Well, everyone is all revved up on the Healthcare bill- and that is well and good, because that will dramatically affect your quality of life adversely if it passes, but then so will virtually everything the Resident is proposing, and he is proposing a lot of stuff at once- oh, and let’s not forget he is going to show us how he will magically cut the deficit in half while he balances plates on sticks, I am sure.
But in all this brouhaha over healthcare, let us not forget about the Waxman- Markey Bill from our “esteemed” House of Representatives, soon to come to a Senate near you. This is a BAD bill, almost as bad as the Healthcare bill, equally as ponderous, and unworkable, and just as intentionally designed to cripple the United States by forcing unproven and unrealistic goals on our society at a time when we cannot afford to take the economic hit.
With Cap and Trade, or as it should forever henceforth be called, Cap and Tax, your utility bill will go up as much as fifty to a hundred dollars a month. Add to that the price for fuel for your car. If you have an electric car, the batteries cost around 2-3,000 dollars to replace, and you will have to pay a “disposal fee” on top of that.
If you have an E85 vehicle, can you even get fuel for it? I mean yes, you can get gas, but the infrastructure isn’t set up to handle anything else other than gas and/ or diesel fuel. Bio- anything is still worlds away, because of the various lobbyists and interests, specifically the Corn industry, where for some ungodly reason, our bio- fuels are coming from instead of sugar cane, the preferred source of ethanol. Why this is happening is a snapshot of all that is wrong with this bill and its adherents.
And the wind and/ or solar energy grids- they’re at least 20 years down the road, because there’s always a NIMBY (Not in my back yard) factor- in many cases it is the environmentalists themselves that block the building of the transmission lines needed to bring the electricity to market.
Nuclear energy hasn’t even been uttered- the cleanest source of energy we can get, and people will not even speak of it- now there is true hypocrisy. Couple that with the refusal of the Federal government to drill off of our coasts, as common sense and sanity would dictate, and you have the beginnings of a scenario whereby we as a nation slowly sink into third- world oblivion, all thanks to a compliant Legislature, and guided by the insanity of Al Gore and Van Jones, not to mention that card- carrying Socialist Carol Browner, now incredibly, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Next month, the Senate is expected to take up legislation that would cap greenhouse-gas emissions. That fight began in blazing earnest last week, with a blitz of TV ads and public events in the Midwest and Mountain West.
It seems that environmentalists are struggling in a fight they have spent years setting up. They are making slow progress adapting a movement built for other goals — building alarm over climate change, encouraging people to “green” their lives — into a political hammer, pushing a complex proposal the last mile through a skeptical Senate.
Even now, these groups differ on whether to scare the public with predictions of heat waves or woo it with promises of green jobs. And they are facing an opposition with tycoon money and a gift for political stagecraft.
“Progressives and clean-energy types . . . made a mistake and slacked off” after the House of Representatives passed its version of a climate-change bill in June, said Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who blogs on climate issues. “And the other side really kept making its case.”
washingtonpost.com
Yes, the “other side” needs to keep making it’s case- because this is important- and while I can agree that we need some changes in our lifestyles, we do not need this. We need common sense solutions, solutions that do include the use of nuclear energy- the French use it for God’s sake- it can’t be that hard, can it?
“The whole question of man-made climate change is really, really iffy,” said limited-government activist Kelly Havens, speaking to a cheering, sign-waving crowd of about 200 at the recreational vehicle hall of fame. “I mean, what was man doing when Indiana’s glaciers were melting? We weren’t even here!”
The event had all the trappings of a political campaign stop: ready-made signs, a video featuring country music star Trace Adkins. All expressed worry that a climate-change bill would make high-polluting energy cost more.
Oil and natural gas groups have always had deeper pockets. In the first six months of 2009, the Center for Responsive Politics found they spent $82.1 million lobbying Washington on various issues, including climate policy. In the same time, environmental and health groups concerned with climate change spent about $6.6 million on lobbying and clean-energy firms $12.1 million, according to two other analyst groups, the Center for Public Integrity and New Energy Finance.
But last week, the impact of industry money really started to show in this debate.
The National Association of Manufacturers said it was spending millions on TV ads in 13 states, calling climate-change legislation “anti-jobs, anti-energy.”
washingtonpost.com
That is exactly correct- all this smoke and mirrors accomplishes nothing- and what is worse is that many of our legislators know this, but truly do not care, because bipartisanship has gone down the tubes, and common sense is uncommonly absent here.
As I have said before, I am all for the change to alternative energies, but the change has to be realistic, and in this political climate, it has to be slow. To hell with showing anyone anything in Copenhagen- I would rather we arrive empty- handed, and just say the truth- we are not ready to proceed at an accelerated pace, when we do not have the infrastructure in place.
We, as a Nation, are not ready, nor are we willing, to bankrupt ourselves just to placate the rest of the world. That is not a sound business plan, that is a recipe for disaster. This is too important to use this as an excuse to posture before the rest of the world in some kind of insane one-upmanship to see who is the greenest of all.
Waxman- Markey Cap & Tax bill should die on the floor of the Senate. Then perhaps sane people can actually do some real and substantial work on a realistic goal of beginning the transition to alternative fuels. Nothing should be left out of the discussion, and everything needs to be looked at, not demonized.
And anyone who dismisses drilling should be tossed out on their butts- because we do need that also.
Anyone who denies that is too crazy to even be in the room.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]