You hear it all the time.


"Government needs to be run like a business."


"Those tree-huggers are costing us jobs!"


After a brief review of the information omniverse, here are just a few of those nutty tree-huggers:

• Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Safeway, Whole Foods. These are just a few of those wacky extremists who are destroying our economy by putting up solar panels on their giant, football field-sized roofs. Apparently, in their misguided attempt to save the planet and cut down on fossil fuel consumption, they have this crazy idea about being efficient and saving money. They're practically Communists! Read all about it in The New York Times here.


• Integrys Energy Group Inc., Quicksilver Resources Inc., Tesoro Corp., American Electric Power Co. These are just four "out there" companies which, The Wall Street Journal reports here, are joining other fringe nut-jobs like Occidental Petroleum, DuPont Co. and Rohn & Haas in appointing environmental committees to their board of directors. They probably all wear Birkenstocks to work. The Journal reported that "About 25% of Fortune 500 companies now have a board committee overseeing the environment, compared with fewer than 10% five years ago, estimates Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a national coalition of activists, investors and others concerned with the environment. Such panels typically try to make sure that executives effectively handle conservation efforts, new environmentally friendly ventures like wind power, compliance with environmental regulations and related business risks." Why all this crazy hippie talk? apparently, "the Earth's sustainability 'has become a much more important part of every board's activities,' observes Lester A. Hudson, chairman of American Electric Power Co.'s governance committee, which monitors environmental concerns." Imagine, realizing you might not make money if the atmosphere disintegrates, perhaps because of your own company's activities. I tell you, it's nuts.


• Allegheny Energy, Ford Motor Company. As if that wasn't bad enough, now this insanity has spread to shareholders, who must have also swallowed the Kool-Aid. The Associated Press reported here that 2008 marked a new high in share-holder resolutions concerned with Global Warming. According to Ceres, support for these measures averaged 23 percent so far in 2008. "While that's not enough to pass a resolution, Ceres contends rising vote totals compel companies to act, like a plan by Ford Motor Co. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020. 'It's easy to ignore 3 or 5 percent votes, but it's pretty hard to ignore 22 percent votes or 39 percent votes,' said Dan Bakal, director of electric power programs for Ceres," according to the story. Ceres says 57 climate-related shareholder resolutions were filed with U.S. companies in 2008, up from 43 in 2007 and 31 in 2006. Support likewise has climbed from an average of 17.8 percent in 2006 and 21.6 percent last year. This year, support averaged 23.5 percent, according to Ceres. It sounds the folks living near West Virginia's Coal Mountain, need to find some shareholders from Massey Energy, which has plans to shear the top off this mountain like it has so many others. But the locals are trying to convince the company to instead make the most of the mountain's most renewable resource -- wind. As reported in this story in Grist Magazine, Their plans call for at least 14 valley fills to deposit the debris, which is likely to bury at least six local streams. Residents in the area, led by a local group called Coal River Watch, "are hoping to convince state agencies, local landowners, and the coal companies to allow a 440-megawatt wind farm to be built atop the mountain while still allowing Massey Energy to mine beneath the surface, a compromised plan that they hope can start moving the state away from reliance on coal -- and protect one of the most endangered mountains in the country."


• Xcel Energy. Now this one really hurts. This company has a bunch of good old fashioned coal-burning power plants in Colorado and now, (sniff) they're closing them down to reduce emissions, the first in the nation. I tell you, this environmentalism thing is spreading like a virus. Now where are we going to get our pollution? What are the people of Denver and Grand Junction supposed to do for power? Apparently, according to this story in The Rocky Mountain News, still send their money to Xcel, which is replacing its coal burning power plants with solar power plants. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission "approved the utility's request for a 200-megawatt solar plant using concentrated solar technology that not only helps generate electricity from the sun, but also allows energy to be stored for later use." This may help the company meet Gov. Bill Ritter's goal to reduce greenhouse emissions by 20 percent by 2020.


• FPL Group Inc. Not to be outdone by their neighbors in the north, this Florida utility, which already bills itself as the nation's top producer of wind power, is investing $688 million in capital, the lifeblood of American capitalism, in this goofy new technology as well. According to this story by Reuters, "the new plants would take FPL more than a third of the way to a goal announced last year to build a total of 300 megawatts of solar capacity in Florida, and the company is more bullish than ever on the prospects for solar, Chief Executive Lew Hay told Reuters in an interview. Coupled with the skyrocketing cost of conventional power-plant fuels like oil and natural gas and the rising price of commodities to build such power plants, solar is becoming more competitive, Hay said. "


• Delmarva Power. And right down the road in Rehoboth Beach Delaware, the first offshore wind farm to be developed in the United States has already sold one-third of the power that will be generated during its first 25 years of operation before a turbine is even placed in the water. According to a story published by the Environmental News Service, Delmarva Power agreed in June to buy up to 200 megawatts of power from an offshore wind farm to be developed by Bluewater Wind Delaware. The company "believes this contract is a significant step toward developing Delaware's first offshore wind farm, which will almost certainly be the first offshore wind farm in the country," said Hunter Armistead, head of Babcock & Brown's North American energy group. Sunrise at Rehoboth Beach where the Bluewater wind farm will be constructed 11.5 miles from land off the coast of Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. "This offshore wind farm will bring clean energy, new jobs, and stable rates to Delmarva Power customers," said Armistead. According to this 25 year agreement, Bluewater Wind could begin delivering electricity to Delmarva Power's Delaware customers around the year 2012.
  

I tell you, it's just nuts out there. Clean energy, new jobs and stable electric rates? What is the world coming to?

Next thing you know, next thing you know one of the political parties will have a woman and a black man compete for the right to run for president.

These crazy kids. When are they going to wake up? What makes them think they can change the world?