Organizing For Action (OFA) is a non-profit and community organizing project formed after President Obama’s 2012 re-election to promote his agenda. On March 5, 2015, OFA sent out a letter under President Obama’s signature reporting certain elected officials were climate change deniers with the following statement:
“You’re part of an important team with OFA, with a mission of holding climate change deniers’ feet to the fire. “
I am hoping when President Obama says “holding climate deniers’ feet to the fire” he is not referring to methods of Islamic State (ISIS) in which a person’s feet would be doused with gasoline and then ignited.
The letter contained a link to offending elected officials in all 50 states. For Georgia there was Governor Deal, Senator Perdue, and 6 Congressmen. Easy methods for communicating discontent with officials are provided. Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Governors Chris Christie and Scott Walker are not on the hit list. Being left off the hit list should not be interpreted as being supportive of President Obama’s agenda.
On March 12, 2015, FOA announced its version of the basketball March Madness tournament in their Climate Change Fantasy Tournament. The tournament listed 16 members of Congress divided into South/East, South/West, Midwest, and West geographic regions. The results of the tournament will be used to intimidate all elected officials against speaking out against the folly of supporting policies to hopelessly influence climate.
GOLD STAR FOR OFA
When I was a youngster attending Sunday school, I was awarded a Gold Star if I could sit throughSunday school without misbehaving. I gave the Gold Star to my mother. who pasted it on the kitchen wall. My mother and Sunday school teacher made me feel important. President Obama must award Gold Stars to organizations supporting his Climate Action Plan. A Gold Star for the OFA.
GOLD STAR FOR DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMEN
Recent actions of intimidating letters sent to university presidents by Congressman Raul Gripalva February 24 and letters sent February 25 to 100 pro-energy organizations by Senators Markey, Boxer, and Whitehouse protesting alleged conflicts of interest due to compensation received by those who question carbon dioxide from fossil fuels causes catastrophic climate change. This action may discourage scientists from disagreeing with any government policies. Dissent may be fatal to pay raises, promotions, and even employment. Another great impact is our nation’s young people may decide not to pursue careers in science because of too much nerve-wracking controversy. Unfortunately the damage is done and cannot be withdrawn. A Gold Star for Democrat members of Congress.
GOLD STAR FOR NOAA AND NASA-GISS
All this intimidation illustrates policies for years promoting carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is causing catastrophic climate change. This may be the reason for the numerous years of adjusting United States and global temperature data by NOAA and NASA-GISS to lower temperatures in the early part of the twentieth century and raise them in the last 30 years. A detailed description of these activities is thepaper by Dr. James H. Rust “NOAA and NASA-GISS ‘You Have Done Enough”‘. A Gold Star for NOAA and NASA-GISS.
GOLD STAR FOR EPA
Using the Freedom of Information Act, attorney Chris Horner uncovered a March 3, 2009 internal EPA memo to Richard Windsor (EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s cover-up name) that recommended a different approach be used to generate public support for EPA’s policies. The following statement was made about handling climate change:
Climate: Polar ice caps and the polar bears have become the climate change “mascots,” if you will, and personify the challenges we have in making this issue real for many Americans. Most Americans never see a polar ice cap, nor will most have the chance to see a polar bear in its natural habitat. Therefore, it is easy to detach from the seriousness of this issue. Unfortunately, climate change in the abstract is an increasingly-and consistently-unpersuasive argument to make. However, if we shift from making this about the polar caps and about our neighbors with respiratory illness we can potentially bring this issue home to many Americans. There will be many opportunities to discuss climate-related efforts this year. As we do so, we must allow the human health argument to take center stage. EPA restrictions on electric power generation since 2010 have been due to health issues, frequently asthma.
An additional factor about the operation of EPA is the role of John C. Beale who was EPA’s top climate change expert and highest paid employee. He helped rewrite the Clean Air Act in 1990 and led EPA delegations to climate change conferences in 2000 and 2001. He was a lawyer hired by EPA in 1988 and started committing fraud posing as a CIA agent until his retirement April 30, 2013. The details of his fraud including years absent from his EPA work draws suspicion about the value of his technical work on climate change. Present EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy was his supervisor during her entire tenure with EPA. The mainstream media has essentially ignored this blatant stain on EPA’s operations that should question the scientific background of EPA’s efforts to label carbon dioxide as pollution. I can’t help speculate whether President Obama will pardon his fellow lawyer upon leaving office in January 2017.
Perhaps the best example of EPA incompetence is the March 4, 2015 testimony of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy before the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works shown onYouTube. A partial transcript of questions from Senator Jeff Sessions:
Sessions: Would you acknowledge that over the last 18 years, that the increase in temperature has been very little, and that it is well below, matter of fact 90 percent below most of the environmental models that showed how fast temperature would increase?” …
McCarthy: “I do not know what the models actually are predicting that you are referring to…”
Sessions: “This is a stunning development, that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency—who should know more than anybody else in the world, who is imposing hundreds of billions of dollars in cost to prevent this climate temperature increase—doesn’t know whether their projections have been right or wrong.
A well-earned Gold Star for EPA.
GOLD STAR FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
Another example is shown by activities of the Department of Interior’s U. S. Geological Survey (USGS). On March 4, 2015, the USGS put out a Media Advisory “Pacific Climate Workshop Focuses on Drought”. This is a meeting of scientists throughout the country meeting March 8-11 to present papers on climate change causing drought in the West. These papers may promote human-caused climate change. As an example of distorted science, USGS reported a paper by News ReleaseSeptember 9, 2015 titled “Ocean Warming Affecting Florida Reefs Increased Temperatures Spells Trouble for Corals”. The paper stated water temperature measurements were made in one Keys location from 1879-1912 and 1991-2012 and a 2 degrees F. increase occurred between those time periods in August. I wrote to USGS with the observation the U. S. had some of its warmest temperatures in the 1930-1940s period and the 2 degree rise may have taken place then. They replied they had no temperature readings in the period 1913 to 1990. So no conclusion about global warming from this temperate rise due to fossil fuel use should be made. So an opportunity to add to climate science was missed in this paper. A Gold Star for the Department of Interior.
GOLD STAR FOR DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
On February 10, 2015, the Department of Agriculture issued a press release “USDA Announces Funding for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Projects” which described the availability of $280 million from the 2014 Farm Bill for their Rural Energy for Americans Program (REAP). These programs “support clean energy and reduce carbon pollution”. In the report was the following paragraph:
Since 2009, USDA has awarded $545 million for more than 8,800 REAP projects nationwide. This includes $361 million in REAP grants and loans for more than 2,900 renewable energy systems. When fully operational, these systems are expected to generate more than 6 billion kilowatt hours annually – enough to power more than 5.5 million homes for a year.
This paragraph startled me for stating rural homes use 1100 kilowatt-hours per year which is utter nonsense because the average home in the U. S. uses 10,000 kilowatt-hours per year. In addition it would require 4 million kilowatts of solar panels to generate 6 billion kilowatt-hours annually that would cost possibly 12 billion dollars. At the end of their news release USDA mentioned if you had any questions visit their Ask the Expert page. On February 10 I sent in questions for clarifying the REAP annual energy output and received a response I would have an answer in 3 to 5 business days. With no response by February 19, I repeated the questions to Ask the Expert and received a response of an answer in 3 to 5 business days. Still no response and I called the contact person for the news release and he said he would direct my question to the proper individuals. As of March 10, I have received no response. For promoting renewable energy with bogus cost and performance data, a Gold Star is awarded USDA.
There are numerous other examples of cherry-picking information by U. S. supported organizations promoting abandoning fossil fuels due to carbon dioxide causing catastrophic climate change.
Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (ret.), Climate Change and Energy
