While we here in the United States ponder, argue, deny, obfuscate and even lie about what to do about carbon in the air, or even doing nothing about it, the rest of the world is actually trying to work out some kind of solution, Interpol is trying to educate police as to how to keep criminals out of global carbon markets. The system of Cap & Trade, where big emitters of CO2 can trade emission credits to low emitters of CO2 to avoid paying penalties for for their emissions, is very complicated and subject to fraud. It’s happening in many European countries. Traditional environmental agencies have come up against so many different parties and new instruments never before seen that they are having to learn of forms of vulnerability they’ve never even heard of.As the price of carbon increeases the more likely criminals are to be attracted to the market.

Jonah  Goldberg, the ‘brilliant’ columnist who proclaimed not too long ago that oil and gas were the “True” green fuels, is criticising President Obama for saying we need all available fuels, pursuing nuclear as well as fossil fuels and alternatives such as wind and solar. Goldberg maintains that Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline and his policies are responsible for high gas prices now. Jonah is playing fast and loose with the truth. First, it is pretty well known that financial firms, speculating on future oil prices, are responsible for the high cost of gas at the pump. I don’t think the president has been buying oil futures. (Anyone with evidence that he is doing this let me know.) The president stopped the pipeline to allow an evaluation of the proposed route which passed through sensitive areas in which a pipeline spill could seriously harm a vital aquifer. Just a week ago he lifted the block and allowed the start of the lower end of the pipeline. As for not embracing cap and trade, that program does not take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. It just lets big polluters buy credits from a clean industry so they can pursue business as usual. Germany has tried cap-and-trade and found that the system was easily scammed.

The OPEC countries cut off our oil supply 38 years ago when we supported Israel when they were attacked by Egypt and Syria. I don't remember what the price of oil at that time was. Instead of developing a rational energy policy which included alternative energy sources we thanked our good friends Saudi Arabia and continued to allow OPEC to jerk us around. In the recent oil crisis of 2008 a barrel of oil went past $120 per barrel. We drove less by a billion miles in that period and OPEC miraculously reduced the price of oil to around $50 per barrel. Then they said they needed $70 per barrel to be able to survive as producer's of oil so they reduced production and the price went back up. The recent meeting of OPEC just set the price at $100 and change. Saudi Arabia supposedly has the capacity to crank up production much more if they like, although no one really knows as they play it close to their chest. We get a major part of our oil from Canada, Russia, and Mexico but they don't have Saudi Arabia's flexibility. So here we are 38 years later, still dependent on OPEC for the price of oil. When are we going to wake up?

The big oil, coal and gas lobbies have set up a website to spread climate change manure. The site, CO2 is Green.org, is devoted to convincing the American public that the more CO2 the fossil fuel polluters spew out the better it will be for humankind. It's all aimed at preventing cap and trade legislation. They claim that CO2 is not a greenhouse gas and isn't bad for people or plants. This is a half truth...

Jan M  Strasser reviewed the first chapter. To see her review go to "purchase here" yellow box, click on down loadable chapters, Chapter 01 Download, Product Details, then scroll down to Customer Reviews. It bears noting that the first chapter is free. This is a bit circuitous to find but we are working on making it simpler. My thanks to Ms Strasser for her views.

Comments on Jonah Goldberg's column of June 19, 2010, in which he states that oil is the "True green fuel."

His rationale for this outlandish statement: If you remove the argument over climate change from the equation...fossil fuels have been one of the great boons to humanity and the environment.

First, you cannot remove climate change from the equation. Admittedly the age of oil has afforded many technological advancements, growing more food to allow more people to thrive and population to soar. Industry would not have been possible on the scale to which it has risen without oil. It has given us leisure time and given some of us great wealth, although not to major parts of the world's population. While It has raised the standard of living of those with oil, it has not raised the quality of life for a very large portion of the world's population to whom these benefits are denied.  That which allows population to grow unfettered is not a great boon to mankind. It makes sustainability of our life styles less and less attainable by the world's growing population.  Oil is a finite commodity and the population growth permitted by oil is unsustainable. Relying on oil to the exclusion of that which can become sustainable is folly.

Jonah Goldberg in his infinite wisdom posted a column Saturday, June 19, stating that oil is the true "green" fuel. Why in the world would he make such a statement? Is he on drugs? His rationale is that  the BP spill is not as bad as the pollution from farm fertilizer run-off in the gulf that creates dead zones.

He goes on to say that growing corn to produce ethanol as a substitute for oil takes water and land from the production of food. Furthermore he states that we will lose $1 trillion in economic benefits, which he fails to enumerate. Next he states we will have to buy most of our oil from foreign producers. Finally he says that bio fuels are inefficient and costly and would require 30% more land to replace oil for transportation and would encourage the destruction of rain forests in countries like Brazil.

Mr. Murphy's law put it right. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. In this case everything that could go wrong went wrong. The proof is seen in the finger pointing. It's like a bunch of kindergartners. Neither BP, the oil company, nor the owners and operators of the rented drilling platform nor the government agency responsible for enforcing safety regulations are taking responsibility for the disastrous oil spill, which seems to be getting worse daily. So far nothing seems to be able to stop the leak and it is reportedly much larger than reported by BP. One of the latest ideas for stopping the leak is shooting junk into the well. Junk items would include the heavy drilling mud, old rubber tires, and golf balls. This sounds like the act of a desperate group of "Experts" that haven't a clue as to how to stop, much less clean up the mess they have made.