Cap-and-trade is moving forward in the Senate Boxer says
In a joint statement from Democrat Senators Barbara Boxer-CA and John Kerry-MA, the Senate version of cap-and-trade legislation will be moving forward in late September.
The bill proposed by the Senators claims to create millions of clean energy jobs, reduce dependence on foreign oil and ensure America’s place in a clean energy economy.
Adversaries of the bill say the legislation is nothing more than a giant tax increase on the American taxpayer and without global participation with India and China, all the clean energy would be for not.
The delay in cap-and-trade discussions came from the intensive work taking place with the health care issue that has engulfed the nation, according to the Senators.
Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid-D NV, “agreed to provide some additional time to work on the final details of our bill, and to reach out to colleagues and important stakeholders,” Boxer said.
“We have told the Majority Leader that our goal is to introduce our bill later in September,” Boxer finished.
For more stories; http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner
Tea Party event concludes (Part Three)
The day-long Tea Party rally in Sacramento fired up more than 10,000 Patriots and dispelled myths and argued facts about a variety of hot-button issues, including the plight of Central California farmers, logging industry, health care and cape-and-trade.
Longtime motivational speaker and probable California congressional candidate Mason Weaver revved up the crowd with his humor and more importantly, candor.
Weaver, who happens to be black, says “we are all American’s no hyphen required.”
He went on to explain how the current administration is busy taking away basic freedoms and compared the current administration to plantation owners. “You have 100 percent employment, you have a house, you have food, but what they forget to remind you of is you have no freedom!”
“American’s voted for hope and change, but what they got was rope and chains,” Weaver shouted to the excited audience. “If this is a mob, where do I sign up?”
In an effort to corral all the industries threatened in the state, Dr. Bill Wattenburg talk show host of KGO AM 810 fame, urged truckers to use their vehicles as anti-campaigning vehicles and target politicians who oppose industries required to keep California afloat.
A mish mash of booths encouraged voters to get involved and ensure their voices are heard. One such booth targeted Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams for recall. Eagle-eyed voters are taking him to task because he voted for a tax and spend budget in California. “We’re not going to take it anymore from either side,” they said.
So far the recall Adam group has raised $100,000 and has gathered nearly enough signatures. Chandra Chell of “Recall Adam” said, “We are very close.”
Another Republican recall was announced against state Senator Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield. His constituents were furious of his ‘yes’ vote for a tax and spend Sacramento as well.
California’s anti-business policies continue with the proposed ban on big screen televisions. “In three weeks the California Energy Commission is set to ban the sales of big screen TVs in California by 2011,” Charlie Martinez said. “I stand to lose a large part of my business. How many jobs, money and taxes does California want to lose to other states?”
The electric buzz throughout the day only ignited the already mad voters looking for ways to make a change. It is clear the 2010 elections are going to have a big impact throughout the country and many have noted the “sleeping giant has been awakened.”
Starting from a grassroots level, Virginia Fuller, a black emigrant from the Netherlands plans to run for office in the minority-based, 7th district. “I will stand for smaller government.”
Her first big speech was greeted warmly and she spoke with enthusiasm, Leslie Eastman said; “She is very dynamic and charismatic.”
Many of the organic protesters had a bone to pick with California’s Air Resources Board. This particular California regulation department will hit the trucking industry hard. Shelly Archer has an 18 employee trucking business in Ukiah, CA.
The state will be phasing out diesel engines used by truckers beginning 2011-2013. “The cost is $40,000 per engine and there is no way I can change over my 18 trucks and stay in business,” Archer explained.
The last time Archer was part of the political process was during the Ronald Reagan governorship. “I took 35 letters from my high school to the Capital in order to get smoking out of our bathrooms in high school. Reagan himself came out and talked to me!”
While the event was taking place there were more than 200 truckers circling the California capital, all were on their own time and paid for the fuel in an effort to alert the country that California truckers are under siege. According to one trucker, law enforcement stated there would be an $800 fine for honking their horns. California can find a way to tax everything.
Hundreds of homemade signs circulated through the sea of voters. Save a farmer, eat a fish, and Term limits! Honesty!! And Politicians pay your taxes!!! Is a sampling of the many creative signs.
Daniel Linder of California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) says that California has the most regulations in the U.S. “It is so expensive to just get a degree and a license in the Forestry industry.”
“As a state, California imports 70 percent of lumber for building, while our over-stocked forests are responsible for devastating wildfires that creates 55 million metric tons of pollution each year,” Linder explains. “Californians pay $1.4 billion each year on taxes to fight wildfires rather than use the lumber.”
The tea party rally insisted California state legislature repeal AB 32 (cap-and-trade) and reduce government regulation – not pile on more.
By the end of the day the message could not have been any clearer.
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For part one;www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m8d28-Tea-Party-Patriots-take-Californias-capital-by-storm-Part-One
For more stories; http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner
A special thank you to my eyes and ears, Leslie Eastman!
Cap-and-trade madness heads to Senate
San Diego- First Washington spent a trillion dollars on stimulus without a thorough-reading by Senators or Congressmen; up next cap-and-trade legislation, the largest tax increase in American history.
“There was no reading allowed,” Congressman Brian Bilbray-R-Calif angrily said. “In January there was a mandatory 48-hour read-through process, that didn’t last a month.”
Newly minted President Obama promised a new era of transparency for the American people tired of Washington as usual, what they got according to Bilbray “is the most clandestine government since I’ve been there.”
The topic du jour was referred as tax-and-trade by the Congressman and the legislation is being jammed through by Henry Waxman who has never even run a business or city. “This bill is based on pure politics,” Bilbray said.
“I don’t know how anyone can look at their grandkids and say I was a part of the absurd subsidization of ethanol bio fuel?”
Many outside Washington believe there are better ways to move forward with the environment. For instance, at San Diego’s Scripps Research Institute, they have come up with algae bio fuel.
The researchers at Scripps predict within 10 years they will be able to produce algae bio-fuel for under $2 per gallon. That’s great. They should be able to take some carbon credits with the new cap-and-trade bill right?
Wrong.
Because this company isn’t on a Waxman/Markey special list, the Scripps Institute will be left in the salt water and reap no incentives to save the planet.
The of course there is Aptera Motors of Vista, California. Their new electric hybrid will get more than 100mpg. Certainly they will receive some carbon credits for their obvious environmentally-friendly vehicle?
Wrong, again. They too are not on the list according to Bilbray. If you see a pattern forming here, you would be right. Washington hasn’t changed at all and cap-and-trade has nothing to do with the environment.
“The greatest threat to the environment is the smoke coming from the backroom deals Waxman/Markey are making,” Bilbray contends.
Bilbray knows a thing or two about the environment. He served on the California Air Resources board for six years. “I know how to get EPA approval- this bill wouldn’t fly for 10 seconds.”
In another effort to create a revenue stream through indulgence, cap-and-trade seeks to create clean-coal. Bilbray says that process isn’t even a guarantee and is at least 20 years down the road. “Why are we funding this now?”
“This bill simply states that if you sin, you can buy indulgence through the church of Waxman/Markey and continue to pollute,” Bilbray says.
This brings us to the crux of the bill- the derivative market or buying and selling of carbon credits. Bilbray says this is a story of horrors in waiting.
“This is the biggest scam that has no auditing provisions in place,” according to Bilbray. “The American people are expected to trust the environmental Jimmy Swaggart’s; they are pocketing money in the name of the environment.”
It took the government giving away 85 percent of the tax revenue the first decade to drag this clunker of a bill across the finish line, according to Chris Horner, author of Red Hot Lies. It is estimated that the legislation will create $300 billion in revenue per year.
On top of that revenue or taxation, the government can lower the cap at any time to generate more money, says Horner.
The result of these over-reaching government policies and regulation is a slow domino effect on the economy-starting with the fragile real-estate market. The current bill has language in place to force homeowners to replace everything that is not environmentally friendly, like windows, water heaters, shower Nazi’s and the list goes on.
Ethanol bio fuel has a long and storied past. However, when researchers from Duke University took it to task they said it was better for the planet to-not-plant the crops and suspend production of the $6 per gallon loser.
Bilbray contends that Waxman is asking the American people to take a big leap of faith with cap-and-trade. “If we are wrong, not only does it hurt the economy, but it hurts the environment for the next 150 years,” Bilbray said.
Then why are the majority of Democrats and eight Republicans for this? Why is everyone simply following Waxman?
Bilbray says it’s the classic Emperor in clothes routine. “No one within the Democratic Party wants to stand up and say Waxman is naked!”
The one person who could stand up and end this nonsense is Obama’s new Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu. He is a Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1997.
Bilbray reports that Dr. Chu spoke at the UN Conference of Global Warming and said climate change is a sham and that ethanol production is a sham. Whether the Secretary of Energy has the courage to stand up to the Obama administration remains to be seen, Bilbray stays optimistic that in the end the right thing will be done.
The UN has even chimed in on America’s cap-and-trade bill according to Horner. “A recent report said cap-and-trade will harm the U.S. economy and competitiveness with world markets.”
Not all Democrats signed on to the cap-and-trade legislation in the House, Congressman Dennis Kucinich-D-OH debated on the floor the morning of the vote.
“I oppose H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The reason is simple. It won’t address the problem. In fact, it will make the problem worse,” he said.
Those are strong words coming from a ranking member in the 111th Democrat congress.
Why then does Congressman Bilbray continue the fight against cap-and-trade?
“My dad told me something a couple a days before he died, you will get here one day (death bed), and I don’t want you to ever regret that you didn’t try.” Bilbray was in the tenth grade.
Fast forward to today. “Those words were so powerful for me.” Then he goes on to quote from a favorite author Mark Twain; “The things you regret in life are not the things you did wrong, but the things you didn’t try to do.”
Bilbray says, “I’ll always continue to try.”
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