4.35/liter in 2017 to P7 in 2018, P9 in 2019, and P10 in 2020. Coal tax will increase from P10/ton in 2017 to P50 in 2018, P100 in 2019, P150 in 2020. There was successful maneuver by some senators, a known economist and some leftist organizations to spare natural gas from higher taxation, benefitting a big energy gas firm.

6 The feed-in-tariff (FiT) or guaranteed high price for 20 years for wind-solar and other renewables keeps rising, from only 4 centavos/kWh in 2015, became 12.40 centavos in 2016, 18 centavos in mid-2017 and petition for 22 centavos by late 2017 not granted. A pending 29 to 32 centavos/kWh by early 2018 is awaiting approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

7 Continued exemptions from VAT of the energy output of intermittent wind-solar and other renewables but stable fossil fuel sources were still slapped with 12% VAT under TRAIN. Government continues its multiple treatment of energy pricing: High favoritism for wind-solar, medium-favoritism for natgas, and zero favor for oil and coal.

8 Supreme Court issuance of TRO in the implementation of Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) provision of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001. In particular, the SC TRO covered five ERC Resolutions from June 2015 to November 2016, affecting the voluntary participation of contestable customers (CCs) for 750-999 kW and many Retail Electricity Suppliers (RES) with expiring licenses cannot get new ones yet, reducing potential competition. Data from the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) show that as of Nov. 26, 2017, there were 28 RES, 12 local RES, 862 CCs for 1 MW and higher, and only 78 CCs for 750-999 KW. There should be thousands of CCs in the lower threshold, there should be several dozens of RES nationwide to spur tight competition in electricity supply and distribution.

Overall, EPIRA of 2001 was a good law that introduced competition, broke government monopoly in power generation, broke private geographical monopolies in power distribution. The RE law of 2008, SC TRO 2017 and TRAIN 2017 are partly reversing the gains of EPIRA.

---------------

See also:

BWorld 170, The Habito carbon tax distortion, December 28, 2017 

BWorld 173, Energy favoritism under TRAIN, December 30, 2017 

BWorld 175, Trends in global and Philippine trade, January 05, 2018 

BWorld 176, Road trips and PPP projects, January 06, 2018 
BWorld 177, On MMDA car towing and impounding, January 07, 2018

BWorld 166, US energy trading and implications for Asia and Philippines

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last November 16, 2017.

Among the global leaders who attended the ASEAN Summit 2017 this week in Manila were the leaders of the US, China, Russia, Australia, and India. These five countries are also the top five in having the world’s biggest coal reserves and top five biggest coal producers.

US President Trump in particular emphasized his desire for “reciprocal trade” with Asian countries. Energy trading is a growing sector in the US as it is now the world’s biggest oil and natural gas producer (overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil and gas output, respectively, since 2014) but not yet the world’s biggest exporter of these two commodities.

The subject of Trump’s energy policies was well-discussed by many scholars, researchers, and some players during the “America First Energy Conference” in JW Marriott Houston, Texas last Nov. 9, organized by the Heartland Institute and co-sponsored by many other US-based independent think tanks and research institutes.

I attended that meeting and it seems I was the only Asian in the big conference hall. I went there from a different perspective compared to American participants — to further understand how the evolving US climate and energy policies would impact Asia in the short to long-term, the Philippines in particular.

In his breakfast plenary lecture, Joe Leimkuhler, VP for drilling of LLOG, a deepwater exploration company, discussed whether the US can dominate energy as articulated by President Trump.

“Energy dominance” is defined as being able to meet all US domestic demand and export to markets around the world at a level where they can “influence the market.”

He showed lots of very interesting tables and charts including the usual Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of current US energy environment. Among his conclusions are the following:

a. Oil, natural gas — The US can have energy dominance in the short-term but to make it long-term, the shale revolution should be sustained and supported, and if more gas reserves are discovered.

b. Coal — Supplies can meet domestic demand but may be unable to provide for short-term exports. There are no coal exporting facilities on the West Coast to cater to the biggest coal customers in the world, Asia. The states of Washington, Oregon, and California have passed laws preventing the construction of such facilities or delaying the permits. US coal is cheaper to produce and its quality is higher than other suppliers can give.

Many sessions in the conference provided extra information about the current weaknesses of the US coal industry despite its huge reserves.

In the session on “Peace Dividend: Benefits of Ending the War on Fossil Fuels,” Dr. Paul Driessen, Senior Fellow at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), showed these data on electricity prices, 2017, in US cents/kWh: (a) Germany: residential 35, business and industry 18; (b) California: residential 19, business/commercial 18, industry 14.5; (c) Indiana-Kentucky-Virginia average: residential 11.7, commercial 9.5, industry 6.5. Germany, Denmark, South Australia and California have the highest concentration of wind-solar farms and they have the most expensive electricity prices in the planet.

The US has the largest coal reserves in the world estimated at 381-year supply, shown in the Reserves/Production (R/P) ratio. Russia has the highest R/P ratio because its production and consumption is smaller compared to the US. China has the second biggest reserves but its R/P ratio is small because of its huge production and consumption in million tons oil equivalent (MTOE). In 2016, half of global coal consumption was made in China alone (see table).

Once the US can build those coal export facilities in the West Coast and various anti-coal policies in the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and CO2 Endangerment Findings are finally reversed, Asia will have more options of cheaper and higher-quality coal, aside from what they currently get from Australia, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, and others.

The Philippines is a small player in the global coal market — very small reserves, negligible production (mostly from Semirara), and meager consumption. Yet many environmentalists seek to further restrict, if not actually prohibit Philippine coal power plants and force us to depend on undependable, unstable, unreliable, erratic, intermittent, and expensive wind-solar energy.

Governments should not pick winners and losers via legislation and multiple regulations, taxation, and selected subsidies. They should allow consumers to realize higher consumer surplus via competition and more choices in energy sources that are cheaper, stable, predictable, and dispatchable.

-------------------

See also:
BWorld 160, A high carbon tax is irrational, October 25, 2017 

BWorld 163, US energy policies and implications in Asia and Philippines, November 19, 2017 

BWorld 164, PES conference amidst reduced risk and uncertainty, November 21, 2017 

BWorld 165, Airport transfers and tourism, November 25, 2017

Climate Tricks 39: Many Attacks on Dr. Willie Soon, He Replied

I just realized that there are at least 18 articles and reports attacking the famous Dr. Willie Soon, a Malaysian-American scientist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in  late February 2015 alone. Heartland Institute put a section about Willie alone, https://www.heartland.org/willie-soon. The various articles attacking him, and articles defending  him, are posted there.

Yesterday, Willie replied, posted in WUWT, and I am reposting it below. 

Willie is a cool guy, I have met him twice, in NYC in 2009 and in Chicago in 2010, during the Heartland's 2nd and 4th ICCC, respectively. Our photo in 2009. From left: Barun Mitra (India), Willie, Jose Tapia (Peru), me. We were the very few non-Caucasian guys in that conference.

-------------

In recent weeks I have been the target of attacks in the press by various radical environmental and politically motivated groups. This effort should be seen for what it is: a shameless attempt to silence my scientific research and writings, and to make an example out of me as a warning to any other researcher who may dare question in the slightest their fervently held orthodoxy of anthropogenic global warming.

I am saddened and appalled by this effort, not only because of the personal hurt it causes me and my family and friends, but also because of the damage it does to the integrity of the scientific process. I am willing to debate the substance of my research and competing views of climate change with anyone, anytime, anywhere. It is a shame that those who disagree with me resolutely decline all public debate and stoop instead to underhanded and unscientific ad hominem tactics.

Let me be clear. I have never been motivated by financial gain to write any scientific paper, nor have I ever hidden grants or any other alleged conflict of interest. I have been a solar and stellar physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for a quarter of a century, during which time I have published numerous peer-reviewed, scholarly articles. The fact that my research has been supported in part by donations to the Smithsonian Institution from many sources, including some energy producers, has long been a matter of public record. In submitting my academic writings I have always complied with what I understood to be disclosure practices in my field generally, consistent with the level of disclosure made by many of my Smithsonian colleagues.

If the standards for disclosure are to change, then let them change evenly. If a journal that has peer-reviewed and published my work concludes that additional disclosures are appropriate, I am happy to comply. I would ask only that other authors-on all sides of the debate-are also required to make similar disclosures. And I call on the media outlets that have so quickly repeated my attackers’ accusations to similarly look into the motivations of and disclosures that may or may not have been made by their preferred, IPCC-linked scientists.

I regret deeply that the attacks on me now appear to have spilled over onto other scientists who have dared to question the degree to which human activities might be causing dangerous global warming, a topic that ought rightly be the subject of rigorous open debate, not personal attack. I similarly regret the terrible message this pillorying sends young researchers about the costs of questioning widely accepted “truths.”

Finally, I thank all my many colleagues and friends who have bravely objected to this smear campaign on my behalf and I challenge all parties involved to focus on real scientific issues for the betterment of humanity.

Dr. Wei-Hock “Willie” Soon

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

--------------

See also:: 

It's the Sun, stupid!, March 26, 2009 

Energy rationing 3: Restricting poor countries' access to cheap energy, April 01, 2011 

2nd ICCC in New York, March 2009, March 05, 2014 

Climate Tricks 33: UN Fooling Government Leaders to Accept Expensive Energy, September 25, 2014 

Climate Tricks 36: Avoid Looking at Data 450,000 Years Ago or Longer, December 29, 2014 
Climate Tricks 37: Climate Money and the Scientific Dishonesty Behind It, January 31, 2014 
Climate Tricks 38: Threats and Witch Hunt of Skeptical Scientists, March 02, 2015

9th ICCC, Las Vegas

The 9th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) will be held next week in Las Vegas, USA. It is an annual, sometimes twice a year (2009, NYC and Wash DC; 2010, Chicago and Sydney) conference sponsored by the Chicago-based free market think tank, the Heartland Institute.

I was able to attend the 2nd ICCC in March 2009 in NYC, and the 4th ICCC in Chicago in May 2010. In both instances I was given a travel grant by Heartland because MG Thinkers was among the minor NGO co-sponsors of the event, courtesy of our membership at the IPN-initiatied Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change (CSCCC).

I really learned a lot from those two conferences. Listening to famous climatologists, geologists, solar physicists, meteorologists, biochemists and other natural scientists from many countries was sort of a mind-blowing experience for me. Seeing dozens if not hundreds of graphs, charts and tables per day from different panels for 2 1/2 days was conversing to a Greek-speaking person for me in the 2nd ICCC in 2009. Not so when I attended the 4th ICCC in 2010 because I became familiar with many literatures and a number of key speakers then.

The topics and speakers in the ICCC next week are "salivating", to say the least. If I have modest funding, I definitely would have liked to attend this conference and fly back immediately. I hope that I can find a sponsor, or have money of my own, to be able to attend the ICCC next year.

Here is the list of panel discussions and their respective speakers.

July 07

Dinner, Opening Keynote Speakers and Awards

Meteorologist Joe Bastardi and Congr. Rohrabacher (invited) will open the program and  set the tone for the conference.. The first of a series of awards will be given for Outstanding achievement in science, communication, and other fields.

July 08

Breakfast Speakers and Awards

Dr. Patrick Moore, a cofounder of Greenpeace, and John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, plus awards

Panel 1. Climate Change and the Hydrosphere

Oceans have a major effect on the planet’s climate, and global temperatures are strongly affected by changes in ocean currents. What does the latest science say about how ocean cycles and related factors drive climate change?

Dr. John Dale Dunn, M.D., Emergency Physician, Brownwood, Texas - Moderator

Dr. William Kininmonth, Australian meteorologist

Dr. William Gray, Colorado State University

Dr. Roy Spencer, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Panel 2. Carbon Taxes and the Social Cost of Carbon

Are carbon taxes a market-friendly solution to global warming? An expert panel address es the pros and cons of carbon tax schemes.

James L. Johnston, The Heartland Institute - Moderator

Dr. David Kreutzer, The Heritage Foundation

Marlo Lewis, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Kenneth Haapala, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Panel 3. Combating Climate Myths with Science Facts

Media outlets and global warming activists present a constant parade of asserted global  warming impacts. A panel of experts discuss how they separate fact from fiction when talking with reporters and making public presentations.

Norman Rogers - Moderator

Tom Harris, International Climate Science Coalition

James Taylor, The Heartland Institute

Walter Cunningham, Apollo Astronaut, NASA (retired)

Panel 4. NIPCC versus IPCC: Physical Science

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Non governmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) have released several dueling reports on recent climate change. How does their physical science compare?

Craig Idso, Center for the Study of CO2 and Climate Change - Moderator

Dr. Willie Soon, solar physicist and geoscientist

Dr. S. Fred Singer, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Dr. Robert M. Carter, Institute of Public Affairs

Panel 5. Who Benefits from Alarmism?

The global warming debate is filled with accusations of financial gain and personal self-interest. Who really benefits from alarmism, and how?

James L. Johnston, The Heartland Institute - Moderator

Ron Arnold, Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise

Dr. Sonja Boehner-Christiansen, editor, Environment & Energy

Larry Bell, author, Climate of Corruption

Panel 6. The Right Climate Stuff

A team of scientists and engineers who worked with NASA to put men on the moon have looked carefully at the science of climate change. They will discuss what they found.

Leighton Steward, Plants Need CO2 - Moderator

Thomas Wysmuller, meteorologist, NASA (retired)

Dr. Hal Doiron, rocket scientist, NASA (retired)

Walter Cunningham, Apollo Astronaut, NASA (retired)

4th ICCC in Chicago, May 2010

Less than four years ago, I went to Chicago to attend the 4th International Conference on Climate Change (4th ICCC), May 16-17, 2010, mainly sponsored by Heartland Institute. My previous note on this conference is here, Chicago, 4th ICCC, day 1.

Was able to have a photo with Dr. Henrik Svensmark (below, middle), a Danish physicist at Denmark climate research office, also among the pioneers of the Sun-Climate theory. Also in the photo is a friend from Germany, Wolfgang Muller.

With world famous climatologist, Dr. Roy Spencer of the Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). He was among the keynote speakers in the 2nd and 4th ICCC. Fantastic theory on CO2, Cloud Feedback and Climate, among others.

With Steve Goreham (left), author of the book, Climatism, and Steve McIntyre (middle) of Climate Audit in Canada.

Portion of the audience, about 500+ people registered and showed up.

Our group, some members of the Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change (CSCCC) headed by the International Policy Network (IPN, London) then. From left: Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute-India, Jose Luis Tapia from Peru, Margaret Tse from Brazil, Julian Morris of IPN (now with Reason Foundation in the US), Martin Krause from Argentina, me.

2nd ICCC in New York, March 2009

On March 6, 2009, my plane landed in New Jersey airport (route was Manila-Narita-Detroit-NJ, Delta Air). I saw small mounds of snow on the tarmac, other parts of NJ and New York. Days before that, there was a winter storm, dumping lots of snow. Some remnants of the snow. No, I did not shovel it, it was only for piture-taking :-)

That was in front of the house of my friend from UP, Leandro "Jojo" Chan who hosted me in his house in NJ for one day. The next day, March 7, I moved to my hotel in NYC, New York Marriot Marquis Hotel. Thanks again, Jo. 

This week or exactly five years hence, same Eastern US, see this news...

WASHINGTON - The eastern and central United States were gripped by a deep freeze on Tuesday, with record low temperatures in the wake of a deadly storm expected to moderate in the coming days.

The late-winter storm left behind frigid temperatures after pushing freezing rain and snow from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic coast on Monday.

"Tuesday will likely be the coldest morning from New York City to Washington, D.C., until next winter," the AccuWeather forecasting service said.

Temperatures across the eastern and central United States were about 30 Fahrenheit (15 Celsius) below normal, it said.

The National Weather Service said the mercury plunged to minus-1 F (minus-18 C) at Washington Dulles International Airport, tying a monthly record.

Baltimore Washington International Airport posted 4 F (minus-15.5 C), breaking a record for March set in 1873, it said....

Five years ago this month, I attended the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change (2nd ICCC) in NYC, March 8-10, 2009. The theme was "Global Warming: Was it Ever Really a Crisis?". I was able to have a photo with Vaclav Klaus, then President of Czech Republic and was among the keynote speakers at the conference, also author of the book "Green Planet in Green Shackles." 

Also a photo with Dr. Willie Soon, a Malaysian-American astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonican Center for Astrophysics. From left: Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, India; Willie Soon; Jose Luis Tapia from Peru, me, and a participant from Africa, I did not know him, he just joined us in a photo op with Willie.

Of the 800+ participants and speakers, only Barun, me and Xingyuan Feng (from China) were Asians. And Willie, though he grew up in the US. I was the only South-East Asian, only Filipino there.

With Joseph "Joe" Bast, President of Heartland Institute in Chicago, the main sponsor of the conference.

And Alex Chafuen, President of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Washington DC.

Meanwhile, from WUWT yesterday,  

See also:: 

Heartland 2nd ICCC 2009: Politicizing science, March12, 2009

Climate Tricks 24: Polar Vortex is Caused by Global Warming?, January 09, 2014 

Climate Tricks 25: Demonizing CO2 as a Toxic, Pollutant Gas, January 19, 2014 

Global Warming Hits the Philippines, Part 3, January 26, 2014 

Climate Tricks 26: CO2, Pollution and Climate Junkets, February 21, 2014

The 6th International Conference on Climate Change

Today, the Sixth International Conference on Climate Change (6th ICCC) will start in Washington DC and end tomorrow at noon (June 30 to July 1). The event is sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a free market think tank based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. As the title implies, this is the 6th time since 2008 that Heartland has been sponsoring this important conference on climate realism, not alarmism.

The proceedings of the first 5 conferences can be downloaded at the earlier link I gave. In this photo is Dr. Willie Soon, a Malaysian-American solar physicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Boston. He was among the keynote speakers during the 2nd ICCC in NYC in March 2009. I have befriended Willie since then.

The 5th ICCC was originally called the Pacific Rim Conference on Climate Change, held in Sydney last year. It was a one-day activity only, attended by mostly Australian participants. The event was after the two-days Pacific Rim Policy Exchange, September 29-30, 2010, held in the same hotel. Heartland was a co-sponsor of this event. There were many international participants in that two-days conference, from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. I have attended both events, thanks to the Americans for Tax Reforms for providing me a travel grant.

The 4th ICCC was held in Chicago last year. I attended it, courtesy of Heartland's travel grant as our think tank, Minimal Government Government Thinkers, Inc. was one of the international co-sponsors of the event.

I have written several articles about the 4th ICCC. Among them were:

1. Chicago, 4th ICCC, day 1, May 17, 2010
2. Sea level, the Sun and climate, May 20, 2010
3. Governments and climate research, May 29, 2010

The 3rd ICCC was held in Washington DC sometime in June 2009. It was a one-day activity and targeted US legislators, their staff, other interest groups as the US was debating then the carbon cap and trade legislation.

The 2nd ICCC was held in NYC, where the United Nations holds its headquarters. It's the UN's IPCC that fanned global warming alarmism and another UN body, the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is responsible for the global coercion on various environmental and energy regulations, taxation and subsidization to certain favored or crony energy sources.

I also attended that event, again, courtesy of Heartland which gave me a travel grant for the same arrangement, our think tank was one of the international co-sponsors of the event. Well, we were the only think tank from South East Asia actually, that co-sponsored the event. My article about the event is here, Politicizing science via climate alarmism, dated March 12, 2009.

Some pictures during the 2nd ICCC, from top left, clockwise: With Jose Luis Tapia of ILE, Peru, Joe Bast, President of Heartland Institute; Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, India; Dr. Willie Soon, and Jose Luis Tapia; Jose and Alex Chafuen, President of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation; and with Pres. Vaclav Klaus, President of Czech Republic, who was one of the keynote speakers of the conference.

I wish Heartland and other organizers/sponsors of the 6th ICCC another successful event. MG Thinkers is actually among the international co-sponsors again of the event, but the secretariat may have forgotten to include our name and logo in the list.

Tornadoes, tropical storms, and climate conference

(This is my article today in thelobbyist.biz)

It never fails. Any “extreme” weather events anywhere around the world, the warming camp always blame “man-made warming” and its cousin, “man-made climate change”. The most recent “extreme” weather were the violent tornadoes that hit a number of states in the US. So far, 250 people have been confirmed dead.

Are the violent tornadoes rising and getting “more extreme” that many warming fanatics say? This table below is a quick answer, data from the US government itself.

source: National Climatic Data Center
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/tornado/tornadotrend.jpg

What about the tropics, are they right to say that the number of severe storms are rising? This second table provides the answer.

source: Dr. Ryan Maue, “Global Tropical Cycle Activity”,
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/%7Emaue/tropical/

So the warming fanatics are lying when they say that violent tornadoes in the northern hemisphere, and the number of storms and hurricanes in the tropics, are increasing. Because based on the warming religion, because of “unprecedented, unequivocal global warming”, those weather events are supposed to become more frequent.

This coming June 30 to July 1, the Heartland Institute will sponsor the 6th International Conference on Climate Change (6th ICCC) in Washington, DC, USA. Details about the event can be found here, http://www.heartland.org/events/ICCC2011/index.html.

Heartland has been instrumental in exposing these shenanigans where political science is much stronger than their climate science. The past five ICCCs that it has sponsored, especially the 1st (2008, NYC), 2nd (2009, NYC) and 4th (2010, Chicago), were hands down success.

The United Nations has several dozen tentacles of international bureaucracies. The most famous of which in the climate debate are the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the UN Environmental Program (UNEP), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The UN headquarter is in NYC. So when Heartland organized the first two ICCCs in NYC, attracting some 700 international speakers and participants that openly question and challenge the UN reports and activities on climate, Heartland also invited key officials and lead authors of the UN IPCC, Al Gore and other warming leaders, the UN should have sent 100 or more out of its “thousands of warming scientists” to square off with those “ungrateful skeptics” who oppose saving the planet.

But no. The UN and top leaders of the warming camp have one standard reply to invites to big, open debates: the sound of silence. Not a single shadow from among the IPCC lead authors showed up.

Let us hope that they will have the balls to show up and challenge the skeptics of the “man-made warming” hypothesis.

Our think tank, Minimal Government Thinkers, Inc., again is among the international co-sponsors of the ICCC. We are the only Philippine-based organization that partners with Heartland and other climate realist groups in exposing the non-truths and half-truths of the warming hysteria and climate alarmism.

We invite our friends to attend the 6th ICCC. Especially those who are based in the US.

Let us put a stop to all these heavy politics of climate alarmism. Climate change is purely natural, in a warming-cooling-warming-cooling cycle. It is never man-made. Even if everyone in this planet will drive a car, global cooling is going to happen. Even if everyone will ride bicycles and all cars, buses and airplanes are thrown away, global warming is going to happen.

Energy rationing 3: Restricting poor countries' access to cheap energy

Among the important goals of climate alarmism is energy rationing. "Non-renewable" energy like oil, coal and natural gas will be over-taxed, over-regulated, and be killed whenever possible, while "renewable" energy like solar, wind, biomass and hydro will be given all sorts of incentives, subsidies and mandatory assured market. See an example of such energy rationing and cronyism will be done in the Philippines in Energy rationing and climate alarmism, part 2.

Dr. Willie Soon, a Malaysian-American astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston, USA, and Barun Mitra, founder and Director of Liberty Institute in Delhi, India, recently wrote an article questioning this policy of energy rationing, especially for poorer countries like India and China.

In this photo, from left to right: Barun, Willie, Jose Tapia of ILE in Lima, Peru, and me. This was during the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change (2nd ICCC) in early March 2009 in New York City, sponsored by the Heartland Institute.

The joint paper by Barun and Willie, What really threatens our future? was published in The Edge Financial Daily in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. A friend from KL, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, CEO of IDEAS, helped to place the article in the said newspaper. Below are excerpts from Barun-Willie paper.

...power cuts and inadequate power are routine in developing countries like China and India. For them, going without electricity for hours or even days is the norm, not the exception.

But now, the UK’s power grid CEO is warning Brits that their days of reliable electricity are numbered. Because of climate change and renewable energy policies, families, schools, offices, shops, hospitals and factories will just have to “get used to” consuming electricity “when it’s available,” not necessarily when they want it or need it.

UN IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri justifies this absurd situation by sermonizing, “Unless we live in harmony with nature, unless we are able to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy sources, and until we change our lifestyles, the world will increasingly become unfit for human habitation.”

Thus, people in poor countries who never had access to reliable electricity may be denied it even longer, while people in rich countries could soon face new electricity shortages.
Citizens of the world’s poor and emerging economies: Beware of claims that the greatest threat we face is from manmade climate change. They are wrong. The real threat is from energy starvation policies implemented in the name of preventing climate change....

People in rich countries will not give up their modern living standards, electricity, automobiles, airplanes, hospitals, factories and food. Mr. Pachauri certainly will not. Why, should people in poor countries give up their dreams?

During the Cancun climate summit, rich nations said they would give poor countries $100-billion annually in “climate change reparation and adaptation” money. But these are empty promises, made by nations that can no longer afford such unsustainable spending.

Poor countries that expect this money will end up fighting over table scraps – and whatever funds do flow will end up in the overseas bank accounts of ruling elites. The poor will see little or none of it.

For awhile longer, rich countries will continue supporting global warming research and conferences. Researchers, bureaucrats and politicians will continue issuing dire warnings of imminent catastrophes, while they enjoy the benefits of modern energy, traveling on airplanes, attending talk fests at fancy hotels in exotic locations – all powered by coal and petroleum.
They may continue telling the world’s poor how important and admirable it is that we keep living traditional, sustainable, environment-friendly lifestyles; getting by on small amounts of intermittent, unreliable, expensive electricity from wind turbines and solar panels; and giving up our dreams of a better, healthier, more prosperous life.

Ultimately, the climate change debate is really over just two things.

Whether we, the world’s poor, must give up our hopes and dreams. And whether we will determine our own futures – or the decisions will be made for us, by politicians who use climate change to justify restricting our access to reliable, affordable energy.

Which should we fear most? Climate change that some say might happen 50 or 100 years from now? Or an energy-deprived life of continued poverty, misery, disease, and forgotten hopes and dreams?

Our future is in our hands.

CO2 is a Useful Gas

Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) fanaticism has resulted in the bastardization of a number of scientific facts. One of which is the declaration that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a harmful, pollutant and evil gas.

CO2 was demonized by the warming camp, saying that more of it in the past century contributed to "unprecedented global warming." And more of it now and the future will cause our planet's average temperature to rise by 4 C, even a worst case rise of 6.4 C, at the end of this century or just 90 years from now. Thus, they say, CO2 should be heavily regulated via various man-made restrictions like carbon taxes and carbon cap and trade.

The gas that we humans exhale is CO2. The gas that our dogs, cats and other pets, as well as our farm animals exhale, is CO2. Tha gas that our rice, corn, orchids, apples, mangos, other plants and trees use to produce their own food, is CO2. So how can this very useful gas now declared as an evil gas?

The quick answer is: politics, and deep desires by political institutions like governments and the UN, to have more power in their hands to regulate, to tax, people around the world.

There is a good article today in WUWT blog, CO2 is Plant Food (Clean Coal, Say WATT?) written by Ira Glickstein, a systems engineer. She gave this illustration and wrote:

The current concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 390 ppm (parts per million). Doubling or tripling that level in a CO2 greenhouse can greatly increase the yield of many crops. It turns out that 1000 to 1400 ppm is ideal for increasing production of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce by from 20% to 50%; grains such as rice, wheat, barley, oats, and rye by from 25% to 64%; roots such as potatoes, yams, and cassava by from 18% to 75%, and legumes such as peas, beans, and soybeans by 28% to 46%! It is likely that genetic engineering could develop new food crops that would thrive in CO2 levels of 2000 ppm or even higher, greatly increasing yields.

CO2 is essential to photosynthesis, the process by which plants use sunlight to produce carbohydrates – the material of which their roots, body, and fruits consist. Increasing CO2 level reduces the time needed by plants to mature. CO2 enters the plant through microscopic pores that are mainly located on the underside of the leaf. This enables plants to combine CO2 and water, with the aid of light energy, to form sugar. Nutrients and water uptake usually increase with higher levels of CO2 and plants develop larger, more extensive root systems that allow them to exploit additional pockets of water and nutrients, and spend less metabolic energy to capture vital nutrients. The chemistry is as follows:

6CO2 {Carbon Dioxide) + 2H2O {water} + 4H2O (added water) + SOLAR ENERGY ==> C6H12O6 (sugar} + 6O2 {Oxygen}

Description of formula: The combustion process produced six Carbon Dioxide molecules (i.e. PLANT FOOD) plus 2 water molecules. To these we add four molecules of water plus the ENERGY from the Sun. This yields FOOD in the form of a sugar molecule as well as six molecules of Oxygen, released into the atmosphere to partially compensate for some of the Oxygen used during the combustion process.

There. Real science says that CO2 is a useful gas, while voodoo science says it is a pollutant and an evil gas. If people think that it is indeed a pollutant, then they should not kiss their partners/spouses lips to lips for long, or they should not talk close to their kids and friends. Otherwise, they will pollute and poison them.

This is a clear bastardization of basic biology that we took in elementary and secondary schools. They do it because of politics and their ecological-energy central planning agenda.

It is good that some independent scientists help combat this bastardization of basic science. Like the son-father authors of this new book, The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment, Dr. Craig Idso and Dr. Sherwood Idso. The book is subtitled How humanity and the rest of the biosphere will prosper from this amazing trace gas that so many have wrongfully characterized as a dangerous air pollutant.

CO2 is a useful gas. It's the gas that we humans exhale, the gas that our pets and farm animals exhale, the gas that our crops and flowers use to produce their own food via photosynthesis. Thus, more CO2 in the atmosphere means more plant growth, more food production, stable food prices despite ever-rising global population. Climate alarmist-Malthusian pranks will be humiliated further.

Anthony Watts of WUWT has a new review of the book today at The Benefits of Carbon Dioxide. WUWT is among my favorite science and climate blogs. Lots of good papers there.

Two years ago, Dr. Craig Idso, a geographer-climatologist, partnered with Dr. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist, in writing and editing a comprehensive book, Climate Change Reconsidered. It's almost 900 pages long, published by the Heartland Institute. To read more about this book, visit the NIPCC website.

So let us not believe the UN and its attached environment/climate agencies (UNEP, WMO, IPCC, FCCC), Al Gore, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Greenpeace, other alarmist environmental groups, when they say that CO2 is a pollutant and evil gas.

Chicago, 4th ICCC, day 1

Day 1, May 16, of the 4th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC, www.heartland.org) held here in Chicago, USA, was more of networking and meeting new friends. Registration started at 3pm, cocktails at 5pm, opening dinner with speakers at 6pm. It ended past 9pm. Then another round of networking outside with open bar until 10pm.

Among those I have met yesterday were leaders of think tanks which are members of the Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change (www.csccc.info), among those which do not believe in “man-made warming” and more government environmental regulations and taxation. Like Julian Morris of the International Policy Network (IPN), Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute (India), Xingyuan Feng of CIPA (China), Martin Krause of CIIMA (Argentina), Jose Luis Tapia of ILE (Peru), Margaret Tse of IL (Brazil), Tim Wilson of IPA (Australia), Peter Holle of FCCP (Canada), Barbara Kolm of Hayek Institute (Austria), Wolfgang Mueller of IUF (Germany). Our group picture was at Jose’s camera, hope he can post or send it to us tomorrow so I can post the pics here.

Other important guys that I have met today are Dr. Willie Soon, a Malaysian-American astrophysicist as the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston. And Dr. Henrik Svensmark, a physicist at a Danish climate research office. Picture below with Henrik and Wolfgang Muller.



I also have a photo with Steve Goreham, author of the new book “Climatism” and Dr. Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit in Canada (www.climateaudit.com?) but the picture was blurred


Todays’s dinner speakers were Dr. Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, a geologist, former astronaut/moonwalker and former Senator, and Dr. Steve McIntyre. Jack talked about climate and environment policy and the US constitution. His conclusion is that while most energy and environmental policies may be legal, they may not be exactly constitutional as the US constitution specified certain limits on how and where the US Congress, the legislature. And Steve McIntyre talked about “climategate” and the “hide the decline” in historical climate records, and other climate data manipulations done by some scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Ressearch Unit (CRU).

The UN IPCC and the UK government got a lot of climate “data” from the CRU, along with Prof. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State U, which authored the “hockey stick” climate graph of the 20th century. What’s this graph?

Above are 2 graphs. The first is the “hockey stick” shape of data reconstruction by Prof. Michael Mann and was adopted by the UN IPCC: No warm period in the past 1,000 years, that’s why they call the current warming as “unprecedented” in history. Second graph below it is climate historical record accepted by many climate scientists showing the medieval warm period (MWP) that peaked in 1200 to 1300, a period much warmer than the warming of the past century, and the little ice age (LIA) of the “Maunder minimum” and “Dalton minimum” of the 1600 to 1800..

The “hockey stick” graph has gained notoriety for its notorious distortion of global historical climate records. Some people and groups made fun of it. Below is a sample of the graph, entitled “Mann-made global warming”, referring to a graph made by Prof. Mann. And beside the stick are the (a) program of the 4th ICCC, (b) my name badge, and (c) the book “Climatism” by Steve Goreham.


Among other materials that are distributed free in the conference are shown below. Materials from the Heartland Institute, Marhsall Institute, Pajamas Media, etc.


Other speakers that I have met tonight were Lord Christopher Moncton of the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) and former UK environmental secretary under former PM Margaret Thatcher and meteorologist Anthony Watts of www.wattsupwiththat.com.

More stories and pictures tomorrow.