‘Green justice’ in Georgia trashed on appeal

The Court of Appeals of Georgia has overturned last year’s decision by Fulton County Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore to invalidate the permit issued for the $2 billion, 1,200 mega-watt Longleaf power plant, reports Carbon Control News.

JunkScience.com readers won’t be surprised since the Court of Appeals decision is based on the legal rationale laid out last July in this column by Steve Milloy.

Click here to read the Court of Appeals decision.

Tax credits old hat: Green power gets cash up front

So-called “clean energy” projects no longer need to be operational and  produce income to get taxpayer subsidies.

The Departments of Energy and Treasury announced yesterday that $3 billion worth of stimulus funds will be paid directly to  clean energy developers in exchange for foregoing future tax credits, according to a report in Restructuring Today (July 10).

Now how did that Steve Miller Band song go? Oh yeah…

Go on take the money and run…

We’ll be able to track this boondoggle at http://www.treas.gov/recovery/1603.shtml.

GE brings surveillance to life

General Electric and smart-grid start-up Tendril have agreed to develop “smart” appliances that work with the coming “smart” grid, reports Smart Grid Today (July 9).

The deal is pitched as allowing consumers to control their GE appliances via the Internet — but it probably also means that others would be able to monitor and control them as well, including hackers, local governments, local utilities, etc.

North Korea was recently blamed for wreaking havoc in U.S. government networks. We’re going to be really PO-ed if Kim Il Jung interferes with our thermostats and dishwashers. Of course, we won’t be any happier if Barack Obama does the same thing.

Chemical industry sells out America?

American Chemistry Council head Cal Dooley has been tasked to appease the Senate climate gods by suggesting that the Waxman-Markey greenhouse gas emission reduction schedule be scaled back from 17% by 2020 to 14% by 2020, reports Carbon Control News (July 9). In return for that concession and more free emissions credits, the chemical industry is apparently willing to sell the rest of us down the river.

Maybe Dooley’s group should just change its name to the Death-to-America Chemistry Council?

ACC's Cal Dooley: Willing to screw America for Waxman-markey lite
Cal Dooley: Willing to screw America for Waxman-Markey lite

Cap-and-trade anti-doughnut, baker says

If you live in the St. Louis, MO-area, you should patronize McArthur’s Bakery. Here’s why…

Complaining about the impact of Waxman-Markey on his small business, David McArthur of St. Louis-based McArthur’s Bakery said on Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck show (Eric Bolling sitting in for Glenn Beck) that,

You know, there are physics that say it takes a certain amount of energy to take a dough product to make it into a bread product. And nothing that anyone wants to do to make the world greener is going to change the amount of energy that goes into that.

This tax directly applies to us as well as every other food manufacturer. And so what it is going to do, long term, essentially says, “You haven’t cut back, so we’re going to continue to tax you and tax you more.” That’s a penalty. You know, quite frankly, the only way I can use less energy to bake a loaf of bread is to quit baking it.

Best of all, the bakery took action. McArthur said:

Well, Saturday, two weeks ago, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, I went to our reader board. We’ve got one of those nice reader board signs on our location. Out front, and I typed “Russ Carnahan voted to close us and other small business.” It was just in sheer – just aggravation, just fed up with it.

What is your business doing to fight Waxman-Markey?

Here’s Part 1 of the interview:

Here’s Part 2 of the interview:

Kaptur gets $3.5 billion for W-M vote

Toledo Rep. Marcy Kaptur received $3.5 billion to vote for the Waxman-Markey bill. As reported by the Washington Times,

When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained stubbornly undecided.

They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the old-fashioned way. They gave her what she wanted – a new federal power authority, similar to Washington state’s Bonneville Power Administration, stocked with up to $3.5 billion in taxpayer money available for lending to renewable energy and economic development projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states.

To paraphrase James Carville,

Drag a $3.5 billion bribe through the halls of Congress and there’s no telling what you’ll find.

Every pol has a price: Marcy Kaptur agreed to snuggle with Henry Waxman for $3.5 billion.
Every pol has a price: Marcy Kaptur agreed to snuggle with Henry Waxman for $3.5 billion

While some say that Waxman-Markey will never pass the Senate because of economic considerations, remember we said that:

  • Every politician has his price; and
  • President Obama is printing money like there’s no tomorrow.

Make sure Senators know that a vote for Waxman-Markey (or whatever bill the Senate develops) is a vote against their reelection — apparently the only price that they can’t afford.