Repell-em Blog

Is it just me or are those in the know always predicting the same thing this time of year. The same thing that you just know is going to happen anyways without some pencil necked economist sending out a report stating the obvious. “Home heating bills on the rise”. No kidding. Every year we hear how the price to heat your home will be higher than the year before. Unlike summertime, where if you get hot you can jump in a pool, turn up the ac, or where less clothes; winter is the oil baron’s best friend. There are plenty of ways to cool down, but getting warm is a different story. Nobody likes to be freezing cold.

According to our friends at CNN the price of oil used in heating your home will climb over 10%. That’s an average of $977 per home during the winter months making this a record-breaking year if it comes true. Which it probably will since the report coincides with another that says winter temps will be 4% lower this year than last.

So we’ve got temps getting lower, oil prices getting higher, and Congress doing nothing about it. Sure there’s talk of bill that would require utility departments to obtain 20% of their power for renewable sources, but that’s not even expected be in effect for another13 years. Who knows how expensive gas will be by 2020, what about now?

Now oil supporters will tell you that the rise in oil prices has nothing to do with winter and everything to do with the decreased value of the dollar, hurricane fears, supply and demand surges, and mid-east conflicts but why are the price hikes coming when we need the gas the most? When we need it to heat our homes? Because we are willing to pay more to stay warm than we are to get cool. That’s why.

The 2008 weather projections are coming out from the National Weather Service and it looks like it may be a busy year for weather watchers around the U.S. The office is stating that a La Nina weather pattern has formed and should last through the first part of the year.

During a normal weather pattern strong trade winds blow over the Pacific Ocean taking with them much warmer water away from North and South America. At the same time cold water rises up to take fill the gap. When El Nino is in effect the winds cease, the warm water stays where it is, and this causes an increase in the number of storms that hit the U.S. El Nino is also responsible for droughts in Australia.

What has now formed and what will be affecting the U.S over the next 6 months is the opposite called La Nina. Instead of warm water collecting the in the Pacific, cold water is accumulated and the U.S Midwestern region normally sees a period of drought. One major effect of La Nina is that it often causes the Atlantic Ocean to become a hot bed for hurricane activity.

According to the lead forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Gerry Bell Ph.D “Today’s El Nino/La Nina forecast from the Climate Prediction Center indicates a slightly greater than 50 percent probability that La Nina will form during the peak of the hurricane season. But more importantly, we are already observing wind patterns similar to those created by La Nina across the tropical Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea that encourage tropical cyclone development. The conditions are ripe for an above-normal season.”

Finally Law and Order star and Senator Fred Thompson has done what we all knew he would do sooner or later…he’s officially thrown his hat into the Presidential election ring. You can bet that with Fred popping up on TV at least 10 times a day (more if you count those TNT marathons), he’s going to see a huge jump in the polls simply because people already know who he is and in today’s world that’s the biggest half of the battle. But where does Thompson stand on the issues?Treehugger recently quoted Thompson speaking on environmental concerns by saying:

“Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. … NASA says the Martian South Pole’s ‘ice cap’ has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter’s caught the same cold, because it’s warming up too, like Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, nonsignatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their airconditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle.

If you can make any sense of the above it would seem to imply that Fred has zero belief in Global Warming which some scientist are predicting could be only a few years away. How about his voting record? Here’s how Fred voted on a few recent issues:

• Voted YES on drilling ANWR on national security grounds. (Apr 2002)
• Voted YES on terminating CAFE standards within 15 months. (Mar 2002)
• Voted YES on preserving budget for ANWR oil drilling. (Apr 2000)
• Voted NO on ending discussion of CAFE fuel efficiency standards. (Sep 1999)
• Voted YES on defunding renewable and solar energy. (Jun 1999)
• Voted YES on approving a nuclear waste repository. (Apr 1997)
• Voted YES on transportation demo projects. (Mar 1998)
• Voted YES on reducing funds for road-building in National Forests

To me this says it all. Does America really want another person in power that has zero concern for the current state of the environment we live in?