Alabama Right News

That Was Quick… House Republicans Already Investigating Obamacare Waiver System

2011-01-23T09:13:00.000-06:00

Via: gateway pundit : The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday asked the Department of Health and Human Services to provide detailed information on the over 200 groups requesting and receiving one-year waivers from Obamacare.

In November it was first reported that the Obama Administration had handed out 111 (now over 200) Obamacare waivers to special US companies… And, they hid this information from the American public. It took 6 clicks to find out this information on the government's health care website.

Unfortunately, if you're a small business or you don't have the right connections you can't get a waiver for your company from Team Obama. The bottom line is that democrats did not create a law that benefits all of us.

House Republicans are going to investigate these Obamacare waivers.
The Hill reported:

The Obama administration hit back at House Republicans' plans to investigate implementation of the healthcare reform law.

Republicans on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide detailed information about groups requesting and receiving one-year waivers for the reform law's ban on annual coverage limits.

More than 200 groups, unions and businesses have so far received waivers from the requirement. Republicans say the waivers are proof of the reform law's flaws and are Democratic gifts to union allies who supported the law.

However, HHS Kathleen Sebelius, in a sit-down interview with The Hill on Friday, called both assertions "pretty ludicrous."

"The provisions in the law always gave some flexibility to me as secretary," she said.

Sebelius said the waivers were necessary to help individuals keep their health insurance – even if it isn't the best coverage – until new insurance exchanges opening in 2014 allow individuals and small businesses to pool their purchasing power.

Many of the groups receiving waivers offer low-cost health plans – often called "mini-med" plans – that would have violated the law's requirement to offer at least $750,000 in coverage in 2011.

"I find it ironic that people who are always demanding flexibility from the federal government are now criticizing flexibility in the federal government," Sebelius said.

So far, HHS has granted 222 waivers covering 1.5 million individuals. The largest waiver, which covers 351,000 individuals, was granted to the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund in New York.

Four different House committees have already mapped out plans to investigate the reform law, pass malpractice reform, provide more choice in health insurance and reduce costs of insurance for small businesses, according to a report by Bloomberg.

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/01/that-was-quick-house-republicans-already-investigating-obamacare-waiver-system/

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Administration hits back at House GOP plans to probe health law implementation

2011-01-23T09:11:00.002-06:00

Republicans say waivers are proof of the reform law's flaws and are Democratic gifts to union allies who supported the law.

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/139507-administration-hits-back-at-house-gop-plans-to-investigate-health-law-implementation

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House and Senate Cloakroom: January 24-28, 2011

2011-01-23T09:11:00.001-06:00

Analysis provided by Heritage Action for America

House Cloakroom Report: January 24-28

Analysis:

After a week in the House that saw Obamacare repealed, the House will move in to a week heavily focused on spending, further organization of committees, and a slew of hearings on healthcare, the economy, stalled trade agreements, and the oil spill commission report. On Monday afternoon, the House will reconvene with votes scheduled for the evening. On Tuesday, hearings will dominate most of the day with votes on H.Res 38 which would be a resolution reducing non-security spending to fiscal year 2008 levels or less followed by the President's State of the Union Address that evening at 8:35 pm Eastern. On Wednesday, the House will consider a bill to reduce federal spending and the deficit by terminating taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns and party conventions, thus reducing mandatory spending $520 million according to CBO estimates from last year. Spending cuts, economic recovery, and healthcare will drive the conversation for the week.

Major Floor Action:

H.Res. 38 – To reduce spending through a transition to non-security spending at fiscal year 2008 levels.

Major Committee Action:

The House Ways & Means Committee will hold a full committee hearing on "US Trade Agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama" as well as a hearing on the "Economic Effects of Health Care Overhaul".
The House Budget Committee will hold an organizational meeting on Wednesday followed by a full committee hearing on the "Fiscal Impact of Health Care Overhaul".
The House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a full committee hearing on Wednesday on the "State of the US Workforce".
The House Financial Services Committee will hold a full committee hearing on "Economic Recovery and Job Creation Strategies".
The House Natural Resources Committee will hold a full committee hearing on the "Oil Spill Commission Report". See Heritage's take on putting together a cohesive oil spill response bill here.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a full committee hearing on Tuesday regarding "Bailouts and Foreclosure Crisis Oversight".
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a full committee hearing on Tuesday regarding "Problems at the U.N."

Senate Cloakroom: January 24-28, 2011

Analysis:

The Senate returns to Washington on Tuesday after being in recess for the majority of January. There is still much transition happening on Capitol Hill; many new Senators have yet to be assigned permanent office space and the new official committee assignments have yet to be resolved, so much of the Senate schedule for the week is still unclear. It does look increasingly more likely that the fight over the filibuster that has been brewing for weeks will come to the Floor for debate and a vote at some point in the week. Also, President Obama will deliver the State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 25.

Major Floor Action:

A rules debate regarding the filibuster

Major Committee Action:

No Committee hearings have been scheduled for the week of January 24.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/01/23/house-and-senate-cloakroom-january-24-28-2011/

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GOP budget cuts hit Democratic campaign cash sources hard

2011-01-23T09:08:00.000-06:00

Mark Tapscott There are at least two ways of looking at the fact the $2.5 trillion in spending cuts proposed last week by leaders of the House Republican Study Committee will hurt one of the biggest sources of Democratic campaign cash. Among the proposals, which you can read about here and here, is a federal pay freeze and a 15 percent reduction in the federal workforce through attrition. If the proposal becomes law, it will freeze the...

washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeltwayConfidential/~3/B7j2pXEDyJk/gop-budget-cuts-hit-democratic-campaign-cash-sources-hard

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Consumers pay 38% extra for ‘renewable’ energy mandates

2011-01-22T22:19:00.000-06:00

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

Consumers pay 38% extra for ‘renewable’ energy mandates: "

States with renewable energy mandates average 38% higher electricity rates for consumers with some like New York paying double. 29 states have renewable energy mandates and 7 others have renewable goals.

By Michael Whipple, Editor usACTIONnews.com

States with renewable energy mandates (REM) average 38% higher electricity rates for consumers with some like New York paying double according to a study by the Institute for Energy Research (IER). 29 states have renewable energy mandates and 7 others have renewable goals. See how your state ranks in electricity and REMs with the interactive map from IER.

Although REMs cannot be blamed for the total disparity in electric rates, the high cost of renewable energy being passed on to consumers is a significant factor.

A report by The Heritage Foundation finds REMs will cost over one million jobs and raise electricity rates by more than one third:

Raise electricity prices by 36 percent for households and 60 percent for industry;

Cut national income (GDP) by $5.2 trillion between 2012 and 2035;

Cut national income by $2,400 per year for a family of four;

Reduce employment by more than 1,000,000 jobs; and

Add more than $10,000 to a family of four’s share of the national debt by 2035.

Some states are even paying more for electricity they don’t receive to subsidize renewable energy projects in other states. Michigan will receive no benefits from a wind surtax but will have to pay as much as a billion dollars in increased rates. This is part of Obama’s different way to ’skin the cat’ and have agencies implement his energy policy without congressional approval. The day after the November election Obama realized his cap and trade scheme could not pass congress. “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way,” Obama said “I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”

An a previous article ‘Subsidy for wind energy will raise electricity prices on everyone‘ we explained how the Federal Energy Regulatory (FREC) will help him ’skin the cat’. It will force Michigan to pay for transmission lines needed for wind farms in Illinois:

From WSJ:

“In fact, this is the first step in a FERC scheme to socialize transmission costs nationwide. In June FERC drafted a rule to create a new national transmission pricing policy that would link wind and solar energy projects to the national electricity grid. (See our November 7 editorial, “The Great Transmission Heist.“)”

“Let’s be very clear on what’s happening here: Mr. Wellinghoff and FERC are trying to establish by regulatory fiat a national energy policy that Congress has refused to endorse. Last summer Congress rejected the Obama Administration’s renewable energy standard law because it would have inflated power costs. So the fiefdom at FERC is unilaterally moving ahead to require that industries and homeowners pay a surtax on their utility bills for a nonexistent renewable energy policy. This is similar to the EPA’s initiatives to regulate carbon even after Congress rejected cap and trade.”

“The wind industry has essentially conceded that without the ability to socialize the cost of multibillion dollar transmission lines, its projects can’t compete with coal, natural gas and nuclear power.

The FERC pricing scheme is politically insidious, and arguably unconstitutional, because it enables states with renewable standards to export the costs of those policies to other states without these laws. Why should a factory in Pontiac, Michigan subsidize the wind energy costs of a plant in Elgin, Illinois?”

REMs are proven job killers. The IER study describes examples from different ccountries that have fallen for the REM scheme:

But trying to create jobs through renewable subsidies has proved to be a failure. In Spain, for example, it is estimated that 2.2 jobs were lost as an opportunity cost of creating one expensive, subsidy- and set-aside-dependent job in the renewable sector. In Germany, per worker subsidies in the solar industry are as high as $240,000 per worker. The situation in Denmark is similar. Danes have to pay the highest electricity prices in the European Union, and they pay subsidies of nearly $400 million a year to wind producers (in a country with less than 2 percent of the population of the United States).

The Obama administration conspired with the Center for American Progress to discredit and cover up the job data from Spain. Not surprising since Spain’s economy was on the verge of collapse from over spending. Christopher Horner at Pajamas Media wrote about the efforts of the Obama administration and lobbyists to sell the idea of ‘green’ jobs:

After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

Via the FOIA request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has learned that the Department of Energy — specifically the office headed by Al Gore’s company’s former CEO, Cathy Zoi — turned to George Soros’ Center for American Progress and other wind industry lobbyists to help push Obama’s wind energy proposals.

Back in the U.S., the American Wind Energy Association — the lobby for “Big Wind” in Washington, D.C., which includes a few Spanish wind giants — also attacked the publication of the Spanish paper.

Soon, the Obama administration published a five-page talking points memo assailing the economic assessment — written by two young, non-economist, pro-wind activists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Boulder, Colorado.

NREL is an extension of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). EERE is run by Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi, who, until assuming this post, served as CEO to Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. Zoi is responsible for many millions of the “green jobs” stimulus dollars pushed for and designed by Van Jones (this according to Jones himself).

Scotland’s wind farms are unable to cope with the freezing weather conditions – grinding to a halt at a time when electricity demand is at a peak, forcing the country to rely on power generated by French nuclear plants.

Other attempts at ‘renewable’ energy have had costly results in jobs and dollars here in the US. Two different solar panel plants have closed in the last year despite hundreds of millions in subsidies.

The day after the 2010 election San Francisco Bay Area Solyndra, the great green hope, a government subsidized solar plant, shuttered its original manufacturing plant and scaled back plans for those thousand jobs that Obama had heralded just a few months prior. Solyndra had obtained a government guaranteed loan for almost half a billion dollars. After $58 million in subsidies Evergreen Solar Inc. eliminated 800 jobs in Massachusetts and shut its new factory just two years after it opened and will rely on its plant in China.

Some states have secretly passed on additional cap and trade costs to consumers making corporations like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase and others a handsome profit. In a previous story we posted from New Jersey WACTHDOG:

Secrecy and greed are polluting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation’s first mandatory cap-and-trade system. Under the RGGI scheme, the smell of profiteering is powerful. New Jersey and nine other Northeast states have sold $662 million in carbon dioxide permits since 2008.

RGGI is the prototype for two other mandatory regional systems scheduled to start in 2012. The Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord will bring cap-and-trade to Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. The Western Climate Initiative adds California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Mexico, Utah and Montana – plus British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Manitoba is a member of both cooperatives.

Together, the three regional systems will encompass 23 states with roughly half of population in the U.S. – plus four Canadian provinces with more than three-quarters of that nation’s populace.

The bottom line: A cap-and-trade system that favors secrecy over public disclosure – and Wall Street over consumers – now has the inside track to become the de facto law of the land, even without an act of Congress.

What could possibly be the purpose of all this ‘alternative’ and ‘green’ energy manipulation? Brian Sussman at Human Events explained it well describing the motives behind cap and trade:

“Concurring green interests perceive cap-and-trade differently. Environmentalists envision it as a progressive engineering tool that will coerce both industry and individuals to emit less CO2. Wind and solar companies see it as an instrument to manipulate the market, which they hope will force their companies to grow. Socialists regard it as a way to redistribute wealth by offshoring America’s manufacturing sector to the Third World. The elite identify cap-and-trade as a means to acquire control of the population (because if they can govern the amount of energy the people use, they can better control those people).”

Even if you believe in man caused global warming (AGW) (40% of legitimate scientists do not) all of these mandates, higher rates and CO2 regulations won’t make a discernible difference in the earth’s temperature. EPA’s Own Estimates Say Greenhouse Gas Regs Could ‘Slow Construction Nationwide for Years’ — and Take a Century to Reduce Temperature 0.0015 Degrees.

As Shannon Love put it in ‘Why Alternative Power Is and Will Remain Useless’:

“Here’s a fact you won’t see mentioned in the public policy debate over “alternative” energy:

There exists no alternative energy source, no combination of alternative energy sources, and no system of combinations of alternative energy sources that can fully replace a single, coal fired electric plant built with 1930s era technology.

Nada.

Zero.

Zilch.

Yet many want to make this group of functionally useless technologies the primary energy sources for our entire civilization.”

The Obama administration certainly seems to be doing all it can to raise the costs of all types of energy. But we should not be surprised. After all, Obama warned us that under his plan electricity rates would ‘necessarily skyrocket’. The only thing ‘green’ about renewable energy is the money going down the drain. Renewable Energy Mandates are just another way to bilk the taxpayers out of trillions of dollars.

Michael Whipple, Editor usACTIONnews.com

70% Expect $4-A-Gallon Gas by July – 49% clueless to Obama connection

Obama pushes up oil, gas and electric rates as he promised

Subsidy for wind energy will raise electricity prices on everyone

Obama warned us he would make electricity rates ’skyrocket’

Kerry says his pet leftist causes can unite congress, bring peace, prosperity and heal our land

The Assault on Drilling Is Onshore, Too

More of your green wasted on green subsidies

Obama’s War On Coal – and your electricity

Estimated 40 Percent of Scientists Doubt Manmade Global Warming

The Great ‘Climate Change’ Taxpayer Rip-Off of 2011

America Is Losing the Resource Race

‘Obama’s EPA a Growing Menace to Economy’ – Sen. Inhofe

Obama still intends to redistribute your green with his green agenda

Is Green Socialism EPA’s Real Goal?

Green Follies Escalate in the Face of Failure

Computer Models And Atmospheric Circulation: A Major Failure

Wind energy is a lot of hot air

Obama administration hides truth on ‘green’ jobs with help of big wind businesses which stand to make big money with government subsidies

The Big Wind-Power Cover-Up – ‘green’ slime of corruption

Stink in the air – Carnahan’s brother gets $107 million for wind farm

Taxpayers subsidizing almost half of ethanol costs

Green subsidies falling prey to economic reality across the globe

The Big Green machine – The Big Money & The Global Governance Agenda That Fuels Environmentalism

No Science, Fake Science, and the Deliberate Destruction of the Nation

Green slime – The people behind Obama’s war against fossil fuels

Turning Off the (Incandescent) Light of Liberty

Is Green Socialism EPA’s Real Goal?

Cancun climate nut calls for world boycott of US goods

Cancun Climate Talks Really About Wealth Redistribution

WikiLeaks And Claim Of Warmest Year On Record, Expose Climate Criminality

Cancun climate conference: the warmists’ last Mexican wave

Cancun climate conference calls for world rationing then throws a party

Global Warming… no Global Cooling… no Global Warming…NO, IT’S COOLING!!

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

Senators warn Clinton against helping poor countries fight climate change

Another Climate Change Scare Is On Thin Ice

Apocalypse Now! (Or Pretty Soon, Anyway)

The U.S.’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ Turns 40

Phony Claims Infest Cancun Climate Conference

Top Science Panel Caught in Another Global Warming Data Fraud

US tells climate conference ‘not backing away’ from $100 billion climate fund

The Last Fling of the Thermophobics?

There are black days ahead for the carbon industry

Obama plans to avoid congress for global climate agreement

Time For Economic Restoration Now That Climate Change Deception Is Exposed

GOP should say no on Upton energy and commerce chair

Will The Light Bulb Ban Inspire A Conversion?

Boycott the Cancun Climate Circus

Climate Deception Is A Crime Against Humanity?

Global Warming Skeptics Ascend In U.S. Congress

IPCC Exclusions And Inclusions Of Climate Mechanisms Are Both Failures

Another Top International Scientist Jumps off Global Warming ‘Titanic’

Cars, Cattle and Ethanol

Why the Government Should Stay Out of Green Energy

Thanks to Congress, Ethanol and Biofuel Mandates Cause Food Prices to Soar

Al Gore presidential aspirations cost US $16 billion in worthless ethanol subsidies and caused world’s poor to pay more for food

Electric cars could cause blackouts

Investors Business Daily calls global warming a ’scam’ and ‘Marxist’

No policy on climate is better than bad policy

UN climate official admits climate hoax is about redistributing wealth globally

November 20, 2009: The Day “Global Warming” Ended

The Left and Energy Policy

Inconvenient nonsense infiltrates the classroom

Man-made global warming – the BIG lie

Climategate: One Year and Sixty House Seats Later

Memo to House GOP: Get a grip on the EPA

The Renewable Electricity Standard Con

Global Warming, Global Taxes pushed by Obama administration

Dems extol facts and science but act on ideology

Time to end the mother of all corporate welfare: ethanol subsidies

Hiding climate truth from journalists

Official Climate Science Ignores Essential and Critical Details Right At The Surface

Biofuel worse for climate than fossil fuel – study

Global crooks – Soros, Summers call for global bank and carbon taxes

Day of reckoning for climate clowns

Obama still intends to redistribute your green with his green agenda

The Green Bubble is about to Burst

Transparency According to Carol Browner: “Put nothing in writing, ever”

Climate History Key to Future; Inuit Travels Provide Political Direction

Whining Kerry says America ‘lost our minds’

John Kerry’s Big Business Buyoff to get cap and trade passed

Crime, Inc. (also known as cap and trade) highlights -parts A, B, C, D

The many links between failed Shore Bank and Chicago Climate Exchange criminal enterprise

Why they still push carbon trading – money

Is Green Socialism EPA’s Real Goal?

Energy and anger

How EPA Could Revive Cap-and-Trade

5 Leftist Lies About the Best Source of Oil on Earth

It ain’t easy being green

Dem energy tax just won’t die

Pop Went the Climate Bubble

Who’s ‘In Climate Denial, Again’? The New York Times

Is the EPA Trying to Murder the USA?

Frightening Quotes from Environmentalists

Corrupted Climate Science Exploited Basic Human Realities

Is green the new red (communism)?

Time to get real about climate change

The $10 Trillion Climate Fraud

Climate Science Corruption: Practiced And Perpetuated By Scientific Societies

‘Obama’s EPA a Growing Menace to Economy’ – Sen. Inhofe

BIG GREEN 3, Green Gold: BP, GE & the World’s First Carbon Billionaire

The Green $windle

The Big Green machine – The Big Money & The Global Governance Agenda That Fuels Environmentalism

Al Gore’s Carbon crusade: The Money and Connections Behind It

Another Massive Energy Tax Looms on the Horizon

Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010 sponsors

Wind energy is a lot of hot air

High and Hidden Costs: There is Nothing Free about the Wind

The Big Green machine – The Big Money & The Global Governance Agenda That Fuels Environmentalism

Obama: My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket

The Big Wind-Power Cover-Up – ‘green’ slime of corruption

UC Santa Barbara emeritus professor of physics quits American Physical Society over global climate hoax

Stink in the air – Carnahan’s brother gets $107 million for wind farm

Windmills killing bats by the thousands

The Great Global Warming Swindle – video documentary on CO2

The Green Con Job – higher ‘green’ energy costs = job losses

The Big Green machine – The Big Money & The Global Governance Agenda That Fuels Environmentalism

Big Green: Emanuel’s pot of green gold is called Exelon

No Science, Fake Science, and the Deliberate Destruction of the Nation

Green slime – The people behind Obama’s war against fossil fuels

Turning Off the (Incandescent) Light of Liberty

Reid to force renewable energy mandate in lame duck session

Climate propaganda still pushed by media

Congressman Calls For Schools To ‘Promote The Agenda’ Of Climate Change, Population Limitation

Education secretary vows climate indoctrination

No Science, Fake Science, and the Deliberate Destruction of the Nation

Texas Sues to Block Bizarre “Global Warming” EPA Rules

Rebranding the climate hoax

Green slime – The people behind Obama’s war against fossil fuels

Warmist Slander of Scientific Skeptics

Turning Off the (Incandescent) Light of Liberty

Eco-Terror’s Inspiration – Al Gore

Two Lies Make A Truth In Green and Liberal Views on Climate Science

Green scheme dims lights of freedom

Founder of The Weather Channel says sue Al Gore

Nazi Dreams were Green Dreams

Meltdown of the climate ‘consensus’

Environmental terrorism: Alive, well and dangerous.

The untold story of Waxman-Markey: USCAP and the green industrial complex

Update: Enviro terrorist killed by police – Environmental hysteria causing looney lefties to go off the deep end?

Desperate Greens Make Desperate Claims

UN climate commission found flawed in investigation

IPCC and CRU Rewrite Facts But Can’t Rewrite History

The Green $windle

Pushing ‘green’ for fun and profit

Run Like A Deere From Cap-And-Trade

Wind energy is a lot of hot air

Lone Star state won’t participate in Obama’s lawless policy

McConnell: Cap-and-trade ‘dead’ – but watch out for executive orders

Secretary Clinton’s Climate Con

Reflected Sunlight Shines On IPCC Deceptions And Gross Inadequacies

Forecaster predicted Russian heatwave, Pakistan flood and exposes CO2 fraud

Banning the Incandescent Light Bulb

Hillary uses Pakistan flood disaster to push climate hoax

Leading US Physicist Labels Satellitegate Scandal a ‘Catastrophe’ for climate hoax

Cancer of Tropic – the Algoreaholics are still at it

Gore calls for major protests to push his climate hoax legislation

Why Warming Is Falsely Reported When World Is Cooling

Global warming lies, damn lies and easy rebuttals

Blacklisted Scientist Challenges Global Warming Orthodoxy

Big Green Lies are Imploding

Henny-Penny Discovers Feet of Clay

Global Warming, R.I.P

Leftist climate activist bails out of global warming hoax

Carbon Cronyism: Why Cap-and-Trade Is Not Dead Yet

The sky is falling, the sky is falling, the ice is melting

Dems Ditch ‘Cap and Trade’ but don’t be fooled

What you should know about the lie that is coming in cap and trade

Dems change ‘climate’ saving language to ‘pollution’

Cap and trade bill will clobber D.C. and you

EPA pushes ahead to kill energy industry

Obama: My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket

Obama is Strangling Big Oil -$7 a gallon gas anyone?

No objectivity in climate debate

The Bait-And-Switch On Cap-And-Trade

Malkin explains Salazar’s deception on drilling ban

New $3.4 TRILLION in taxes hits all Americans

Obama’s Gulf Oil Spill Commission and the Missing Experts – agenda to pass cap and trade?

Obama Is Wrong; Alternative Energy is Not an Alternative

Obama Trumpets Radical Energy Agenda -Sen. Inhofe

Dems ready for big push on global warming

$7-a-gallon gas?

Krauthammer: Dreamer in chief wants to lead us down green path to destruction

Obama’s ‘green’ jobs role model, Spain, is next European bailout

Green Stimulus Money Costs More Jobs Than It Creates, Study Shows

Obama administration hides truth on ‘green’ jobs with help of big wind businesses which stand to make big money with government subsidies

The ‘green jobs’ lie

The Big Wind-Power Cover-Up – ‘green’ slime of corruption

The Weatherization Boondoggle -’green’ union money pit

The Green Pied Piper from Chicago

Billions for ‘green jobs,’ whatever they are

Myth of ‘green jobs’ continues

The Green Con Job – higher ‘green’ energy costs = job losses

Obama Still Backs Job-Destroying Global-Warming Agenda by Sen. Inhofe

Obama Sells Economic Snake Oil

The Great Global Warming Swindle – video documentary on CO2

Cap & Ruin also known as the American Power Act

Obama: Under My Plan Electricity Rates Skyrocket

American Power Act: Oil Spill Does Not Justify Wrecking the Economy

BP is Kerry ally on cap and trade (now known as American Power Act)

John Kerry’s Big Business Buyoff to get cap and trade passed

Obama uses oil spill to push cap and trade

Crime, Inc. (also known as cap and trade) highlights

Nonpartisan Proof: Cap-and-Trade Is an Economy-Killer

Obama: Under My Plan Electricity Rates Skyrocket

Cap and Trade is a UN power grab orchestrated by Maurice Strong et al

Exposing the cap and trade bill as a criminal enterprise

Cap-and-Trade: A Scam Based on a Scam

Drive those SUVs! Global Cooling Is Coming — and Beware the Big Chill, Scientist Warns

Iceland volcanoes could cause climate cooling!

Former White house staffer & communist Van Jones on the father of the climate scam Joel Rogers

Crime inc.~ Joel Rogers & The New Green Deal

Al Gore’s Carbon crusade: The Money and Connections Behind It

Cap and Trade is a UN power grab orchestrated by Maurice Strong et al

Exposing the cap and trade bill as a criminal enterprise

Cap-and-Trade: A Scam Based on a Scam

Cap and Trade bill would legalize criminal scam by Chicago Climate Exchange

How Obama’s ‘green’ policies will steal your freedom and bankrupt America

Obama Gives GE CEO a New Title On Same Day That Dept. of Interior Announces $1 Billion AZ Solar Project (Video)

2011-01-22T22:16:00.001-06:00

from The Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft

Obama Gives GE CEO a New Title On Same Day That Dept. of Interior Announces $1 Billion AZ Solar Project (Video): "

“We are all democrats now.”

Jeffrey Immelt

GE Chief Executive Officer

November 2009

No wonder Jeffrey Immelt loves the democrats and this far left adminstration.

Yesterday, Barack Obama announced that G.E. CEO Jeffrey Immelt will lead his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

FOX News reported on this controversial move:

Whether it is pushing the president’s plan for global warming fees in order to create demand for his “Ecomagination” line of windmills, solar panels, etc., boosting the president’s national health-care law as part of an effort to sell more medical equipment, or enthusing over the Obama strategy of making loans available for industrial exporters, Immelt has been an Obama stalwart all along. Immelt has also consistently argued to shareholders that there is big money to be made in advancing the Democratic agenda.

While most corporate leaders have taken a wait and see approach to Obama’s occasional overtures to the private sector, G.E., along with Google, Goldman and few others, have backed him to the hilt.

Also yesterday, the Department of Interior announced that it would offer nearly $1 billion in loans for an Arizona power plant.

Guess who sells solar panels?… That’s right, General Electric.

This was another jackpot win for GE. What a day!

No wonder Immelt loves Obama.

Same Old, Same Old… Obama Will Call For More Spending in State of Union Address

2011-01-22T22:16:00.000-06:00

from The Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft

Same Old, Same Old… Obama Will Call For More Spending in State of Union Address: "

In November 2008 after the election Obama promised that he would cut wasteful spending.

Well, that never happened.

Instead, Barack Obama tripled the national deficit in one year. When Speaker Pelosi took over Congress the national deficit was $162 billion. When she exited this month as Speaker it was $1.29 Trillion dollars.

The national deficit topped a trillion dollars in Obama’s second year, too.

(The Captain’s Comments)

Spending was up 84% under Obama.

He’s not through yet.

Obama will announce in his State of the Union Address this week that he is going to increase spending.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

Mr. Obama will argue that the U.S., even while trying to reduce its budget deficit, must make targeted investments to foster job growth and boost U.S. competitiveness in the world economy. The new spending could include initiatives aimed at building the renewable-energy sector—which received billions of dollars in stimulus funding—and rebuilding roads to improve transportation, people familiar with the matter said. Money to restructure the No Child Left Behind law’s testing mandates and institute more competitive grants also could be included.

While proposing new spending, Mr. Obama also will lay out significant budget cuts elsewhere, people familiar with the plans say, though they will likely fall short of what Republican lawmakers have requested.

Of course, Obama’s new green investments aren’t cheap either. The White House will give tax credits which will go to 183 projects in 43 states under the $787 billion economic recovery stimulus program approved last year by Congress. His ‘green jobs’ will cost $135,295 each.

That’s just one reason why community organizers don’t make good presidents.

Obama Offers Preview of SOTU Address: Jobs Will Be Number One Focus (Just Like Last Year)

2011-01-22T22:15:00.001-06:00

from The Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft

Obama Offers Preview of SOTU Address: Jobs Will Be Number One Focus (Just Like Last Year): "

Barack Obama released a video today to supporters giving them a glimpse of his State of the Union Address this coming week.

Obama says his “principle and number one focus” this next year will be on creating jobs.

Of course, we’ve heard this all before.

He said the same thing last year…

From his 2010 SOTU address:

I realize that for every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from; who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response. That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

Of course, it wasn’t.

Rep. Joe WIlson may have said it best.

You lie.

New Record Low Temperatures In Northern Minnesota… -46°

2011-01-22T22:15:00.000-06:00

from The Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft

New Record Low Temperatures In Northern Minnesota… -46°: "

International Falls, Minnesota set a new record this week when the temperature dropped to -46°

Watts Up With That reported:

from NWS Duluth, MN, an old record beaten by five degrees:

RECORD EVENT REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN

518 PM CST FRI JAN 21 2011

…RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE SET AT INTERNATIONAL FALLS MN…

A RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE OF -46 DEGREES WAS SET AT INTERNATIONAL

FALLS MN TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF -41 SET IN 1954…

The lowest temperatures recorded in the NWS Duluth county warning area were -46 degrees at both International Falls, MN (ASOS) and Babbitt, MN (CO-OP).

Yahoo had more on the record Midwest cold.

There is a brutally frigid point on the thermometer — minus 40 degrees — where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet, and it was even colder than that in parts of the US Midwest as an Arctic blast struck over the weekend.

Americans were bundling up Saturday as the coldest weather of the season was forecast to sock cities from Chicago to New York and Boston, with temperatures that have already prompted weather service warnings.

The coldest weather in two years slammed Minnesota, where International Falls — which proudly proclaims itself the “Icebox of the Nation” — recorded a shocking 46 degrees below zero (-43 Celsius).

The Friday temperature tied the town’s coldest reading since it began keeping records in 1897.

There can be only one explanation…

It must be global warming.

House GOP to Tackle Health Care ‘Waivers’ and Obama’s Expanding EPA

2011-01-22T05:08:00.001-06:00

from The Blaze - Stories by Meredith Jessup

House GOP to Tackle Health Care ‘Waivers’ and Obama’s Expanding EPA: "

The chairmen of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee are teaming up to investigate Health and Human Services’ newly formed Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO). Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., are respectively turning their attention toward tackling the bureaucracy of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, just one day after the House of Representatives voted to repeal the law by a significant margin.

House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.

While the repeal legislation is widely expected to stall in the Senate, Upton and Stearns’ actions signal that the Republican House majority will move forward in trying to dismantle the law one piece at a time.

On Thursday, Upton and Stearns sent a joint letter to CCIIO director Jay Angoff requesting further information about the office’s structure and authority. In addition, the Republican House members requested specific information on the office‘s recent decisions in granting waivers to several businesses and labor unions which temporarily exempt them from complying with the new federal law’s requirements.

At least 222 companies have qualified for the ObamaCare “waivers.” (Click here for the complete list)

“Most troubling is that your office is currently responsible for deciding who does not have to comply with the massive new regulations imposed by the PPACA [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act],” the letter stated. “Currently your office has approved waivers from the PPACA’s annual limits requirements for 222 applicants.”

“In a Nov. 30, 2010 meeting with Ranking Minority Member Michael Burgess, you stated that your office had also denied waiver requests. We would appreciate if your office would explain how a decision is made on whether compliance with the PPACA is necessary.”

According to the Daily Caller, the letter was also sent to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

On a separate front, The Hill reports that Upton has also announced plans to carefully examine the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate change regulations this year.

In a document outlining his agenda for the year, the Energy and Commerce chair stresses that it is “critical” the Obama administration refrain from “imposing its new global warming regulatory regime, which will undermine economic growth and U.S. competitiveness for no significant benefit.”

“While the individual items included in the document are not surprising, the agenda, taken as a whole, illustrates the breadth of GOP opposition to the White House energy and environment agenda,” The Hill notes.

According to GOP’s “agenda,“ the EPA has been responsible for regulating ”too much too fast” without fully examining the widespread impacts on job and economic vitality. In response, the committee is looking to direct its attention toward breaking the EPA’s regulatory “chokehold” to help spur economic recovery.

“The stakes could not be higher,” the document says. “If the Obama administration succeeds in imposing unaffordable and unworkable permitting and other rules through EPA, it will severely impede the domestic manufacturing and industrial growth necessary for this nation to create jobs and emerge from a devastating recession.”

Reigning in the EPA may also help put a small dent in the nation’s rising debt. Columnist Art Horn noted Thursday that the federal government will spend about $4 billion on global warming research this year, “despite the fact that there has been no global warming since 1998, and despite all of the billions that have been spent so far yielding no conclusive evidence that using fossil fuels to make energy has any significant effect on Earth’s temperature… In 2011, your government will spend $10.6 million a day to study, combat, and educate about climate change,” he wrote.

With new polls suggesting an overwhelming majority of Americans are feeling the pressure of rising gas prices, the committee has also signaled its intent to tackle what it calls “artificial” burdens on U.S. domestic oil drilling.

“In the face of $4 gasoline, calls for increased supply will be stronger than ever,” the agenda states. “We will respond by promoting affordable, abundant and secure sources of energy by preventing the administration’s regulatory overreach and expanding access in an environmentally responsible way” — a response that will include reducing “regulatory red tape” at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Former ACORN, SEIU Activist Moves From White House to DNC

2011-01-22T05:08:00.000-06:00

from The Blaze - Stories by Meredith Jessup

Former ACORN, SEIU Activist Moves From White House to DNC: "

White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard

In another major shakeup signaling the Obama camp is preparing to launch the president’s reelection campaign, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tim Kaine announced Thursday that executive director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon will leave the party to serve as deputy campaign manager, and White House political director Patrick Gaspard will move in to replace her at the DNC.

Gaspard’s role in the Obama machine has been a target of conservative criticism in the past given his associations with activist organizations like disgraced community organization ACORN. Gaspard donated tends of thousands of dollars to ACORN in the past and worked for New York’s Working Families Party (WFP), a political entity “fighting for a more just world,” formed by a coalition of labor unions, ACORN and other community organizations. He also was an organizer for a New Jersey chapter of the New Party — a collaborative effort between ACORN and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Gaspard also previously worked as a top official at the powerful New York SEIU local 1199 and turned down an offer last year for the number two top job in the union’s national organization.

In his announcement, Kaine wrote that Gaspard “understands the importance of grassroots politics and team building… Working together, I am confident that we can protect the progress of the past two years, achieve important electoral victories in 2011 and 2012.”

TMZ: Olbermann Will Be Paid $14 Million to Say Goodbye to MSNBC

2011-01-22T05:07:00.000-06:00

from The Blaze - Stories by Scott Baker

TMZ: Olbermann Will Be Paid $14 Million to Say Goodbye to MSNBC: "

TMZ:

Sources connected with the network tell us … Comcast honchos did not like Keith’s defiance and the way he played in the sandbox.

Our sources say Keith has around two years left on his contract, and he’ll be paid his salary — around $7 million a year.

Senate Misinformed about New START

2011-01-22T05:06:00.001-06:00

from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. by Michaela Bendikova and Owen Graham

Senate Misinformed about New START: "

Although the U.S. Senate gave its advice and consent to the ratification of New START, a strategic nuclear arms control treaty with the Russian Federation, the debate about the substance and ramifications of the treaty is far from resolved.

Dr. Keith Payne, President of the National Institute for Public Policy, argues in his latest article that the Senate was misinformed by the Obama Administration about New START. Despite the Obama Administration’s claims to the contrary, Russian officials have publicly stated that the Russian Federation will not have to cut even a single warhead as a result of reductions stipulated in the treaty. But this question also remains—on how many other issues with New START was the Senate misled?

Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia’s Defense Minister, said that Russia will not have to cut a single unit, be it a delivery vehicle or a warhead, because those will be retired before the expiration of their service life. Accordingly, the U.S. is the only party to the treaty that actually has to cut its warheads and delivery vehicles under the treaty limits. The Administration has never acknowledged this apparent disparity and even stated that “the Treaty imposes equal limits on both Parties.”

However, “equal limits” are not the only issue in the treaty where the Administration appears to have misled the Senate. During the New START debates, a number of experts expressed concerns about the negative impact of New START’s provisions in the preamble, the body, the protocol, and the annexes of the treaty for the U.S. missile defense program. To that end, Senators John McCain (R–AZ), Bob Corker (R–TN), and Joe Lieberman (I–CT) attached an understanding to the treaty on December 22, 2010, that specifically rejects the Russian claim that the language in the preamble is legally binding. The same understanding also states that New START does not impose any limitation on the deployment of missile defenses (other than the requirements of paragraph 3 of Article V).

It now appears likely that the ratification law of the Russian Federation, approved by the Duma in the second reading of New START, may include language that is tantamount to asserting that language the treaty beyond Article V, paragraph 3, is legally binding on the U.S. Apparently, the understanding the Duma is considering attaching to the treaty will clearly and unequivocally reject the understanding attached by the Senate.

This raises the question of whether the two diametrically opposed understandings will or should bar the exchange of the instruments of ratification between the two parties and prevent entry into force of New START. By exchanging the instruments of ratification, the U.S. runs the risk of being charged by Russia with material breach of New START if it undertakes steps to qualitatively or quantitatively improve U.S. missile defense capabilities according to is present plans. This situation illustrates that there is no agreement between the parties on an issue that is essential to the treaty. As critics have pointed out all along, there is an irreconcilable difference between the two parties on the issue of missile defense, which suggests that the treaty might be an exercise in futility.

How the States Can Carry the Torch to Repeal Obamacare

2011-01-22T05:06:00.000-06:00

from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. by Kathryn Nix

How the States Can Carry the Torch to Repeal Obamacare: "

Last night, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, which would scrap Obamacare in its entirety. Regardless of whether this legislation makes it to the President’s desk, supporters of a new direction for health care reform have reason to be encouraged: Implementation of Obamacare faces an uphill battle in the states as well.

So far, 27 states have filed suit against the new law’s individual mandate and requirements forbidding states from reducing eligibility for their Medicaid programs. But the legal battle isn’t the only way states can throw a wrench in the health care overhaul. This week, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) debuts “The State Legislators Guide to Repealing Obamacare” highlighting ways in which states can continue the battle.

States face some of the most detrimental effects of the new health law. Obamacare significantly expands eligibility for Medicaid, and though the federal government will foot the bill in the first years of its enactment, in the end states still will be left picking up a portion of the cost.

This, however, doesn’t include administrative costs of expanding the program; nor does it consider the “woodwork effect.” According to ALEC, one out of every four uninsured Americans currently qualifies for Medicaid but is not enrolled. As these eligible individuals participate as a result of the new law’s requirement to carry coverage or pay a penalty, state costs will grow, but the federal government will not provide the enhanced matching rate.

States will also experience other negative economic effects of Obamacare. New penalties will threaten job creation, and states where life sciences industries employ a significant portion of the workforce may see jobs go overseas as a result of new taxes on drug and medical device manufacturers. Finally, Obamacare marks a federal overreach into insurance regulation, which has hitherto been overseen by the states.

ALEC provides strategies for state legislators to stop Obamacare, beginning with refusing to create the foundation required for the new law to take shape. ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, which has been introduced or announced in 42 states, “prohibits any person, employer, or healthcare provider from being compelled to purchase or provide health insurance; protects the right of a person or employer to pay directly for lawful healthcare services; protects the right of a health care provider to accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services, and protects the existence of a private health insurance market.” States can also apply for waivers for certain insurance provisions, reject federal grants for implementation, and let Washington enforce federally created “consumer protections.”

Finally, state legislators should engage in careful oversight of the new law, commissioning outside reports on the effects of Obamacare at the state level. State lawmakers should hold hearings to highlight the unintended consequences of the new law, such as incentives for states to drop their Medicaid programs or businesses to drop employer-sponsored coverage. Drawing public attention to the negative effects of Obamacare will build the case for repeal.

Under Obamacare, states will be charged with enacting several provisions of the law without the flexibility to tailor changes to the unique demands of their residents. States can use this opportunity to fight for repeal and to empower state legislators to pursue the health care reform that best suits their needs.

70% Expect $4-A-Gallon Gas by July – 49% clueless to Obama connection

2011-01-22T05:04:00.000-06:00

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

70% Expect $4-A-Gallon Gas by July – 49% clueless to Obama connection: "

Nearly nine-out-of-10 Americans say they are paying more for gas than they were last summer and expect to pay even more six months from now. Most say $4-a-gallon gas is likely by July 1. – Rasmussen

By Michael Whipple, Editor usACTIONnews.com

The Obama administration seems to be doing everything it can to increase gas prices along with other energy prices. The administration is stalling oil drilling permits, increasing restrictions on oil and gas exploration on federal lands and recently the EPA even revoked a coal mining permit that had been granted four years ago.

The other big problem being created by the administration is the debt. As the federal reserve creates more money out of thin air our dollar value declines. That raises the price of a barrel of oil relative to dollars along with gold and other commodities.

Obama’s Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu said “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September 2008. At that time European gas prices were $7 to $9 a gallon. Sounds like we have the wrong people running the energy department.

The anti automobile ideology is further demonstrated by Department of Transportation Secretary LaHood’s remarks from a previous story:

On May 21, LaHood told reporters at the National Press Club that his department has formed an Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He said the partnership was designed to “coerce” people out of their cars. When asked to respond to the complaint that the partnership would intrude in people’s lives, he replied, “About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people’s lives. So have at it.” [emphasis added]

Here are a few more ways Obama is forcing up gas prices from The Heritage Foundation:

Immediately after taking office in 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah.

The EPA announced new rules mandating the use of 36 billion gallons worth of renewable fuels (like ethanol) by 2020.

This summer President Obama needlessly instituted, not one, but two outright drilling bans in the Gulf of Mexico.

After rescinding his outright offshore drilling ban, President Obama has refused to issue any new drilling permits in the Gulf, a policy that the Energy Information Administration estimates will cut domestic offshore oil production by 13% this year

Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast, and the Pacific coast will not be developed, effectively banning drilling in those areas for the next seven years;

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced new global warming regulations for oil refineries;

Interior Secretary Salazar announced new rules making it more difficult to develop energy resources on federal land.

All of these policies raise gas prices at the pump by either: 1) decreasing the availability of domestic energy supplies, or 2) increasing regulatory costs on gasoline production.

As a result federal leasing of oil and gas exploration in the western United States has dropped significantly in the past two years. According to data compiled by the Western Energy Alliance:

• Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offices in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming issued 531 leases in fiscal year (FY) 2010, a 79 percent drop from the 2,499 leases issued in FY2005;

• Since FY 2005, BLM has offered 60 percent fewer parcels and 70 percent fewer acres;

• Leasing revenue dropped 46 percent, from $189.6 million in FY 2005 to $101.6 million in FY 2010;

• Since 1984, total leases in effect in the West declined 52 percent and acreage declined 61 percent;

• BLM sold 75 percent fewer acres in FY 2010 than it did in FY 2005;

• In the first two years of the Obama Administration, DOI issued 76 percent fewer acres than the first two years of the Clinton Administration and 71 percent fewer acres than the first two years of the Bush Administration; and

• Revenue from onshore federal royalties, rents, and bonuses declined from $4.2 billion to $2.8 billion between 2008 and 2010, a 33 percent decrease.

And it isn’t just gasoline prices. Click here to see the not famous enough video of Obama admitting his plan will make electricity rates skyrocket.

West Virginia has had to sue the EPA over coal killing regulations. In speaking of the lawsuit Gov. Manchin said “Over the past year and a half, we have been fighting President Obama’s administration’s attempts to destroy our coal industry and way of life in West Virginia”. He went on to say that the EPA has “usurped the authority of the state and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to oversee and regulate important aspects of our environment, like water quality,” and “These actions by U.S. EPA are threatening not only to end surface coal mining in West Virginia but to affect all forms of mining in the state.”

A report put out by by the monority on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works entitled EPA’S ANTI-INDUSTRIAL POLICY: “THREATENING JOBS AND AMERICA’S MANUFACTURING BASE” stated that:

“The evidence is clear: these rules threaten the economic viability of America’s manufacturing base and hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs. Moreover, these rules will bring little, if any, public health or environmental benefits. As Americans suffer through a jobless recovery, EPA is pursuing policies that exacerbate our economic problems and do not improve the environment.”

Further on it points out that by the EPA’s own estimate these rules will have an environmental effect so minuscule as to be immeasurable.

‘One might expect that these costs would at least be offset with meaningful environmental benefits. Yet EPA’s own analysis shows that’s not the case. In estimating the impacts on global temperatures of the agency’s mobile source rule, EPA concluded:

“Based on the reanalysis the results for projected atmospheric CO2 concentrations are estimated to be reduced by an average of 2.9 ppm (previously 3.0 ppm), global mean temperature is estimated to be reduced by 0.006 to 0.0015 °C by 2100.”’ [emphasis added]

And yet these rules and regulations would kill tens of thousands of jobs in construction, steel plants, coal industry, oil production, gasoline refineries. It would cause the loss of coal plants, cement plants, and has already cost tens of thousands of jobs in the oil industry on the gulf coast. An ally of the EPA action, The Sierra Club, brags that it has stopped 100 new coal plants since 2001. “Stopping one hundred coal plants is a huge milestone in our fight to end global warming, but the coal industry is still pushing forward with plans for dozens of new plants in places, like Michigan and Kansas, and pouring money into slick advertising campaigns and lobbying efforts,” said Nilles. “As we celebrate this amazing milestone, we must redouble our efforts to stop new plants and replace the existing coal plants with clean energy.” ~ Sierra Club press release. The Sierra Club is a powerful Washington lobbyist spending $1,580,000 on lobbying in the last three years according to OpenSecrets.org. Environmental groups as an industry have spent $14,746,646 on lobbying in 2010, $22,458,950 in 2009 and $17,953,057 in 2008 for a total in the last three years of over $55 MILLION!

All of this is being done without congressional approval. Obama is establishing his agenda by agency rules and regulations to bypass congress and the will of the people.

Rasmussen reports:

“The number of adults who expect gas prices to increase even more has reached its highest level since March of last year. Eighty-seven percent (87%) say it is at least somewhat likely they will be paying more for gas in six months, including an overwhelming 75% who say it is Very Likely. Just seven percent (7%) do not expect to spend more for gas in six months’ time.

Seventy percent (70%) say it’s also at least somewhat likely that gas prices will rise above $4-a-gallon by July 1, with 40% who believe it is Very Likely.”

And yet 49% of the people approve of the job Obama is doing?? 29% strongly approve? There is a mental disconnect here. Obama and his allies in the press are doing a fantastic job alright but its at fooling most of the people most of the time.

Michael Whipple, Editor usACTIONnews.com

The Assault on Drilling Is Onshore, Too

Obama’s War On Coal – and your electricity

Obama pushes up oil, gas and electric rates as he promised

Obama warned us he would make electricity rates ’skyrocket’

Electric cars could cause blackouts

Subsidy for wind energy will raise electricity prices on everyone

Kerry says his pet leftist causes can unite congress, bring peace, prosperity and heal our land

The No Subsidies Energy Policy

E.P.A. Revokes Coal Mining Permit It Had Granted in 2007

EPA Handing Out Millions in Taxpayer Money to Study Combination of Pollution and ‘Social Stressors’ in Poor Neighborhoods

More of your green wasted on green subsidies

Estimated 40 Percent of Scientists Doubt Manmade Global Warming

The Great ‘Climate Change’ Taxpayer Rip-Off of 2011

America Is Losing the Resource Race

‘Obama’s EPA a Growing Menace to Economy’ – Sen. Inhofe

Obama still intends to redistribute your green with his green agenda

Is Green Socialism EPA’s Real Goal?

12 Economic Collapse Scenarios That We Could Potentially See In 2011

2011-01-22T05:03:00.000-06:00

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

12 Economic Collapse Scenarios That We Could Potentially See In 2011: "

What could cause an economic collapse in 2011? Well, unfortunately there are quite a few “nightmare scenarios” that could plunge the entire globe into another massive financial crisis.

By Michael T. Snyder at Economic Collapse

What could cause an economic collapse in 2011? Well, unfortunately there are quite a few “nightmare scenarios” that could plunge the entire globe into another massive financial crisis. The United States, Japan and most of the nations in Europe are absolutely drowning in debt. The Federal Reserve continues to play reckless games with the U.S. dollar. The price of oil is skyrocketing and the global price of food just hit a new record high. Food riots are already breaking out all over the world. Meanwhile, the rampant fraud and corruption going on in world financial markets is starting to be exposed and the whole house of cards could come crashing down at any time. Most Americans have no idea that a horrific economic collapse could happen at literally any time. There is no way that all of this debt and all of this financial corruption is sustainable. At some point we are going to reach a moment of “total system failure”.

So will it be soon? Let’s hope not. Let’s certainly hope that it does not happen in 2011. Many of us need more time to prepare. Most of our families and friends need more time to prepare. Once this thing implodes there isn’t going to be an opportunity to have a “do over”. We simply will not be able to put the toothpaste back into the tube again.

So we had all better be getting prepared for hard times. The following are 12 economic collapse scenarios that we could potentially see in 2011….

#1 U.S. debt could become a massive crisis at any moment. China is saying all of the right things at the moment, but many analysts are openly worried about what could happen if China suddenly decides to start dumping all of the U.S. debt that they have accumulated. Right now about the only thing keeping U.S. government finances going is the ability to borrow gigantic amounts of money at extremely low interest rates. If anything upsets that paradigm, it could potentially have enormous consequences for the entire world financial system.

#2 Speaking of threats to the global financial system, it turns out that “quantitative easing 2″ has had the exact opposite effect that Ben Bernanke planned for it to have. Bernanke insisted that the main goal of QE2 was to lower interest rates, but instead all it has done is cause interest rates to go up substantially. If Bernanke this incompetent or is he trying to mess everything up on purpose?

#3 The debt bubble that the entire global economy is based on could burst at any time and throw the whole planet into chaos. According to a new report from the World Economic Forum, the total amount of credit in the world increased from $57 trillion in 2000 to $109 trillion in 2009. The WEF says that now the world is going to need another $100 trillion in credit to support projected “economic growth” over the next decade. So is this how the new “global economy” works? We just keep doubling the total amount of debt every decade?

#4 As the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve continue to pump massive amounts of new dollars into the system, the floor could fall out from underneath the U.S. dollar at any time. The truth is that we are already starting to see inflation really accelerate and everyone pretty much acknowledges that official U.S. governments figures for inflation are an absolute joke. According to one new study, the cost of college tuition has risen 286% over the last 20 years, and the cost of “hospital, nursing-home and adult-day-care services” rose 269% during those same two decades. All of this happened during a period of supposedly “low” inflation. So what are price increases going to look like when we actually have “high” inflation?

#5 One of the primary drivers of global inflation during 2011 could be the price of oil. A large number of economists are now projecting that the price of oil could surge well past $100 dollars a barrel in 2011. If that happens, it is going to put significant pressure on the price of almost everything else in the entire global economy. In fact, as I have explained previously, the higher the price of oil goes, the faster the U.S. economy will decline.

#6 Food inflation is already so bad in some areas of the globe that it is setting off massive food riots in nations such as Tunisia and Algeria. In fact, there have been reports of people setting themselves on fire all over the Middle East as a way to draw attention to how desperate they are. So what is going to happen if global food prices go up another 10 or 20 percent and food riots spread literally all over the globe during 2011?

#7 There are persistent rumors that simply will not go away of massive physical gold and silver shortages. Demand for precious metals has never been higher. So what is going to happen when many investors begin to absolutely insist on physical delivery of their precious metals? What is going to happen when the fact that far, far, far more “paper gold” and “paper silver” has been sold than has ever actually physically existed in the history of the planet starts to come out? What would that do to the price of gold and silver?

#8 The U.S. housing industry could plunge the U.S. economy into another recession at any time. The real estate market is absolutely flooded with homes and virtually nobody is buying. This massive oversupply of homes means that the construction of new homes has fallen off a cliff. In 2010, only 703,000 single family, multi-family and manufactured homes were completed. This was a new record low, and it was down 17% from the previous all-time record which had just been set in 2009.

#9 A combination of extreme weather and disease could make this an absolutely brutal year for U.S. farmers. This winter we have already seen thousands of new cold weather and snowfall records set across the United States. Now there is some very disturbing news emerging out of Florida of an “incurable bacteria” that is ravaging citrus crops all over Florida. Is there a reason why so many bad things are happening all of a sudden?

#10 The municipal bond crisis could go “supernova” at any time. Already, investors are bailing out of bonds at a frightening pace. State and local government debt is now sitting at an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP. According to Meredith Whitney, the municipal bond crisis that we are facing is a gigantic threat to our financial system….

“It has tentacles as wide as anything I’ve seen. I think next to housing this is the single most important issue in the United States and certainly the largest threat to the U.S. economy.”

Former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan is convinced that things are so bad that literally 90% of our states and cities could go bankrupt over the next five years….

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.

#11 Of course on top of everything else, the quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble could burst at any time. Right now we are watching the greatest financial casino in the history of the globe spin around and around and around and everyone is hoping that at some point it doesn’t stop. Today, most money on Wall Street is not made by investing in good business ideas. Rather, most money on Wall Street is now made by making the best bets. Unfortunately, at some point the casino is going to come crashing down and the game will be over.

#12 The biggest wildcard of all is war. The Korean peninsula came closer to war in 2010 than it had in decades. The Middle East could literally explode at any time. We live in a world where a single weapon can take out an entire city in an instant. All it would take is a mid-size war or a couple of weapons of mass destruction to throw the entire global economy into absolute turmoil.

Once again, let us hope that none of these economic collapse scenarios happens in 2011.

However, we have got to realize that we can’t keep dodging these bullets forever.

As bad as 2010 was, the truth is that it went about as good as any of us could have hoped. Things are still pretty stable and times are still pretty good right now.

But instead of using these times to “party”, we should be using them to prepare.

A really, really vicious economic storm is coming and it is going to be a complete and total nightmare. Get ready, hold on tight, and say your prayers.

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and has a law degree from the University of Florida. He is an attorney that has worked for some of the largest and most prominent law firms in Washington D.C. and who now resides outside of Seattle, Washington. He is a very active blogger and is also a respected researcher, writer, speaker and activist. Michael blogs at theeconomiccollapseblog.com

70% Expect $4-A-Gallon Gas by July – 49% clueless to Obama connection

Irish government collapses – calls for new election

Vallejo Bankruptcy Plan Offers Unsecured Creditors 5-20%; JPMorgan CEO Forecasts More Municipal Bankruptcies; Bernanke Will Not Rescue Cities

DeMint warns of bankruptcy, draconian tax increases, and economic stagnation – offers plan to cut $2.5 trillion

National Debt now at $126,985 per taxpayer – total liability $1,013,695 per taxpayer

Debt Clock

Our Choice: State Secession or Washington Debt Depression

How to Freeze the Debt Ceiling Without Risking Default

Hoisington and Hunt Forecast 2011

Austerity In America: 22 Signs That It Is Already Here And That It Is Going To Be Very Painful

The Great Depression II

Is Obama lying about his focus on jobs and the economy?

There is no argument for continuing the Federal Reserve System – Thomas Sowell

Govt says no inflation but there are riots over food prices

US economy is just the best horse in the glue factory

WSJ’s Stephen Moore on economics

10 Things That Would Be Different If The Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created

US falls further in Index of Economic Freedom Due To Spending

Will the last one out of Illinois turn out the lights

Greenspan warns of bond crisis with continued debt

Will The Tea Party Congress Bring Recovery?

Name The City Where 28% Of Homes And 62% Of Businesses Are Vacant

Debt and Ruin or American Exceptionalism – the stark choice America faces

‘We are going the way of Greece and Ireland’ ~ Michele Bachmann

Rep. Paul Ryan ‘we really do have a fiscal disaster coming’

New Year’s Resolution: Stop the Fiscal Insanity

Reevaluating Pension Entitlements in the Public Sector

World food prices spike to all time high

60% property tax increases possible in Chicago from union pensions

“Alarm Bells Should Be Ringing in Washington, DC”

Is the national debt too big to estimate?

The Coming Political Upheaval

How Government Failure Caused the Great Recession

Will troubled states file bankruptcy?

17 National Debt Statistics Which Prove That We Have Sold Our Children And Grandchildren Into Perpetual Debt Slavery

As 2010 Comes to An End, Bad Economic News Continue

Illinois Governor Wants to Borrow $15 Billion to “Balance” the Budget; Illinois Total Unfunded Liabilities Exceed $200 Billion Already

No hope for bipartisan spending cuts?

The Working Poor

2011 – What’s Coming

The Shattered American Dream: Unemployed Workers Lose Ground, Hope, and Faith in their Futures

Ex-Shell president sees $5 gas in 2012

70% give Obama negative ratings on economic job

Balance the Budget Now

111th Congress Added More Debt Than First 100 Congresses Combined: $10,429 Per Person in U.S.

Sen. Tom Coburn ‘We must live within our means’

Cooking the Books: The 2010 Deficit Was $2.1 trillion

Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning

Here’s The Triple Threat That Could Spin The Globe Into A Deeper Recession

Government Waste: 20 Of The Craziest Things That The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On

US as Argentina

10 Trends for 2011

The Federal Reserve: Aging Magician of the Welfare State

Say Bye-Bye to Consumer Spending

Financial meltdown in state budgets: Day of Reckoning

Late-Stage Animal Farm

The Market Is Overbought, Overextended And Overvalued

Expose the Public Pension Mess

When the money runs out

John Williams: Hyperinflation Will Start in the Next Couple Months

10 Signs That Confidence In U.S. Treasuries Is Dying And Financial Armageddon Approaches

The Only Thing That Will Save Us Now Is Fear Itself

Outlook for the economy – grim

US may lose Aaa credit rating with flawed tax deal

Is the GOP ignoring anti-spending message?

State and local pension shortfalls over $3.5 TRILLION

Will 2011 Be The Year The Von Mises Prophecy Comes True?

The Lesson of the Tax Deal and the Deficit: Teach Your Kids Chinese

Washington Orders Another Free Lunch

Obama’s Emerging Enabling Act

The Fed creates money out of thin air

Is the Fed losing control?

Persian Gulf Economists Are Giving Up On The Dollar, Encouraging Move To Gold

Fact, Fiction & Finally the Fix

The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments

OPEC: If America Wants To Devalue The Dollar Then It Better Be Ready For $100+ Oil

Soaring Gold and a Sinking Dollar Signal Trouble Ahead

Gold at $8,250?

Will the dollar’s death surprise you?

Factors that will Determine the Future

Senator Judd Gregg on the inevitable fiscal meltdown

Banking System is Hopelessly Insolvent

Top Republicans caution the Fed on printing money

Has the Fed Been a Failure?

A REAL SIMPLE explanation of how the FED is ruining your economy

Economic Suicide the Keynesian Way

Inflation is a sneaky tax

What’s Next? Buckle Up

Death of the Dollar

The Great Weaponless Conquest of America

Bernanke’s Cowardice Has Sealed Our Fate

Ben Bernanke and QE must be STOPPED

Federal Reserve celebrates 100 years of enslaving America

The Fed is running the country right into the ground as a result of their ignorance

Soros Bets on U.S. Financial Collapse

How Did A Single Unconstitutional Agency Become The Most Powerful Organization In America?

The Fed’s “War on Wealth” and the Risk of Default

This guy is in charge of the economy?

Beck: Devaluing the Dollar

Food, apparel prices rising

Fed to Buy Extra $600 Billion of US I.O.U’s

I have not yet begun to fight!

Fed Easing May Mean 20% Dollar Drop: Bill Gross

Hyperinflation Forecast

The US $200-Trillion Debt Which Cannot Be Named

A Society of Beggars? Obama Battles Reagan

Mad Fed Should Beware Unquantifiable Outcomes

Burning your money?

Global food crisis forecast as prices reach record highs

The Fed is lying about inflation

Dollar fall sparks stability warnings

Fed Wants to Hoodwink Public, Only Fools Itself: Caroline Baum

For Orderly Dissolution Of The Fed, Before It Does Us Even More Harm

Will the Fed Burn More of Your Money?

The Disgraceful State of Our Government

Is Keynesianism a socialist Maneuver?

Economic Forecasts and Why They Should Not be Trusted

Three Horrifying Facts About the US Debt “Situation”

Obama and Ben Bernanke Have Us Facing the Abyss

Bernanke Tells the Truth: The United States is on the Brink of Financial Disaster

Greenspan Says U.S. Creating `Scary’ Deficit as Borrowing Rises

Interview with Garland Tucker on “The High Tide of American Conservatism”

Fed Officials Mull Inflation as a Fix

The Psychopathology of Government and its Agents

A fair warning of where we are headed

The Feds’ Disease: Spending! (Part 1)

IMF Warns Western Economies Mired in ‘Near Depression’

With Obama taxes are about ideology not economics

90% of cities and states to go bankrupt within the next five years?

2011-01-22T05:02:00.000-06:00

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

90% of cities and states to go bankrupt within the next five years?: "

“Throughout the country, 90 percent of cities and states are going to go bankrupt within the next five years, many of them sooner.” So says former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Reason.tv’s Tim Cavanaugh sat down with Riordan to discuss state and local budget crises, public-sector unions, and why Riordan recently became a fan of current LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.

DeMint warns of bankruptcy, draconian tax increases, and economic stagnation – offers plan to cut $2.5 trillion

Austerity In America: 22 Signs That It Is Already Here And That It Is Going To Be Very Painful

National Debt now at $126,985 per taxpayer – total liability $1,013,695 per taxpayer

Brrr… Analysts Predict Freezing Winters in Europe Will Be the Norm For 20-40 Years

2011-01-22T04:59:00.000-06:00

from The Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft

Brrr… Analysts Predict Freezing Winters in Europe Will Be the Norm For 20-40 Years: "

(123rf)

The record cold temperatures in Europe this year were not a fluke.

Analysts believe that Europe will see freezing winters for the next 20 to 40 years.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation reported:

Olivier Lejeune, Platts, GWPF

Colder winters could become the norm in Europe over the next 20 to 40 years, US-based forecaster Weather Services International said Tuesday.

“We have recently noticed a change in [weather] patterns back to what we had in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe… We’ve had three cold winters in a row in the UK,” WSI�s chief meteorologist Todd Crawford told Platts.

“We believe there is a strong likelihood that it’s going to hang around for the next 20 to 30 years.”

If true, the findings could have important implications for the European energy markets, where demand typically increases during winter because of higher heating and lighting requirements.

Peak electricity demand hit an all-time record in France at the beginning of December, and was near its historic record in the UK, amid temperatures that were more than 10 degrees Celsius below the seasonal norm.

Natural gas and gasoil demand also soared. Behind the freezing temperatures is the North Atlantic Oscillation, a climatic phenomenon that normally sends wind from western European countries to the east, keeping cold air from the Arctic at bay. But in December the current was flowing in the opposite direction, bringing cold Arctic air to western European regions and sending energy demand to fresh highs.

Fwd: BREAKING NEWS: Olbermann is Leaving MSNBC

2011-01-21T20:43:00.000-06:00

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: "FoxNews.com" <foxnews@newsletters.foxnews.com>
Date: January 21, 2011 8:39:54 PM CST
To: jayman2124@yahoo.com
Subject: BREAKING NEWS: Olbermann is Leaving MSNBC
Reply-To: foxnews_F610E6470E7C66570125EA89D7339DB6@newsletters.foxnews.com

MSNBC Anchor Keith Olbermann announced on his show that tonight was his last broadcast with the network. MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with Olbermann, with no further explanation.

More headlines from FoxNews.com:
http://email.foxnews.com/t?ctl=AAC7:F610E6470E7C66570125EA89D7339DB6&

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Share of Fed Income Swallowed by Deficit-Coverage Borrowing Jumps 566% in 3 Years, IRS Reports | CNSnews.com

2011-01-21T19:14:00.000-06:00

Share of Fed Income Swallowed by Deficit-Coverage Borrowing Jumps 566% in 3 Years, IRS Reports | CNSnews.com

EPA Approves More Ethanol in Fuel for Cars | CNSnews.com

2011-01-21T18:25:00.000-06:00

EPA Approves More Ethanol in Fuel for Cars | CNSnews.com

State Bankruptcy Option Is Sought, Quietly - NYTimes.com

2011-01-21T06:57:00.001-06:00

Found this interesting link on the Drudge Report:

State Bankruptcy Option Is Sought, Quietly - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/business/economy/21bankruptcy.html?_r=2&src=busln

Get iDrudgeReport on your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad free at the iTunes Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/official-drudge-report-free/id375614185?mt=8

Sent from my iPhone

Irish government collapses – calls for new election

2011-01-21T06:49:00.001-06:00

The Irish Government collapsed yesterday, with multiple ministerial resignations propelling Prime Minister Brian Cowen into setting 11 March as the date for a general election.

His Fianna Fail party, which dominates the government has traditionally been the the largest political party in Ireland but has dropped to 13 percent approval rating. That is the same low that the US congress reached before the elections in November. Recently Ireland made the news for printing its own Euros.

The Independent describes the fall:

When he took over as Prime Minister in 2008 he had already built a reputation as a heavyweight bruiser who had mastered his previous brief as minister for finance. But as the months passed, the economic policies he had helped to formulate came to be seen as ruinous, and he looked incapable of dealing with problems which became mountainous.

Many Fianna Fail members of the Dail, the Irish parliament, have announced they are not standing again, because they are unlikely to be re-elected or because they realise they will face years in opposition.

The election was precipitated during a day of turmoil after the small Green party, which has kept Fianna Fail in power, called for a contest in March. Four Fianna Fail ministers, plus a long-time supporter, then announced their resignations.

Ireland is not the first European country to face financial crisis but the abrupt resignation of cabinet ministers may be a sign of the debt times.

Ireland was one of the 'PIIGS' (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) which have been in the news for most of 2010 with collapsing economies from mountains of debt due to over spending.

Sound familiar?