The Biden Admin Is Going After Another Common Household Item in the Name of Climate Change
They want ceiling fans to be smaller. If a small fan is not enough, what will people do? Easy: Buy two. So any such regulation will be defeated, but at a cost. Fans are a lot more energy efficient than air-conditioning so should be encouraged, not discouraged. It's all ivory-tower thinking under Biden
After attempts to ban gas stoves burned such proposals' Democrat proponents and proposed new federal vehicle efficiency standards seek to force costs even higher, the Biden administration is now going after (drumroll please) ceiling fans. Republicans in the House of Representatives, however, are not fans of the proposal due to the impact it looks to have on America's small businesses.
In a new letter to the U.S. Department of Energy and its leader Secretary Jennifer Granholm, members of the House Small Business Committee pointed out the problems with the latest policy in the Biden administration's supposedly "green" energy crusade that's anything but.
"This proposed rule would decrease the maximum estimated energy consumption permissible for large diameter and belt driven ceiling fans," the letter from House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) and Reps. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Jake Ellzey (R-TX), and Aaron Bean (R-FL) explains.
"This rule would require numerous small business fan manufacturers to redesign their products and may put between 10 and 30 percent of small business ceiling fan manufacturers out of business," the lawmakers warn Secretary Granholm and the Department of Energy. "It appears that the Department of Energy (DOE) may not have properly considered small entities during this rulemaking process."
It would be unsurprising if the Biden administration ignored the concerns or impact of such a policy as it's shown little if any concern for the impact of its climate agenda on the little guy or individual Americans. As such, the lawmakers' letter reminds Secretary Granholm that it is "important for agencies to examine small businesses interests — which make up 99.9 percent of all businesses in the United States — when passing any new rule."
Rightfully, the letter points out that "America's small businesses deserve to have their voices heard and considered," and asks the Department of Energy for more information on the policy to get a better idea of what the new energy consumption standard would mean for Americans.
Here's what the committee wants to know:
1. Did the DOE consider allowing small business fan manufacturers to attest that they are using a DOE compliant electric motor, or other forms of alternative compliance, as a means of complying with this proposed rule?
2. In the impact calculation, did the DOE expect small businesses to abandon some of their product lines to comply with this rule, or that these businesses would redesign their products?
3. Does the DOE expect this rule to decrease the availability of large diameter, or belt driven ceiling fans?
4. What additional costs would a small business, such as a restaurant, incur when purchasing a new ceiling fan that complies with these updated standards?
5. Does the DOE believe “Small Business 1” in Table VI.1 will go out of business as a result of this rule?
a. Does the DOE believe “Small Business 2” in Table VI.1 will go out of business as a result of this rule?
b. Does the DOE believe “Small Business 3” in Table VI.1 will go out of business as a result of this rule?
The House Small Business Committee gave Secretary Granholm and her Department of Energy until August 30 to respond to their questions.
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Summer: The Best of Times for Climate Alarmists
August and September are great months to be a professional climate alarmist like Dr. Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania.
You have hurricanes making landfall, wildfires seemingly everywhere, the odd F-4 tornado wreaking devastation, and you can pretend that these never happened before we started adding CO2 to the atmosphere. Plus, you have virtually all the media and a host of “environmental” groups parroting every seemingly scientific observation without question.
Yes, alarmists find it best to use their time during the hazy, hot days of summer linking every possible weather event to our use of fossil fuels and that demon molecule, CO2. They must do this in order to instill the fear required to impose economically crippling new taxes or restrict citizens’ freedom to choose what car, dishwasher, stove, shower head or washing machine to purchase.
Right now, with wildfires in Canada and Greece and the tragic fire in Lahaina, Maui, the focus is on linking supposed man-made warming to these events and characterizing them as unprecedented. Are they really extraordinary and increasing?
NASA reports that between 2003 and 2019, the global area burned has dropped by roughly 25 percent. In addition, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reports that, according to their satellite data, the year 2020 was one of the least active years since records begin in 2003.
Heat waves in Texas and Italy are also trumpeted as global and escalating due to increasing carbon emissions. Conveniently omitted are exceedingly cold temperatures in northern Europe and the northwest of the United States. The USHCN temperature data reveal that the number of days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8°Celsius) peaked in the 1930s and have been in an 80-year decline.
See link for graphics
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Weaponizing-weather.html?soid=1101509381788&aid=XXe6fYwWQSA
**********************************************Coral reefs may have adapted to ocean warming
The bleaching of the coral off the coast of Palau in 1998 was devastating. In the clear Pacific waters, the sharks swished through lifeless and brittle reefs. The bleaching event in 2010 was bad too — swathes of coral were left damaged.
And the coral bleaching of 2017, when temperatures reached the same level as 1998 and higher? It didn’t come. The sharks prowled an exuberant reef that may have, somehow, gained resistance.
In that finding, says Liam Lachs, from Newcastle University, there is some good news for a warming world. “It does provide a glimmer of hope that some coral reefs have an innate resilience to warming oceans,” he said.
Scientists have been surveying the reef on the remote island for bleaching for almost 40 years. Their data, they believe, provides evidence that reefs may be able to adjust to ocean warming. In a paper in the journal Nature Communications, they estimate that this reef increased its heat tolerance by 0.1C a decade.
If so, then the effects of climate change on corals might be delayed, for a while at least. However, they cautioned, it was also clear that such mechanisms only take us so far — and that unless temperature stabilises we will still lose a lot of coral.
Some reefs have, anecdotally, seen similar effects, including on the Great Barrier Reef. Others, such as in Kiribati, have still been devastated by recent warming.
Lachs has a few theories as to what might be causing the apparent tolerance. The key to understanding how they might work is acknowledging that reefs are not really one thing.
“The thermal tolerance of an entire coral community is an odd concept, as it is a community made of many species, each with a symbiosis with photosynthetic microalgae that are housed in their tissue,” he said.
One idea, the simplest, is that successive bleaching events kill off the most vulnerable species and provide space for those that are more heat resistant to take over.
In Palau, at least, there is not good evidence for a large shift in the composition of coral species. Another theory, then, is that it is not the species that have changed, but the genes — with adaptation selecting those members of the same species with the best heat tolerance.
The third idea is, said Lachs, essentially “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, with individual corals that survive becoming hardier throughout their lifetime.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coral-reefs-may-have-adapted-to-ocean-warming-p97kpwcr6
********************************************Australia: A newly elected Labor State government has commissioned a report to provide a handy excuse to try and slow down the currently manic net zero transition.
What is it about the relentless pursuit of so-called renewable energy by our leaders that they overlook the need to provide affordable and reliable electricity supply to Australians?
Especially at a time when the cost of living is front of mind.
In a first-world country blessed with huge energy resources, the unreliability and cost of energy is a national scandal.
Even if one accepts the need to "transition" from fossil fuels to other forms of energy there is the foundational requirement to keep the lights on and our factories and farms producing at an affordable price.
Time and again warnings have been provided that inherent in the word "transitioning" is the imperative that energy supply and affordability need to be maintained.
Those who have correctly sounded those warnings of commonsense have been decried as "deniers" and economic vandals along with all sorts of other descriptors to avoid the discussion.
In that scenario leaders of all stripes have virtue signalled how quickly they can decommission coal-fired power stations and set zero emission targets.
Decommissioning and net zero targets can be achieved overnight by simply turning off all the power stations.
But the hugely more difficult task, with its accompanying cost factors, is the provision of alternate, affordable, and reliable energy.
An unwelcome reminder of this monumental task is the concern around the slated closure of the Eraring power station in New South Wales in 2025.
The newly elected Labor Minns government commissioned a report to provide a handy excuse to try and slow down the currently manic net zero transition.
Why a report was needed is obvious. It was to cover the government’s proverbial backside from being kicked by the citizens who feel betrayed by the hype and propaganda associated with "transitioning."
In a completely unsurprising finding the recommendation has been made to extend the life of Eraring.
Apart from that there was also the "groundbreaking" insightful suggestion that a mechanism to orderly manage the retirement of coal-fired power stations be established.
Who would have thought it necessary? Order. Management. These two previously quite foreign concepts to the renewable energy pushers and political leadership have finally mugged them and not before time.
The Eraring inquiry suggested that negotiations be entered into with the owners of the power station to prolong its life to prevent reliability gaps and guarantee no adverse price impact.
That such an inquiry was at all necessary is a complete exposure of the manic nature of the irresponsible renewable push.
Where was the leadership willing to state the bleeding obvious—we need reliability and affordability in any transition.
The false narratives are being slowly but relentlessly exposed as the predictable chickens called reliability and affordability are coming home to roost.
All this is happening at a time when speculation is rife that the Australian Energy Market Operator will soon alert the unsuspecting public that all the promised essential infrastructure and up-grading of the grid to cope is falling way behind schedule.
The management debacle of the renewable energy transition is now being witnessed on a daily basis.
A debacle that could have been easily avoided by true and responsible leadership willing to level with their citizenry about timelines, capital costs, and power bills.
The owners of Eraring will undoubtedly rub their organisational hands in glee knowing that the commodity which they were being pressured to close is now all of a sudden in demand.
The shortfall cannot be made up from elsewhere so Eraring's owner, Origin Energy, has some sway and negotiating cards with which to play.
The public is at the mercy of the provider.
This lack of foresight and deliberate denigrating of those providing the warnings by the leadership of our country is at best negligence writ large.
The fact similar stories flooding out of Europe were ignored to the detriment of Australia’s family budgets, jobs, and national well-being requires a national apology and for the responsible people to be brought to account.
The realistic fear for Australians is that Eraring will be one of many more cases to emerge over the next few years.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/australian-state-has-its-damascus-moment-on-net-zero-5480545
***************************************My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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