In The News
Colorado: 'Cap and Trade is Wrong'
Friday June 26, 2009
Denver Post: Warming bill dicey for Dems - Salazar opposed the bill early on, particularly the impact its central component, restrictions on emissions of greenhouse gases, could have on energy costs. His spokesman said this week that Salazar has not decided whether recent compromises to the bill are enough to change his mind. But the vote is an especially dicey one for Markey, who has yet to take a public position. A first-term Democrat in a moderate district, Markey is likely to be one of the GOP's biggest targets in 2010, and they would love nothing more than to see her vote "yes." Environmental groups also hope Markey supports the bill. Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund poured $1.5 million into her campaign - the group's biggest push for any House candidate in the country - and they expected her to be a key supporter in the push for a global warming bill. But as late as Thursday afternoon, Markey spokeswoman Ben Marter said his boss was still pondering the vote. "She's looking at it through an economic lens," he said.
Oklahoman Editorial: For what? Cap and trade bad deal for U.S.
Friday June 26, 2009
Boren, D-Muskogee, and others won't help pass what effectively would be the largest tax increase in U.S. history - and for little or no actual benefit. Pelosi and her allies represent districts so liberal that kind of a vote doesn't matter. It does in real-world America.
Under cap and trade, the government sets limits for greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. Businesses under the caps could sell emissions credits to those over them. Over time caps are lowered to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases.
Various estimates say it would cost the economy $9.4 trillion by 2035. A CRA International study found 3.2 million jobs would be lost by 2025, even with new "green" jobs. The same study showed the average U.S. household's purchasing power would drop by $2,127 by 2030.
Pelosi & Co. want to increase the cost of fossil-fuel use so Americans will use less of it. The economy will be saddled, jobs will be lost and Americans' standard of living will slide.
STRASSEL: The Climate Change Climate Change
Friday June 26, 2009
If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.
Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.
In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country's new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country's weeks-old cap-and-trade program.
The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)
WAXMAN-MARKEY AND 1993
Thursday June 25, 2009
Chicago Tribune: Too Big, Too Fast
Thursday June 25, 2009
George Will: Tilting at Green Windmills
Thursday June 25, 2009
WSJ: EPA Sees Limited Renewable Energy Growth under Waxman-Markey
Thursday June 25, 2009
The President’s New “Clean Energy Economy” Talking Points
Tuesday June 23, 2009
In reviewing the transcript from President Obama’s press conference today, it looks like the President has nailed his new talking points:
Official: Congress must fix road fund (Tulsa World)
Monday June 22, 2009
Inhofe said he will raise the option of using interest on funds transferred from the trust fund in the 1990s to shore up the fund now.
"Last year, we were able to return the $8 billion to their rightful place, but we are still missing 10 years' worth of interest," he said.
"Repaying the interest would give the trust (fund) between $13 (billion) and $17 billion."
Inhofe said he remained confident that a fix would be found soon.
Democrats Vote against Vitter Public Health Protection Amendment
Monday June 22, 2009
Posted by: Matt Dempsey Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov
Choosing environmental activist concerns over public health, Senate Democrats blocked protection of public health from mosquito borne diseases including Dengue fever, West Nile, Encephalitis, and Yellow fever in an EPW Committee business meeting on June 18, 2009.
Inside EPA reporter Jonathon Strong reported in his article on Friday, June 12, 2009, Democrats Near Deal On Water Act Bill By Dropping Bid For Exemptions, that to appease environmentalists, Democrats dropped consideration of the exemption to an earlier draft of the bill: “The deal appears to have narrowly obtained the support of environmentalists who objected to proposals from moderate Democrats for further exemptions and even tying the bill's definition of “waters” to navigability.”
Senator Boxer remained confident that EPA could use the two year stay they received in the sixth circuit Cotton Council case that the issue would be ‘taken care of.’ The case requires all pesticide applications on or near water are required to obtain Clean Water Permits. Senator Vitter pointed out that these applications have never been permitted before.
Despite mosquito control boards from around the country asking for help from Washington, every single Democrat voted against an amendment. Senator Vitter’s amendment would have exempted these activities from permitting, allowing states and municipalities the freedom to ensure that the families and children in their communities would be protected from mosquito borne illnesses in a timely and effective manner. Over one million people worldwide, many of them children, die each year from malaria and other mosquito borne illnesses.
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