Jim Geraghty posted an article today on Judge Sotomayor' s Credibility Gap. I can't help but think of that often-quoted line from Alice in Wonderland, when the Queens says that, when she uses words, they mean whatever she wants them to mean.
Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, but this was hardly her finest hour.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Republicans need to grow a spine.
The latest kerfuffle regarding the CIA and congressional notification appears to be the mother of all fluff. According to press reports, the CIA allegedly failed to notify Congress of a program to kill Al Qaeda leaders that it thought about but never tried to implement. Big whoop.
Andrew McCarthy and Jonah Goldberg have already posted excellent articles about this: see respectively Another Phony Scandal and The Mother of All Nothingburgers.
Dick Cheney doesn't need anyone to come to his defense (certainly not me). And if he did, his daughter, Liz, seems more than equal to the task. But it would be nice if the Republicans responded to this cynical political ploy by calling it what it is: an attempt to provide political cover for Nancy Pelosi, who has accused the CIA of lying to her ("they do it all the time") with no supporting evidence.
Andrew McCarthy and Jonah Goldberg have already posted excellent articles about this: see respectively Another Phony Scandal and The Mother of All Nothingburgers.
Dick Cheney doesn't need anyone to come to his defense (certainly not me). And if he did, his daughter, Liz, seems more than equal to the task. But it would be nice if the Republicans responded to this cynical political ploy by calling it what it is: an attempt to provide political cover for Nancy Pelosi, who has accused the CIA of lying to her ("they do it all the time") with no supporting evidence.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
T. Boone Pickens update
Mr. Pickens said yesterday that he is delaying, not canceling, his $10 billion wind energy project, called the Pampa project. The project purportedly will be postponed until 2013, when Texas is "expected" to complete a $4.9 billion transmission line. Yet on Tuesday, Mr. Pickens said that he was looking for a home for the 687 giant wind turbines that Mesa Petroleum ordered from General Electric Co. a little more than a year ago for a reported $2 billion. One report said that Mr. Pickens joked that he didn't have room for the turbines in his garage.
I sincerely hope that the Pampa project comes to fruition at some future date. But if Mr. Pickens resells those wind turbines to third parties, they won't be available for the project four years hence (although I suppose he could order replacements sometime in the future). And it's hard to believe that Mr. Pickens will keep the leases Mesa Petroleum currently has on 200,000 acres in Texas for four years in the hopes that the project will eventually go forward.
As much as I want the Pampa project to succeed, I certainly wouldn't invest my money in it.
I sincerely hope that the Pampa project comes to fruition at some future date. But if Mr. Pickens resells those wind turbines to third parties, they won't be available for the project four years hence (although I suppose he could order replacements sometime in the future). And it's hard to believe that Mr. Pickens will keep the leases Mesa Petroleum currently has on 200,000 acres in Texas for four years in the hopes that the project will eventually go forward.
As much as I want the Pampa project to succeed, I certainly wouldn't invest my money in it.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
How's that wind power working out for you?
I can't think of a more ardent supporter of wind power than T. Boone Pickens. He has championed the construction of the world's largest wind farm, to be located in the Texas Panhandle. As part of this project, he contracted to purchase 678 giant wind turbines -- which can stand taller than most 30 story buildings -- and he leased about 200,000 acres in Texas for his proposed site. He even paid for television commercials touting his project. Yesterday, he announced he is abandoning the project, at least in its current form.
Why? It turns out it is uneconomical to transmit power from the proposed site to a distribution system. Mr. Pickens referred to "technical" problems, but transmission systems are almost as old as electrical power itself. It is far more likely that the ambitious project turned out to be uneconomical. Apparently, Mr. Pickens's faith in new sources of alternative energy blinded him to the economic realities.
But then, there is nothing new about wind power. Don Quixote tilted at windmills in a book that was first published in 1604. Wind power is older than commercial electricity itself. To be sure, modern wind turbines bear scant resemblance to those 16th-century windmills. But that is because the technology has been continuously improved over the intervening centuries. One has to wonder how much additional efficiency can be wrung out of this centuries-old power source.
The ineluctable facts are that the winds do not blow 24/7, and they often blow most strongly in remote places like the Texas Panhandle, far from potential consumers. Apparently, even Mr. Pickens's formidable resources could not overcome those facts
Why? It turns out it is uneconomical to transmit power from the proposed site to a distribution system. Mr. Pickens referred to "technical" problems, but transmission systems are almost as old as electrical power itself. It is far more likely that the ambitious project turned out to be uneconomical. Apparently, Mr. Pickens's faith in new sources of alternative energy blinded him to the economic realities.
But then, there is nothing new about wind power. Don Quixote tilted at windmills in a book that was first published in 1604. Wind power is older than commercial electricity itself. To be sure, modern wind turbines bear scant resemblance to those 16th-century windmills. But that is because the technology has been continuously improved over the intervening centuries. One has to wonder how much additional efficiency can be wrung out of this centuries-old power source.
The ineluctable facts are that the winds do not blow 24/7, and they often blow most strongly in remote places like the Texas Panhandle, far from potential consumers. Apparently, even Mr. Pickens's formidable resources could not overcome those facts
Monday, July 6, 2009
The global warming debate
Yes, there is a global warming debate, despite what Al Gore claims. Jack Kelley has an informative article on post-gazette.com. Key grafs:
"To combat a problem that probably doesn't exist, the House narrowly passed a bill to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide (to 83 percent of 2005 levels by 2020 and to 17 percent by 2050). If the Waxman-Markey bill, named after its Democratic sponsors, Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, were to work exactly as its sponsors claim (and what bill ever has?), global temperatures 100 years from now are projected to be one-tenth of a degree Celsius cooler than they otherwise would have been.
We'd pay a lot for that tenth of a degree, though how much is hotly in dispute. Cost estimates range from about $100 per family when the bill would go into effect in 2012 to $3,900 per family."
"We rely on fossil fuels for 85 percent of the energy we use to run our automobiles; to heat, light and cool our homes and offices; and to power our factories. The problem with wind and solar is not just that they are much more expensive than coal, oil or natural gas, but that they can't begin to replace the amount of energy we get from fossil fuels."
"To combat a problem that probably doesn't exist, the House narrowly passed a bill to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide (to 83 percent of 2005 levels by 2020 and to 17 percent by 2050). If the Waxman-Markey bill, named after its Democratic sponsors, Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, were to work exactly as its sponsors claim (and what bill ever has?), global temperatures 100 years from now are projected to be one-tenth of a degree Celsius cooler than they otherwise would have been.
We'd pay a lot for that tenth of a degree, though how much is hotly in dispute. Cost estimates range from about $100 per family when the bill would go into effect in 2012 to $3,900 per family."
"We rely on fossil fuels for 85 percent of the energy we use to run our automobiles; to heat, light and cool our homes and offices; and to power our factories. The problem with wind and solar is not just that they are much more expensive than coal, oil or natural gas, but that they can't begin to replace the amount of energy we get from fossil fuels."
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