Effect of Energy Regulation Bill

NCPA: Energy Issues

June 25, 2010

THE ENERVATING EFFECTS OF THE KERRY-LIEBERMAN ENERGY REGULATION BILL

A year ago the Waxman-Markey energy regulation bill passed the House. Now before the Senate is the Kerry-Lieberman energy regulation bill, which includes many of the same damaging provisions — government control of many aspects of energy generation, distribution and prices, says Pete du Pont, chairman of the National Center for Policy Analysis and former governor of Delaware.

The Kerry-Lieberman bill is a bit less bad than the Waxman-Markey legislation, but only a bit, says du Pont:

* It would provide loan guarantees and encourages a speedier licensing process for new nuclear plants, one of the safest and best electricity generation options we have; America has 104 such plants today and needs to build many more to reduce pollution.

* It would support carbon capture in coal plants by providing $2 billion of research funding for clean coal, which — if it works — might help reduce domestic pollution at some point in the future.

* Before the Gulf explosion, it would have significantly encouraged offshore drilling (Waxman-Markey never mentioned offshore drilling); but it has now been amended to give Atlantic and Pacific coastal states a veto over any offshore drilling plans that officials believe might cause environmental or economic harm.

And still tucked away in the bill is a protectionist measure that Sen. John Kerry’s summary calls a “border adjustment mechanism.” It would apply if “no global agreement on climate change is reached.” In that case, there would be U.S. taxes on goods imported from countries “that have not taken action to limit emissions.” The same bad idea is in the Waxman-Markey bill, says du Pont.

The Kerry-Lieberman bill also includes a national cap-and-trade system similar to Waxman-Markey’s. Electricity generation utilities would have a limited allotment of greenhouse gas emissions, and there would be penalties for heavy-polluting industries. It may be a bit better than the House bill, but either version would add huge new bureaucracies and huge new regulations of energy, says du Pont.

Source: Pete du Pont, “Generation Gap; The Kerry-Lieberman energy bill would enervate America,” Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2010.

For text:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704629804575325263787161900.html

For more on Energy Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=22

Oil Addiction Lies

Next to the huge international hoax about global warming allegedly caused
by carbon dioxide, the biggest lie being told to Americans these days is
that we are “addicted” to oil and that we must convert our economy and society away from its use.

Click below for the link to the Canada Free Press article:

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/23969

News Articles 05-21-10

Immigration:

CNSNews: Mexican President Denounces AZ Law Despite Laws Against Illegal Immigration in His Own Country

CNSNews: Senate Democratic Whip Compares Sealing the Mexican Border to Trying to Keep Drugs off I-95

CNN: Fed’s Won’t Act On Child’s Question to First Lady

APNews: Senators Press for National Guard Troops on Border

APNews: Obama Clamours For Federal Fix to Immigration Woes

WSBTV Video: Border Security Part 1 (Who is really crossing the border? May not be who you think!)

WSBTV Video: Border Security Part 2

Fox News Video: Private Property Battle- Family Farm Near Border Targeted by DHS

The Patriot Post: Eric Holder Can’t Read?

Townhall.com: Immigration and Liberty (by Walter Williams)

Economy:

AP: TD Ameritrade Clients Unable to Log In, Trade

Bloomberg: More Americans Unexpectedly File for Jobless Benefits

The Hill: Record Growth Among Entrepreneurs in U.S.

Heritage Foundation: I’m Afraid to Tell You There’s No Money Left

NCPA: NY’s Latest Job Killer- New Bill Would Give Workers Broad Rights to File Suit When Fired

LewRockwell.com: Jump Back from The Debt Crevasse

Climate:

NCPPR: Think-Tank Says Trained Chimp Can Predict Hurricanes Better Than NOAA

The Hill: Kerry- Academy of Sciences Report Shows ‘Urgent’ Need for Climate Bill

Political Opinion:

The Patriot Post: Kagan Hearings Need Not Be a “Hollow Charade”

The Patriot Post: Left, Right, and Wrong

The Patriot Post: How’s That Apology Thing Working Out?

Other:

NewsRealBlog: Churches Push Leftist Radicalism

NewsRealBlog: Obama Administration Promoting ACORN in India

WHTM News: PA AG Corbett Subpoenas Twitter to Name Bloggers

WMUR News: NH Veteran Ordered to Remove Flag From Outside Home

Polls:

Latest Rasmussen Poll: Right Direction or Wrong Track?

Rasmussen Poll: 67% Say Mexico Does Not Want To Stop Illegal Immigration

Founder’s Quote:

“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” –Fisher Ames, speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

A Few Questions for Climate Alarmists

On Thursday, May 13th, senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman introduced the American Power Act.  This is their stealthy name for a climate change bill that would further control and ruin our economy, raise prices on everything energy related and greatly curtail our freedoms.

Meanwhile the Environmental Protection Agency is implementing its own draconian energy restrictions, in case Congress does not enact punitive legislation.  It’s time to ask these politicians some fundamental questions.  Please follow the link below to learn more and to see a list of questions that every politician and bureaucrat involved in this Draconian issue should to be made to answer: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/23221

Check out the link below to the Global Warming Petition Project and read about this petition signed by 31,486 American scientists, including 9,029 with PHDs.  An excerpt from the site:  “The purpose of the Petition Project is to demonstrate that the claim of “settled science” and an overwhelming “consensus” in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climatological damage is wrong.  No such consensus or settled science exists.  As indicated by the petition text and signatory list, a very large number of American scientists reject this hypothesis.” http://www.petitionproject.org/index.php

When you open the link, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the home page and click on the various buttons.  I promise you will be enlightened.

FreedomWorks-Cap & Trade

FreedomWorks Cap & Trade War Room

It’s time to contact our representatives about the Cap & Trade legislation.  Click link below for access to contact information, talking points, etc. to stop this power grab!

Cap and trade is once again rearing its ugly head, this time under the guise of a new “business-friendly” way to crush the economy: the Kerry-Graham-Liebermann “American Power Act.”  A better name would be the “American Power Grab.”

The American Power Act is little more than cap and trade in sheep’s clothing. This new energy tax bill was crafted over months behind closed doors, and only special interest lobbyists could pry out any details.

What we do know is this: making energy more expensive hurts the economy, sends jobs overseas, and all for negligible environmental benefit. We also know  that poor and middle class taxpayers aren’t among the big corporations that are getting any special favors or subsidies and will be hit hardest by plans like a “Fuels’ Fee” that tacks on 27 cents per gallon of gasoline!

We need you to Take Action!

Use FreedomWorks Cap and Trade War Room immediately to:

1) Click Call Congress to easily connect with your legislators and urge them to oppose cap and trade. 2) Click Email Congress to easily send your message to Capitol Hill.  3) Click Boots on The Ground to see other ideas on how to be heard and educate your community.  4) Access updated Talking Points 5) Click Issue Developments for the latest news and analysis on the Left’s attempts to enact cap and trade.

http://www.freedomworks.org/online-war-room-cap-and-trade

Crime Inc.

Though not everyone likes Glenn Beck, the information he is currently talking about regarding Cap and Trade, CCX (Chicago Climate Exchange), and the numerous ties to the current administration is important to follow.  Ties to incredible profits and deception at the American citizen’s expense is exposed.  Read below and click link to story to watch video.

Crime Inc.: What ‘Greening of America’ Means

May 6, 2010 – 0:30 ET

It’s a safe bet that most Americans’ first exposure to the concept of carbon trading or cap-and-trade legislation came during the most recent presidential campaign when both candidates advocated the need to make protecting the environment a government mandate instead of the moral obligation it’s always been. In the past few months President Barack Obama has repeatedly stated that a comprehensive energy/environmental law, including cap-and-trade, is an absolute priority of his administration.

Cap-and-Trade

Simply put, the idea behind the cap-and-trade plan is this: The federal government would set limits or cap the amount of pollutant a business could create. If the business chose to emit levels exceeding the cap they would have to find a business not using its full allotment and purchase the surplus from them. Needless-to-say, for the concept to work there would need to be a highly centralized infrastructure to facilitate the transactions, matching buyers to sellers.

The CCX: A Dream Come True?

For people like Richard Sandor and former Vice-President Al Gore the focus on “green politics” represented the culmination of years of planning and a giant step towards a massive payday.

With a big helping hand from then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama, Sandor’s brainchild, The Chicago Climate Exchange, opened for business in 2003 billing itself as “North America’s only cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases…” In other words, the facilitator for a scheme not quite hatched. Sandor, a long-time economist turned environmentalist shared his vision during a 1990 interview with the Wall Street Journal, saying, “Air and water are no longer the free goods that economics once assumed. They must be redefined as property rights so that they can be efficiently allocated.” The statement didn’t get a lot of attention back then but today seems prophetic. Sandor claims his idea of efficient allocation, also known as carbon trading, will develop into a $10 trillion industry.

Assembling the Team

During 2000 and 2001, the Joyce Foundation, a progressive trust with assets near $1 billion, known for funding groups like Center for American Progress and Tides Foundation, provided grants to CCX totaling $1.1 million. State Senator Obama served on the foundation’s board of directors during that time and was instrumental in awarding the grants.

Shortly after the first grant was approved, the president of The Joyce Foundation, Paula DiPerna, left to join the executive team of CCX. Other notables with familiar names soon followed.

• Former Vice-President Al Gore became part-owner of CCX when his company, Generation Investment Management, made a sizeable investment. Gore brought with him his senior partner at GIM, David Blood, former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, along with a company chalk full of former Goldman Sachs’ executives

• Goldman Sachs itself soon joined the team buying a ten percent interest in CCX

• Maurice Strong, once linked to Tongsun Park, the central figure in the United Nation’s oil-for-food scandal in 2005 and one of the architects of the Kyoto Protocol, joined the CCX board of directors

• Carlton Bartels was one of the first, and perhaps most important, additions to the CCX roster. As CEO of a company called CO2e, Bartels developed and delivered the actual guts of the exchange — a system for facilitating and managing the actual carbon trades

Strange Bedfellows

Just three weeks after filing for a patent for his carbon trade system, Bartels was killed during the attacks of 9/11. Bartels’ death opened the door for a new partner to join CCX, easily the oddest fit of them all: Fannie Mae. In a move still unexplained, the quasi-governmental mortgage agency, led by CEO Franklin Raines, purchased the rights to the system from Bartel’s widow. A patent on the invention was granted to Raines and Fannie Mae on November 7, 2006, ironically, the day after the Democrats regained control of Congress. According to Barbara Hollingsworth of the Washington Examiner, the patent covers both the “cap” and “trade” parts of Obama’s top domestic energy initiative and gives Fannie Mae proprietary control over the automated trading system used by Sandor’s CCX.

When asked about the patent recently Fannie Mae communications director Amy Bonitatibus told the Washington Examiner, “Fannie Mae earns no money on this patent. We can’t conjecture as to the cap-and-trade legislation.” A source close to Fannie Mae, however, says a plan is in place to funnel future earnings from the patent to a non-profit housing organization called Enterprise Community Partners. Ironically, Raines, who left Fannie Mae in 2004 amidst allegations that he inflated earnings reports in order to collect higher bonuses ($52 million in bonuses over 5-years; $90 million in total compensation), serves on the board of trustees at Enterprise. In a continuation of theme, Goldman Sachs also has a representative on the board in the person of Alicia Glen.

Off to See the Wizard

In December 2009 The Joyce Foundation awarded Raines and Enterprise a $200,000 grant to launch Emerald Cities Collaborative. According to its website, “The Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC) is a start-up, national coalition of diverse groups that includes unions, labor groups, community organizations, social justice advocates, development intermediaries, research and technical assistance providers, socially responsible businesses, and elected officials.”

Emerald Cities’ goal is “the greening of our nation’s central cities and the creation of a “new vital economic sector.” The collaborative is headed up by Joel Rogers, widely recognized as the “man behind the curtain” of today’s progressive political movement. Rogers founded the powerful Apollo Alliance, the group recognized as having shaped much of the Obama administration’s stimulus bill. Former White House green jobs “czar,” Van Jones, described Rogers influence this way: “The best thinking that he represents… is now represented in the White House.”

Also represented on the Emerald Cities board of directors, Gerald Hudson, executive director of SEIU (also on the Apollo Alliance advisory board); Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All (created by Van Jones), and Doris Koo, CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, along with a collection of other union and community activist regulars.

The Bottom Line

The “environmental movement,” once the bastion of peace loving hippies and Earth mothers, is potentially the booming business of the 21st century. Billions of dollars currently change hands each year in the name of the environment and, by all accounts, the surface is only scratched.

To date the missing piece of the puzzle has been a government mandate, something cap-and-trade legislation will remedy. Those already in the game stand to reap a fortune on the backs of average Americans who will see their energy bills “necessarily skyrocket,” as President Obama explained, as businesses pass along the new cost of doing what they do in a “green America.”

It’s interesting to note that without the specter of a government mandate, the Chicago Climate Exchange would hold no value. Likewise Fannie Mae’s patented trading system and Emerald Cities’ prospects for “a new vital economic sector” would be nothing more than fool’s gold.

Equally troubling is the blatant acknowledgement by those involved in this high stakes green rush that power and profit are the only real benefits to be had. The words of Joel Rogers: “I hope you all realized that you could eliminate every power plant in America today and you can stop every car in America. Take out the entire power generation sector and you still would not be anywhere near 80 percent below 1990 levels. You would be closer to around 60 percent… it would be around 68 percent and this is with bringing the economy to a complete halt… basically.”

Crime Inc. – what do they know and when did they know it… and how much will it cost the American people?

Watch Glenn Beck every weekday at 5p and 2a ET on the Fox News Channel…

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/40154/

News Articles 03-31-10

Healthcare:

YouTube Video: Howard Dean- Of Course Healthcare is Redistribution of Wealth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ausVVnecU

Real Clear Politics: Obama on Health Care Victory- “It is a critical first step”

Breitbart TV: Dem AGs rebuff GOP govs on health-care lawsuits

Real Clear Politics: Why the healthcare bill could be repealed

Chicago Tribune: Taking a Hatchet to Moderate Government

NCPA: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Canada Free Press: Blog- Healthcare propoganda

Tea Party Info:

Real Clear Politics VIDEO: Obama on Tea Parties: “Core Group” Questions My Citizenship (from Today Show)

Front Page Mag: Smearing with a Broad Brush

Big Journalism VIDEO: 2010 A Race Odyssey- Disproving a Negative for Cash Prizes or, How the Civil Rights Movement Jumped the Shark

LewRockwell: Naomi Wolf Thinks the Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism

Economy:

Gainesville Sun: Property Tax Hike Approved

UK Telegraph: Sell-off in US Treasuries raises sovereign debt fears

National Affairs: America in the Red

LewRockwell: It’s Official- America Now Enforces Capital Controls

WSJ Opinion: The Tax Police and the Health-Care Mandate

WSJ Opinion: Obama’s $3 Trillion Tax Hike

Washington Times Editorial: The Trouble with Tolls

ReasonTV: 3 Reasons Why Public Sector Employees are Killing the Economy

NCPA: Chile’s New Pension Reforms

Global Research: Good-bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It

Climate:

MSNBC: Inquiry- Climate data not manipulated

2nd Amendment:

YouTube Video: The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina

Other News:

WSJ: Obama Steps Up Confrontation

Reuters: Obama vows to press ahead on big challenges

Real Clear Politics: Frustrating, Stubborn Facts

Real Clear Politics: MSNBC Host- Time for “Socialism” in Talk Radio (Ed Schultz)

San Francisco Chronicle: Defiant Pelosi Scorns Republicans

Breitbart: Obama to allow drilling off Virginia coast

NYT: CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings

Front Page Mag: The Threat We Face

EU Times: World Mourns as Communist Darkness Falls Upon America

Breitbart: 2010 Census Mail Participation Rates in Chicago Behind Rest of Nation

World Net Daily: ‘Right wing white brothers’ may ‘attempt to kill’ Obama

YouTube Video: Obama propaganda with kids and orchestra

GTP Events & Info:

Take GTP’s 2 minute Action Group/Committee survey! Click here.

Run-off Elections for Gainesville Mayor and District 4 on April 13th.  Those in the city limits get out, vote, and take someone with you!  Help Don Marsh, who embodies our principles, get elected- see what he’s up to! http://donaldmarsh.com/

Tax Day Tea Party Rally on Thursday, April 15th from 4-6pm downtown Gainesville at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza.  Don’t forget to bring your signs and flags.  Use this Tax Day Tea Party Rally flyer (click here) to print out or send to your email list…please invite others to join us!

GTP General Meeting on Saturday, April 17th from 10am-12noon at the Gainesvile Hotel & Conference Center (formerly Clarion Hotel) in the “Desoto Room”. 7417 West Newberry Road, Gainesville (at the intersection of Newberry & Tower Roads, just west of I-75).  Click here for directions.

Freedom Rally & Ride on Saturday, April 17th from 11am-5pm in St. Augustine at the Francis Field.  Click here for more information.

A GTP booth will be at the Alachua Spring Festival on Sunday, April 18th from 11am-3pm.  Drop by to show your support!  If you have time to volunteer at the booth, please contact Laurie.

The “5,000 Year Leap” Study Group is being held every Tuesday at 6pm at Countryside Baptist Church (on 39th Ave. just west of I-75).

Visit our calendar for information on all upcoming events.

Global Warming-Global Cooling:Natural Cause Found

You may obtain a FREE e-book published and researched by Dr. David A. Dilley.  Mr. Dilley (bio) is President and Founder of Global Weather Oscillations, Inc. (GWO) which is located in Ocala, FL.  He has 40 years of meteorological and climatological experience!  This e-book discusses the earth’s natural warming and cooling cycles and his research findings strongly suggest that increased carbon dioxide from human activities is not the cause of global warming.  Please read and pass this information along to others!

(Thank you to John C. for passing this info on to GTP.)

Global Warming

GLOBAL WARMING, CLIMATE CHANGE, CAP & TRADE

By Professor Thomas Hayes-Morrison ©2009

From Gainesville Tea Party December 5th Meeting

Global Warming

The question underlying all the debate in this area is “what is mankind’s role in Climate Change” (labeled “anthropogenic” change)? The question is not whether the climate is changing because climate change has always been, is, and will continue to be with us. There is a substantial amount of information about the earth’s climatic history which shows swings in temperatures, large changes in glaciers, and areas of temperate weather.

As a note, the use of the term “Global Warming” was changed to “Climate Change” by its proponents who did not want to lose an issue when scientists, as well as regular people, started noticing that the earth may not be warming.  The following are some sound bites:

1. The science is settled! – Not true. In fact, there is substantial disagreement in the scientific community as to where the climate is headed and what the potential outcomes are of the many variations possible, both short term and long term, in the earth’s climate. An illustration of the substantial disagreement in conclusions is the 2008 petition signed by 31,000 scientists stating that there is no convincing evidence that mankind’s activity has, is, or will, cause a catastrophic disruption of the earth’s climate. Claims by climate change/global warming adherents that the science is settled seem to resemble most closely the criticism of Copernicus’ theory that the earth and other planets revolved around the sun in the 14^th century. Such criticism and ridicule was generated by the church/ scientist adherents of the then settled theory (science) that the sun revolved about the earth.
2. The data is reliable and the trends in the data are clear – Not true.  Climategate is the term being applied to the information that has recently become available that the leading climatic institute in the UK, whose work has served as the basis for the U.N. and U.S. EPA position on climate change, and several of the leading scientists, to include major names in American science, who are proponents of climate change, committed major fraud by making the data fit their conclusions. It involved a coordinated effort to change the actual data, to bully peer review journals so they would not publish dissenting views, and perhaps worst of all, to destroy the original data so their work cannot be checked. Their motive would seem to be the tens of millions of dollars in grant money. No climate problem, no climate grants money.
3. The earth is warming at a rapid rate – Not true. In fact, the last ten years’ records indicate we may be in a cooling trend despite the effort to skew the data described in #2. This has been a major embarrassment to climate change proponents. See #2. The reality is that the earth’s climate runs in short, medium and long term cycles. Climate change must be understood within the context of cyclical change.

Climate Change

1. Mankind has the ability to change significantly the earth’s climate – Not true. Scientists have been unable to prove a correlation between man’s activity, most often using so-called green house gases as a surrogate for mankind’s actions, and any change in the climate. See #2. It is not clear that even if man could contribute to climate change, that such contribution could cause any significant variation from the earth’s normal cyclical changes. As a note, much of the climate change rhetoric is based on computer models that attempt to forecast 5, 10, 20, 50, and a 100 years in the future. The models seem stunningly ineffective. They are not even able to process historical data and generate “forecasts” that describe with any accuracy what actually happened. It is useful to view this within the context that we are able to forecast the weather for the next 24 hours accurately only 75% of the time.

Cap & Trade

1. Cap and Trade – What is it? It is a plan to drive up the cost of fossil based fuel generated energy in order to reduce green house gases so that global warming will be reduced. It is intended to encourage the use of “green” energy sources. See above for comments on global warming. The “trade “ refers to a plan created by Ken Lay of Enron fame to trade what are called carbon credits. It will literally enrich Al Gore further and Goldman, Sachs, among others, but will most likely not do anything other than raise costs dramatically for the rest of us. The cost of “cap and trade” is beyond reasonable comprehension. Pres. Obama has stated that “my plan will cause energy costs to skyrocket”. The consensus seems to be that utility costs for consumers will rapidly double and gasoline prices will also escalate dramatically.

On a macro level, 2.5 million jobs will be lost from base line estimates over the next 20 years and U.S. GDP will be $6 trillion below where it other wise would have been. Product prices will increase exponentially because of the increased energy costs and taxes related to supporting inefficient and ineffective energy programs. It will lead to a substantially diminished quality of life for Americans. Several European nations have instituted limited cap and trade programs with uniformly disastrous short term effects upon employment and GDP. China and India have both stated categorically they will not make hard commitments to reduce substantially the green house gases caused by their rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels. Should the U.S make such a hard commitment it will cease to be economically competitive.

You may contact Tom at tom@gainesvilleteaparty.org.