Tag Archive for 'cap and trade'

About That Whole Energy Independence Thing

This article depressed me.

This past Friday, Diamond Offshore announced that it’s relocating its Ocean Endeavor oil drilling rig from the Gulf to Egyptian waters. This is likely the first of many rigs which will be moved outside of the US, because of all the moratorium crap Obama has started in response to the BP oil spill. In fact, the CEO of Diamond said, “As a result of the uncertainties surrounding the offshore drilling moratorium, we are actively seeking international opportunities to keep our rigs fully employed. We greatly regret the loss of U.S. jobs that will result from this rig relocation.”

But in his infinite wisdom, Obama wants his commission to have time to investigate the cause of the spill, and implement a whole bunch of new standards, and basically make it completely impossible to drill for oil. Because commissions are his solution for everything.

Early estimates suggest that up to a dozen rigs could leave the Gulf because of the moratorium. And it’s unlikely that they’ll return any time soon, if ever.

Look – I’m ALL ABOUT researching and exploring new sources of energy. BUT AT THE SAME TIME as we keep drilling. Why is it so hard for Obama to understand that if everyone is drilling EXCEPT US, that it makes us MORE dependent on foreign oil? We need to be aggressively pursuing our OWN sources of energy, INCLUDING oil.

ATTENTION TOWNSPEOPLE: Prepare For Your Gas Prices To Skyrocket.

According to this, we’re likely to be looking at $7 per gallon gas thanks to Obama’s push on new energy legislation.

As the column correctly points out, this cap and trade type of legislation has absolutely nothing to do with the oil spill, it won’t fix the oil spill, and it does nothing to help us recover from the oil spill. What it DOES do, is “not let a serious crisis go to waste” which is Rahm Emanuel’s forever famous soundbyte of the decade.

And juuuuuuust when we all thought it was safe to assume that cap and trade was dead, the oil rig exploded, the leak began, and voila! It has returned. Only now, instead of associating it with global warming, Obama and company are “rebranding” it as a jobs bill, insisting that it’s going to create skillions and jillions of jobs and make us all energy independent.

But people with Actual Brains still don’t buy that crap. The “green jobs” thing was tried in Spain already, and it’s been a total disaster. According to the source link, each green job has required three quarters of a million dollars in government subsidies.  Each. Job.

So the other night, when Obama gave his kick-some-BP-ass speech, he used a good portion of his time to propose cap and trade style legislation again.  Even though that does NOTHING to help fix the problem.  I mean, no matter what, we’ll still need oil.  It’s just that Obama wants us all to pay a lot more for it, which seems like just the perfect thing to do to Americans who are already struggling in a fragile economy. Yes. That’s just brilliant.

Like the source link suggests, this administration “shouldn’t view each crisis — including the oil spill — as an opportunity to be exploited, but as a problem to be addressed.”

That would require leadership though. So, you know, go ahead and start budgeting for $7 per gallon gas.

Mother Nature Struck. It Was A Wasted Effort.

If you’re in central Indiana, then you know we’ve been hit with like skatey eight trakillion thunderstorms over the past couple weeks. Tonight, approximately 5 minutes before Obama was to give his YAY FOR CAP AND TRADE speech, our power went out.

And you know what I said? I said, “Hey Mother Nature – you’re wasting your time on this house. I was going to purposefully ignore Obama’s speech. You didn’t have to make me ignore it involuntarily.”

So, at precisely the moment his speech ended and the pundits started their punditification, the power returned. From what I can tell looking around the web, Obama’s speech was as expected: Oil companies = supreme suckage, Cap and Trade = total awesomeness. Plus, as I understand it, he made a lot of crazy hand gestures.

Does that about sum it up? Feel free to pipe in if I’ve missed anything!

So, About Energy Independence.

Turns out, we could be completely free of our dependency on foreign oil, if our government would just LIGHTEN THE FREAK UP on restrictions preventing us from getting to our own FREAKING OIL.

According to this, we pretty much have the largest energy reserves on the planet. And nearly 30% of the world’s coal reserves too.

Hey! I have an idea! Let’s create legislation that caps energy production and taxes and penalizes companies who exceed the cap! And while we’re at it, let’s eliminate jobs by the thousands and cause energy prices to “necessarily skyrocket” and send tons of jobs overseas in the process! YAY!

Cap And Trade – And Why It’s A Load Of Crap

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Karl Rove wrote a really great article about the cap and tax legislation – it’s one of the best summaries I’ve seen about what the passing of that legislation would mean for every American.

It’s all pretty simple, really. This absurd legislation will cost every one of us a ton of money, and the results will not even make a tiny dent in global emissions. Let’s review. 

 The price of energy that’s derived from natural gas, coal and oil will jump (or “necessarily skyrocket” as Obama said previously). The CBO estimates that the average household will see at least a $1600 increase in energy costs annually. Midwestern states like ours, which depend more on coal than others, will see a slowdown of job creation and growth, which, you know, is precisely what we need (snort).

And, this legislation is going to move jobs overseas. All this nonsense about it creating new green jobs is just ridiculous, considering that companies who want to avoid the cap and tax penalties will be enticed to simply move to countries where they don’t have government breathing down their necks. Why stay here, and pay huge taxes on carbon emissions, when you can just hightail it to China and emit to your heart’s content? China already produces more emissions than we do, even with an economy half our size.

And all the penalties and fees levied against companies with high emissions will be used to then subsidize “green” technology firms, which simply can’t and won’t compete well in the marketplace. Like Rove points out, we oughta be working on cleaning up our existing energy sources.

So, even if the $100-200 billion price tag for this legislation is fully spent, what do we get? A whopping 15% cut in US emissions, and less than 4% on a global scale, which is essentially meaningless in terms of worldwide impact.

None of this should be surprising anymore, as this administration seems to love spending huge amounts of money on stuff that will do more harm than good.

Ugh.

Apparently, I’m Not The Only One That Thinks Global Warming Is A Big Scam

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According to this article, Americans are losing faith in Al McManBearPig Gore’s pet project. In fact, “the number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years.”

57 percent believe there is strong scientific evidence the Earth has gotten hotter over the past few decades, and as a result, people are viewing the situation as less serious. That’s down from 77 percent in 2006, and 71 percent in April 2008.

Huh.

It seems as though the more Americans read up on Cap and Tax Trade, the more we reject it. And, the article says that if you live in the Midwest (like me), you’re more likely to think Al McManBearPig is full of crap. If you live in the Northeast or the west coast, then you’re more than likely in a liberal state and believe that Al McManBearPig actually invented the Internet, too.

Despite the fact that support for global warming is fading in America, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California is positive about the poll’s results. She said, “Today, to get 57 percent saying that the climate is warming is good, because today everybody is grumpy about everything,” Boxer said. “Science will win the day in America. Science always wins the day.”

I wonder if she means the kind of “science” that will ultimately get really rich off of Cap and Trade or real science. The jury’s still out on that one.

I Am ALL OVER This Movie.

An Inconsistent Truth is a documentary coming out this winter that combats Al McManBearPig Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Apparently, since Al pulled the notion of global warming out of his assular area, the temperature of the planet has actually decreased. Huh. Go figure. Because of this, I’m beginning to question his inventing the Internet now, too. So, you can only imagine how disillusioned I’ve become.

I’ll just put it out there. I am vehemently opposed to Cap and Tax. I don’t think enough questions have been asked, nor do I believe that taxing every energy transaction is going to do diddly for the earth. Believe what you want, clever and competent readers, but I believe it’s a big, fat scam. And the joke’s on us.

I can’t wait to see this movie. I wonder if IT will be shown in liberally-indoctrinated classrooms all over the country….

I won’t hold my breath.

Aaaand another trailer for you…(my favorite of the three that are floating around out there in cyberspace right now):

Pelosi and Pals Would Like To Screw Small Businesses

Nancy Pelosi neuteres blue dog democrats

According to this article, September 15 is the latest deadline for the Senate Finance Committee to make a health care reform deal. In the meantime, we’ve got some doggies that have rolled over under the pressure of Ms. McChoppyHands Pelosi. Understanding what this all means to small business in this country is pretty crucial, and I don’t think a lot of people out there really get the impact it’ll have on the Mom and Pops out there – as well as the trickle-down effect to the rest of us.

Those Blue Dogs rolled over like good little Democrat doggies this week by voting in favor of tax hikes on small businesses to pay for Obamacare. This will ultimately “raise the top tax rate from 35% to 39%, combined with the health care surtax, (meaning that) top-earning households (will keep) 17% less of their income after paying taxes. Those earners can be expected to reduce their reported incomes by nearly 7%, resulting in a smaller tax base and less revenue for the government .”

But yeah, it gets even better.

America’s successful small businesses would pay higher tax rates than the Fortune 500, and for that matter than most companies around the world.”

If it’s not already obvious, this sort of taxation will result in an even greater delay in economic growth, coupled with more job losses. Add to that the Crap and Tax passed a month ago, with your typical American family seeing an average $900 hike in their energy costs next year alone combined with even MORE projected job loss, and what do you get?

A Democratic poo sandwich. Mmmm…tasty.

John Boehner Kicks Butt.

OK, a few things here.

One, I love this video so much. It shows John Boehner getting fired up about the fact that Democrats spent about 30 years putting legislation together, that NO ONE HAS READ, and they want to take about 5 hours to debate “the most profound piece of legislation to come to this floor in 100 years.”

Two, Boehner goes on to let everyone know of a nifty little amendment the Democrats introduced – at 3:09 AM. THIS MORNING. Yeah. And they still want to hurry up and debate it in 5 hours, and then hurry up and pass it as quickly as possible. I mean, that’s logical, right?

Three, Henry Waxman is extremely unfortunate looking. It has to be said.

UPDATE: Ok – so it turns out this is from a couple of weeks ago. Still, it’s maddening enough to write about twice. :)

Just A Friendly Reminder That Cap And Tax Is A Lousy Idea And You Should Be Calling Your Congressman To Tell Him/Her So Immediately.

I know, I know. Daisy JUST talked about this. But it bears repeating.

It doesn’t really get much plainer than when Obama himself basically says, “Yeah y’all – energy costs are going to totally skyrocket under my plan. Good luck with that.”

But wild-eyed Nancy Pelosi wants to push this through so she can have another clapping party.

Make sure to attend your local 4th of July Tea Party, you guys! It may be too late to prevent the passage of Cap and Tax nonsense, but you’re still making a statement. And who knows – if you come to the Indianapolis one, you might just see/hear us there. ;)

Transparency, Shmansparency…

Remember when Obama used to talk about transparency?  And how bills would be posted on the Internet and how members of Congress would actually have time to READ and DIGEST the information that they were voting on?

Yeah, that’s not happened so much during this administration.

The Chicago Tribune did a story today on how Democrats need to SLOW THE HECK DOWN.  And I couldn’t agree more.  The hurry-hurry-hurry technique is an obvious cover for wanting to push crap without substance into law.

Case in point – the climate change bill – a.k.a. Cap and Tax.  This mammoth-sized bill is now 1,201 pages, still growing and changing, and Pelosi and her buddies are rumored to want to push this monstrosity through on FRIDAY.  It equates to $845 billion more in spending (and taxing for us, of course), and many people are saying that it will kill jobs, not create them.

While I was trying to really wrap my brain around it today, I had an a-ha moment, realizing that this is just like the spendiddlydimulus.  It’s big, confusing, and it’s a bunch of monkey crap that’s going to raise our taxes while not really providing an equally substantial benefit.  And it’s being RUSHED through Congress. Pelosi says that it’ll help out lower income people (at the expense of regular people like me, of course).  Boehner says it’s, well, ridiculous.

I’ll let you decide for yourself whether beneficial or ridiculous fit the bill:

I have to say, though, at least Pelosi has refrained from clapping in this clip, and for that alone, we should all be thankful.

Obama’s Approval Rating Falls Below Ridiculous For The First Time Ever

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According to this, Obama’s approval index has fallen below zero for the first time. I suppose that could have something to do with the fact that every single economic decision he’s made to date seemingly results in the economy tanking further. Or maybe it’s because Americans are starting to catch wind of his radical government takeover plan for healthcare. Or maybe it’s because of the fact that North Korea is on its way to shoot a missile towards Hawaii, and Obama’s response is to say he doesn’t want to meddle and then to cut funding on missile defenses. Or maybe it’s because he lied about cutting taxes for 95% of Americans, and is in fact wanting to push through cap and trade legislation which will RAISE taxes.

All that said, an approval index of -1 is actually, then, pretty awesome. I think Obama could probably kick a kitten during his Obamamercial this Wednesday evening and there’d still be liberals who would defend him.

Cap ‘N Trade And A Logical Alternative

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So, Reps. Pence, Shimkus and Upton wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal this week about the House Republicans’ proposed energy legislation – The American Energy Act. And it includes plans to increase nuclear energy, plans to increase the production of our natural resources, and incentives for consumers to buy energy efficient cars. All things, mind you, that make perfect sense, which is a stark contrast to Obama’s Cap ‘n Trade plan. You know – that plan that’s going to make electricity costs “necessarily skyrocket” according to Obama himself. The plan which, according to independent analyses cited in the article, is going to cost our country a crapload of jobs. The plan whose legislation is sponsored by this guy:

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I don’t know about you, but I kinda think Henry Waxman looks like the evil Slugworth from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Anyway, I like what I read in their commentary, because it makes sense. I like it when things make sense. Plus, since Obama is so hell bent on allowing Iran to develop its own nuclear program for energy (snort) then I think it’s only reasonable to suggest that perhaps we do the same.

But that probably makes too MUCH sense for Democrats, who apparently would rather increase all of our energy bills and send a bunch of American jobs overseas JUST IN CASE this whole global warming thing is really happening.

Mitch Daniels Talks Cap And Trade

GOD, I love this man.

My Man Mitch delivered the national GOP address this week, and in addition to being completely precious, which he obviously is, he did a bang-up job. I mean, he just says it like it is, politiely, eloquently, and plainly. He presents the facts on why this whole Cap and Trade plan is the worst possible idea ever, and he does it in a way that’s reasonable, non-confrontational, and totally effective.

This country needs a whole lot more Mitches.

Cap And Trade Is “Imperialism,” And Indiana Says No Thanks…

 king-o

The Crossroads of America is fully aware of the impending screw…

Mitch Daniels (the Governor of Indiana, for you non-Hoosiers) wrote a great article on cap and trade in the Wall Street Journal today.   The fancy name for this new cap and trade legislation is the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act, and it’s about to be released this week in Congress.  What is it, exactly?  Well, it claims to be a bill that will “combat global warming by setting strict limits on carbon emissions.”  Alrighty, then.  But what does that REALLY mean?

It means your utility bills are going to up more than double, people.

Governor Daniels describes the legislation as “imperialistic,” in that it will “impose enormous taxes and restrictions on free commerce by wealthy but faltering powers — California, Massachusetts and New York — seeking to exploit politically weaker colonies in order to prop up their own decaying economies. Because proceeds from their new taxes, levied mostly on us, will be spent on their social programs while negatively impacting our economy, we Hoosiers decline to submit meekly.”

And Hoosiers are just a small part of the pie that will be meekly getting the screw.

This crap piece of legislation will double my – and your – utility bills.  And, businesses will consequently see a more-than-doubling of their energy bills, too, which in turn will probably drive businesses away to foreign lands, where it’s cheaper to do business.

So, HOW is this supposed to help America again?

Well, the only reason the administration is doing all of this – the only reason this “imperial” legislation is even able to be pushed into our lives – is for an unproven claim of global warming.  Daniels goes on to say that, “no honest estimate pretends to suggest that a U.S. cap-and-trade regime will move the world’s thermometer by so much as a tenth of a degree a half century from now. “

So, let’s recap, shall we?  Our utilities  are going to go up by more than double so King Obama, Al Gore and his monolithic hippie friends can feel good about POSSIBLY,  just MAYBE lowering the globe’s temperature by about a half a degree in 100 years

Remember when Obama said that only the top 5% would be affected by taxes?  Kind of seems like a bit of an imperalistic fib now looking back, huh?

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