It seems our future is being bargained away for a few pieces of silver as this passage from the article indicates. Those of you that have an interest in this, now is the time to write and call your U.S. representative. – Anthony
While Shimkus acknowledged that closed-door negotiating was “just a way of doing business” in Congress, he said offering emission allowances for votes may take the process beyond ethical boundaries.
From the Washington Examiner: To get votes, Waxman offers cap-and-trade breaks
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
04/23/09
 |
| Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has led efforts to entice votes for the Democratic energy bill by giving some oil refineries favorite treatment in the cap and trade system. |
In exchange for votes to pass a controversial global warming package, Democratic leaders are offering some lawmakers generous emission “allowances” to protect their districts from the economic pain of pollution restrictions.
Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, represents a district with several oil refineries, a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. He also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which must approve the global warming plan backed by President Barack Obama.
Green says Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who heads the panel, is trying to entice him into voting for the bill by giving some refineries favorable treatment in the administration’s “cap and trade” system, which is expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years. Under the plan, companies would pay for the right to emit carbon dioxide, but Green and other lawmakers are angling to get a free pass for refineries in their districts.
“We’ve been talking,” Green said, referring to a meeting he had with Waxman on Tuesday night. “To put together a bill that passes, they have to get our votes, and I’m not going to vote for a bill without refinery allowances.”
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the energy panel, said Waxman and others are also dangling allowances for steel and coal-fired power plants to give political cover to Democrats whose districts rely on these companies.
Democrats so far have been unable to get enough support from their own members to pass the bill out of a small global warming subcommittee because most Republicans and many Democrats say the plan will raise energy rates, destroy jobs and increase prices on manufactured goods.
Republicans said Waxman and subcommittee chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., are calling Democrats into their offices and offering allowances, also called credits, in exchange for votes.
Waxman told The Examiner he was not trading votes for allowances.
“That is what the Republicans are saying, but that is not accurate,” he said. The bill left out specifics on allowances “in order to be able to have discussions on how best to ease the transition for various geographical regions and ratepayers.”
“I will politely disagree,” said energy committee member John Shimkus, R-Ill., who insisted Waxman “is calling members into his office to try to get their vote, and that will be based on the credits they are offering.”
While Shimkus acknowledged that closed-door negotiating was “just a way of doing business” in Congress, he said offering emission allowances for votes may take the process beyond ethical boundaries.
“We are talking real dollars here, real shareholder wealth,” Shimkus said, “and we are not being given the time to analyze these credits.”
Environmentalists and free-market advocates say the credits will favor struggling, out-of-date operations.
“We are going to have electricity that is dirtier because the allowances are going to be misallocated,” said Robert Michaels, an economics professor at California State University and senior fellow for the Institute for Energy Research.
Read the full article here (h/t to Ron de Haan
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We use to say in spanish something translated like “I have no candle in this burial” to mean I can not meddle into this issue, but, may I suggest that instead of “snip- ad hominem” wouldn´t be better “snip- ad bestiam”
How long do you think Americans will take all this abuse by Government Officials?
Here is Arnold Schwarzenegger telling people to stop air drying their laundry but in the mean time he takes to the air for a daily commute with his private jet.
How do you like them apples?
If you love flying and driving Hummers, don’t behave like a freaking hypocrite!
The political elite in this country has forgotten to serve the people.
They only serve themselves.
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/459/Schwarzenegger-touts-airdrying-your-clothes-for-6-months-to-save-700-pounds-of-carbon-dioxide
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/07/local/me-arnold7
I’d love to see them (EPA?) have their first auction and no one buys any allowances. None, nada, zip.
This would be the CO2 emitters form of protest. They then either continue producing energy or products as usual and dare the EPA police to break down the door, or they all shrug like Atlas, and everything shuts down.
Cut off their oil.
Literally, we stop shipment of petroleum products across states lines out of Texas. Then, we exercise the secede option. (I’m really burned up on this issue …)
*******ATTENTION*******
Rather than just complaining about whats being shoved down your throat, why don’t you try to do something about it?
There are currently two ways you can try to make a difference.
The EPA is proposing to declare CO2 and six other gases as “dangerous pollutants”. Do you agree with this? The public comment period is NOW open. Have YOU commented yet? WHY NOT? Anthony presents all the information you need here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/20/making-your-opinion-on-co2-and-climate-change-known-to-the-epa/
There is a second issue that may be under the radar of many. The Office of Science and Technology Policy has published a notice requesting public comment to be used to aid the drafting of recommendations for Presidential action to ensure scientific integrity in the executive branch as per Presidential Memorandum. In other words, President Obama wants to establish the standards for scientific integrity and how it affects public policy decision-making.
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-9307.pdf
Do you have an opinion on this? Well then, MAKE IT KNOWN.
The comment period is now open and will be short, only 21 days. The comment period closes at 5 p.m. EDT May 13, 2009.
Comments can be made here:
http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/04/22/presidential-memo-on-scientific-integrity-request-for-comment/
Visit the website, create a login, and GET ACTIVE.
An interesting aspect of this process is that the public can vote upon (or even flag) the comments of others. I dunno how wise that is (I am thinking about the 2007 Weblog awards), but it IS interesting.
I gotta tell you, if the climate alarmists win the day, it WILL be because of apathy within the climate realists. I am concerned that we are not doing enough, that the climate-alarmists are working harder than we are. Blog-whining will never amount to anything useful. PLEASE, GET BUSY. Don’t let this happen because you failed to act.
Remember: He who fails to vote cannot complain about who gets elected.
I believe it was Mark Twain who said Congress was the Nation’s only certifiable criminal class.
Serendipitously, one of the cable networks this week has been broadcasting Dicken’s _Little Dorrit_. In the story, Dickens has created a fictional Office of Circumlocution, which, were he writing today, would likely employ a cadre of environmental alarmists:
“…How to do it must obviously be regarded as the natural and mortal enemy of
How not to do it. In this was to be found the basis of the wise system, by tooth and nail upheld by the Circumlocution Office, of warning every ingenious British subject to be ingenious at his peril: of harassing him, obstructing him, inviting robbers (by
making his remedy uncertain, and expensive) to plunder him, and at the best of confiscating his property after a short term of enjoyment, as though invention were on a par with felony.”
D. King (16:17:53) bumper stickers !
Such as, “If I’m helping to pay your mortgage, Honk!”
“I thought this was an autonomous collective” – Graham Chapman (if I am not mistaken)
April 24, 2009
Al Gore suggested that future generations will ask: What were they [us[ thinking? Why did they listen to “outlier quacks who got money from carbon polluters?”
Trust me, nobody has given me one red cent for my skepticism. Gore & Hansen have personally subsidized all skepticism with thier debauchery of the truth. All I had to do was dig.
There are only 2 data points I can personally offer:
1.) The ocean I know of (the Pacific) has not risen by any margin I can detect.
2.) It is terribly hard to detect the Tiny Tim sunspots that now rarely occasion the face of the sun. The last thing I saw was that big faulae on March 26th. Haven’t seen jack since. Last sunspot I saw was in January, and it took me 15 minutes to hunt down what I already knew was there.
The sad part of “just a way of doing business” is that it is.
How Congress operates. All the time.
And when it cools down before the legislation passes, they will tell us it was all in anticipation of Carbon Cap & Trade. Global Warming knew it was done for and gave up.
(the flying spaghetti monster told me so)
John F. Hultquist (19:11:07) :
D. King (16:17:53) bumper stickers !
Such as, “If I’m helping to pay your mortgage, Honk!”
My other car was sold to pay my carbon tax.
My kid is EXACTLY as poor as your kid.
If you can read this sticker, we’re both out of gas.
Too Small To Succeed.
Antonio San (15:56:59) : These guys must be frustrated that despite their omnipresence, despite their constant pounding, the public does not believe them…
After a lifetime of promises and deceit from TV adverts, Joe and Jane Six Pack are not nearly as gullible as politicians think. J&J are somewhat disenfranchised and have a limited scope for attention (what with the job, the kids, etc.) so they let the politicians run free most of the time… But they don’t buy the Bull Puckey as much as “our leaders” think. They just ignore it. There is a hugh difference between apathy and endorsement.
But when they get P.O.’d, watch out. Who was it who said “The Voters have spoken! (damn it.)”?
So for now the AGW fad has the political machinery, but without adult supervision they are preparing to saw off some fingers with it. In 2 years, Mom and Dad J&J will give them a good spanking and send them to their room and ask them to think about fingers for a while… Maybe not ‘secure seats’ like Waxman, but certainly the party in swing states.
And if the screw up is bad enough, heck, maybe even the party leadership… and Waxman.
If they don’t?
Then in another 2 years, after China and India have eaten our lunch with coal fired cheap power and a few more U.S. premier companies have washed through bankruptcy and the dollar will buy you a cup of coffee (Oops! Too late, its $3 now…) and it’s way too expensive to buy heating fuel in a record cold snowy year – even IF you still have a job; then you can rest assured that J&J will be out for blood…
People are dense some times, and slow to learn some times, but being out of work, cold, hungry, and bankrupt has a way of focusing the vox populi. And while we are now a Lang Type Socialist Government system, it’s still a democracy. And while democracies are unstable, in this case that just might be a feature…
So I’m not worried. “This, too, shall pass”. It just takes a bit of patience, grasshopper… But I am willing to “beat the grass to startle the snakes” (Rising Sun).
Hot Tea anyone?… I’m off to a cup of Red Rose…
kim (17:13:34) :
global cooling, and if the globe continues to cool(who here doubts that very much?)
Many. Last time I checked this was not a global cooling fear mongering site.
“if the globe continues to cool (who here doubts that very much?) then this will be a potent issue in the coming year and a half.”
The AGWAns will be gone with the whirlwind.
Unfortunately, my US Representative is none other than that village idiot, The Hon. Ed Markey, who is working cheek-by-jowl with the Less-than-Hon. Henry Waxman, to implement repressive policies on the basis of science the two of them don’t even begin to understand.
I’m thinking of moving to a more rational part of the country, if there is one.
/Mr Lynn
Rep Earl Blumenauer OR
“There is little in the whole response to climate change that we shouldn’t do any way, to reduce pollution, save money and enhance our security.
Why “climate change” instead of “global warming”? because it is a much more accurate term. while we are slowly cooking the planet, the most immediate impacts are unpredictable, extreme weather events, including viable temperatures, both warmer and cooler.
It is interesting to see the responses of the climate skeptics/doubters and political fringe who somehow feel repeating the talking points passes for discussion. WE have had over 60 hearing in our committee on global Warming and Energy Security alone. we have actually tried to have debates on the floor of the House, the results on CSPAN for all to see.
I’ve worked with enough scientists to believe that analysis of deep core samples of ice from the two poles, geological formations does in fact yield reliable information, like the rings of ancient trees.Modern science doesn’t need news video tapes from the time of Cleopatra.”
“we have actually tried to have debates on the floor of the House, the results on CSPAN for all to see.”
Really? Without a skeptical point of view? Who does Al Gore debate? Tipper? I bet it goes like this:
Al: “And the seas will rise twenty feet in the next century.”
Tipper: (under breath) “Yeah, if we throw you in there.”
Dear Blumenauer, encumbering carbon will not reduce pollution, raising the price of energy will not save money, and drilling here and drilling now will do more for our security than depending upon erratic wind and solar sources. Accumulated cyclone energy is at a thirty year low, so much for more extreme weather events. Hotter AND colder temperatures makes no dam sense, and besides, the globe is cooling, now. Why do you depend upon ice cores from researchers whose work can’t be replicated because they won’t archive their data, and believe phony statistics applied to split bark Bristlecone Pine Tree rings more responsive to CO2 levels and moisture than to temperature? If you’ve actually had a debate worth listening to in your House, it sounds like you didn’t listen to it.
============================================
Andrew (16:25:09) :
“Amok Time,” Spock to the suitor of Spock’s betrothed. First episode with Spock’s mother, IIRC. Fortunately I don’t know the subsequent Star Trek series well.
Note also, the supposedly Chinese curse “Be careful of what you wish for, you may get it.
Adolfo Giurfa (18:00:03) : We use to say in spanish something translated like “I have no candle in this burial” to mean I can not meddle into this issue, but, may I suggest that instead of “snip- ad hominem” wouldn´t be better “snip- ad bestiam”
Adolfo, I love it! BTW, in American English the equivalent phrase would be:
“I have no dog in this fight” (meaning I’m not betting on either party since my dog is not in the dog fight, so I’m neutral and/or don’t want to get hit…) which does fit with your bestiam 😉
There is also “How about you and him fight?” meaning “I’ll watch you two go at it, but I’m not involved” though with a humorous sub-text sense based on the old cliche of “how about you and me fight (it out)” being twisted into sticking some other 3rd party with the fight at the last second.
Finally, there is “count me out” meaning “I’m not picking a side and I’m pushing away” which I think comes from being cashed out of a card game (having your chips counted out in cash as you push away from the table) and has the opposite of “count me in” which happens at the start of a game when your money gets counted into chips to “be in the game”. “Count me in” has somewhat been generalized to mean both “you can depend on me” and / or “sure, I’ll go with you (to dinner, movie, whatever)”
Don’t know what the idioms would be in British English and I’m sure the Aussies must have a hundred ways to say it. (They have a few thousand for “shaking hands with my wife’s best friend” – meaning a visit to los baños 😉
AKD 20:33:47
Well, it’s not for lack of my trying. I’m pretty sure we’re headed for a moderately dramatic cooling with rampant crop failures. That means death to those living on the margin now. Do you understand that even a 5% die-off of the human race is 350 million people? If you think the first world can be protected from the social consequences of such a holocaust, then you have another think coming. Global cooling is a heck of a lot more lethal than global warming, and guess which one is happening right now.
===================================
O/T
I have just looked at the papers for the Civil Action by Kivalina Village V “US Energy Companies et al”.
The document is dated February 28, 2008 – has no signature or court validation – is this for real?
Janice
It seems that, with representatives and senators like Pelosi, Waxman, Franks, Reid, Leahy, and a host of others, we cannot keep it.
Joseph’s 2nd suggestion, above, is a remarkable way to get presidential attention, or at least discover if it too is being ‘filtered’.
blog.ostp.gov/2009/ . . .
I have created an account. I am studying each principal for which comments can be posted.
I urge all others here to do the same.