When posts on the Front Page become old hat they'll come here to rest and be available for your perusal and research. In the morgue, posts are grouped by subject matter and linked to by buttons in the second row above.
It was amusing to watch Obama this week. He gave us his best bemused professorial look and explained that the price of gas was a complex problem beyond our control and one that may not have a quick fix. He was, of course, lying through his teeth. He just can't help it.
The US has more oil in reserve than all the middle east. We could easily produce all the oil we need. We could tell all those suppressive Muslim regimes to go pound sand. Why don't we do that? The short answer is because the Obama administration doesn't want us to. They have stated plainly that they want the price of fuel to rise to European levels and they want to force-feed us "green energy". Green energy is, of course, not very green. You think the wind is free? Try pricing out one of those big white wind turbines. It takes about fifteen years of free wind-generated electricity to break even on the turbine. How about the sun? Isn't it free? Sure, but the technology to turn it into electricity costs almost the same as wind. In the meantime, the federal government has clamped down on the options for oil production.
Then there is the debt. The debt? Yes, the debt. The massive federal debt erodes the value of the dollar, making oil more expensive. When oil is more expensive, gas is more expensive.
So, you see, it's not all that complex. The value of the dollar and the reluctance to encourage exploration and production are Obama's contribution to high gas prices. And, this amounts to a staggering tax on the American consumer, particularly if you're one of the millions of unemployed or under-employed.
No, Mr. Obama, the problem isn't very complex at all, and it's largely your fault. From now until election day voters will look at the price signs in front of gas stations, but they won't see the price. They'll see a sign that says "Obama is a dope".
An anti-US article by Michael Winter on the Russian English language news web site rt.com cites the deals Iran is making with India, China, South Korea and Russia to trade in gold rather than the US dollar. Iran's foray into partnerships with Latin American countries and its investment in Spanish language TV channels shows just how threatening Iran is to our economy. Saudi Arabia and Iraq have recently made deals with China for oil exporting. China may insist on paying non-US Dollars for the oil.
We are threatened primarily because we are so dependent on foreign oil imports. So it is very hard to understand why the government does its best to impede the development of our oil resources, when we could free ourselves of this threat by producing all the oil we need. We should be on a crash program to ramp up domestic production as fast as is reasonably safe.
The push to get off the dollar has been going on for some time now and prior to the Iran deals Russia and China agreed to trade in their own currencies as opposed to dollars.
India has dumped its dollar reserves. China is trading them for pieces of America. As the world begins to be awash in dollars, its value will drop and probably significantly.
We are already seeing significant inflation if you look at the price of bread or coffee or meat or many other food products. The same is true of energy products such as gasoline. While the government tries to prevent people from focusing on these rising prices by excluding them form the core inflation measure, we still have to pay the dramatically increased prices in our day to day lives.
There are those who just hate oil, even the mention of it. They want to replace oil with alternative energy sources. But the practical truth is that isn't going to happen in our lifetimes because we use too much of it and there isn't enough capacity ion the alternatives to replace even a significant part of it. So it is time to face the music. We are our own worst enemy because we are an oil rich nation that refuse to take advantage of our riches. Thus we are vulnerable to the foreign import of oil and any instability in that flow, not to overlook all those dollars that could be going to American jobs and the American economy. The Keystone Pipeline is not our oil, but at least it comes from a neighbor and can buy us some time while we ramp up our own capacity to produce oil.
We need a President and a Congress that understands this and will do something about it right now. We get what we vote for and we deserve what we get.
Even before Sarah Palin's "Drill baby drill" sound bite Republicans have been pushing for more energy production. Every recommendation and attempt to to use energy production as an answer to our failing economy has been ignored by Obama and the Democrats. And now even President Obama's own Council on Jobs and Competitiveness has released their "Road Map to Renewal" report on ideas for job creation. And what would you know but it included a number of "all-in" energy policy recommendations to create American jobs. Sounds very much like the "all-of-the-above" American Energy Initiative promoted by House Republicans. Specific proposals from the Council include increased oil, natural gas and coal production on federal lands, additional uranium mining, streamlining permitting and leasing processes for renewable energy production, and the development of pipelines, transmission and distribution for electricity and fuel.
Our so called bipartisan President won't have any of it -- sounds all to Republican for him. "The President's Jobs Council today confirmed what House Republicans have known all along, that American energy production will spur job creation and strengthen our national security," said Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings. The Obama Administration has a long track record of moving in the exact opposite direction of the Council's recommendations -- blocking new uranium mining in Arizona, slow walking offshore energy production, canceling natural gas lease sales, regulating Coal out of existence, largely ignoring renewable energy development on federal lands and punting on the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The House has passed bipartisan legislation to expand U.S. energy production and the Democrat controlled Senate has refused to take action on it. What the hell is wrong with Obama and the Senate? Can't they see their blind adherence to ideology is destroying America and it's economy? When someone is so dedicated to lunacy is it insanity or is it deliberate?
No rational person would argue with the desirability of alternative sources of energy. Nor would any rational person argue with minimizing our use of imported oil. The Department of Energy was created with the stated mission to reduce our dependance on foreign oil -- failing at that mission to this day. Even the irrational can understand that we need to reduce government spending, as long as it doesn't cut their personal government handouts of course. It's a fact of life that the Pentagon will have to make do with less money.
Quite a quandary for the Obama Administration which has continually put financial reward for it's supporters above the needs of the American people. The Navy purchased 450,000 gallons of bio-fuel at $16 per gallon when standard marine JP-5 fuel costs less than $4 per gallon. A prime example of both government lunacy and political corruption. The budget is so tight we're decommissioning ships but not so tight we can't pay 4X for fuel just to say we're making the Navy green. All we're really doing is funneling money to our friends.
T. J. Glauthier, a member of Obama's presidential transition team, is a "strategic adviser" at Solazyme that's selling a portion of the bio-fuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill. Solazyme also got a $21.8 million grant from the 2009 stimulus package. Solazyme's partner in the bio-fuel sale is Dynamic Fuels, a Louisiana company owned jointly by Tyson Foods and Tulsa-based Syntroleum. They already had other profitable businesses but were induced to develop bio-fuel manufacturing processes by a combination of subsidies and tax breaks. Our tax money at work perverting the free market to get businesses to pursue areas which otherwise would not be profitable or practical. Does this really make any sense to you?
Perhaps the sickest thing of all is that we have vast oil and natural gas resources that Obama won't allow to be tapped. While depriving Americans of sorely need jobs he forces us to be victimized by OPEC. Obama is even preventing us from building a pipeline to buy oil from Canada that they will no doubt sell to China instead. We in turn will have to buy more oil from OPEC. And just how does this benefit America? This isn't only our economy that's going to hell but also our national security.
Fisker is a double whammy for the Obama administration. First another major campaign contributor was well rewarded back in 2010 with $529 million for a "green" automotive start up, Fisker. Obama does love "green" and campaign donors. One of Fisker's biggest financial supporters is California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. They have financial involvement in a number of green-tech firms. Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, a California billionaire, hosted President Obama at a February dinner for high-tech executives at his secluded estate south of San Francisco. Over time Doerr and Kleiner Perkins executives have contributed more than $1 million to federal political causes and campaigns, primarily for Democrats. Doerr serves on Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness -- keeping friends close. ABC News has been unsuccessfully requesting an interview with Doerr since March.
Fisker purchased an old Wilmington, Delaware GM plant and designed their "karma" electric sports car. You'd think that would mean lots of green jobs in Delaware but you'd be wrong -- the second whammy. After all, Joe Biden told us all that the DOE's $529 million dollar loan was a path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But that isn't to be, all those green jobs our tax payer money has created will be in Finland and not the good old US. The car company's founder told ABC News, "There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle. They don't exist here." Sure there wasn't. I have to ask, why did Fisker buy an old GM manufacturing plant in the US if they were going to use a contract manufacturer? Once again the Obama administration has been scammed for our tax money. Crony capitalism and stupidity all rolled into one turd sandwich. Obama's buddies win -- US taxpayers not so much. Do we really need four more years of this?
The Fisker Karama sells for $97,000 and only two have been sold. Exotic sports cars, not really what I'd call a green business worthy of government support, hybrid electric or not. The electric range is only 32 miles and the gasoline engines max MPG is 20. Not the kind of product that would achieve volume manufacturing or a safe investment.
You'd think Obama and company would learn to be more careful after having Solyndra blow up in their faces. Well they didn't. Like a child with a pocket full of money, they couldn't wait to spend it all before the pocket fairy took it away from them. They rushed to spend over $4 billion left of stimulus money we'd have to borrow. "In debt they trust." Low and behold they found another solar panel company, Sunpower, and proceeded without the appropriate due dilligence the American tax payer expects. SunPower had some obvious red flags. For one their stock traded at $100 per share in 2007 but, now is down to $8. They weren't as financially sound as we were led to believe. SunPower executives announced that they expect to lower their 2011 earnings projections.
Sunpower came hat in hand to Obama and got $1.2 billion just as the loan program was ending. With our tax money in hand they were then able to get $1 billion in private funding from a French company -- just why did they need our tax money? I'll bet that French money wasn't a loan. Of course all of this is supposed to create so called green jobs in the United States. Only weeks before finalizing the deal with the Department of Energy, SunPower announced it was opening a new facility in Mexicali, Mexico -- not in the United States. That alone should should have stopped the deal in it's tracks.
I suppose risk and failure don't have much weight with the Obama administration. After all to this bunch of business morons, our tax dollars are like Monopoly money. I'm sorry to inform them that spending our tax dollars isn't a game -- the money is real even if it isn't their's. Here's hoping the American voter has learned to see through Obama's phony "Hope and Change." We're not as stupid as Obama would like to think we are.
The deeper we dig into the Solyndra debacle the more foul it smells. Obama was in a such big rush to invest taxpayer's $535 million in this company that he didn't stop to listen to all the warnings from his own staff or to see the red flags. It should be noted that two weeks before President George W. Bush left office, the Energy Department's credit committee voted against a loan commitment for Solyndra. Despite the facts Obama wanted a poster child for his green jobs initiative and the loan guarantee was rushed through the process at a blistering rate. This company was in financial trouble and trying to break into a highly cost competitive industry. Solyndra used the money to build a new plant in Fremont CA.
For months before the collapse of Solyndra, Energy Department officials had been sitting in on regular board meetings apparently blind to the facts. Now we find that as Solyndra was filing for bankruptcy they were still installing new equipment in the plant. We also find that even very low level people working on this project knew it would fail because the technology and manufacturing processes had already been rendered obsolete by the Chinese both in terms of manufacturing cost and durability during transport. Breaking during transport is a major problem for the panels Solyndra would be manufacturing. Add to that the fact that Obama had gotten very cozy with principle investor George B. Kaiser of Tulsa. Kaiser had contributed $53,500 personally and bundled a considerable amount of money for Obama's campaign.
And still you haven't whiffed the worst of it. The loan guarantees were written so that if the company went bankrupt the private investors, e.g. Kaiser, were first to be paid out of the settlement proceeds. The taxpayer gets to hold the empty bag. That's what happens when bureaucrats oblivious to business practice negotiate contracts -- they get snookered by the sharks. Questions of company operations and political corruption have already prompted investigations by the FBI, the Inspector General for the Energy Department, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee which has begun hearings. We'll have to see if Congress finds any more hidden bodies in this very smelly closet.
Solyndra employees are applying for benefits based on the fact that China has a comparative advantage at producing solar panels thus leading to Solyndra's ultimate failure. And yes that competitive advantage existed before Obama blew $535 million on a green jobs photo op. How could Obama not have know? Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits were established under the Trade Act of 1974 to provide benefits to people who lose their jobs due to foreign trade.
Attorneys for Solyndra Chief Executive Brian Harrison and W.G. "Bill" Stover, the company's chief financial officer, sent letters to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee Tuesday saying the two executives would not answer any questions during the hearing.
Let's look at why start-ups fail and in particular why Solyndra failed. Usually it's a combination of things like poor management, missed development schedules, being under-capitalized and the markets not really being there. As to management I can't really speak but you'd think the White House vetted them before making the $535 million loan guarantee and making Solyndra the poster child for the green energy business song and dance program. Congress is looking closely at how well vetted they were. Solyndra had a factory staffed with over a 1,000 employees -- they were delivering product although I don't have any visibility into what their profit margins were. With a $535 million federal loan guarantee they certainly had the capitol they needed.
No doubt the buzz is there to turn suspects into prospects. But why didn't the product sell? I believe the answer lies in "willingness to pay," ROI for those that prefer acronyms. I live in California and Lord only knows there's plenty of sunshine in Fresno and large electric energy bills for central air. I've a well insulated house, double pane windows and lots of trees for shade while augmenting the AC with ceiling fans and keeping my thermostat set at 80 degrees -- I still have huge bills. Having the cash to spend for solar energy generation I looked into adding solar panels to my house. The ROI was well past ten years in part because PG&E would now charge me the higher commercial rates for the electricity I'd use at night. It just wasn't worth it.
Commercial enterprises already pay the higher rates and have higher energy consumption so their ROI comes sooner when augmented by tax breaks. Boone Pickens spent billions building wind farms and had to abandon the projects because ultimately it wasn't cost effective. Obama has been working hard to artificially raise the cost of fossil fuel generated energy to make renewable more cost effective. Limiting oil production in the U.S. has increased our dependency on more expensive OPEC oil. Bet you swallow hard and grimace whenever you fill your car's gas tank. Putting coal mines out of business with regulations and using the EPA to break the financial backs of coal fired electric plants isn't the answer to make solar energy production for energy companies more cost effective. States like California are passing laws requiring the use of renewable energy by public utilities forcing them to use it, even though it will raise their costs. The consumer will have to pick up the difference. Obama has told us the cost of energy will get higher. Is that what we need during high unemployment and recession? Where's Obama's common sense? On top of it all that taxpayer money and those green jobs are gone.
Solyndra was the first green energy company picked for success by Obama -- there are many more backed with taxpayer money. Last month Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy protection as the solar market continues to shake out on declining government handouts. How many other green companies will also be black holes to consume our money and Obama's green wet dreams?
In short, the central premise of alarmist global warming theory is that carbon dioxide emissions should be directly and indirectly trapping a certain amount of heat in the earth's atmosphere and preventing it from escaping into space. Real-world measurements, however, show far less heat is being trapped in the earth's atmosphere than the alarmist computer models predict, and far more heat is escaping into space than the alarmist computer models predict.
When objective NASA satellite data, reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, show a "huge discrepancy" between alarmist climate models and real-world facts, climate scientists, the media and our elected officials would be wise to take notice. Whether or not they do so will tell us a great deal about how honest the purveyors of global warming alarmism truly are.
This result was to be expected. After all, how presumptuous is it to assert that you have modeled the earth's climate? Why not pick something easy like the global economy. Apparently the modelers forgot to consult the chaos theorists just across campus. What is far more predictable than the climate is the result you get when a bunch of liberal academics try to write a model of climate change when they believed before they started that auto emissions and cow farts were warming the globe. That kind of scientific dishonesty has very predictable results.
Of course, if you live here in Texas where it's been over 100 degrees for over two weeks, it's easy to believe the global warming thing. What we do know is that the earth's climate has been a whole lot hotter and a whole lot colder. We also know that warming leads to cooling as the ocean currents are modified -- it was really hot before the last ice age. And, whilst we try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions by a few fractions of a percent, some big volcano blows its top and screws it all up. The monster volcano under Yellowstone is about 40,000 years past due for a really big eruption. That will cause incredible global cooling, perhaps even an ice age.
Finally, we should remember that the high priest of the global warming alarmists is Al Gore. Here is a first class nitwit who got worse grades in college than G. W. Bush, wasn't ever trained in climatology, and stands to make billions from the panic. At least some people are panicked. Not me. I am convinced that the impact humans have on the climate is minimal and certainly insignificant in the light of events over which we have no control. So, I take something of a philosophical approach to the whole thing. We can try to command the tide not to come it, but it probably won't work. We can do a little to make the world a better place by being kind to one another, including not calling each other names, and that certainly will work.
Currently, the EPA and environmentalists are trying to prevent a pipeline from Canada to the refineries of Texas from being built. I have frequently lamented that the environmentalists, in pursuit of the guaranteed no-risk policies, have removed from our nation a dramatic asset and that is its natural resources. We are in fact rich, but we are in fact poor because environmentalists and their sympathizers have crippled the energy sector, forcing us to buy from foreigners, hurting our economy and our deficit problems. Obama says he loses sleep over jobs. Turn the energy sector loose you idiot and you will have jobs galore along with a significant improvement in the deficit. You idiot!
Please explain to me why Obama does everything he can to force America to buy oil from the Middle East and the likes of Chavez. Canada is our ally and age old friend. The pipeline will create needed jobs in America.
The green job myth is an excellent example of how short sighted liberals are. On the surface, alternatives to fossil fuel are a laudable goal. The problems come in when you look below the surface at the details of implementation like cost, timing and unintended consequences. The implementation of any change requires proper timing and phasing. Elements sorely missing from Obama's green job strategy. Green energy forced on us before its time is a disaster.
In November 2010 the EU's costs for electricity production from both nuclear and coal was $.04, natural gas $.05, onshore wind $.13, biomass $.16 and solar $.56 cents per kilowatt-hour. What do you think the impact on the economy would be if the cost of energy increased 300% let alone over 1,000%? The answer is clear, in general the high cost of generating energy from green fuels is prohibitive at this time. Just think of the economic problems caused when the price of gasoline goes up 50%. Of course you could invest up to $40,000 dollars in home solar only to find a poor ROI because the energy you use at night is now at the higher commercial rates. In California co-generation is only cost effective for businesses that already are paying the higher commercial rates.
Spain made a big push to create "green jobs" and experienced a loss of 2.2 regular jobs for every green job created. Do we need less jobs? Let's look at the manufacturing of solar panels. After receiving $43 million in aid from the state of Massachusetts, Evergreen Solar announced last month that it would be closing its manufacturing plant in Devens, Mass., laying off 800 workers and moving manufacturing to China. Average monthly wage is below $300 in China as opposed to $5,400 in the Bay State. Evergreen was the 3rd largest solar panel manufacturer in the US. Last May, Obama went to solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra in Fremont, Calif., to celebrate a new plant -- creating 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent workers. President Obama exclaimed, "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra." In a matter of months, Solyndra, yet to turn a profit, announced that it was canceling the expansion. Create a green manufacturing job in the US and it relocates out of country.
How about the practicality of electric cars? The Chevy Volt is priced at $40,280 MSRP. Even with a $7,500 federal tax credit the price is still $32,780. How can the average family justify that price when a great selection of conventional fuel efficient cars can be had from $13,000 to $20,000. Wait until you see what it costs to replace the batteries. Guess where the new batteries will be manufactured -- China. While we're talking electric consider that electricity is frequently priced in tiers to encourage conservation. Add an electric car to the mix and your additional electric consumption will be at the higher punitive rates.
Unlike green jobs, those associated with coal, oil and natural gas stay in America, pay well and perhaps more importantly help balance the trade deficit and improve national security. All winners not in the the green job initiative. Let's not forget the reductions in pollution that technology has and continues to bring about for the consumption of fossil fuels. That which on the surface is a great idea can become a disaster if not carefully analyzed before blindly implementing. Green jobs will have their time.
Glenn Beck has been warning for some time abut the dictatorial instincts of Barack Obama. Those instincts have played out in the takeover of many parts of the economy. Now, with the world experiencing record cold spells, flying in the face of the global warming advocates, Obama's EPA head is going around Congress, openly, and bypassing states governments who refuse to cooperate and implementing regulations that were justified by the global warming scare in the first place. This is the problem with Progressives. They don't need facts to move forward with their instinctive elitists notions on how things ought to be, just because they think so. Hopefully this will fire up states' governors to rebel against the power grabs of the dictator Obama.
The risen cost of corn is driving inflation amongst the thousands of products depending on corn, including farm animals. Now would be a good time to end the subsidies for ethanol which is derived from corn. In fact the new Republicans should look at all subsidies. Why not require that all foreign aid be in the form of in kind American products and services to the extent that is possible, rather than cash. At least we would be spending it on our own jobs.
What you suggest makes perfect sense. In fact, years ago we used to send millions of metric tons of grain overseas in the form of aid. But, we won't do it now. Why? Because grain is grown in middle America -- the red states. And, Obama won't give them a leg up because they didn't and won't vote for him. In his mind, the United States is made up of the east coast and the west coast and people entirely by members of labor unions. The states in the middle simple create an annoying delay in getting from New York to California. It's the same reason he won't do anything about the border -- it's all in those pesky middle states. The good news is that his constituency is shrinking by the hour -- look at what happened in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
What a simple yet effective idea -- a real win win for those we help and America. Why doesn't it occur to those in charge? The answer is equally simple. Because they don't care or understand where the money comes from or how to efficiently use resources.
Al Gore didn't invent the Internet, he invented Global Warming and gave the ecocrazies a reason to live and thrive while lining his own pockets. Self anointed climate scientists had fun colluding, cooking the books and living off of government grants. Life is easy when you have a fawning audience who blindly takes what you say as gospel truth while your senseless minions attack anyone that dares to disagree or ask questions -- all in the name of "science." I'd thought we'd heard it all until now. The fact that we're in a period of Global Cooling had finally taken the hot air out of the Global Warming balloon. Yet still the crazies are harping even though the cooling weather and phony data have covered our ears to their ranting.
What are they to do? Their answer is the most insane yet. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is blaming our Global Cooling on what else -- Global Warming. They gave a rather convoluted analysis of why this is true. I dare not repeat it for fear someone would have me committed under a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold.
The European Environmental Agency latest report -- "The EU's greenhouse gas inventory report shows that emissions have not only continued their downward trend in 2008, but have also picked up pace. The EU-27's emissions stood 11.3% below their 1990 levels, while EU-15 achieved a reduction of 6.9% compared to Kyoto base-year levels."
Much of the downward trend was due to the global economic recession, not to the Emission Trading Scheme -- EU's Cap and Trade. It's agreed that ETS will have no detectable impact whatsoever on worldwide temperatures -- perhaps 0.1 degrees. Crucial information not shared with the public.
And the EU's costs for electricity production nuclear and coal both 4, natural gas 5, onshore wind 13, biomass 16 and solar 56 cents per kilowatt-hour. Coal reserves alone will last for centuries. What's the rush or cost advantage of renewable energy sources?
Obama has already been caught twisting words and definitions as they relate to jobs. Remember when jobs created became the unquantifiable jobs saved. Now that Obama is touting creating green jobs, he's created a very broad definition of what a green is. Would you call financial advisers, wholesale buyers, reporters, public-relations specialists, marketing managers and many more occupations green jobs? I sure wouldn't. This is beyond dishonest. Well beyond merely cherry picking the numbers and grouping that best spins the data to justify carefully crafted propaganda.
You can tell a lot about a liar by when they begin to lie. Let's take jobs as an example. With the stimulus the lie redefining jobs created to jobs saved didn't start until it was obvious that the stimulus wasn't working. Although the stimulus was in it self a bad joke Obama may not have realized it until it failed -- more stupidity than bald face lie. The green jobs propaganda is a different story. This time the perverted definition of what a green job is was part of the original plan. Ergo they knew from the start they were lying. Not a CYA lie but pure premeditated deception.
And how about the hopefully unintended consequences of the green push that's worth lying for. Cap and Tax wasn't easy to foist on the American people -- we already could see the lie in it. You can't cook the books and expect to not be caught. Still dedicated to the green movement it was decided that the EPA would usurp the power of Congress and use EPA rules instead of law. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s minority contingent has published a report stating that the EPA's new rules will cost 800,000 jobs -- Jobs lost, not jobs created. The rules call for greenhouse gas rules that can't be met with todays technology.
What happens when the installed boilers don’t meet the new standard? Factories and other facilities will have to close, putting jobs in danger and firms already hammered by the recession will lose production days -- which will destroy jobs. That’s why the United Steel Workers have sounded the alarm, insisting that the EPA’s proposal will mean disaster. New standards for commercial and industrial boilers alone put up to 798,250 jobs at risk.
New industrial standards for Portland cement threaten to stop all American production in the name of environmental protection. By tightening the regulations on US cement kilns 28 million tons of cement will have to imported, mostly from China where the greenhouse gas standards are more lax and more pollution will result.
I expect Obama to put plenty of positive spin on the Gulf Oil Spill now that it's stopped. He wants us to forget how badly his administration handled the spill and in fact made it worse. The aftermath of the spill will hurt the Gulf area for years. Because of the stupidity of using the spill for an excuse to ban off shore drilling the whole country will suffer as well. The so called six month moratorium will effectively stop all new off shore drilling for at least two years. The big floating oil rigs that drill have already started to move to other parts of the world and getting them back will take a long time. Just a reminder that Obama lied and change the report of the oil experts to say there should be a moratorium -- more lies.
Obama did a good job of making things worse and in fact I'm not sure I could identify a way he could have screwed thing up more than he did. On top of the spin that all is well on the Gulf, sure it is, he now lies about the science. Obama claims that 75% of the oil is already gone -- pure BS. Scientists say at best 50% of the oil has dispersed or been removed. Let's not forget that the oil that has dispersed is still invisibly there to pollute and be absorbed into fish and other sea food. Scooping oil of the surface of the Gulf's beaches didn't do anything for the oily mess that now resides under the surface. The sand may look clean on top but dig your toes into the sand and they can come up black.
One would think that Congress identifies a problem and creates a bill to deal with it. But you're wrong if you do. The Climate and Energy Bill is an excellent example. Congress has chosen a ideological crusade but now needs to find the problems that will have the best political support. It's not about solving a problem, it's about getting a bill passed. The Democrats' timing is based on leveraging the angst over the Gulf Oil Spill. No disaster waisted. They don't know what will be in the bill but the sales pitch is chosen "punish the polluters." Those they wish to punish aren't criminals, they are everyone that uses fossil fuel -- us. Governing by fear and punishment belongs to the middle ages.
Government's job isn't to pass bills. Government's job is to protect us and solve problems within the scope of the constitution. All to often, like this time, government will create the problems. They will raise the cost of energy for everyone in a time when that will further tank the economy. The most ridiculous of all is there are no existing energy sources that are capable of replacing fossil fuels. We will have no choice but to be punished because we can't live without energy. What's next, tax the air we breath.
Just think, our government is legislating a product no one can see or hold in their hand. It doesn't even need to be manufactured. We all will however be forced to pay for this product. Who gets this money? Al Gore and companies that exist only to take this money. When I grew up in the Bronx gangsters had a similar business model. It was called the protection racket. And to think this version of the protection racket is legal because Congress invented it for their friends.
On Glenn Beck’s program today, he revealed a blockbuster story which astonishes me and should astonish you! Beck says, “where is the media?” regarding his revelations which he backs up with facts documents and video. I say where the hell are the Republicans???
Beck detailed how George Soros invested $900,000,000 in Petrobas and shortly thereafter, the United States loaned $2,000,000,000 to Petrobas. Soros will benefit from the loan.
Petrobas made $15,000,000,000 last year. What the hell are we doing loaning them $2,000,000,000. In a related set of issues, Obama declares a 6 month moratorium on oil drilling offshore, which will benefit Petrobas. Oh, Petrobas (Petrilio Brasiliero) is a Brazilian oil company.
Obama based his moratorium on a report by “experts”, that was reviewed by professional consultants considered peers and approved by them. Only one problem… The professional experts say they were tricked because there was no mention of the moratorium in the report that they read. In fact it turns out Obama added the moratorium recommendation after they approved it. 8 of these professionals have sent a letter to Salazar saying the moratorium is a bad idea and they don’t approve of it. They say it will not reduce the risks but will harm the economy.
Obama loans Petrobas $2,000,000,000 when Petrobas is drilling at 2,777 meters and can go up to 3000 meters (10,000) which is way the hell more (almost double) than the BP leaking well. Yet Obama said drilling at depths much ess than that is too risky to allow Americans to drill. See any conflict here???
Something else that is fishy here… John Podesta and Tony Podesta formed a lobbying firm, The Podesta Group. Tony Podesta lobbies for BP. John Podesta, formerly of the Clinton administration, is tied heavily to Obama. John Podesta is the head of Center for American Progress and also on the board of the Apollo Alliance. The Center for American Progress picked Obama’s transition team and provided recommendations for the cabinet choices. The Apollo Alliance was used to create the Stimulus Bill. The Podesta Group also lobbies for NBC Universal a division of GE which owns the Smart grid technology. GE also owns NBC and MSNBC (along with Microsoft Corporation).
Beck has identified the very cozy relationship between GE and the Obama administration, including loans, support for GE’s investments in green technology and the support in return of Obama by NBC and MSNBC.
Beck also identified the direct link between Soros, the Center for American Progress and The Apollo Alliance. This stinks to high heavens!!!! The Republicans continue to disappoint me. They are not defending us from what is happening to our country.
It had to happen -- conspiracy theory and the question "is the mismanagement deliberate?" The Gulf oil spill has been so insanely mismanaged for so long that the public is beginning to wonder if Obama could really be that incompetent and stupid. The disaster that Obama has made worse with indecision is being used by Obama as an excuse to push Cap & Trade. Even though Cap & Trade has nothing to do with a solution to stopping the spill or helping with the clean up. Holder and company have been dispatched to the Gulf. How does the court stop the spill or clean up the coast line? Holder is being used to sound the blame game trumpet to distract the American people from the Administrations mismanagement. All part of Obamaganda and the Chicago smoke screen.
I've already reported that Obama altered recommendations from seven experts to claim they recommended a six month moratorium on drilling -- which they didn't. The moratorium will cost tens of thousands of jobs making the crisis all the worse and perhaps delay any new drilling in the Gulf for two years. Again making things worse. The Dutch and others offer help and it was refused. Why? What's really going on? Entirely to much that goes on in Obama land makes very little sense unless you assume the worst intentions.
The Netherlands offered four oil skimmers that have a capacity greater than the ongoing flow of the Gulf oil spill. Their offer came three days after the spill occurred. They clearly responded faster than the Obama administration. If we had accepted we'd have some oil contamination to clean up but we wouldn't have destroyed Louisiana's wet lands. We had a workable, tested solution available and we said NO -- pure criminal insanity on Obama's part. Here's a lesson why the government is the problem and not the solution. Bureaucrats are prone to saying NO because they don't consider the totality of a problem only if all the "rules" are followed. In this case the EPA has a regulation that says you can't pump water back into the ocean unless it's 100% clean.
The skimmers catch the oil on the surface of the ocean and pump it into a tanker. Much of what's pumped is actually water. In the tanker the oil floats to the top leaving water at the bottom. The water is pumped back into the ocean so more oil can be skimmed. The EPA didn't want to return a small amount of oil back into the ocean so instead they let the spilling oil turn our Gulf into a dead zone. If we had a real leader in the White House we would have used the skimmers and saved the coast from most of the oil spill. It appears that now, two month later, with the wetlands fouled by oil we may have decided to accept the Dutch skimmers.
Each skimmer will collect 5,000 tons of oil, 36,500 barrels, each day. With four skimmers you have the capacity of 146,000 barrels per day. That capacity is much greater than the highest estimates of the spill. Skimmers are most effective in calm water, which is what we have in the Gulf this time of the year. Granted the skimmers won't solve the entire problem but no one can logically doubt their ability to recover the majority of the spill that's fouling the wetlands and beaches at this time. These skimmers have no equal in there capacity to remove an oil spill from sea water. As of June 8th, BP reported that they have collected 64,650 barrels of oil in the Gulf. That is only a fraction of the oil spilled from and less than one day’s capacity of the Dutch oil skimmers.
In addition to the Dutch we've refused help from twelve other countries including Great Briton. We're short on oil booms and the administration still has not given the OK to use a Maine company Packgen’s oil boom even though they were made aware of the warehouse full of containment boom back on May 21. There's no end to the Obama administration getting in the way of implementing solutions. Gov. Jindal's requests to build sand berms was never replied to by the Army Corps of Engineers so he went ahead on his own. Are sand berms a perfect solution? I can't say but like the skimmers they are better than the study based nothing that come from the White House. A mayor of one community tried to get permission to string barges across the estuary that flow through his community. Like Jindal, he did it anyway. Local leadership not coming from Obama. Obama prefers to make it look like he's doing something by strong arming BP to put $20 billion in a fund to be managed by Obama's pay czar. Obama is skilled at squirming and blaming but not leadership and action.
In my 44 year career, I was a corporate executive for 15 of those years, so that may make me an un-objective observer. However, I want to give my impression none the less.
Todays’ hearing where Tony Hayward, BP CEO, was pilloried like a piñata by Congressional Representatives who used Google, political advice and staff to bone up on what the good questions or statements to say so they look good, was disturbing in it’s lack of focus on solving problems. Instead it focused on assigning blame.
Question after question requested Tony Hayward to ignore his company’s internal investigation, which has not completed, and draw a prejudicial conclusion based on what those Congressional Representatives considered evidence leading to gross negligence and spectacular liability. Such statements by Tony Hayward would and will find their way into lawsuits, abundant that will follow this spill disaster. He was accused of stonewalling because he answered the same questions the same way.
I do not defend BP or any of its employees or management in the Gulf spill disaster. But that does not make the accusers invulnerable to criticism. After all why waste a good crisis when a politician can make himself or herself look good for a few minutes?
I can tell you the likely scenario for Tony Hayward, who walked into that inquisition by these hapless politicians, is that his hands were tied by lawyers and the chairman of the board. He was told with certainty what he could say and what he couldn’t say. And you can’t blame BP. They are under threat of criminal trial by Obama/Holder and anything they say publicly can and will be used against them.
This is independent of what culpability they have in the spill which will be determined in a court room one of these days. In my opinion, BP coming up with the $20 billion set aside plus the $100 million fund for workers is a good start and shows a decent attitude. I would if in charge work with them based on that opening gamut and I suspect, I would be able to cause all the right answers to the problems arising from this tragedy, since BP is obviously aware of the disaster this is from a public relations perspective.
But Obama is from Chicago and his approach is to corner the opponent, beat the crap out of him and then extract whatever money his plan calls for from the intended prey. No attempt to solve the problem evident here.
So this is what engaged means when you're a bureaucrat. No burning oil on the Gulf surface, no chemical dispersant, no thank you to American corporations with workable solutions, no to Gov. Jindal and no thank you to thirteen countries with equipment we don't have. Excuse me I forgot, yes to assigning blame and yes to manipulating the truth for political gain.
Now just what we needed, another czar. Assigning this czar throws the cabinet members responsible for the Gulf oil spill mismanagement under the bus. The czar is Obama assigning the failure of those he was managing but didn't. If the czar is needed it's because Obama was incapable of managing the situation between infomercials, fund raising and campaigning. After two months Obama finally gave 15 minutes to meet with the CEO of BP. A meeting that short had no time for constructive management of the situation and came at the same time that BP put $20 billion in reserve for spill recovery. Mark my words, Obama will take political credit for that money. It's all a scam with Obama substituting the latest infomercial for an accomplishment when in fact he adds no real value to solving the oil spill problems.
Will Obama award himself a media award for his orchestration of the spin and rewriting of facts until the truth is totally obscured to be replaced by Obamaganda? He could display it next to the Nobel Peace Prize he did nothing to get. Only problem is his efforts are so blatant that only his brain washed minions believe him. Unfortunately for Obama his minions are shrinking as people catch on to "No Hope & No Change". Obama has an answer to that problem though -- amnesty for illegal aliens or as the Dems call them undocumented immigrants. The illegals fill the bill, uneducated and on the government dole -- guaranteed Democratic voters. And you thought amnesty was about compassion.
Yesterday morning my wife Bonnie asked me if I was going to watch the President's speech and what he was going to talk about. I told her I wasn't interested in the speech, that he was simply going to tell us that everything is under control in the Gulf, appoint a commission, and raise our taxes. Now it turns out that the President told us everything was going to be all right, said he was going to appoint a commission, and flogged his cap and tax proposal. Am I psychic? No, it's just what Obama always does. Although, I was surprised to learn that apparently the guy on his speech-writing team whose job it is to blame everything on Bush and Cheney is on vacation because he left that part out.
After reading the text of the speech – I read faster than Obama talks – I was particularly taken by his statements that we need to do something about alternative energy. He wasn't sure what we should do, but we should do something. I agree that it would be really cool if we found a way to generate electricity with cleaner technology. And, if I knew what that technology was, I'd invest in it. But, raising my taxes to do “something” is not on the table. And, make no mistake, this cap and tax thing he wants to do is a real tax paid by all of us. Makes you wonder about that campaign promise, doesn't it?
Almost every day there is someone on TV who has a method of cleaning up the Gulf – even Kevin Costner. It appears that no one in the Obama administration wants to listen. Why don't we give all of them a shot? I've seen the Gulf of Mexico, it's a big place. And, there's lots of oil. There's room for everyone. What if a couple of them work? Hell, what if most of them work? The mess gets cleaned up. But, if the mess gets cleaned up, what crisis would Obama use to promote his cap and tax thing?
It's getting to the point that I believe we'd be better off putting the first dozen people you met at the mall in charge of this oil spill. Odds are that one of them would have some executive experience. That would put him (or her) head and shoulders above Obama and his gang of arrogant know-it-alls. They simply don't have a clue. It's time to change the direction of the federal government and the dolts who are running it. That's a change you can believe in!
I watched This Week with Jake Tapper today and was mystified by all the smart people they interviewed about issues and especially the issue of the BP oil spill.
Robert Reich, currently at UC Berkley and formerly of the Clinton administration, said Obama has to take over BP. Terrific! More Hugo Chavez like behavior! Tapper didn’t blink an eye. George Will said he didn’t know why Reich thought the federal government would do a better job of management than the current BP management. The country is in a lethargic stupor and ignoring the slide into a socialist democratic dictatorship.
Bill Gates, retired CEO of Microsoft, recommends spending tens of billions more than we have already spent on energy R&D. It sounded like he was suggesting we tax oil companies to get the money. He wants to give the money to universities so they can come up with innovative solutions to the energy dependence on oil.
I wonder if he knows we already spend billions on energy research every year in 17 federally funded research and development centers which includes funding at universities. It is 12 billion this year and was 11 billion the last two years alone. But what good has it done us? There aren’t any press releases on the accomplishments of these expenditures. And there isn’t any obvious master plan for what their focus should be and why it supports the country’s needs.
A list of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) for Energy Research is below.
What is bothering me is how the conversation is focused on who is at fault between the administration and BP and who should be in charge or what we should do about getting off oil. It seems to me that BP is not the only oil company with expertise and while they say other oil companies have offered consultation to BP, I expect that the NIH factor (not invented here) makes those consultations of marginal value. Obama should have all of the oil companies involved in multiple parallel efforts to fix the oil spill problem and in coming up with what happened so they can check their own facilities and in coming up with preventative measures should such an oil spill happen again or to prevent one from happening again. He could introduce a fine on a per day basis to help fund the cleanup beyond what BP does on its own.
We need solutions, not blame assignment. But this is Washington and that’s what they do, so it seems we are stuck with the idiots running the asylum and the idiots in the media and their guest commentators who watch them and spill their wisdom.
Salazar used seven experts, recommended by the National Academy of Engineering, to create a report that advised President Obama on future offshore drilling safety. The report to Obama said the seven experts "peer reviewed" Salazar's recommendations, which included a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs and an immediate halt to drilling operations.
BUSTED: The seven experts say Interior Secretary Ken Salazar modified their report, after they signed it, to include two paragraphs calling for the moratorium on existing drilling and new permits. The seven experts are saying the Obama administration is purposefully "misrepresenting" their views "to make it appear they supported a six-month drilling moratorium -- something they actually oppose." "None of us actually reviewed the memorandum as it is in the report," oil expert Ken Arnold told Fox News. "What was in the report at the time it was reviewed was quite a bit different in its impact to what there is now. So we wanted to distance ourselves from that recommendation."
How stupid can the administration be not to think that these professionals wouldn't catch and point out these lies. Lies that make the experts look like incompetent fools. Salazar said it was his and the President's decision to modify the report -- a lie is OK if the President is the liar. I think the Obama administration cares little about the the truth unless it backs up the conclusions they want. No disaster waisted -- no lie left untold. Many politicians have used lies when caught in some impropriety. With Obama lies are a shameless part of the normal governance process.
The experts make the point that the well was being shut down which is much more dangerous than continuing ongoing drilling. They also said the floating rigs are scarce and in high demand worldwide, they won't sit in the Gulf idle for six months. They will be moved to the North Sea and West Africa, possibly preventing the US from being able to resume drilling for years. The best and most advanced rigs will be the first to go, leaving the US with the older and potentially less safe rigs to operate in America's coastal waters.
Let's not forget the almost 40,000 Louisiana jobs that will be lost. Louisiana has three main sources of income, fishing, tourism and oil. The spill wiped out the first two and Obama kills the third and last income source they had. And of course the oil we don't produce we'll have to import. Less production will also lead to higher energy prices. There's no end to the damage that can be caused by a lie and the snake oil salesman that told it.
I've commented before on Obama's love of the word "I" and that's one thing that isn't on his "Change" list. The Gulf Oil Spill has given him more opportunity to hear his own voice. His "I'm fully engaged" didn't do much for him or the Gulf region for that matter. Now it's "I'm kicking ass." Kicking ass won't help the Gulf region either. Now he's combining his favorite word with his favorite thing, blaming others. A combination of public involvement and the courts will punish any wrong doers. We don't need Obama making speeches about blame and punishment, we need action to alleviate those elements of the disaster the President has influence over. Action doesn't mean enumerating the token steps forced by political pressure and CYA. Action means doing what we can "Now" without stall tactics like environmental studies.
Sometimes one has to choose between the lesser of two evils -- it's called leadership. Who gives a damn what the environmental lobbyists say when the inaction they demand will turn the entire of Louisiana's wetlands into a dead zone and destroy the way of life and source of income for all the people who live there. Defining success as kicking BP's ass until they pay restitution to everyone for the avoidable damage their oil caused is pure bull. The avoidance I'm talking about isn't "plugging the damn hole" it's stopping the spill from washing ashore and causing real vs theoretical environmental damage. The exploding oil rig was on BP's watch, dithering while the oil flows into the Louisiana wetlands is on Obama's watch. Gov. Jindal is leading here with Obama in his way. Obama is already laying the ground work to use this disaster to force Cap & Trade, that we don't want, on the American people. He created a moratorium on drilling for oil. Perhaps 40,000 Americans will loose their jobs in the oil industry and well have to import more foreign oil. Doesn't he ever consider the consequences of what he does? He's more interested in forcing his socialistic ideology on America than in what's best for the American people. Obama revels in "I" while "We the people" and our way of life are the victims his arrogance, ill conceived ideology and lack of competence.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was asked if BP had done everything the government had asked of them. You could hear a pin drop, and then he admitted that it had. So who is responsible for this epic mismanagement of the oil spill aftermath?
What the hell does fully engaged mean? Surely Obama knew the oil spill occurred, does that count as engaged? Does a couple of photo-ops count as engaged? A deer staring into headlights is engaged. The question is, what the hell did he do -- campaign, fund raise and party? I know, he condemned BP and kept his distance. He ignored Governor Bobby Jindal's requests for permission to build sand booms to keep the oil out of wetlands. Jindal was allowed to build one which worked but permission for the others remained tied in red tape. Sure Obama couldn't dive into the Gulf and stick his finger into a pipe to stop the oil leak but he could have seen that permission for moving sand around to protect wetlands was given. Engaged was he?
Governor Jindal is engaged. He presented photographic evidence of oil breaking through hard booms, soft booms and another layer of protection, before being stopped by a National Guard constructed sand boom. Jindal still got no action from the the Army Corps of Engineers. He got tired of their indecisiveness and waiting for permission that never came. Jindal decided to build the sand booms without approval. That's what engaged means -- "involvement, decision and action." Valuable time was lost while the feds dithered but hopefully Jindal's action will help save the Louisiana wetlands. A truely engaged Commander-in-Chief would have ordered his Army Corps of Engineers to take action. Unlike Obama, Jindal is a real leader.
How could Obama be "so busy with other things" not to know that US Minerals Management Service, MMS, head Liz Birnbaum was fired? Just the week before MMS official Chris Oynes "resigned" after news of the agency's 2009 safety award for the oil spilling Deepwater Horizon rig surfaced. How could an engaged President not be informed when when a direct subordinate, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, fired a direct report senior manager? Rule number one in business and certainly politics is to ensure your boss doesn't get surprised. Regardless of if Obama's approval was required to fire someone that senior you can bet Obama had a heads up on what happened. This time did engaged mean to stall until the least politically damaging cover story could be concocted and rehearsed? So much of what the Obama administration says just doesn't pass the smell test. Why should we have to listen so intently to every carefully crafted word for the hidden meaning. Do they call this transparency?
My dear friend Art observed today that it might make sense for Obama to ask the advice of all the oil companies regarding solutions to the oil spill in the Gulf. He proposed this as an alternative to blaming BP. (Move aside George W. Bush, Obama has a new scapegoat.)
Art's suggestion was born of his vast experience as a manager, a solver of problems. When good managers encounter a problem which they don't know how to solve, they seek out people who have experience in solving such problems and listen to their advice. Years ago, I had a sign on the wall of my office which said, "None of us are as smart as all of us." So, when you don't know what you're doing, it's best to ask someone who does.
So, does Obama have a lot of experience in stopping a runaway oil well? Come to think of it, does he have a lot of experience in foreign relations, economics, healthcare, or government administration? No. He was a lecturer in a law school and a neighborhood organizer (whatever that means). But, he does have delusions of grandeur and believes that somehow he knows best how to address whatever problem befalls the nation. The success of his efforts is mute testimony to the success of that approach. He is pig-headed and arrogant -- a dangerous combination. He believes that blaming someone for the problem is the same as solving it. Try telling that to someone who's out of work.
Now, the public is beginning to see through all the smoke and mirrors. The economy is still in the toilet, the national debt has become unsustainable, the new healthcare plan is unaffordable, U.S. foreign policy is a shambles, illegal immigration is out of control, and the Gulf is filling up with crude oil and most of us are beyond whose fault it is. We want solutions. This morning, Obama's poll numbers were 42% favorable and 58% unfavorable. Wonder whose fault that is.
The people are beginning to understand that we cannot spend our way to economic recovery or tax our way to a balanced budget. We want the government to get the hell off our backs and direct its energy towards securing the border. Obama believes that we are all too stupid to "get it." Well, he's the one who doesn't get it. We are too smart to be grateful to a hand up from a government that pushed us down in the first place. It's time to throw the bums out. First the Congress, then in 2012 we can send Obama back to neighborhood organizing -- maybe a neighborhood along the Mexican border.
President Obama could have gotten the CEO's of the major oil companies together and told them that this spill will affect all of them and that they should pool all of their resources together and take multiple paths towards solving the problem. BP does not have unlimited resources or unlimited creative expertise in problem solving. And in fact it would be beneficial for all oil companies to be involved in the problem solving in case it happens top one of them.
Instead, Obama has made it a primary task of making sure no blame falls on him and only on BP. He is not interested in what's good for the country but only his agenda and his power.
Obama is totally blowing the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Obama watches and leaves it to BP to fix the problem. The Feds are dragging their feet and the real solutions Governor Bobby Jindal has await government approval and resources that aren't forthcoming. Granted Obama is helpless with regards to stopping the flow of oil but his administration's indecision on basic actions that would preserve Louisiana's wetlands have no excuse. Gibbs did have time to insult Palin on "Fox News Sunday" saying she should "get slightly more informed as to what’s going on in and around oil drilling in this country." No one in the White House knows more about oil drilling and spill cleanup than Palin -- Alaska with Palin have been there. Why ignore their experience? Palin has first hand experience dealing with big oil.
Typical Obama, nothing but platitudes and demeaning conservatives -- empty words, no action and no results. You got to ask why, but few in the main stream media are. Does Obama foolishly think that by not being proactive he can avoid being splattered with crude oil and political mud while leaving BP standing alone in the middle of the mess? Is BP's financial generosity to Obama a factor -- I'd hope not? Perhaps this is yet another example of Obama's lack of leadership ability. Being President isn't just about standing in front of a teleprompter. Check out what Sarah Palin had to say on Facebook. Then take the link to Governor Bobby Jindal's plea for action.
Today, Obama was talking positively about the economy. He mentioned how happy he is with billions in subsidies to green jobs and cited Itron as one of his successes. To those who have not been paying attention, Itron makes smart meters for electrical supply to residential and commercial facilities. The meters are supposed to help you understand how you are using electricity. They also make meters for water, gas and heat supply. With this device in place, the government will be able to regulate your use of electricity in your home. The example in the attached article showed how a facility like your house can be shut off for using too much heat and how home owners heaters were shut off on a cycling basis reducing their home temperatures by 3 degrees and saving them money. The smart meter watches what it regulates in real time so immediate action can be taken against violators of trigger levels. See Itron site, manufactureer of Smart Grid components, and read how this has been piloted in California and Washington by "Progressive" customers (linked PDF).
He also talked about how his support of green jobs motivated him to provide more millions to CCX, the Chicago Climate Exchange. This is the business that Obama was involved with as a member of the board of directors of the Jayne Foundation.
Obama is part of a huge Progressive movement. He has a plan for fundamentally changing the United States of America. You should keep yourself informed.
I live in CA and have smart meters on my electric and gas. There have been some issues with the new meters and customers complaining of huge electric bills after their install. I haven't had any problems with mine. A while back Pacific Gas & Electric offered to install a free programmable thermostat and give me a $25 discount on my next bill. This thermostat is connected to the Internet and can be programmed from my PC. PG&E has the ability to change my temperature settings temporarily to reduce energy usage when the grid is overloaded. They also offered me the special pricing mentioned in the PDF above. Rates are reduced except certain peak load times when the rates are much higher than they are now. I was a little un-trusting of their motives and the potential for higher electric bills so I refused that offer. We're already energy conscious, use CFL bulbs and buy energy efficient products. We've ceiling fans in every room so in the summer we can set the air conditioner to 80 degrees. To save gas in the winter we set the temp to 68 in the daytime and 64 at night. While all this is going on we're being encourages to buy electric vehicles. From what the PDF said charging an electric vehicle is like adding another house to the grid. A plug in electric car could well put you in a higher rate tier for the electricity you already use.
Earth Day makes little sense to many. I saw an unscientific poll asking the question "Do you care about Earth Day?" with Yes and No for answers. Last check it was 96% No. Caring about the earth one day a year is like recycling one day a year. Awareness and personal responsibility for earth has to be a daily thing. A big difference is made if we all do a little every day to weave ecologically sensible activities into our daily lives until they become habits. It only make sense to favor products that save energy because they are both good for the earth and for your pocket.
When thinking about Earth Day the subject of global warming comes to mind. We're so used to being lied to by the powers that be it's hard not to be skeptical when someone yells the sky is falling. Global warming and cooling is a fact and our planet has gone through a number of long term climate cycles. These cycles were in play without the hand of man. To blame man for the cycle we're in seems pretty outlandish. Pollution is of course an issue that we've been making progress on and have more work to do. I believe that pollution of some kinds may impact climate to some degree. I don't however believe pollution alone is the primary cause of global warming. I find it difficult to believe so called scientists that forge data and spin it as proof positive of man caused global warming. I also give no credence to anything Gore says. After all he actual claimed he invented the Internet. Can you trust a man that tells such whoppers? By the way, the Arctic ice is currently in expansion. Is that also a sign of global warming?
Let's use a little common sense when considering our planet. Anything that raises the cost of energy or increases our dependency on foreign energy sources clearly makes little sense. Cap and Tax has to be the craziest idea I've heard of yet. Sure Al Gore and GE are in favor -- they'll make a boatload of cash and Gore certainly has already. Renewable energy is a win win but not if we are fined for not using what doesn't exist. Why do we need another government bureaucracy and a new layer of profit takers that add no value, only cost? Cap and Tax invents a business that has no product but forces you to pay anyway. While we're creating cost effective ways to generate non-polluting renewable energy we should be weaning ourselves off foreign oil and making use of the resources available in the United States. Our government's mismanagement of energy resources keeps the price high while bleeding cash to other countries. Despite the fact that over 50% of our electricity is generated with coal, Obama wants to drive anyone that uses coal out of business. Why when there's nothing to replace it with and when there is technology on trial in Mongolia and India that will clean the coal before burning? The company that invented this technology is Clean Coal Technology, Inc. which is an American company totally based in this country.
As a Californian I have to ask why Delta Smelt are more important than the agricultural future of our state. When farmers' water allocations are cut to 10% of what it was the whole country looses as our farmers go out of business. If we have to import more food the prices will go up and our ability to ensure that our food is safe to consume will decrease. Why does everything the government does have unintended consequences which I think would be better labeled "They didn't look beyond the tip of their nose consequences."
Obama has once again appeared to support a conservative cause to drill offshore for oil. When you look under the covers you find his frequent slight of hand. Looking deeper you find there is a delay until 2012 and drilling on the West coast isn't authorized, to name two. Behind the rhetoric lie new drilling bans and leasing delays; soon to follow are burdensome new environmental regulations. He canceled five lease sales in Alaska that were scheduled for 2011 and 2012. Two of these were at Chukchi Sea where Russia is currently drilling. The plan delays a 2.9 million-acre lease sale off the coast of Virginia scheduled next year until 2012. Let's not forget the thousands of jobs that will be delayed. He's only starting studies which we've all seen go nowhere in the past. A study is political spin to give an appearance of movement without actually accomplishing anything. The real purpose is a precursor to passing Cap & Tax.
In April 2008 the US Geological Service issued a revised report (last updated in 1995) on how much oil was in the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana known as the Bakken area…
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable. At $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.
"This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, US oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the "Big Oil" companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves. We now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 per barrel!
That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight. And could you believe the information is from 2006! Why haven't we heard about this?
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this "mother lode" of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?
They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:
How can't we be extracting this oil? Because the "greenies," "environmentalists" and global warming "others" have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy. OPEC has to be overjoyed and amazed by our collective stupidity.
Our government, (Democratic Congress and President) won't allow drilling in the Gulf of Mexico so Russia has moved in instead. They've concluded 4 drilling contracts with Cuba to drill in the section of Gulf of Mexico between Cuba and the US in territory Jimmy Carter allowed Cuba to claim...
