Actions taken this week by President Obama on new fuel efficiency standards is good energy (and defense) policy, but has little to do with global warming.
President Obama Obama directed his Environmental Protection Agency to review a California application to regulate greenhouse gases and told his Department of Transportation to begin implementing fuel efficiency standards passed last year but not implemented by the Bush administration.
“It’s too late for emissions reduction measures,” said Gaia theory originator James Lovelock in an interview reported earlier this week.
Keep in mind Lovelock’s work on chlorofluorocarbons led to a global CFC ban. His efforts in part prevented ozone-layer depletion.
The ninety-year old Lovelock had some other stark comments in his “NewScientist” interview.
“Most of the ‘green’ stuff is verging on a gigantic scam. Carbon trading..is just what finance and industry wanted. It’s not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it’ll make a lot of money for a lot of people..”
Note that Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management private equity fund, which the former Vice President chairs, has taken a 9.5 percent stake in a company that has one of the largest carbon credit portfolios in the world.
Lovelock had some more stark comment and advice on global warming and its mitigation.
Sequestering carbon dioxide: A waste of time..a crazy idea and dangerous. It would take so long and use so much energy that it will not be done.
Renewable energy like wind-generated electricity: Spoils the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms and absolutely unnecessary. It takes 2500 square kilometers (965 square miles) to produce a gigawatt. And can’t at this point be stored.
Nuclear power: A way to solve our energy problems, but not a cure for climate change.
Lovelock does have a possible solution that’s inexpensive and profitable: Turning agricultural waste which into a non-biodegradable charcoal and burying it in the soil.
“The biosphere pumps out 550 gigatonnes of carbon yearly; we put in only 30 gigatonnes. Ninety-nine per cent of the carbon that is fixed by plants is released back into the atmosphere within a year or so by consumers like bacteria, nematodes and worms.
“What we can do is cheat those consumers by getting farmers to burn their crop waste at very low oxygen levels to turn it into charcoal, which the farmer then ploughs into the field. A little CO2 is released but the bulk of it gets converted to carbon.
“You get a few per cent of biofuel as a by-product of the combustion process, which the farmer can sell. This scheme would need no subsidy: the farmer would make a profit. This is the one thing we can do that will make a difference, but I bet they won't do it."
Sound advice from a proven environment protection veteran.
So, applaud President Obama’s directive. The increased standards are expected to save 2 million barrels of oil a day. That's about 10% of the country's total oil consumption, and roughly the same amount the country currently imports from the Persian Gulf.
That’s good energy and defense policy, but has little to do with climate change.
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