The following governors and mayors will testify tomorrow before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in favor of the Waxman-Markey bill:
Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Col)
Gov. Chris Gregoire (D-Wash)
Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ)
Gov. John Hoeven (R-ND)
Mayor Robert Kiss, Progressive, Burlington, VT
Mayor William Euille, Democrat, Alexandria, VA
Mayor Douglas Palmer, Democrat, Trenton, NJ
Waxman-Markey represents an unearned multi-trillion dollar transfer of wealth from consumers and taxpayers to special interests including Al Gore and Goldman Sachs.
If you live in one of these states or cities, let these officials know that you don’t want to be taxed so that Al Gore and Goldman Sachs can laugh all the way to the bank with their ill-gotten profits.
Northeast Utilities is applying for $100-150 million in Obama stimulus funds to install so-called “smart meters” for 200,000 customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, reports Smart Grid Today.
One if by land, two if by sea… and three if through your home’s electrical hook-up?
Paul Revere rides again to warn of Obama-meter-armed rentseekers trading consumer freedoms for taxpayer lucre.
An amendment to the 2010 Financial Services bill (H.R. 3170) offered by Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) would prohibit the payment of salaries to Obama climate czar Carol Browner, her deputy and anyone on the Council on Environmental Quality, according to Energy & Environment Daily. The vote is expected today.
A Broun spokesman told E&E that,
“These federal agencies do answer to Congress, but the people that oversee them in the White House do not. This is not right. … If the administration feels that there needs to be an overarching person or agency to facilitate the flow of information between the numerous federal agencies beneath them, then that’s fine, but this person, or people, need to be confirmed by the Senate and be subjected to congressional oversight.”
Browner probably doesn’t need/want the money anyway since:
She’s married to DC super-lobbyist Tom Downey, who until Browner’s White House appointment, lobbied on energy and environment issues. Now Downey’s firm has limited its practice to taxes, healthcare, financial services, agriculture, banking, trade, communications, labor, housing and more.I’m sure having a spouse who directly reports to President Obama is of no use on those issues.
Browner is a socialist who, I’m, sure would rather redistribute her salary to the masses.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the “the grandfather among Republicans on climate change,” may be changing sides at least with respect to the Waxman-Markey bill, according to Energy & Environment Daily.
According to the report,
Asked about the Senate debate [on Waxman-Markey], McCain said only, “I hope it’s vastly different than the House bill.”
McCain also rationalizes that his criticism does not conflict with his earlier efforts. “It says I’ve had good bills, and this is a lousy one,” he said.
But the Republican’s stance has launched a guessing game of which McCain will take part in this year’s debate…
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) also expects McCain to get more involved when the legislation ripens. But when he does, Voinovich expects McCain to have a different take than many expect. “I think he probably has a much better appreciation of the impact all this has on various sections of the country because he ran a presidential campaign. Up until that, I don’t think there were a lot of things he was aware of.”
This would indeed be a good time for McCain to redeem his embarrassing performance during last fall’s campaign.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a [Senate Environment and Public Works Committee] member, predicted that [Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)] will play a “very active role” in the climate change debate.
“I think Senator Barrasso clearly not only understands the issue, has taken the time to try to read up on it,” Cardin said. “He’s personally visited a lot of places. He’s made this a priority. … We may not agree with him on a particular topic, but he is well prepared and he certainly represents his view very effectively.”
Sen. Cardin was much more gracious than Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) who “was not as kind,” according to E&E:
By teaming up with [Sen. James Inhofe] and other GOP critics of the administration’s climate policies, “He has positioned himself with the very radical deniers,” Boxer said.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) says he would not vote for any climate change legislation that places a mandatory cap on carbon emissions even if it fully incorporates GOP proposals to build 100 new nuclear plants in 20 years, electrify half of the U.S. vehicle fleet, expand offshore drilling and double energy-related research & development.
Unlike trade association embarrassments like EEI’s Tom Kuhn and ACC’s Cal Dooley, Sen. Alexander is not trying to make Waxman-Markey a better bill, he flat-out opposes it.
Yes, NASA’s James Hansen is the ultra-global warming alarmist. Yes, he has called for war crimes trials for global warming “deniers.” But right now, Hansen should be a our best friend.
It now seems that if Hansen had his way, he’d put Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey on trial along with the other “deniers.”
Sure, our reasoning differs from Hansen’s — we think Waxman-Markey is a junk science-fueled Marxist-socialist political power grab sugar-coated with a corporate welfare honey pot, while Hansen believes that Waxman-Markey is too little, too late in terms of stopping the dreaded global warming — but we do have the same goal for now.
If Hansen gets his way and Waxman-Markey is made more stringent, then the big businesses that have so far enabled the bill will withdraw their support. Without their support, Waxman-Markey is dead.
Yes, we would like Waxman-Markey to fail for the right reasons, but if it fails for the wrong reasons, that also works.
Eileen Claussen, head of the green Pew Center on Global Climate Change, told ClimateWire that she wished Hansen would stay out of the politics business.
What is he thinking? Who does he think will vote for [a more stringent clampdown on greenhouse gas emissions]?
Apparently Hansen’s meddling in politics was OK as long as the greens found him useful. Now, he’s just a thorn in their side.
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.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) wrote to Senate Environment and Public Works chairman Barbara Boxer demanding that the Senate hold hearings on the specific provisions of a climate bill rather than on general climaterrata:
…our constituents have a right to know specifically how this legislation will affect them and this requires hearings on the specific legislation and provisions we will consider.
What are the chances of the Senate signing on to Waxman-Markey (or something like it)? Here are the top ten reasons to be very afraid:
Every politician has his price and the Obama administration is printing money like there’s no tomorrow.
Likely Senate supporters include the 57 Senate Democrats (Al Franken included), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Those 61 votes are enough to avoid filibuster and pass a bill. Because of #1, above, don’t expect many Democrat defections. Because of #3, below, do expect some Republicans to defect. The 2010 elections threaten no one — they are too far away and, in this catastrophe-a-day-world, everyone will forget about Waxman-Markey, especially since its pain doesn’t set in until 2012 or later.
Senate Republicans ill-informed, inarticulate, dispirited and disorganized. They inspire little no confidence.
Al Gore, greens and corporate rent-seekers will pull out all the stops as their dreams of a green corporate welfare state are actually within grasp.
Businesses that aren’t lobbying for a climate bill are divided, dazed and confused. To the extent that they are spending their precious few resources to fight climate regulation, it has been on so-far-useless coalitions.
Skeptics are outmanned, outgunned and shunned by the businesses described in #5, above.
Obama will use health care, immigration and other emerging/existing policy issues to distract opponents and entice supporters.
The mainstream media is unabashedly shilling for Waxman-Markey (or a worse bill) while skeptic-friendly outlets are overwhelmed and distracted with the depth and breadth of the Obama administration’s assault on America.
The Democrats are ready to pull any trick to win — witness the surprise addition of a 300-page “manager’s amendment” to the Waxman-Markey bill at 3am on the day of the vote. Boehner’s heroics aside, Republicans should have tossed House rules aside and screamed bloody murder to prevent a vote. While the Republicans play by Marquess of Queensbury rules, Henry Waxman and the Democrats are busy sticking shivs into them.
Taxpayers and consumers are way under-represented in Washington, DC, especially when compared to the global warming lobby. They also fail to understand that Waxman-Markey is no mere energy tax — it’s a frontal assault on the American way of life.
The bottom line: the greens are, at present, a handful of Senate votes away from a goose-stepping triumph. It will take a near-miracle to avoid this fate.
