New Report Challenges 'Oil Addiction' Warning

The "rational choice" for meeting America's growing energy needs is to expand domestic oil exploration and production, says a new report released by The National Center for Public Policy Research. According to Dana Joel Gattuso, senior fellow at the National Center and author of the study, alternative energies - such as wind, corn, solar and hydrogen - are not viable replacements for a growing fossil fuel based economy that President Bush has warned is "addicted to oil." The study, titled "Oil Addiction Fiction: Bush's 'Addiction' May Be Rational Choice," examines the relatively high production costs and low energy return of several alternative fuels:

* Ethanol: Gattuso cites scientists David Pimentel of Cornell University and Tad Patzek of The University of California - Berkley who found that ethanol, a corn-based fuel, requires 29 percent more fossil fuel energy to make than it yields in energy use. Moreover, current levels of domestic corn production could not meet both America's food and energy needs.

* Biomass: Fuels converted from such sources as wood chips and switchgrass are "prohibitively costly to produce, require massive amounts of land, and are still experimental," writes Gattuso.

* Wind and Solar Power: Despite 40 years of development, wind power accounts for only less than one percent of total electric power capacity; solar power accounts for only one-tenth of one percent of all electric capacity.

Not only are alternative energy sources speculative for meeting America's future energy needs, they also cost taxpayers millions of dollars in subsidies each year to compete. President Bush's FY 2007 budget includes $150 million in earmarks for biomass fuels, as well as a 78 percent increase in research and development subsidies for solar energy.

Gattuso argues that instead of squandering millions of taxpayer handouts on speculative fuels, Congress should instead focus its efforts on furthering domestic oil exploration and production. "Even with energy prices moving upward and Chicken Little-like speculations that we're tapping out supplies, oil is still abundant and relatively inexpensive compared to alternative sources of energy like ethanol, solar & wind and hydrogen technology," writes Gattuso.

Tapping into domestic energy sources such as a small section of the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would likely yield some 10.4 billion barrels of oil, which would help bring down rising fuel prices. The U.S. imported roughly the same amount of oil from Saudi Arabia over a 25-year period. "The majority of Americans are calling for more oil production here on our own turf, and someone should be listening. President Bush might call it 'addiction;' others call it 'rational choice,'" says Gattuso.

This National Policy Analysis paper is available online here

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GREENIE NONSENSE HOLDS UP IMPROVED WINE

The U.S. wine industry has entered the world of genetic engineering as some vintners experiment with a strain of yeast designed to eliminate chemicals in red wine that are believed to trigger headaches, including migraines, in some people. Scientific research, much of it conducted at the University of California, Davis, has long played an important role in improving the quality of grapes and wines produced in California and around the world. But genetic modification -- in this case inserting two genes into the DNA of a yeast species -- marks a new threshold for the industry.

As a result, the new biotech yeast is getting a wary reception in a wine industry that sells itself on its artisan reputation and is anxious not to ruffle export markets touchy about genetically modified foods. Experts also say the new yeast alters the flavor of wine. "As an industry, we're definitely interested in research when it comes to genetic engineering. But I don't think we're prepared to look at genetically modified products yet," said Paul Dolan, a winemaker and chairman of the Wine Institute, the California industry's leading advocacy group.

Still, the new yeast offers a promising way around the wine-headache problem. About 13 percent of Americans suffer migraines, according to the National Headache Foundation. Migraine patients are commonly told to avoid red wine, said Marco Vespignani, a naturopathic doctor at the Institute for Restorative Health in Davis.

At least a few wines made with the so-called ML01 yeast already are reaching consumers this year, according to Jason Rodriguez, wine products specialist for American Tartaric Products Inc., the California distributor of the yeast. He declined to identify any specific brands, though, and the wines aren't required to carry a special label.

In Northern California and Europe, where genetically modified foods have sparked controversy and strict regulation, a move to the new yeast could simply be trading one headache for another. The growing of genetically modified crops has been banned by voters or county supervisors in Mendocino, Trinity, Marin and Santa Cruz counties. And in Europe, nearly all foods made with significant amounts of genetically modified ingredients must carry a label. That requirement has driven U.S. food companies to avoid the use of such ingredients in products exported to EU countries. U.S. regulations don't require labels detailing whether a food contains genetically modified ingredients.

Wary of backlash in sensitive export markets, Australia's wine industry -- a key international competitor with California -- in November took an official position against the use of the new genetically modified yeast. On Monday, the Wine Institute, which represents many, but not all, of California's wineries, did the same, issuing a statement declaring "that no genetically modified organisms be used in the production of California wine." The institute, however, does not have the authority to keep wineries from using the new yeast.

California wine exports totaled $625 million in 2005, according to the Wine Institute. Six of 10 California winemakers contacted for this story knew of the new yeast, but none said they were using it. Outside the United States, only Moldova, in Eastern Europe, allows its winemakers to use the new yeast. Regulators in several other winemaking countries are reviewing it. The yeast's manufacturer, Lesaffre Yeast Corp. of Milwaukee, did not return calls seeking comment.

Here's how the ML01 yeast works:

Making red wine from crushed grapes usually involves two fermentation steps. In the first, yeasts convert the sugar in crushed grapes into alcohol. In the second, bacteria transform harsh malic acid into relatively mild lactic acid. Headache-causing chemicals can appear in the second step. If the wrong type of bacteria grow, they produce chemicals called amines. These cause reactions, such as headaches, in some people.

The ML01 yeast is able to perform both the first and the second fermentation steps, meaning that bacteria aren't needed at all. Thus, there's little chance of producing the undesirable amines. To give the ML01 yeast the special ability to perform both types of fermentation, researchers inserted a gene from a bacteria species and a second gene from a wild yeast strain into the DNA of a strain of a commercial wine yeast.

Linda Bisson, a professor of viticulture and enology at UC Davis, said the biggest winemaking change in the use of ML01 is the elimination of bacteria from the fermentation process. The tradeoff: Those bacteria add new flavors and aromas to the wine. She said skilled winemakers can avoid creating the headache-causing amines without sacrificing flavor.

The scientist who developed the ML01 yeast, University of British Columbia Professor Hennie van Vuuren, said wines made with it have fared well in taste tests against wines made from the same grapes using conventional fermentation techniques. "The quality of the wine was found to be higher -- it was more full," he said from his home in British Columbia.

Researchers around the world have developed a variety of other genetically modified yeasts, but ML01 is the first on the market. Grapevines, too, have long been a target for genetic engineering, with researchers hoping to give the plants desirable traits such as resistance to fungus and disease. It likely will be years, however, before genetically modified grapes are grown on a production scale.

Van Vuuren spent 16 years developing ML01. He receives no royalties from its commercial sales, and said his motivation to develop the yeast grew from personal experience: Red wine gave him headaches, and he wanted to change that. "I didn't do it for a big corporation," he said. "I did it because I loved wine."

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Where's global warming when you need it?

Global warming should cause more avaporation off the oceans and hence more rainfall. But all we read of at the moment is the opposite v-- drought. There are severe water restrictions because of drought in Britain and Australia and now we read (below) of drought in China

YI Mudan sighs as her flock of sheep and goats push their way to the water troughs after a morning grazing on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. "We try to use our well water but there isn't enough," she says. "We have to ask for tankers to come from the town to make sure the animals have enough."

Drought is making itself felt across China. Horses, cattle and sheep are already beginning to starve in some parts of Inner Mongolia's grasslands. In central Sichuan province, China's grain basket, vast tracts of crops have withered. Across the country, more than 2.4million hectares have been ruined - an area 21 per cent larger than in previous years. Water levels along the mighty Yangtze, China's longest river, have dropped sharply, falling more than 10m in a matter of weeks. Where the river flows through the huge city of Chongqing, the water level is just 3.5m - its lowest in a century.

Across southwest China 17million people no longer have access to clean drinking water. Worst-hit is Suining, in northern Sichuan, where just 3.3cm of rain fell between June 21 and July31 - the smallest amount recorded since 1947. The only source for these poor farmers is water trucks sent by local officials. Animals are starting to die.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has called a special meeting and ordered officials in affected provinces to take urgent measures to reduce the impact on farmers. The ruling Communist Party has repeatedly voiced concerns about the livelihood of farmers, who make up about two-thirds of China's 1.3 billion people.

As economic reforms bring prosperity to residents of cities and coastal regions, the hundreds of millions who still make their living from the land are being left behind. The widening income gap has led to increasing discontent and incidents of unrest have been rising.

Yi farms her 1200 sheep and 200 goats across 690ha of grassland but she has rented additional land from neighbours because the deteriorating grass can no longer sustain her animals. "When my children were young, the grass was so long that the only way to find them was to stand on a wall and where I could see the grass moving was where they were playing," she says. "Now you could find a needle on the ground." Such natural disasters may no longer bring famine to China. But the spectre of farmers with barely enough to eat and dying animals is a huge anxiety for the nation's leaders in their attempt to avoid political instability.

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WWF Too Close To Tim Flannery & Government?

Post lifted from Jennifer Marohasy

Clive Hamilton, Executive Director of The Australian Institute, has written a rather pointed piece for today's Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that Tim Flannery, author of a recent book on global warming, is "a trump card" in Prime Minister John Howard's "nuclear power play". It also suggests that the government has bought off environment group the WWF:

"WWF (formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature) is the foremost of the friendly organisations. It is close to the Government, providing a stream of favourable commentary on its policies and bestowing several awards for the Government's environmental achievements, including three "Gift to the Earth" awards, which the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, displays in his office. In return, the Government has been generous, sending tens of millions to the fund for various programs.

The force behind the emergence of the organisation as the leading group backing the Government's environment policy is the businessman Robert Purves. He has made a very large donation to WWF and is now its president.

Purves has drawn Tim Flannery into the orbit of conservative environmentalism by funding the preparation of Flannery's book on climate change, The Weather Makers. ... Purves is said to have spent $1 million promoting Flannery's book, including costly backlit billboards outside Qantas Club lounges around the country."

This is not the first time Clive Hamilton has thrown mud at WWF, his first shot was perhaps publication of a report titled 'Taming The Panda' just a couple of years ago.

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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