Oregon’s biggest problem used to be logging jobs lost from spotted owl lawsuits.
A new sort problem is developing. Green jobs and green programs are going off the rails. Portland recently passed a draconian “Climate Action Plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% that has little chance of succeeding by its 2050 deadline.
Read the story from the Oregonian here
The latest news is that the Green Tax breaks aren’t what they were promised to be and taxpayers are getting hosed for a cost 40 times what was voted on:
State lowballed cost of green tax breaks
State officials deliberately underestimated the cost of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s plan to lure green energy companies to Oregon with big taxpayer subsidies, resulting in a program that cost 40 times more than unsuspecting lawmakers were told, an investigation by The Oregonian shows.
It gets worse. Now tax breaks are being sold in Oregon for less than they are worth.
Read about it here in the Register Guard
The tax credits can be sold, enriching companies that have nothing to do with renewable energy, and the swelling program is a drain on state revenue, critics say.
Here are some examples:
- Peak Sun Silicon, of Millersburg, sold a $3.25 million tax credit to US Bank for $2.18 million.
- Peak Sun also sold a $5.85 million tax credit to two companies: Nordstrom for $2.85 million and Standard Insurance for $2 million.
- Solaicx, of Portland, sold a $9.04 million tax credit to US Bank for $6.05 million.
- SolarWorld, of Hillsboro, sold an $11 million tax credit to Wal-Mart for $7.37 million.
- SolarWorld also sold a $10.96 million tax credit to Flir Systems, of Portland, for $7.34 million.
A lot of the time, people deserve what they get.
Please everyone, get out there and stop your representatives from doing the same to YOU!!!
Didn’t take them long to find a way to fleece the taxpayers.
Wow I love the anecdotal evidence of rent-seeking behaviour. The gall of some of these companies is amazing.
As an afterthought… how many spotted owls get killed every year by the wind turbines?
Bulldust: “Wow I love the anecdotal evidence of rent-seeking behaviour. The gall of some of these companies is amazing.”
Gall? GALL??!! It is the duty of every right thinking company and person to exploit environmental stupidity to the maximum detriment of their fellow citizen. Only through pain will ordinary citizens gain the gumption to throw off their oppressors.
Wow, the Register-Guard and The Oregonian are probably the most liberal papers in the state and normally cheer on every nutty green idea. Nice to see something like journalism in those daily fish-wrappers.
Interesting that The Oregonian notes that The Guv squeezed out our long-time energy department director over tax breaks for Oregon Windfarms. This is the same guy who squeezed out my friend George Taylor as state climatologist because George wouldn’t toe the party line.
As I recall, Uncle Ted said that there should be one voice on climate policy in Oregon, and that voice would be his. Actually, that voice is from SOS Bill Bradbury who was personally trained by Al Baby to motor around the state presenting the Climate Change Roadshow, the Reader’s Digest version of the Inconvenient Truth presentation.
Bradbury is now running for governor because Uncle Ted is term limited.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
I am amazed that people are still shocked when this ponzi scheme throws up irregularities .
This is how politicians win big business support for AGW legislation. This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Bulldust (00:27:33) :
The gall of some of these companies is amazing.
Not gall, just proper business. The companies aren’t the ones setting out the rules here or doing the fleecing. If stupid politicians want to give throw away constituents’ money, it would be stupid not to take it. If a company can’t use the tax credit, it’s obligated to its investors to sell the credit for what it can get.
Nobody to blame here but the pols and the dunces who vote for them.
This will make no difference whatsoever to the reelection prospects of the democrats responsible for this nonsense. The stretch of Oregon along I-5 from Portland to Eugene and out to the coast, in which the majority of the population resides, is an environmental nuthouse and marxist collective. They would vote heavily for any sufficiently green democrat, even one who is an admitted pedophile.
“…As an afterthought… how many spotted owls get killed every year by the wind turbines?…”
Bulldust
We DON’T KNOW!!! So you must PAY US to do a STUDY!!!!
A few million of your American Dollars should be sufficient….
“Bulldust (00:31:05) :
As an afterthought… how many spotted owls get killed every year by the wind turbines?”
…Lots. Here in Britain we call wind turbines “bird shredders”.
The Australian government has just drastically cut back a home insulation subsidy program, because of rampant fraud.
I also hear there has been a spate of house fires because of renewable/eco-friendly/organic materials used for insulation.
It would seem that many people who ‘care about the environment’ are not aware that all plant material, when dried, burns nicely.
Wow I love the anecdotal evidence of rent-seeking behaviour. The gall of some of these companies is amazing.
There is no evidence here of rent seeking behaviour by companies.
Government is offering unsolicited rents to certain types of companies.
The sale of tax breaks is presumably legal and inclusion in the report is just the media sensationalizing a routine business transaction.
I strongly suspect that a scheme of this sort is a waste of taxpayers money – probably a waste of a whole lot of money. However, I can’t see what the problem is with allowing companies to resell their tax credits, thus trading long-term income for money up front.
The critics of these deals seem unaware of a basic fact of economics, that time is actually money.
For example, there is a claim in the Register Guard that when Solarworld sold its five-year, $11 million tax credit to Wal Mart for $7.37 million, Wal Mart got a 49% return on their investment.
By this logic, if you buy a 10-year, 4% Treasury bond, you are getting a 40% return. Wal Mart’s annual return actually works out at 8.3%. Not bad, but definitely not 49%.
What do you expect from a state that won’t allow you to pump your own gas?
It matches the gall of the whole AGW movement. Unsupported science leads to unsupportable policy (corn for fuel) and ordinary politics makes it worse. There are clearly some good scientists and policy makers on the AGW side with good ideas. The problem is that they are drowned out by the “green” political power brokers. Whoops, different green.
“Bulldust (00:31:05) :
As an afterthought… how many spotted owls get killed every year by the wind turbines?”
Lets hope all of them to end this stupidity.
Look what B.C. is doing a little to the north.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/47823327.html
I have had a quick look at the science supporting this plan:
http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?c=49989&a=268612
“Increasing the amount of these gases, called carbon emissions, in the atmosphere essentially makes the blanket thicker — and warmer. This warming is accompanied by changes in precipitation patterns, increased frequency and intensity of storms, wildfires, droughts and floods, rising sea level, changes in water quality and substantial changes in habitats, including the range of pests and diseases.”
or
“Climate change also poses a significant challenge to public health. Rising temperatures may be accompanied by increased incidents of diseases such as cholera and weather-related mortalities. Rising temperatures are a specific concern for seniors, who are particularly vulnerable to heat stroke — especially in this region, where most homes do not have air conditioning. Additionally, mental health problems such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress syndrome may increase to the extent that people migrate from increasingly inhospitable climates to the temperate Northwest.”
On the other hand, it is recognized that it is not just CO2 or greenhouse gases that have an impact:
http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?c=49989&a=240683
“The Pacific Northwest will experience more warming in summer, and nights will
cool off less than they do today. Increased urbanization and population growth,
with their related roads and rooftops, will exacerbate the urban heat island effect,
increasing local temperatures even more. Winters will likely be wetter and summers
drier.”
I keep on wondering if just, just maybe reducing the UHI-effect would be extremely more effective for reducing heat-related deaths than reducing Portland’s carbon emissions by 80%. The UHI is well known and well documented and thus an already existing REAL and LARGE effect (can be several degrees Kelvin for larger cities). The reduction in carbon emissions will to next-to-nothing for global temperatures if the rest of the world does not also reduce its carbon emissions by the same amount – which still will have little impact on less than centennial time scales, it is not to be expected that many heat-related deaths will be avoided. But I guess it could be more easily avoided if UHI-warming would be reduced. Or provide elderly people with solar/wind-powered air conditioning.
Anyhow, there hardly is actually any science involved, other than IPCC …
Perhaps I should have said cheek 😀 I realise that the company managers are doing what they were paid to do… max shareholder wealth… still shocking on some level to see the extent of the rorting (albeit by the rules).
It would be interesting to trace some of the relationships between those in industry and those setting the policies… do a lot of ex-Government types end up in cushy exec jobs in industry I wonder? Perhaps even coincidently the companies that may have benefited from their policies generated during their government tenure… perhaps I am somewhat cynical…
More and more, I’ve come to realize that the “green” moniker has very little to do with the environment and everything to do with making $ based on nothing but a huge fraud. When someone says the word “Green”, hang on to your wallet. Tightly.
“As an afterthought… how many spotted owls get killed every year by the wind turbines?”
Imagine what it will be like in 2020 with these shredders going everywhere. One day, there will be a book published, and it will describe a completely horrifying event – a silent spring. This book will become a rallying cry for the next generation of environmental activists. Except these activists will be campaigning for the shredders to be ripped up and replaced with nuclear power – the greenest power known to man.
Just a thought.
This just made my day! Perfect story. I didn’t know that schadenfreude came in green.
As noted, the Eugene-to-Portland corridor is infested with liberal elites, most of whom received a degree in political correctness that required no courses in hard science or critical thinking. You can identify them by their badge of moral superiority, and the color of that badge is green. They’re better than us because they “care.” They also believe that everyone in their movement is “good,” because they care, too. So they give these “good” companies millions of taxpayer dollars in the form of credits, only to watch as the companies turn around and sell them . . . to Wal-Mart! Oh the horror!
“Climate Action Plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% that has little chance of succeeding by its 2050 deadline.
There probably should be an end quote in there somewhere, but then again, maybe not.
“It would be interesting to trace some of the relationships between those in industry and those setting the policies… do a lot of ex-Government types end up in cushy exec jobs in industry I wonder? Perhaps even coincidently the companies that may have benefited from their policies generated during their government tenure… perhaps I am somewhat cynical…” Bulldust
You are not cynical at all it is called the corporate/government revolving door. Here are some examples from the Ag industry. (my area of expertise sort of) The idea of a few corporations having complete control of my food supply scares the begeesus out of me! Very soon it will be impossible for the individual to raise their own food. Combine that with “global cooling” and we could be in a world of hurt food wise. http://www.opednews.com/articles/History-HACCP-and-the-Foo-by-Nicole-Johnson-090906-229.html
Ann Veneman was Sec of Ag. She is International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC) Member Emeritus and a board member of a Monsanto subsidiary company before she became US Secretary of Agriculture for George W. Bush in 2001. She worked on the Uruguay Round talks for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Meatnews wrote that she “played a key role in eliminating trade barriers (WTO) Ann Veneman served on the board of directors for Calgene Inc. (bought by Monsanto) Calgene became the first company to bring genetically-engineered food, the Flavr Savr tomato, to supermarket shelves. Veneman also worked for the law firm and lobby group Patton, Boggs & Blow. (the people who invented professional lobbying) IPC is the group who put food on the WTO agenda. http://www.publiceyeonscience.ch/images/the_wto_and_the_politics_of_gmo.doc
Robert Shapiro was chair of Monsanto while also leading President Clinton’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. (Is it any wonder we got stuck with WTO?)
Mickey Kantor was US trade representative for much of the Uruguay Round. He subsequently became a Monsanto board member.
Marcia Hale was an assistant to President Clinton and director for intergovernmental affairs. She was also a director of international government affairs for Monsanto.
Clayton K. Yeutter, a former secretary of agriculture and US trade representative, who led the US team in negotiating NAFTA and helped launch the GATT Uruguay Round. He joined the board of directors at Mycogen Corporation. Mycogen’s majority owner is Dow AgroSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company.
Former Cargill Vice-President, Dan Amstutz was the negotiator appointed to head the WTO delegation, He drafted the original text of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. He also worked for Goldman Sachs. “Opening Southern markets and converting peasant agriculture to corporate agriculture is the primary aim of Cargill and hence the Agreement on Agriculture.
But opening markets for Cargill implies closure of livelihoods for farmers. W.T.O. rules are not just about trade. They determine how food is produced and who controls food production. For Cargill, capturing Asian markets is key. Asia happens to be the largest agricultural economy of the world, with the majority involved in agriculture. Converting self-sufficient food economies into food dependent economies is the Cargill vision and the W.T.O. strategy.” http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/1711
Neil Hammerschmidt: Coordinator for the NAIS at USDA (APHIS), helped develop an international program before he took charge of the U.S. ID program. During 1998-2003 (just prior to his 2004 position) he chaired the ID and Information committee of the NIAA and was involved in the International Committee on Animal Recording and the ISO (International Standards Organization) Working Group for International Standards for Electronic Identification of Animals. (World Trade Organization/UN working groups) “The National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) is the trade organization that developed the plans for NAIS (Animal ID) http://www.ruralheritage.com/stop_nais/niaa01.htm
Bruce Knight was the vice president for public policy at the National Corn Growers Association. Knight has also worked for the National Association of Wheat Growers.
Knight served on the staffs of three Republican members of Congress. He was appointed Agriculture Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. Bruce Knight is now Principal Consultant of the Cambridge based International Agribusiness marketing consultancy, Innovation Management.
Knight was the guy who let the cat out of the bag that the US Ag department’s “Premises ID” contract removes farm property rights and leaves farmers at the mercy of the International Criminal Court! http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/nais-and-the-international-criminal-court/
The use of the word “premises” instead of property and the word “stakeholder” instead of owner in the USDA contracts turn farmers into sharecroppers who no longer own their land or animals. http://www.opednews.com/articles/NAIS–PREMISES-DEFINED–by-Marti-Oakley-090105-634.html
If I was Mega-Mart I would set a company with a name like”SolarWork” to get a tax credit, then sell it to myself.
hehe
We cannot blame the companies. Clearly their purchasing of these tax credits are legal. Would you walk past a $100 lying on the ground?
Many of us are not surprised at the results of this further governmental distortion of the free market. Alas, it has to get worse. What do you think the Oregon government’s response will be to these unintended consequences? Will it be more or less governmental intrusion? At a minimum, the legislation will get amended and there will be “jobs” to ensure that the tax credits go to those who are more “deserving”. There is certainly a role for government – but this type of thing is an unmitigated disaster for Oregon taxpayers. Hopefully other States will learn from the misery of the Oregon taxpayers – a major potential benefit of our Federal system.
In Portland they have bumper stickers that say “Keep Portland Wierd.” Across the Columbia River in Vancouver Washington, they have stickers that say “Keep Vancouver Normal.”
I grew up in Oregon. Once upon a time Oregon was a fine place to live with good people. Then all the liberals that messed the California Bay area up to the point it was hostle to family life moved north and began to create utopia in Oregon. They were sure they would get it right this time….
I live in Vancouver now and am thinking Texas.
Wow. So not only will the move to ‘green’ energy result in poor quality, undependable power. It will also bankrupt us.
And of course do nearly nothing to ‘help’ the climate.
Re: Richard Briscoe (3:31:29), your comments are well taken. You are correct that there is nothing wrong with the selling of credits per se – *unless* the entire scheme was an intentional fraud from the beginning, and I suspect it was. (Although in this case the end-purchaser may be innocent)
I think you suspect that as well, but just to make it clear for those Oregonians who still don’t quite see what’s going on here: The legislature passes this law. I, being perhaps a brother in law of a legislator and and with his support, realize I have a great opportunity and create a company called Totally Awesome Solar and Wind. Now, I have great plans and spread them around to a lot of people, and I get a $10 million tax credit due to this and my connections which make sure everything goes smooth. The problem is that I never get around to actually creating a business, so I will never have income to apply my tax credit against. But that’s no problem at all! I simply sell it at a discounted rate to someone who *does* have income, and I pocket the $6 or $7million I just made from doing nothing but knowing the right people, and my purchaser pockets the other $3 million. Looks like a win-win, doesn’t it, especially since I’ll kick back some of my winnings to the pol who enabled all of this!
Win-win for everyone except the poor saps at the bottom footing the bill, those chumps we call “taxpayers.” But seriously, in this system who cares about them anymore???
Table 2–Summary of predicted annual avian mortality.
Mortality source Annual mortality estimate Percent composition
Buildings1 550 million 58.2 percent
Power lines2 130 million 13.7 percent
Cats3 100 million 10.6 percent
Automobiles4 80 million 8.5 percent
Pesticides5 67 million 7.1 percent
Communications towers6 4.5 million 0.5 percent
Wind turbines7 28.5 thousand <0.01 percent
Airplanes 25 thousand <0.01 percent
Other sources (oil spills, oil seeps, fishing by-catch, etc.) not calculated not calculated
1 Mid-range of fatality estimates reported from Klem (1990), 1 – 10 bird fatalities per house, extrapolated to 100 million residences
2 Based primarily on a study in the Netherlands (Koops 1987), extrapolated to 500,000 miles of bulk transmission line in U.S.
3One study in Wisconsin estimated 40 million (Coleman and Temple 1996), there are 60 million cats claimed as pets in the U.S.
4Based primarily on one study in England (Hudson 1965, Banks 1979) that estimated 15.1 fatalities/mile of road each year, no searcher
efficiency or bias adjustments in that study, updated based on increase in vehicle registrations
5Conservative estimate using low range of empirical fatality rate (0.1 to 3.6 birds/acre), studies typically adjusted from searcher
efficiency and scavenging
6Estimates from models derived by Manville and Evans (M. Manville, pers. comm.).
7Mid-range of per turbine and per MW estimates derived from empirical data collected at several wind projects (table 1).
be developed to help compensate for the continued
growth of human development on the landscape resulting
in loss of bird habitat.
Acknowledgments
The effort to gather and summarize much of the literature
in this document was funded by DOE, with
direction and support from the Wildlife Working
Group of the National Wind Coordinating Committee.
Most of the collision mortality information was first
reported in the NWCC Resource Document entitled
“Avian collisions with wind turbines: A summary of
existing studies and comparisons to other sources of
avian collision mortality in the United States”
(Erickson et al. 2001). We appreciate the comments
from the reviewers of that report, including K. Sinclair
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory), A. Manville
(USFWS), P. Kerlinger (Curry and Kerlinger), S.
Ugoretz (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources),
T. Gray (American Wind Energy Association), and J.
Stewart (FPL Energy). We also appreciate the comments
on this manuscript from C. J. Ralph.
Literature Cited
Aldrich, J. W., R. C. Banks, T. J. Cade, W. A. Calder, F. G.
Cooch, S. T. Emlen, G. A. Greenwell, T. R. Howell, J. P.
Hubbard, D. W. Johnston, R. F. Johnston, and L. R.
Mewaldt. 1975. Report of the American Ornithologist;
Union and ad hoc Committee on Scientific and Educational
Use of Birds. Auk 92 (3, Supple.): 1A-27A.
Anderson, R. L., M. Morrison, K. Sinclair and D. Strickland.
1999. Studying wind energy/bird interactions: A
guidance document. National Wind Coordinating
Mike McMillan (02:21:25) :
Nobody to blame here but the pols and the dunces who vote for them.
This is the most accurate and succinct post ever to grace WUWT.
I just look on it as payback for what the Governor did to George Taylor.
Just imagine the amount of public tax money that will squandered when this sort of thing becomes national.
The damage done to real manufacturing in the USA will be utterly devastating.
“Wow, the Register-Guard and The Oregonian are probably the most liberal papers in the state …”
You mean the “War-Oregonian”? The paper that endorsed Bush? Liberal? Surely you jest.
That is what happens when you mix environmentalists with economists.
And has anybody noticed that some major environmental organizations are run by economists? For example, the background of the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra K. Pachauri is in economics as is the director of Columbia’s Earth Institute.
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/articles/view/1804
Why is this?
The managers of the companies taking advantage of the rules are doing
exactly what they are paid for. THEY ARE PLAYING BY THE RULES. After all, If you were eligible for a $10,000 tax credit for using the recycling tub on trash day, you would take it, wouldn’t you?
On the other hand, politicians are paid to represent you.
So….the results of those laws must be what you want or the politicians would be “fired”.
Politicians look for scapegoats to blame for the messes they have caused.
They say “It’s the fault of Big Pharma, or Big Oil, or Big Insurance, or (the new favorite) George Bush”. But, their rules create the messes!
Also realize: If the politicians didn’t have the power to regulate, special interest groups ( from the Sierra Club to the Steel Mfgr’s Assn.) would not spend a penny to lobby. Whenever a Politician makes a law to “solve a problem”, a new source of contributions is also created.
**********************
voodoo (06:22:21) :
I live in Vancouver now and am thinking Texas.
**********************
We came from the Left Coast to Texas. Admittedly, the weather isn’t as nice, but here the People really do have Power. It’s amazing after coming from a repressive state like California. Come on down; we have room for (conservative) refugees! Just avoid Austin/Travis County. It is the Ugly Blue Wart on the Great Red State of Texas. They also have a bumper sticker “Keep Austin Weird”. Here, the county north of Austin, we have a bumper sticker saying “Keep Weird in Austin”.
One last thought: It is the POLITICIANS that work for you. Hold them accountable. Don’t blame business. They do not work for you and they are playing by the rules that your politicians made.
Regards.
Steamboat Jack
Just in case you thought those tax dollars are at least going into the pockets of American businessmen, here is the reality:
This is a sampling of the industries with over 50% foreign ownership, according to Source Watch http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Foreign_ownership_of_U.S._corporations
* Sound recording industries – 97%
* Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage – 79%
* Motion picture and sound recording industries – 75%
* Metal ore mining – 65%
* Wineries and distilleries – 64%
* Database, directory, Book and other publishers – 63%
* Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product – 62%
* Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment – 57%
* Rubber product – 53%
* Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing – 53%
* Plastics and rubber products manufacturing – 52%
* Other insurance related activities – 51%
* Boiler, tank, and shipping container – 50%
* Glass and glass product – 48%
* Coal mining – 48%
Statistics showed in 1990, before WTO was ratified, Foreign ownership of U.S. assets amounted to 33% of U.S. GDP. By 2002 this had increased to over 70% of U.S. GDP. http://www.fame.org/HTM/greg%20Pickup%201%2010%2003%20report.htm
I wonder how much of US business is foreign owned now? The Batistas of Brazil were busy buying out the American slaughter houses like Swift, National Beef, and Smithfield the last time I checked. The mergers would make JBS Swift the largest meat packer in the U.S. and in the world. It reduces the national meat packers in this country from five to three.
While we were not paying any attention the politicians have been seeling our country out from under us. The Department of Homeland Security says 80% of our ports are operated by Foreigners and they are buying and running US bridges and toll roads. http://www.alabamaeagle.org/issues.asp?action=form&formID=2105&recordID=131006
Seems no one remembers the anti-trust legislation anymore.
“An analysis of the 2007 financial markets of 48 countries shows the world’s finances are in the hands of a few mutual funds, banks, and corporations. This is the first report of global concentration of financial power” http://www.insidescience.org/research/study_says_world_s_stocks_controlled_by_select_few
Mike McMillan (02:21:25) :
Bulldust (00:27:33) :
The gall of some of these companies is amazing.
Not gall, just proper business. The companies aren’t the ones setting out the rules here or doing the fleecing. If stupid politicians want to give throw away constituents’ money, it would be stupid not to take it. If a company can’t use the tax credit, it’s obligated to its investors to sell the credit for what it can get.
Nobody to blame here but the pols and the dunces who vote for them.
This is but one of the many reasons the US Constitution provides for limited government. There is no point in buying and selling votes if you don’t have the power to grant special favors.
Mike McMillan (02:21:25) :
Bulldust (00:27:33) :
The gall of some of these companies is amazing.
Not gall, just proper business. The companies aren’t the ones setting out the rules here or doing the fleecing. If stupid politicians want to give throw away constituents’ money, it would be stupid not to take it. If a company can’t use the tax credit, it’s obligated to its investors to sell the credit for what it can get.
Nobody to blame here but the pols and the dunces who vote for them.
Yes, I do blame rent-seeking companies as well as the politicians. We can’t just blame the system — the playahs and the game are both to blame.
In the nearby city of Spokane, a proposition demanding alternative electricity was recently voted on. Nevermind the fact that hydroelectric is king in the region.
Lunacy is contagious IMO. I’ve heard many people form the western side of my state say things that mirror the short-sighted stupidity of their kin in coastal Oregon, as well as California.
This has gone to far.
Small Government, low taxes and good services and No Red Tape is as important for the economy as cheap energy and good infrastructure and education.
As soon Governments start to interfere with the market, things go terribly wrong.
Let this be a lesson and let’s hope the people understand this lesson and make their voices heard at the next elections.
Green measures will bankrupt the economy.
I visited my daughter in Portland last year and the one thing that struck me was they have no insects whatsoever. The climate is actually very dry. When the humidity exceeds 50% it falls out as rain. Perhaps those folks have let their brains dry out.
California’s global warming law (AB 32) is having a similar effect – higher costs to everyone, and fewer jobs, despite the official statements to the contrary.
http://energyguysmusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/green-jobs-and-energy.html
Californians already use less energy per capita than other states, yet has one of the highest unemployment rates (4th or 5th at last count). So, where are the jobs? California’s green movement should have already made the state a showcase for productivity and low unemployment. Apparently not.
“I formerly listened to what [a man] said, and trusted him to keep his word. Now, I still listen, but watch very carefully what he does.” – Confucius
Thanks, Anthony, for a very important post and thanks, Gail Combs, for contributing research we must know about if “we” are ever to make a difference. To all those who say that businesses are only doing what they are supposed to do: make money any which way, I say [self-snip]. Capitalism (disciplined and honorable — make a profit by adding “value”; respect and compensate your workers; reinvest your profits; don’t keep all the gravy for yourselves) and the reasonable free market will never survive with that attitude.
Oh, and the people who voted in their representatives deserve what they get? Well, who pays the election and reelection costs, who lobbies for special “privileges”, who changes the voting procedures to machines without a paper train, who pays for fraudulent voting? Most of the answers are: businesses, corporations. Who got most of the U.S. bailout money? Corporations (financial, especially — who funded Obama from the beginning). Oh, is Boeing building its new plant in So. Carolina, thumbing its nose at the (ending) tax breaks and labor costs in Wash State? Well, how much of that So Carolina labor is American-born? Did the Dems approve no-pay-back mortgages? Well, did H Paulson relax the reserves that financial institutions needed to keep on hand? Want to blame George Soros? Well, didn’t he make his billions using anything goes, free market “principles”; now he can use them for totalitarian purposes. Thuggery in, thuggery out. How about the Obama-supporting corporations like Microsoft (don’t forget Google) and their “desperate need” to hire scientists, engineers, and technology experts from other countries. A good “free market” principle if you can get it — make profits by excluding American workers.
There must be responsibility from all players in a representative democracy and businesses do not get off the hook because they are supposedly doin’ what they outta. Nor do authoritarian-leaning unions; nor do mediocracy-spreading teachers’ organizations; nor do major scientific organizations who back fraudulent science and destructive public policies.
There is no free market; there is only a reasonable and disciplined playing field — not owned by any government — where all can benefit. The US seems to be moving further and further away from what we fought for in the beginning — and it has only been 220 years.
For years I was the President of a company that had one asset. It was a ranch. I never saw the ranch. It was moved in ownership as a tax write off and I knew the CPA that handled the deal. Here they want to create a market for CO2 trading and credits and get edgy when trading ands buy/sell agreements are transacted.
The worst part of this is the Governor and State bureaucracy delibaerately defrauding the legislature to pass the green tax credits. And the firing of 30 year Oregon Dept of Energy manager because he objected to some of the shenannigans.
Then there is the tax funded wholesale fabrication of study results to advance other green policies.
This is corrupted government and the perpetrators shoud be proscecuted. Where’s their Attorney General or the feds?
“I live in Vancouver now and am thinking Texas.” voodoo
Heard on Amarillo radio:
“If you’ll wear out a pair of shoes in Amarillo, you’ll stay.” That place hasn’t changed in 50 years.
State-by-state unemployment (including DC) has Oregon as the sixth highest in the nation. A very pretty state, and a place I might live if it was less crazy. You reap what you sow.
46 OREGON 11.5
It is possible for “green” investments to be made in Oregon just by considering economics. In 2007 the Harney District Hospital in Burns opened a new hospital with high-tech wrinkles (MRI, electronic records, fiber optic communication with Portland subspecialists), but heated by the burning of compressed wood pellets. Water is heated, driving 60+ heat pumps, each of which is controlled by a wall thermostat in different sections of the hospital, and warm forced air appears, the same way it would appear from a normal furnace. The decision to use pellets was driven by the desire to use local sources of energy (waste sawdust from sawmills), and the protection from rising oil and heating oil prices. The decision has been economically brilliant.
Same deal here in the Formerly-golden State.
Ah Life in Kolongougmi world-where the taxpayer are flush with money,the voter is stupid, and the politicians are above average.
Rep.Pete Defazio himself a Lib Dem,calls this the “Green Bubble” too and says this will make the the Housing,Banking and Tech Bubbles look tiny in comparison when this all fails.
I’m glad I’m closer to Idaho than Salem…
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell.
New research: Emissions Trading Scheme costs consumers £3 billion a year
A new report (PDF) from the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) reveals the high costs being imposed on British and European consumers by the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The ETS is intended to reduce carbon emissions across Europe by increasing the cost of energy for households, businesses and other organisations.
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/research/2009/10/new-research-emissions-trading-scheme-costs-consumers-3-billion-a-year.html
“And has anybody noticed that some major environmental organizations are run by economists? For example, the background of the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra K. Pachauri is in economics as is the director of Columbia’s Earth Institute.
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/articles/view/1804
Why is this?” Mark
It is very simple in 1910 or there abouts the “Money Trust” set up the economics departments of the major universities and packed them with their hand picked puppets.
“…then those professors with all of their academic credentials gave speeches and wrote scholarly essays extolling the virtues of the Federal Reserve System…” http://www.bigeye.com/griffin.htm
The group who wrote the Federal Reserve Act included Senator Nelson Aldrich, father-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Frank Vanderlip President of the National City Bank of New York, representing the financial interests of William Rockefeller as well as four others representing the “Money Trust” and Warburg representing the international bankers.
Now skip forward to the 1950’s to the present and you find the father of Global Warming and the Environmental Movement is Maurice Strong. Maurice Strong served as Chief Advisor both to the World Bank and the UN. Strong was trustee of the Rockefeller foundation and worked for the Rockefellers in Saudi Arabia just before exploding onto the oil company scenes in Canada and becaming president of Power Corporation. Not bad for a dirt poor high school drop out, Gee I wonder who his mentors were….
Strong took the job with CalTex in 1953-1954, a company formed to exploit Saudi oil. (In 1936, Texas Co. and Standard Oil California formed California Texas Oil (later Caltex) to combine Texas Co’s marketing network in the Middle East with Standard’s operations there.) The Saudis granted the Rockefeller dominated Aramco oil consortium the monopoly of oil in Saudi Arabia. The Rockefellers has controlling interest in not one but four international Oil Companies.
David Rockefeller hosts luncheons at the family’s Westchester estate for the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors, following the annual Washington meetings of the World Bank and IMF. The Rockefeller/Morgan Chase Bank served as training grounds for three World Bank presidents, John J. McCloy, Eugene Black and George Woods. Note the UN’s funds are handled by Chase Bank
http://www.bcrevolution.ca/martin%27s_ties_to_nwo.htm
Adnan Khashoggi is another name to google — as long as you have a strong stomach add Bush to the name Adnan Khashoggi when you google.
There are major connections between oil, banking and the UN. When you branch out you come up with food and Kissinger — “If you control oil, you control nations. If you control food, you control people.”
It is all about money and power.
“John Perkins [“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”] states he was initially recruited by the National Security Agency, a US Government agency. I contend these were not from our legitimate government elected by the US citizens but traitors representing banking interests. Perkins writes, “The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits – Jaime Rolds, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Rolds and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.” Perkins “ fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire” is certainly not representing the American people, but a cartel intent on a worldwide empire.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wanniski/wanniski53.html
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/2/15/self_described_economic_hit_man_john
Back2Bat:
It isn’t the state that won’t let us pump our own gas WE voted not to be FORCED to pump our own gas. I’ve checked on gasbuddy.com and gas in Oregon isn’t any more expensive here on the Left coast than in those states where you HAVE to pump your own gas.
The irony in Portland’s Climate action plan is that the leaders who voted for it are on record as being against nuclear power and in favor of removing (“as soon as feasible” whatever that means) the dams that provide 90% of the power in the Pacific NW. Obviously the city council members, none of which I voted for, suffer from an inability to think since their if their opposition to the above and their stated opposition to fossil fuels would be successful everyone but the elite would be without power, walking to work, and cooking on wood burning stoves if allowed to do even that.
Re: “As an afterthought… how many spotted owls get killed every year by the wind turbines?”
Missing link re wind turbines
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=810_1256678713
Oregon is one of the most leftist states in the union. I really have no sympathy for those idiots that vote their fellow travelers into office. They are reaping what they have sown. I hope it is very painful.
Poor Orgeon. Forget about Somali pirates.
Oregon is being raided by domestic pirates in high places hiding behind Emerald Green ideaologies. This is a taste of the objective of Cap & Trade, and the utlimate outcome for the US.
Read your history books for the fate of nations that lose thier economic base and will to be soverign.
woodNfish (14:38:52) :
It won’t stop with Oregon, unless good people stand up and make it stop there.
When they came for Oregon, no one said anything.
And so they came again, for another state.
And when they came to my state, there were no states left to help.
Damn, when Oregon legalized assisted suicide I doubt their population realized it was manditory.
Honestly, I dont care of Oregon commits economic suicide. It was their choice, as long as they dont beg for a federal bailout, they can continue to do what they want IMHO.
Ever wonder why it’s called the LAW of unintended consequences? Not the suggestion, not the possibility, but the LAW.
I have little doubt that these things were allowed with the best of intentions, and who would have ever guessed that someone would “take advantage”?
Really, the idiocy factor at play would surprise me, except that I know too many of these people personally.
Oregon corrupt? Knock me over with a feather.
“It isn’t the state that won’t let us pump our own gas WE voted not to be FORCED to pump our own gas.” Richard Patton
I must have pulled up at the wrong pump then. So you do have self-serve in Oregon?
US citizens should instinctively understand this question better than any other people in the world:
How can a banking model based on fraud, theft and oppression of the poor be benign? Is it any wonder that there is so much crap in the world when one considers that the foundation of our economy is government backed dishonesty?
OR
Most Americans are just naturally stupid.
Which is it?
Gee Gail, it all looked so real and enticing until that last bit and now this is all that comes to mind:
Mel Brooks History of the World
with Brooks and Dom Deluise playing John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Frank Vanderlip (President of the National City Bank of New York), William Rockefeller et al (representing the “Money Trust”, the international bankers … the BilderBergers, the CFR and the Tri-Lateral Commission)
.
.
Hmmm …
Purposefully left out was the winning answer?
(I’ll take “Populism again on the American scene” or “Robert Welch lives and breathes again” for $200 Alex:
“What are straw-man arguments made up out of whole cloth?”)
Populism, I see, makes its appearance again on the American scene …
.
.
.
Most Americans are not stupid, they are the products of the American Public Uneducation System. Our schools are not failing, this is what they were designed to produce, what De Tocqueville called ‘docile subjects’. Read “The Graves of Academe” by Richard Mitchell.
Use it or loose it, no selling off credits!!!
_Jim (21:06:49) :
Purposefully left out was the winning answer?
You’re pretty good with straw yourself.
Actually, I think there is at least one high performance alternative to fractional reserve central banking using competing currencies and banks. It would use bank common stock as money.
But in any case, the burden of proof should be on those who oppose liberty, not those who defend it.
Hey Gail,
Don’t mind _Jim, Lew_Rockwell is a great site for the better (best?) thinkers. You’re are on target; the world is run of, by and for a cheap counterfeiting cartel. Why on earth they think we must continue to use their pieces of paper is beyond me.
ignore “are” after “You’re”
Back2Bat (18:49:43) :
“It isn’t the state that won’t let us pump our own gas WE voted not to be FORCED to pump our own gas.” Richard Patton
I must have pulled up at the wrong pump then. So you do have self-serve in Oregon?
——————-
No, the citizens of the stated noticed that the gas companies were saying in getting the laws taken off the books on other states preventing self-service was a lie. They were saying it would cut prices and the motorist still would have the choice of having his gas pumped for him neither of which happened. Gas prices in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are higher than Oregon and you HAVE to pump your own gas. So we decided that we didn’t want to get out in the rain for no benefit whatsoever.
Richard,
At least with private enterprise and genuine competition some gas stations would have offered full serve in a rainy state. Banning self-serve seems silly.
Since when are fewer options better?
I need not offer the following admonition (admonition: the act or an instance of telling beforehand of danger or risk):
“Conspiracy theories are the tools of the weak-minded.”
– need I?
(Contrasted with, for instance, the advice to judiciously apply Occam’s Razor; surely one of the most/more useful analyis ‘tools’ one can have at one’s disposal?)
I think I’ll leave it at that.
Reference: The Lure of the Conspiracy Theory
.
.
Re: “Portland recently passed a draconian ‘Climate Action Plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 80%’ that has little chance of succeeding by its 2050 deadline.”
I object to the characterization that the Plan has “little” chance of success by 2050. It has no chance of success, unless we can repeal the laws of physics and the rules of stoichiometry.
_Jim (19:42:34) :
“Conspiracy theories are the tools of the weak-minded.”
Thanks. I had little idea I had such a strong mind.
No, I don’t even care about conspiracies. In fact, they should be completely legal else we are dealing in “thought crimes”.
The “conspiracy”, though shrouded in deliberate mystery (except notice how the Fed has never been audited and strongly resists it), is out in the open.
If you haven’t noticed the big bank bailouts then you have not been paying much attention.
Keep trying. We all have to start somewhere.
… really??
“never been audited”.
Debunked: Myth #6: The Federal Reserve has never been audited.
Brief excerpt (if our host Anthony will allow):
I think we can lay that one to rest.
.
.
.
“I think we can lay that one to rest.” _Jim
Then it surely won’t mind another one then, should it? This time a full one.
Undaunted by cited fact, our friend from a bizarre parallel universe from across an apparent rift in the time/space continuum electronically scribes:
FWEEEET! (Ref blows whistle)
“Penalty, moving the goal post … 15 yards” (JBS tactic number #323: MTGP in an assertion or during argument while ceding no ‘wrongness’ on the point)
– as you had said previously: “except notice how the Fed has never been audited”
I don’t sense a great degree of sincerity in this ruse of yours, so, I can’t really engage in the level of sparring that is warranted (its a ‘don’t wrestle with pigs kinda thing)
But I will continue on to say that audits are, and have been (as was shown above) and will continue to be a part of the process … witness, from ‘the fed’ itself:
From: http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/faq/faqfrs.htm#9
Have you and your friends from across the warp in the space/time continuum checked into this “Federal Banking Agency Audit Act” (in, um, your time and space continuum that is)? Is it applicable for what you are harping on about?
Have any of you guys read, inspected, perused or even shown to your two, three or four eyeballs (in your parallel universe) the referenced ‘Fed’ audit reports?
How come you guys (never doing any research it appears, aside from constant searches and re-seaches of the same old worn conspiracy-laden websites like lewrockwell, infowars and RonPaul.com) have never come across this information that I found in just a few minutes of searching LEGITIMATE web sites?
And finally, I have to say – you have to see our (or at least my) point or side of this issue – We can’t help but wonder out here, those of us living outside the ‘bubble’ of narrow (uninformed?) populist ideas, as we are questioning your, um, how can I say this gently, your sane-ness (your sanity?) just a little bit on these matters given actual fact and law on this subject.
Apologies beforehand for having to trouble the mods and Anthony with this material.
.
.
.
“I don’t sense a great degree of sincerity in this ruse of yours, so, I can’t really engage in the level of sparring that is warranted (its a ‘don’t wrestle with pigs kinda thing)”_Jim
Oh Jimmy. What is your interest in protecting the head (the Fed) of the banking cartel?
Like all fractional reserve banks I would bet that the Fed is honest to fractions of a penny in its inherently dishonest craft.
Sincerity? The Fed caused the Great Depression as Ben Bernanke admitted. That in turn, along with Fed financed US entry into WWI, caused WWII which killed 50 – 80 million. Also, the Great Depression gave major impetus to the socialism that has and is destroying the US.
““Penalty, moving the goal post … 15 yards” (JBS tactic number #323: MTGP in an assertion or during argument while ceding no ‘wrongness’ on the point)” _Jimmy
Good catch but a mere technically. Let the Fed now submit to a full audit. If it has done nothing wrong then what does it have to hide? (Don’t plead privacy, it has government privilege)
Actually, an audit of the Fed is a side issue and not really my cause. Abolish legal tender laws and the free market will eat the Fed, the dollar, and fractional reserve banking alive. And it won’t need gold or silver to do it.
“How come you guys (never doing any research it appears, aside from constant searches and re-seaches of the same old worn conspiracy-laden websites like lewrockwell, infowars and RonPaul.com) have never come across this information that I found in just a few minutes of searching LEGITIMATE web sites?” _Jim
On what basis do you assess LEGITIMACY? Government backed fractional reserve banking most recently only goes back to 1913 in the US. The two previous US central banks were destroyed by Jefferson and Andrew Jackson.
Here are some thing I consider legitimate all of which the government backed banking cartel violates:
1. “Thou shall not bear false witness.”
2. “Thou shall not steal.”
3. numerous commands in the Torah against oppressing the poor.
I’d rather be insane than dishonest or oppress the poor, not for survival but for money.
This is what happens when Liberals are in power.
Go ahead, keep electing them.
They’ll make you poor, and put yu on welfare so you are dependent on them.
The Oregonian article was having me slap my head in disbelief. It sounds like the same techniques that are used to show negative effects of increased CO2: Fudge the numbers.
According to documents obtained under Oregon’s public records law, agency officials estimated in a Nov. 16, 2006, spreadsheet that expanding the tax credits would cost taxpayers an additional $13 million in 2007-09. But after a series of scratch-outs and scribbled notes, a new spreadsheet pared the cost to $1.8 million.
…
Dave Barker, an analyst who is still with the agency, told The Oregonian that the initial cost estimates started high but got lower after he was told by his superiors to plug in smaller figures.
Uh…yeah, that’s what happens when you lower item costs…the total decreases (duh!), unless of course what you’re lowering is an inverse relationship.
“What I would hear pretty consistently was, ‘We want to keep it conservative,'” Barker said.
Uh…yeah, that’s a euphemism for “Let’s dishonestly lowball it and hope nobody notices.” I don’t know if this Barker guy is trying to put one over on the Oregonian, or if he’s just a sap. Sheesh. The way they pull a snow job! I swear, these people in the government there could pass for Enron and WorldCom executives. The difference is they never go to jail for it.