Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, has produced a report for The Global Warming Policy Foundation called The Shale Gas Shock.

It basically says shale gas is really important and the benefits outweigh the costs by a lot. I hope he’s right, because the implications for the environment, energy security and world prosperity are huge.

Freeman Dyson’s Forward sums it up:

I agree emphatically with the conclusions of Matt Ridley’s report.

This foreword explains why. Two scenes from my middle-class childhood in England. In my home in Winchester, coming wetand cold into the nursery after the obligatory daily outing, I sit on the rug in front of the red glowing gas-stove and quickly get warm and dry. In the Albert Hall in London, in a posh seat in the front row of the balcony, I listen with my father to a concert and hear majestic musicemerging out of yellow nothingness, seeing neither the orchestra nor the conductor, because the hall is filled with London’s famous pea-soup fog. The gas-fire was the quick, clean and efficient way to warm our rooms in a damp climate. The fog was the result of a million open grate coal fires heating rooms in other homes. In those days the gas was coal-gas, with a large fraction of poisonous carbon monoxide, manufactured locally in gas-works situated at the smelly and slummy east end of the town. Since those days, the open-grate coal fire was prohibited by law, and the coal-gas was replaced by cleaner and safer natural gas. London is no longer the place where your shirt-collar is black with soot at the end of each day. But I amleft with the indelible impressions of childhood. Coal is a yellow foulness in the air. Gas is thesoft purring of the fire in a cozy nursery.

In America when I raised my own children, two more scenes carried the same message. In America homes are centrally heated. Our first home was heated by coal. One night I wasstoking the furnace when a rat scuttled out of a dark corner of the filthy coal-cellar, and I killed him with my coal-shovel. Our second home was heated by oil. One happy day, the oil-furnacewas replaced by a gas-furnace and the mess of the oil was gone. We were then told that the supply of natural gas would last only thirty years. Now the thirty years are over, but shale gashas extended the supply to a couple of centuries. While the price of oil goes up and up, the price of gas goes down. In America, coal is a bloody fight in the dark. Gas is a clean cellarwhich became the kids’ playroom.

The most important improvements of the human condition caused by new technologies are often unexpected before they happen and quickly forgotten afterwards. My grandmother was born around 1850 in the industrial West Riding of Yorkshire. She said that the really important change in working-class homes when she was young was the change from tallow candles towax candles. With wax candles you could read comfortably at night. With tallow candles youcould not. Compared with that, the later change from wax candles to electric light was not soimportant. According to my grandmother, wax candles did more than government schools toproduce a literate working class.

Shale gas is like wax candles. It is not a perfect solution to our economic and environmental problems, but it is here when it is needed, and it makes an enormous difference to the human condition. Matt Ridley gives us a fair and even-handed account of the environmental costs and benefits of shale gas. The lessons to be learned are clear. The environmental costs of shale gas are much smaller than the environmental costs of coal. Because of shale gas, theair in Beijing will be cleaned up as the air in London was cleaned up sixty years ago. Because of shale gas, clean air will no longer be a luxury that only rich countries can afford. Because of shale gas, wealth and health will be distributed more equitably over the face of our planet.

I saw this chart in the WSJ today and was stunned by how much the federal budget has grown and the projections for the future.

I know which line I would choose. What about you?

Obama and Biden are doing a great job of scaring the Hell out of the market. Obama’s. “spread the wealth” comment was about as dumb as I’ve seen, with perhaps the exception of Biden’s comments that if Obama is elected America will be tested.

No wonder thing market is tanking even further despite the credit crunch easing. Spreading wealth is a loser econ policy and a crises is a sure downer for the market.

Obama and Biden should stop talking before they destroy our 401ks completely and blow their chance of winning.

Working American’s are being asked to spread the wealth. Somehow, giving the 40% of people who don’t pay taxes a “tax cut” by sending them a check is no longer welfare.  Just ask Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber.

Making fun of Sarah Palin

Pelosi’s actions today were totally negligent.  She should never have brought the bill to the floor if she didn’t have the votes.  Her tirade didn’t help either, and if that caused anyone to change their vote and surprise her then the calls for her resignation should be even loader.

Bringing the bailout bill to the floor without the votes to win led directly to the sell off on Wall Street. Her negligence led to $1.2 trillion dollar loss in equities.

I really feel for retirees.  Anyone who pulls out today will have lost a lot and if they don’t they may risk more.  AARP should lead a campaign for her removal as Speaker.

I wish Obama’s performance was not so disappointing. I thought McCain was the clear leader in the debate, driving the discussion his way. If it weren’t for the fact that McCain appeared to be a grumpy old guy who would not even look at Obama he would have won the thing hands down. American’s don’t like it when our presidents look mean. They’re supposed to represent us and if they look mean then we look mean.

If Obama comes out ahead in the polls for the debate, it was because McCain looked mean, not because Obama put forward a vision for a better America. It is so disappointing.

Stop agreeing with McCain already. Tell us how you are going to put the shine back on the city on the hill. The Republicans have tarnished the city beyond all belief. Tell us what the Democrats can do to put things right.

Just look at the last eight years,  we’ve had 9/11, Katrina, two un-popluar wars, a complete melt down in the credit markets, runaway federal spending, unimpeded destruction of our environment, oil prices beyond reason, an out of control deficit(which is a huge hidden tax burden  on our children) and a general trampling of civil rights in the name of patriotism.  The list of ways the Republican party has tarnished the once shiny city on the hill goes on and on.  The beautiful vision has gone all fuzzy thanks to the horrible job the Republicans have done running the country.  Reagan would be horrified.

And yet Obama is tied with McCain.  How can he not be up by 10 points or more?  So disappointing.

Obama needs to stop acting like the professor and start acting like a guy with a vision.  A vision that’s not some vague thing about change.

He needs to tell us that he will put an end to the Republican’s hidden tax on our children, win the war on terror and bring our soldiers home, make companies more competitive by reforming health care, and put some sensible regulation in place so that our financial markets work once again.  He’s the guy who should be claim the reform, prosperity and peace mantel, not McCain.

Tell us your proud to be a Democrat.  Tell us what it means.  Tell us that the party that cares about jobs, civil rights, and balanced budgets is back.  Tell us how you can put the shine back on America.  Paint us that vision and I think America will stand with you.

But if you can’t, America will stand with John McCain and hope the grumpy old guy can make good on his mantel of reform, prosperity and peace.

Two moving videos with opposing points of view.

Dear Mr. Obama

RE: Dear Mr. Obama

Thank you both for your service to America and all of us.

We’re Screwed ’08

This Splurge that Bush and crew want to embark on has once again highlight the contrast in styles between McCain and Obama.

McCain – it’s a crisis and I’m rushing in to take charge.

Obama – it’s a crisis and they know where to find me if they need me.

One seems reckless and the other seems to be present.