Jay Lehr, one of Heartland Institute’s looser cannons, and there are a lot of loose cannons on this reckless pirate ship…
Lehr laid out his vision for stopping “global warming insanity” at today’s Heartland Institute Climate Denial-Palooza. He was unguarded and blunt in his attacks, calling those in favor of solving global warming “flat out evil.”
As I watched the streaming video, I was reminded of a long term project of mine – capturing what these people want the world to look like, their vision.
So here are Mr. Lehr’s unvarnished prognostications and recommendations from today. Beyond most being flat out wrong, imagine if they came true:
Wind and Solar: “Wind and solar are impossible due to the laws of physics of the universe. You cannot harvest wind and solar energy economically ever.” [hmm…after saying he knew Albert Einstein at the beginning of the talk…sounding not so smart.]
Nuclear: “The government in this country has put so many onerous burdens on safety, making it far more expensive than other forms of fuel…Nuclear companies are quite dishonest…most of them are investing in wind and solar in order to raise the cost of energy in their districts” in order to get more for energy from nuclear plants and trying to “scam the states” for handouts. [names Exelon as culprit]
Oil and Gas: “anything that you have read…is wrong by a factor of 10 if not 100” “I do expect that we have natural gas from shale that will last us 1000 years.”
Biofuels: “Biofuels are ridiculous” and “the idea of burning food for fuel is stupid”…Lehr then equivocates about the price of corn and then attacks the Secretary of Navy and the Air Force for pushing the use of biofuels.
Then he laid out 5 recommendations…
“So, how are we going to make the world safe for the cheap energy that I described, the prolific energy that we are never going to run out of?”
1. “We must reign in the Environmental Protection Agency” “Phase out the EPA over a five year period and turn over their responsibilities” to the states. “One bright light on the horizon” Scott Walker has adopted this plan as part of his platform running for president. [Heartland pushed this proposal through ALEC last year.]
2. “Get rid of all the regulations that have been put forth to stem global warming…to stop carbon dioxide increases…they are absurd.” “The earth is not warming…certainly not as a result of anything man is doing.”
3. “We should stop the funding of any energy research.” “Let the market decide what is the best way to go in energy development.”
4. “We have to keep drilling!” “We are not drilling around Arctic area in Alaska and the Russians are…The Russians are likely to take over because Greenpeace is stopping Shell Oil company from going up there and drilling wells…EPA is stopping them from drilling…to defend ourselves from the Russian incursion in that area.
5. “We’ve got to repeal CAFE standards.” (fuel economy standards) [now that’s an old war, but he can’t seem to get over it…answer, not going to happen]
Imagine the world if Jay Lehr ever actually had power…not a pretty picture.