Fed Up With The Price At The Pump?

This new video from the House Energy Action Team, a group of House Republicans dedicated to pushing the Administration to adopt commonsense energy policies, does a fine job to elucidate some of the problems we face in our energy sector.

More on the House Energy Action Team (HEAT): The Goal is to present a clear message of viable energy policy alternatives that are clearly communicated to the American public. H.E.A.T. will clearly demonstrate that House Republicans are on the side of the consuming public and business community who are increasingly harmed by the high energy prices.

In short: H.E.A.T. will convey that robust domestic energy production creates thousands of good jobs and enhances our national security.

Republican Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R, Calif.) and Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R, Ill) are co-chairs of H.E.A.T.


Children’s Book Publisher Collapses to Radical Environmentalist Pressure

-By Warner Todd Huston

Extremist environmentalists have won yet another victory for propagandizing our children in schools by forcing Scholastic Books to junk a proposed energy-themed classroom education packet that treated the subject in a more even handed mode in favor of a program that only pushes extremist enviro policies. Yes, once again, the hard-core, anti-capitalist left has won a victory to control what our kids are taught in our schools.

As we learn from Commentary Magazine, Scholastic’s energy program has been under attack from the far left for weeks. Mother Jones Magazine, The New York Times, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the group aptly named “Treehugger” have been attacking the children’s book publisher to force them to jettison the proposed series because Scholastic had authored the program in partnership with the American Coal Foundation.

The 4th grade lesson program was built on a larger look at America’s energy products including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power along with the so-called green energies of wind and solar power. But the inclusion of traditional (and technologically possible) forms of energy like coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear was enough to send the heads of the radical enviro-wacko’s heads spinning.
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Children’s Book Publisher Collapses to Radical Environmentalist Pressure”


Another Example of How Ron Paul is Hypocritical on Supposed Fiscal Responsibility

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ron Paul’s acolytes like to claim that “Doctor” Paul is the only candidate that is serious on fiscal matters, the only candidate that is fiscally conservative, the only one that talks the talk and walks the walk. Too bad this is all BS… and here is yet another example of this fact.

T. Boone Pickens is back again. After he tried to make a big splash out of his ideas on windmill power (epic fail, that one), the Pick man is back at the public trough urging Congress to create a number of taxpayer-funded subsidies for companies that buy and manufacture vehicles that run on natural gas.

The Pickster has roped a whole gaggle of Republicans into his next boondoggle and guess who has signed onto the bill? Yep, Mr. fiscal responsibility hisself “Doctor” Ron Paul.
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Another Example of How Ron Paul is Hypocritical on Supposed Fiscal Responsibility”


Roskam Remarks at House Energy Action Team Press Conference on Energy Bills

From the office of Rep. Peter Roskam (Ill., 6th)…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Peter Roskam, Chief Deputy Whip, spoke at the House Energy Action Team (HEAT)’s press conference on current energy legislation to lower gas prices and create jobs. Today, the House passed H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, and will soon vote on H.R. 1231, Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act. Roskam is the co-chair of H.E.A.T.

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Roskam Remarks at House Energy Action Team Press Conference on Energy Bills”


Wanted: A Commonsense U.S. Energy Policy

By Congressman Peter Roskam (R, Ill.)

Americans have weathered one economic storm after another over the last few years. Yet, time and again, Washington policies have only made our families’ woes worse. From a failed trillion dollar stimulus to a healthcare overhaul that costs jobs and makes healthcare more expensive, Washington policies keep making it harder when Americans need the help most.

The latest: gas. Just as our economy is showing signs of recovery, gas prices are skyrocketing. In Chicagoland, a gallon of gas already costs over $4.50. That means pain for family budgets and employers trying to control costs and hire new workers. But smart federal policies can help. If we choose wisely, we can help lower energy costs for families with an all-of-the-above energy approach.

Taking advantage of America’s natural resources is a commonsense way to lower gas prices, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create jobs here. Unfortunately, many refuse to listen to commonsense.
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Wanted: A Commonsense U.S. Energy Policy”


Paradox: Green-Loving Washington State About to Penalize Electric Car Owners

-By Warner Todd Huston

Some people think that marriage is the most absurd institution ever invented by man. But those that think so are ignoring what is truly the most idiotic, paradoxically absurd practice in all of human history: government. Yeah, yeah, necessary evil and all, but still there is nothing that exemplifies human folly better than politics and Washington State has uncorked a doozie for us today.

From coast to coast and all over the world liberals are mindlessly going gaga for green. Anything that smacks of greenism is, with religious fervor, promoted and revered. The electric automobile, for instance, is one of the left’s dream modes of transportation. Pursuant to that dreamy green dream, liberals have made sure that all sort of tax breaks are lavished upon those citizens who dutifully jump up to their necks into the unprofitable and technologically untested world of electric cars. Washington State is no exception to this mania.

… and hilarity ensues.

The Associated Press is even a bit snarky about the whole mess.
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Paradox: Green-Loving Washington State About to Penalize Electric Car Owners”


Greenpeace Admits Coal Power a Job Creator

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently the enviro-centric group Greenpeace issued an extensive report scolding the “dirty” energy choices made by tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook. Greenpeace is all exercised over the fact that many of these companies have moved to North Carolina to take advantage of the coal-produced energy there because the costs are cheaper than the power in other regions. Amusingly, Greenpeace seemed to have completely missed the fact that coal obviously creates jobs or all these companies wouldn’t be moving to North Carolina in the first place.

Greenpeace has its nose out of joint because Google, Facebook, and Apple have moved data centers to NC to take advantage of “low-cost energy” that it claims produces a “corresponding lack of commitment to clean energy.” The eco group is aghast that “misplaced tax incentives” bring jobs and economic success to rural North Carolina.

All that capitalism is horrible, I suppose.
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Greenpeace Admits Coal Power a Job Creator”


Earth Day and Environmental Insanity

-By Alan Caruba

Anyone who has been paying any attention to the environmental movement has got to have concluded it is insane.

  • While the United States stands poised on defaulting on its ever-growing debt — the highest in the nation’s history;
  • While wars and insurrections are waged in the Middle East, across northern Africa, and in the Ivory Coast;
  • While Japan struggles to deal with a major earthquake and nuclear plant meltdown;
  • While Islam wages terrorism worldwide, and
  • While European nations attempt to deal with their own financial crisis, the environmentalists — Greens — engage in the most absurd frauds and nonsense since the Dark Ages.

In news from the United Nations — a misnomer if ever there was one — Bolivia is proposing a UN treaty that will give “Mother Earth” the same rights as accorded to human beings. It has just passed a domestic law that grants these rights to bugs, trees, and all other natural things in its own country.

According to the Bolivian proposal, humans have sought to “dominate and exploit” the Earth in ways that threaten the “well-being and existence of many beings” such as malaria-bearing mosquitoes, lice and ticks that spread disease, trees that provide timber for shelter and countless other uses, venomous snakes, and every other creature upon which we depend for food—beef, chickens, and fish, to name just three.
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Earth Day and Environmental Insanity”


Reps. Kinzinger, Biggert Tour Eleventh Congressional District Power Plants

From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R, 11th District)…

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-11), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Congresswoman Judy Biggert (IL-13), a member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee this week toured together the Dresden Generating Station as well as the General Electric (GE) facility in Morris, IL. In addition, Kinzinger toured the Lyondell Basell Plant, also in Morris.

Congressman Kinzinger represents a congressional district that is home to three nuclear power plants, hydropower plants, ethanol and biodiesel plants, and two oil refineries. The Eleventh District embodies the all-of-the-above approach to energy that Kinzinger says we must stand for. Nuclear energy production plays a critical role in our local economy by employing more than 2,500 people through the Illinois Valley resulting in an annual payroll of $177 million and over $54 million going to local taxing bodies. Kinzinger says the key to making the U.S. energy secure is by continuing and expanding the use of nuclear power.
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Reps. Kinzinger, Biggert Tour Eleventh Congressional District Power Plants”


Kinzinger: We Need an ‘All of the Above Energy Policy’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier this week I participated in a media call-in with Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL, 11th District) on which he discussed the budget and other issues.

Unfortunately, I missed the fist few minutes because one of the other journalists must not have muted his phone and his noise was so loud that I could not hear the first few minutes.

In any case I asked the Congressman a question about how conservatives were taking the the budget deal that Speaker Boehner negotiated with the Senate and the President and the congressman said that it was only the beginning. He pledged that he and the other freshmen would continue to push hard on more cuts and noted that this was a good beginning.
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Kinzinger: We Need an ‘All of the Above Energy Policy’”


Roskam and Kinzinger Applaud House Passage of Energy Tax Prevention Act

Bill prevents EPA from instituting job-crushing energy taxes

Congressman Peter Roskam, Chief Deputy Whip, and Congressman Adam Kinzinger have issued statements after the House passed the Energy Tax Prevention Act, 255 – 172, to block the EPA from imposing cap-and-trade by regulation:

Congressman Peter Roskam

“I applaud the House for blocking new job-crushing energy taxes on families and employers. Americans have already overwhelmingly rejected a national energy tax by cap and trade, and the EPA’s proposal is just a back-door effort to accomplish exactly that by regulation. Unilaterally regulating greenhouse gases would increase energy costs in every home and every business, meaning higher bills and less jobs. It would cripple manufacturers – job creators – who use roughly one-third of our nation’s energy. For my manufacturers in the western and northwestern suburbs of Chicago, I’m glad the House acted to stop this job-crushing regulation.”

http://roskam.house.gov/

Congressman Adam Kinzinger

“Twenty-one months ago, Washington Democrats forced passage of the controversial cap and trade legislation through the House of Representatives. While cap and trade failed in the Senate, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still attempting to enforce a backdoor cap and trade system on the American people.

“Today, the House approved the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011. Without this legislation, we are simply stepping to the side while the EPA imposes a cap-and-trade agenda which could mean even higher gas prices, increased utility rates, manufacturing jobs being sent overseas, and hampering our overall economic recovery.

“The Energy Tax Prevention Act is an effective, bipartisan approach to stop the EPA’s cap and tax agenda. It takes necessary steps to protect jobs and restores the Clean Air Act to its original purpose by repealing action already taken by the EPA to impose a bureaucratic climate change agenda.

“Manufacturers and energy producers at the local and national level, such as Edison Power in the Eleventh Congressional District and the National Association of Manufacturers, have made it clear that the Energy Tax Prevention Act is necessary in order to curtail the EPA’s overreaching regulations and create the certainty job creators need to grow their businesses and get more folks back to work here at home.

“Congress must focus on removing these regulatory obstacles in order to create long-term economic growth.”

http://kinzinger.house.gov/


Against All Energy Anywhere

-By Alan Caruba

One of the great afflictions of the environmentalists—Greens—everywhere is a profound lack of understanding of the role that energy plays in whether a nation prospers or just limps along, barely keeping the lights on.

A classic case is the communist paradise of North Korea that is almost completely dark at night while just across the 38th parallel, South Korea is ablaze with light, energy, and a thriving economy.

Dedicated Greens don’t really like any kind of energy whether it is nuclear, provided by burning coal, from natural gas, oil or from hydropower. They think that wind power is trouble-free and cost effective when it is neither. They feel the same way about solar power. Both are deemed acceptable because they don’t “emit” anything. This viewpoint is not merely naïve, it is profoundly stupid.
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Against All Energy Anywhere”


Earthquake in Japan: Dependable Aid from America

Paul A. Ibbetson

There is no dependable way to foretell the next natural calamity that will befall planet Earth. Actually, the only thing mankind can say about the next planet-shaking catastrophe is that after whatever horrendous event has ended, America will have aid en route. Yes, many countries give assistance to afflicted areas of the world; however, the unchallenged leader of emergency aid is always America. The United States is usually the first to arrive at devastated locations of the world by request and is the last to leave, having brought the lion’s share of assistance with no strings attached. In fact, our country’s speed, efficiency and overwhelming willingness to assist nations in need has in some corners become viewed as less of a matter of American charitableness and more of a matter of world entitlement.

This is an unfortunate world mentality that is often reinforced by liberals right here in the U.S. The truth is that Americans are not just exceptional, they are exceptional in their willingness to give to others. How so? America gives proportionally more aid for its size and population than any other developed country. Americans give readily across all income levels. We also give aid as a nation when there is virtually no chance of future reciprocation, such as the huge amounts of aid that have been sent to Haiti. This country sends assistance to places so hostile, such as Somalia, that simply getting the aid to its destination can be a life and death mission. Unlike Islamic nations, America brings charitable goods to countries with dictators that have been designated as enemies of the United States. The ongoing aid in Iraq is a salient example of this; however, a long-standing example of American aid to a previous enemy nation is before the world now in the catastrophe that has struck Japan.
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Earthquake in Japan: Dependable Aid from America”


Roskam Meets with IL-06 Based Company in Ghana

From the office of Peter Roskam (R, IL)…

Discusses economic development as part of African fact-finding mission

ACCRA, GHANA – Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) traveled to Ghana earlier this week, leading a fact-finding mission focused on trade, energy, and other economic and social issues in Africa. Monday in Accra, Roskam met with Oak Brook, Ill.-based Opportunity International, a leader in providing financial services to people living in extreme poverty in the developing world.

The group met with Teresa Effie Cooke, head of human resources at Opportunity International Savings & Loan, Ghana. Roskam is leading the bipartisan fact-finding mission, including Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-01), which is being privately sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
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Roskam Meets with IL-06 Based Company in Ghana”


Out-of-the-Box Thinking for an Out-of-Control Budget

-By Kevin Roeten

Certainly the $1.6 trillion dollar budget must not only be reigned in, but people must think “out-of-the-box”. The money can be easily cut, but too many are worried about an item’s ‘priority’. Budget shortfall would not exist at all if simple priorities were changed.

The United Nations and their >$3 billion/year budget from America is the first. The UN has had a history of anti-American activity. Groups such as Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and many others, seek to influence daily UN decisions.

The UN has stated aborting the young is a ‘right’, and wants mandated population reduction. That, when population will undergo a precipitous freefall by 2050 due to the decline below the 2.1 child/woman ‘wall’ necessary for maintaining existing population. Or The Iraq Oil-for-food Scandal, with the UN complicit in $113 billion paid to Hussein.
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Out-of-the-Box Thinking for an Out-of-Control Budget”


Clinton Blasts Obama’s Foot Dragging on Oil Drilling Permits

-By Warner Todd Huston

Interestingly at the end of last week during the IHS CERAWeek conference held in Houston, Texas, former President Bill Clinton said that Obama’s constant delays on issuing offshore oil drilling permits was “ridiculous.” With this one might be able to claim that Bill Clinton is a “drill, baby, drill” booster, just like Sarah Palin!

Politico is reporting that Bill Clinton agreed with fellow speaker former President George W. Bush on many of his points concerning the oil and gas industry and agreed that the hurdles that Obama’s government have been thrown up before them are ill advised.

“Bush said all the things you’d expect him to say” on oil and gas issues, said Jim Noe, senior vice president at Hercules Offshore and executive director of the pro-drilling Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition. But Clinton added, “You’d be surprised to know that I agree with all that,” according to Noe and others in the room…

Clinton said there are “ridiculous delays in permitting when our economy doesn’t need it,” according to Noe and others.

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
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Clinton Blasts Obama’s Foot Dragging on Oil Drilling Permits”


What Do You Think? Gas Prices – Caused by Libya? Boutique Fuels?‏

From the office of Senator Mark Kirk (R, ILL…

Gasoline prices are up 50 cents per gallon just this month, now averaging $3.65 in Illinois. Why are prices so high?

While much of the price rise is caused by instability in Libya, another cause is an obscure federal rule that mandates little gasoline monopolies in Chicagoland and Metro East, called the “Boutique Fuels Rule.”

The federal government divides the nation’s gasoline market into 17 separate zones, each with their own recipe for gasoline. While we can buy regular gasoline in Peoria, only “N RFG with Ethanol” is available in Chicago and in Metro East, we can only buy “7.2 RVP” gas. If one region runs short, it cannot borrow from another region – is it any wonder that gas costs 10 cents less per gallon in Green Bay?

This map illustrates the isolated pockets of the country where the federal government mandates the use of the complicated boutique fuel rule. This balkanization of fuel distribution leads to supply problems and high prices. Conversely, some say the regulation is necessary for compliance with the Clean Air Act.

Mark Kirk


First Obamacare Waivers Now EPA Rules Waivers

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama Administration is quickly becoming the most corrupt administration in American history. Recently we reported about the mounting number of waivers that Obama is giving his union pals and union supporters so that they can get away from having to suffer under his Obamacare law and now the president’s jobs-killing greenhouse gas rules levied upon the nation using his fiat EPA powers are also being set aside for his best buddies. Naturally, all those getting these big waivers were big donors to Obama’s campaign.

At this point we are up to over 700 Obamacare waivers given to his union pals and other campaign donors and now the EPA has announced the first waiver for the new greenhouse gas rules that really haven’t even been implemented exactly yet.

Timothy Carney reports that General Electric has been the lucky, lucky recipient of a waiver for Obama’s EPA rules. Yes, very lucky, indeed.
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First Obamacare Waivers Now EPA Rules Waivers”


Jaw, Jaw and Bromides: Obama’s State of His Next Campaign for President Address

-By Warner Todd Huston

I sat through President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address last night. During the event I live Tweeted the whole thing (You can read that all at http://twitter.com/#!/warnerthuston) and ended up with an empty feeling and a headache. Obama’s address was long on calls for spending, filled with bromides, and weighted with jaw, jaw but pretty short on substance. In fact, it seemed like his 12 new spending ideas and his patriotic vagaries was simply his first step onto the 2012 campaign trail as opposed to a serious address to the nation.

Obama fittingly began his address citing John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House, and memorializing the wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. He then said that we had a “robust” debate in our politics and averred that it was one thing for the parties to sit together that night but it depended on what they all do “tomorrow” and he used that point to plead for moving forward with more bi-partisanship.

Tellingly, even as Obama has paid lip service to bipartisanship for three years, when he became president neither he nor his party made any moves to implement any bipartisanship. In fact, when Democrat Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House she never met with any Republicans on anything. This whole claim or bipartisanship is simply a farce on Obama’s part and Obama continued that farce in the SOTU speech.
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Jaw, Jaw and Bromides: Obama’s State of His Next Campaign for President Address”


The Great ‘Climate Change’ 2011 Taxpayer Rip-Off

-By Alan Caruba

Unless I am seriously mistaken or misinformed, the rate of unemployment in the U.S. remains high and the foreclosure rate on homes is approaching the level of the Depression years. Two major bond rating companies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s just warned that, if the federal government doesn’t stop spending and borrowing, America’s Triple-A highest ranking will be down-graded.

Along with all the other things in the federal budget wish list for 2011 are millions to be spent on climate change.

It helps to understand how obscene this is if you pause to consider 1), there is not one damn thing anyone can do about climate change, 2), climate change has been researched and studied since the late 1980s, enough to fill an entire wing of the Congressional Library to hold all the reports, and 3), the only climate change Americans really need to know about is what the weather will be tomorrow.
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The Great ‘Climate Change’ 2011 Taxpayer Rip-Off”


Great Oceanic Garbage Patch Not So Large As Thought

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember the floating patch of plastic garbage swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Japan that was claimed to be “twice the size of Texas”? Well if Texas is the size of, well, Teaxs, it turns out that the plastic patch isn’t quite so large. Like most of the wild-eyed claims by enviro-Nazis it has been discovered that claims about the size of this environmental disaster are greatly exaggerated.

A new study of the swirling plastic garbage patch by Oregon State University professor of oceanography Angelicque White has revealed that claims that the thing is “twice the size of Texas” is simply hyperbole and that the patch is likely only one percent that large.
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Great Oceanic Garbage Patch Not So Large As Thought”


As Japan Abandons Emissions Caps, Obama Rushes Headlong Toward It

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as the Japanese have abandoned its national emissions trading scheme because they’ve realized how many jobs would be lost as a result of the draconian regulations involved, President Obama continues to claim that he wants to impose similar jobs-killing regulations on America.

Japan initially announced that its national carbon trading scheme was to have been approved in the now concluding parliamentary session. But common sense and business interests have delayed the bill until the next session begins in January putting the future of the law into question.

Japan’s National Strategy Minister, Koichiro Gemba, who was appointed to review the government’s core green policy steps, said the trading scheme needed further careful study, indicating that it had effectively been shelved.

Japanese authorities are coming to realize that the emissions cuts that the island nation had imagined it would achieve will cost jobs and severely hamper their business sector. Stark realizations are dawning on the Japanese that emissions goals would be “nearly impossible to meet” without deep cuts in emissions by manufacturers, the power infrastructure, not to mention homes and business buildings.
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As Japan Abandons Emissions Caps, Obama Rushes Headlong Toward It”


The Village of Palatine Passes Its Own Cap and Trade Ordinance – Part 2

From the Palatine Tea Party…

The Village of Palatine Passes Another Cap and Trade Ordinance

(Palatine, Illinois) – The Palatine Village Council is following in the footsteps of the Obama Administration moving his progressive agenda forward at the local level. At the Village Council Meeting on December 13, 2010 the village unanimously passed its own version of Cap and Trade Ordinance without the “trade”. This would generate additional revenue to offset the Village of Palatine’s 2011 budget shortfall.
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The Village of Palatine Passes Its Own Cap and Trade Ordinance – Part 2″


The Village of Palatine Passes Its Own Cap and Trade Ordinance – Part 1

From the Palatine Tea Party

(Palatine, Illinois) – The Palatine Village Council is following in the footsteps of the Obama Administration moving his progressive agenda forward at the local level. At the Village Council Meeting on December 13, 2010 the village unanimously passed its own version of Cap and Trade Ordinance without the “trade”. This would generate an additional $900,000 to offset the Village of Palatine’s 2011 budget shortfall.

2011 Electric Utility Tax

* Electric Utility Tax – Tax based upon consumption of electricity. The taxes are collected by the utility company and remitted to the Village. Those using less electricity will pay less. This is projected to raise $900,000. Village officials see an electricity tax as a stable source of revenue even in poor economic climates.1
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The Village of Palatine Passes Its Own Cap and Trade Ordinance – Part 1″


The EPA Versus the USA

-By Alan Caruba

It seems almost beyond reason that a single U.S. agency could so hate America that it was prepared to ignore the Constitution, distort a Supreme Court decision, and impose its will on the nation in the name of totally discredited science.

That, however, is what the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to do while Americans are distracted by the Christmas celebrations.

The agency’s objective is to regulate so-called greenhouse gases (GHG) on January 2, 2011. More specifically, it would regulate emissions from power plants and other large emitters, but in reality it would end the role of coal as the provider of 50% of the electricity Americans require.
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The EPA Versus the USA”


Ill. Policy Institute: Cancun Fiesta!‏

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

Climate Fiesta in Cancun!
The UN Climate Change Conference is underway in Cancun and Americans for Prosperity cut this video of climate change activists (you know, the ones who want to ration travel, energy, food, and the like) whooping it up at a beach party. Apparently, rationing is for the rest of us.

Spotlight on Spending: Foster Grandparents
Encouraging volunteerism among Illinois’s senior citizens is a worthy goal, with many benefits for both individual volunteers and those they serve, but is the Illinois state government doing a good job at accomplishing these goals—or should be looking for ways to increase senior involvement beyond government programs? Our latest Spotlight on Spending asks these questions.
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Ill. Policy Institute: Cancun Fiesta!‏”


The Con in Cancun: UN Climate Change Summit Update

-By Warner Todd Huston

I am here in Cancun, Mexico investigating the U.N. Climate Change Conference to see what sort of wonderful solutions to save our very planet are being planned for all of us here in sunny Mexico. It’s always nice that we can come to save the planet… at a nice resort hotel complex… on a beach… in a moderate clime… isn’t it?

For those of you that are unaware of what this conference is about, this conference is being called COP16/CMP6. That stands for — prepare to doze off here — the 16th edition of Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) and the 6th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP). Just like the UN to puff itself up with grand sounding titles, isn’t it?

And it’s a good thing we are here in time to save the earth, too. I mean what with thousands of delegates having winged their way here on private jets and as they drive themselves about in fleets of armored SUVs, as well as the hundreds if not a thousand or more Agentes Policiacos Federales and military personnel driving about in trucks toting machine guns and armored vests to keep us all safe from drug cartels, why it’s about the nick of time that we are here to save the planet.
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The Con in Cancun: UN Climate Change Summit Update”


EPA Delivers Holiday ‘Sucker Punch’ to U.S. Economy

From the Heartland Institute…

While we were all preparing to see family and friends over the Thanksgiving, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency was exploiting the holiday lull to sneak through new regulatory “guidance” that threatens to inflict further damage to the U.S. economy. The Heartland Institute has been on the case since the EPA gave the public just 15 days (with a long holiday weekend smack dab in the middle) to weigh in on the process. You can see all of Heartland’s coverage at this link.

A post at Heartland’s policy blog, Somewhat Reasonable, also outlines the situation. I pass this information along in case you want to share with your readers this attempt to get “cap” without the “trade” implemented by bureaucratic fiat, after the real bill flopped in Congress. You can also get a sense of what’s happening by reading below my signature.
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EPA Delivers Holiday ‘Sucker Punch’ to U.S. Economy”


Dems’ Gas Tax Hike Would Fuel Tea Party Anger

-By Chris Slavens

The average price of a gallon of gasoline is $2.87, a number which will continue to climb as the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” scheme lowers the value of the dollar. That’s a 50% increase from only two years ago; in the weeks following the presidential election, the average price was about a dollar lower. But according to some Democrats, today’s price isn’t high enough.

Senator Thomas “Tom” Carper (D-DE) wants to raise the federal gasoline tax by twenty-five cents over a period of two years, increasing the current rate—18.4 cents per gallon—by 136% to 43.4 cents per gallon. The last time the tax went up, in 1993, it was increased by a mere 4.3 cents.

Has Carper filled up recently? Does he drive? Or are his vehicles powered by pixie dust and wishes?
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Dems’ Gas Tax Hike Would Fuel Tea Party Anger”


Denying Americans Their Own Energy

-By Alan Caruba

What kind of government deliberately denies its citizens access to the energy they need to live, to conduct business, to transport goods, to travel, and to just turn on the lights? Answer: The United States of America.

In a letter to members of the G-20, the finance ministers and central bankers of leading industrial nations, President Obama said, “We should make sustained effort to carry through with our groundbreaking Pittsburgh commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.”

The result of such action would give international energy companies in other nations a large competitive advantage while penalizing U.S. oil and natural gas companies.
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Denying Americans Their Own Energy”