TXU and Global Warming in Hot Water

The Public Utility Commission says TXU made $19.6 million in 2005 by withholding electricity from the wholesale market when it was in greatest demand.

Seems TXU received excessive prices for electricity as many as 554 times from June through September of 2005, according to Potomac Economics, the independent watchdog for the Texas power grid.

TXU inflated prices by 15.5%, costing its customers $70 million.

I believe there are former Enron employees now doing jail time for this very thing.

Speaking of power problems…Iran’s nuclear program is having a hard time building steam because the Iranian government hasn’t paid the Russians yet.

Atomstroiexport, the Russian contractor, says Tehran hasn’t paid for the nuclear fuel yet.

By the way, Iran is complaining that this weekend’s box office blockbuster, “300,” which tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, is insulting to the Persian Civilization.

Since when did those guys care?

Last time I checked, Iranian Uberfuher Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had relegated Western Civilization to the trash heap.

Does this mean one of them went to one of our movies??

Did you hear about the North Pole expedition, meant to bring attention to global warming, that was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite? If that weren't enough, the explorers called off their 530-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean after extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment.

The New York Times has an interesting piece in today’s edition refuting some of the hype and hysteria that’s been whipped up by most-favored earth boy, Al Gore, in his “Inconvenient Truth.”

Last week we shared with you another inconvenient truth—that Gore’s home in Tennesee typically burns up 20-times more electricity than the average American dwelling, which would case the former VP somewhat hypocritical in telling the rest of us how we ought to live our lives.

The Times today quotes several scientists who say Gore is ignoring the scientific record of planetary cycles in making claims that mankind is irrevocably ruining the climate.

Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia, is quoted as saying, “Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet, nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.”

Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, also disputes Gore’s claim that “our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this” threatened change.

Dr. Easterbrook says that’s nonsense if you look at temperature trends for the past 15,000 years, which included 10 large swings along with the medieval warm period. The shifts were up to “20 times greater than the warming in the past century.”

Dr. Easterbrook also mocked Mr. Gore’s assertion that scientists agreed on global warming except those industry had corrupted.

“I’ve never been paid a nickel by an oil company,” said Dr. Easterbrook, “and I’m not a Republican.”

Nuff said.