Free Republic

Gov. Jerry Brown, that renown budgetary and fiscal expert, says don’t fret. His high-speed train to nowhere in particular won’t cost as much as nearly everyone who has looked at it says it will. And besides, he says, the Moonbeam Express can be paid for by your carbon footprint. Is it starting to make sense? The carbon scare was used to put into place effective and real taxes on stuff like that air you exhale. And now we find out why. It’s an endless source of your money to pay for their follies.

Energy Tax Prevention Act Would Put the Reins on EPA Power Grab Freedom Action Supports Quick PassageWashington, D.C., March 10, 2011 —A House subcommittee on Thursday is expected to mark up a bill, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions using the Clean Air Act.  Freedom Action supports enactment of their critical legislation. “The Energy Tax Prevention Act is one of the most important bills that Congress will vote on this year.  We applaud...

Sen. Lindsey Graham is concerned that the Republican Party faces political dangers by resisting efforts to reduce carbon dioxide and other air pollution. That assertion seems to challenge GOP campaigns this year, in which candidates often rejected the science behind climate change. Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is designing an agenda for next year featuring a clean energy standard for utilities, which rewards increased nuclear and renewable power alike. Similar ideas have failed because they tended to dilute incentives for wind and solar. But under an increasingly conservative Congress, many advocates see that outcome as a potential victory, under...

The case for a carbon tax is a compelling one, given our current macroeconomic quandary and our apparent inability to deal with climate change. Each of these factors alone can make the case persuasively. When we take them together, the tax becomes even more convincing as a solution to some seemingly insurmountable problems. Like it or not, for the foreseeable future tax increases are a necessity. The United States' 2009 federal deficit was $1.4 trillion — almost 10 percent of GDP.

BONN, Germany – British economist Nicholas Stern says a U.N. economic panel is discussing carbon taxes, add-ons to international air fares and a levy on cross-border money transfers as ways to raise $100 billion a year to fight climate change. Stern has told international climate negotiators that governments will need to create incentives for private investments in industries emitting few greenhouse gases. The Copenhagen climate summit in December determined that $100 billion is needed every year starting in 2020 to help poor countries adapt to climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

Kevin Rudd’s unceremonious burial of his no-longer-beloved emissions trading scheme this week marks one of the most dramatic policy turnarounds in modern Australian political history. And his promise not to resurrect it until 2013 demonstrates how fundamentally the politics of this issue have changed. From languishing in political oblivion, the Liberal party’s decision to oppose the ETS and change its leader has rehabilitated its electoral fortunes. But it nearly didn’t happen. Cast your minds back a little less than two years. Liberal leader Brendan Nelson was embroiled in a fight with his own party over the then-radical idea that Australia...

As Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., work toward their goal of introducing climate change legislation by Earth Day (April 22), transportation groups are petitioning the trio to invest revenues raised from a carbon fee that would increase the cost of gas and diesel fuel back into transportation. A coalition of 27 groups led by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the American Public Transportation Association, and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, wrote in their April 1 letter, "New fees placed on transportation fuels should be dedicated to the Highway...

Environmental Regulations: While U.S. politicians try to keep the idea alive here, the French have announced cancellation of their version of cap-and-trade. They say it will hurt their competitiveness. Vive la France. Moments of crisis concentrate the mind wonderfully, or at least they should. In France, as public-sector workers mount a nationwide strike and fallout continues from the ruling party's heavy defeat in regional elections, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has indicated that his government will abandon plans to introduce a domestic carbon tax. "We have to amplify measures that help reinforce the competitiveness of our economy," Fillon told the Reuters...

Sen. Lindsey Graham is ready to be the 60th Senate vote to get the climate change and energy bill passed, he told a Midlands audience Tuesday at Harbison State Forest. “Since they’ve got no Republicans but me, business is open,” Graham said. Graham has been criticized by his own party for pursuing bipartisan resolutions on such issues as illegal immigration and possible filibusters of judicial nominees. And he believes that the cap-and-trade bills being debated this year are another occasion to do so, he told the audience at a forestry conference hosted by the S.C. Wildlife Federation. He said he...

Senate Democrats will face a problem when they return in January every bit as tough as crafting the healthcare bill: Assembling a climate and energy package that can be shoehorned into the election-year calendar. Imposing limits on greenhouse gases is a White House and Democratic priority, but it’s stuck in line behind health care, Wall Street reform and jobs legislation. It’s also become increasingly apparent since the Copenhagen climate summit that the Senate will go forward in a dramatically different direction than the House, which approved its own climate bill last summer. Environmentalists familiar with Democratic plans say party leaders...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

(snip) “Why did I do this? I want my time to count. I want to be seen as someone who can solve a hard problem by working with my colleagues across the aisle. I want to do something that matters. I can’t think of a better use of my time than to work with Democrats and Republicans to break our dependency on foreign oil, to create jobs for our next generation of Americans that will never go to China. And yes, leave behind a cleaner planet.” (snip)

Warming: After stifling a report questioning the science behind climate change, the EPA is censoring two of its lawyers for saying the proposed solutions are also problematical. The debate isn't over. It's being suppressed. In the proud tradition of EPA whistle-blower Alan Carlin, whose leaked study blew the lid off the EPA's hyped and flawed science behind climate change, two EPA lawyers, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, have produced a Web video titled "A Huge Mistake." In it they say cap-and-trade in general and the Waxman-Markey bill in particular are the wrong answers anyway. Williams and Zabel do not deny...

(snip) U.S. leadership is crucial. That is why I am encouraged by the spirit of compromise shown in the bipartisan initiative announced last week by John Kerry and Lindsey Graham. Here was a pair of U.S. senators — one Republican, the other Democratic — coming together to bridge their parties’ differences to address climate change in a spirit of genuine give-and-take. We cannot afford another period where the United States stands on the sidelines. An engaged United States can lead the world to seal a deal to combat climate change in Copenhagen. An indecisive or insufficiently engaged United States will...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis is paying the price for independent thinking. Inglis, a Travelers Rest Republican, might have been the only Republican lawmaker in the country booed lustily by his own constituents at town hall meetings last month.Inglis was shouted down when he asked listeners why they're afraid of President Barack Obama - and then suggested they stop watching conservative TV commentator Glenn Beck."He's trading on fear," Inglis advised one group, setting off loud catcalls. Despite a broadly conservative voting record, Inglis has angered many GOP activists with his contrarian stands on a handful of high-profile issues. In...

Sen. John McCain once reveled in his stance as a maverick of the Republican Party on climate change. Now, as the Senate prepares a new bill, the party's 2008 presidential nominee has people wondering whose side he's on. McCain opened the year critical of President Obama's plan to pay for middle-class tax cuts with global warming legislation. He called the House-passed bill a "1,400-page monstrosity," pointing out special giveaways to reluctant lawmakers and provisions that threaten to spark an international trade war. While McCain has built a reputation as a critic of government excess, his complaints about the Democrat-led effort...

Here’s a quick quiz: Who said the following? "A cap-and-trade policy will send a signal that will be heard and welcomed all across the American economy, and the highest rewards will go to those who make the smartest, safest, most responsible choices." President Obama? Henry Waxman? Nancy Pelosi? Actually, that was candidate John McCain, way back in May of 2008. Which is all the more interesting given former running mate Sarah Palin’s anti-cap-and-trade op-ed in today’s Washington Post. In her opinion piece, Palin berated Obama for creating a job-kiling “cap-and-tax dead end,” despite having run on a ticket that mostly...

Washington -- President Barack Obama's landmark bill on energy and global warming squeaked through the House this week only after the White House made dozens of concessions to coal, manufacturing and other interests. As the battle moves to the Senate, Obama faces demands for more concessions, including to open the coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling. The Senate will take up issues that were glossed over or omitted from the House bill. Among them is giving the government sweeping new powers to overcome local objections and approve thousands of miles of new transmission lines to carry electricity to coastal...

GOP candidate promotes working with Europe on climate change, but only wants to 'encourage' involvement of 'rest of the world.' BY DAN GAINOR Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain is using the idea of global togetherness to promote “a cap-and-trade system” to battle climate change. He said “Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren.” According to the Arizona senator, whose opinion column appeared in the March 19 Financial Times, the United States needs to work with Europe to create...

Statement of Congressman Ron Paul United States House of Representatives Statement on Global Warming Petition Signed by 31,478 Scientists June 4, 2009 Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, before voting on the "cap-and-trade" legislation, my colleagues should consider the views expressed in the following petition that has been signed by 31,478 American scientists: "We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who also spoke yesterday at the symposium, called the president's cap-and-trade plan "irresponsible, ill-conceived and distorted," and said he couldn't support the creation of a "giant government slush fund." "I still believe that it is the time to address this critical domestic and international issue," McCain said. "But my vision for a cap-and-trade system is a mechanism to lower greenhouse gases in our hemisphere, not as a revenue generator for the federal government. We must design a program that balances the needs of our environment with the needs of our economy."

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) confirms that Republican state governors and top Congressional leaders have been actively coordinating the talking points used to oppose Democratic policies put forward by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Obama. "When you got the White House you become a very much a top down party, now we're trying to rebuild as a bottom up party and governors are integral in that and members of the House and Senate realize that," Barbour said Tuesday in an interview with the Hill. In the latest effort, leadership aides tell The Hill that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford...

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) visited Drexel April 13 for a town hall meeting discussing a "Just and Clean Energy Future". The main goals as highlighted by the presentation were for 100 percent renewable energy, tax on carbon and the presence of green jobs, according to Nathan Taylor, a junior mechanical engineering and the event's organizer. Students were the main target of the town hall, according to Taylor. "We're trying to make a point that students matter, seeing that Specter is up for re-election, he should listen to the students," Taylor said. Specter said his main platform in running for re-election...

GREGORY: You just heard Secretary Geithner. What’s your level of confidence in him? MCCAIN: Well, I have some confidence in him. I think he’s very smart. And I hope that this new plan -- which, by the way, I thought was well-described... . . . . . GREGORY: Have Republicans heeded that call, and do you think President Obama has heeded that call? MCCAIN: I think neither side, perhaps, has done it as much as maybe we should. But you establish an environment. Really, bipartisanship is sitting down across a table from each other and negotiating, recognizing there’s got to...

Sen. John McCain avoided reporters during the lame-duck session of Congress last week. But Tuesday, shortly after President-elect Obama had his own news conference about the economy, McCain broke his silence by speaking with reporters in Phoenix. This came after the two former contenders met last week, and Tuesday, McCain continued to make nice. When asked what advice he had for right-wing supporters who say the prospect of an Obama presidency terrifies them, he was categorical. "Respect this landmark election, respect the fact America faces great challenges, and Americans expect us to work together. That does not mean we won't...

Having tolls removed from a major route in British Columbia, Canada, has taken some of the sting out of the cost of operating a trucking business in that province, but there’s still plenty of sting to go around. In late September, the government removed a $20 truck toll and $10 passenger vehicle toll from the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the city of Hope to Kamloops, B.C., in the Canadian West. Provincial officials said that truckers were pleased with the move, and they were. “Given the price of fuel, truckers are very happy with this,” Bridgitte Anderson, spokeswoman for British Columbia...

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED CARBON TAX House passes “bailout bill”, with Carbon Tax credits and an entire buffet of pork attached.

Governments need to scrap subsidies for biofuels, as the current rush to support alternative energy sources will lead to surging food prices and the potential destruction of natural habitats, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will warn on Tuesday. The OECD will say in a report to be discussed by ministers on Tuesday that politicians are rigging the market in favour of an untried technology that will have only limited impact on climate change. “The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits,” say the authors...

UNITED NATIONS -- An international panel of scientists presented the United Nations with a sweeping, detailed plan on Tuesday to combat climate change -- a challenge, it said, "to which civilization must rise." Failure would produce a turbulent 21st century of weather extremes, spreading drought and disease, expanding oceans and displaced coastal populations, it said. "The increasing numbers of environmental refugees as sea levels rise and storm surges increase will be in the tens of millions," panel co-chair Rosina Bierbaum, a University of Michigan ecologist, told reporters. After a two-year study, the 18-member group, representing 11 nations, offered scores of...

In Maryland, like in many other states, candidates carrying the designation of "libertarian" emerged on the ballot. In Maryland, the libertarian Senate candidate was Kevin Zeese, a former official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He wants the government to leave him alone so he can smoke dope. Generally speaking, libertarians are supposed to favor limited government and low taxes. Yet, the libertarian magazine Reason has astonished many observers by publishing an article that seems to be endorsing global taxes and the world government such a scheme would entail. In an article about the collapse of...