Start with the obvious: There are no cuts to America's bloated military budget, which was somewhere north of $660 billion in 2010, more than the rest of the world's defense spending combined. And there are no cuts to the sprawling, opaque Department of Homeland Security, which costs more than $50 billion a year. In maintaining global empire and expanding the security state, every dollar is sacred.
There are also no cuts to fossil-fuel or corn-ethanol subsidies. No corporate contributor to the Republican Party will find anything to fear. The bill might as well be called the Thumbing Liberals In the Eye Act of 2011. It's a laundry list of targets conservatives have been after for decades, most of which will make no appreciable difference to the nation's fiscal health.
Here are a few proposed cuts that might be of particular interest to Grist readers:
Energy Star Program: $52 million a year.
Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants: $2.5 billion a year.
DOE Weatherization Grants to States: $530 million a year.
Amtrak Subsidies: $1.565 billion a year. (There are no cuts to highway subsidies, of course.)
Technology Innovation Program: $70 million a year. (Wait, I thought support for innovation was "post-partisan"!)
Applied Research at Department of Energy: $1.27 billion a year.New Starts Transit: $2 billion a year.
Subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: $12.5 million a year.
Title X Family Planning: $318 million a year. Appalachian Regional Commission: $76 million a year. (Why do we need this? They already have coal mines there!)
FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership: $200 million a year.
Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: $150 million a year.
National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program: $56.2 million a year.
Energy conservation. There are 3 schools of thought, generally.
1) Why should I give up the good life
2) My efforts won't contribute enough to matter
3) I'll do what it takes to conserve
Thanks to the 3rd group, for 30+ years of effort in designing, engineering and implementing the ideas and tools available to us today, groups 1 and 2 now have what it takes to join the effort with no reservations.
Facing energy shortages, the city of Austin purchased land at the edge of town to build a new power plant. It was necessarily close, posing health issues. It was going to be quite expensive and take longer to finish than they really had time to wait. So with research and experience from the treehuggers, nerds, geeks, enviros and offgridders the city came up with a plan. They would build a power plant that required no land clearing, no construction, no pollution. They set out to build a Conservation Power Plant. Their goal was simple in thought, logistically daunting and unprecedented. Conserve as much power through community effort as would be produced by building a new power plant. Click on the image below to see the results of their effort.
The above clip is part of a longer program, Kilowatt Ours; A Plan to Re-Energize America which aired on PBS stations over the last few months, and tonight here in the Seattle area. The documentary highlights what is hard for most Americans to grasp. There are 301 million Americans. If just one room in every home in America were lit by Energy Star lighting, it would be like removing 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. 31,500,000 kWh could be saved every year if every exit sign in America were upgraded to LED bulb. There are A LOT OF US, when each of us does a small thing it turns into huge thing, a never been done before thing. During the drought and subsequent energy shortage in California in 2001, there wasn't enough time to build new power plants to avoid the crisis. So much like other leaders before him in the face of such a crisis, the Governor asked his citizens to pitch in. Raise the thermostat to 78, unscrew 1 in 4 light bulbs... and they did. What they accomplished that summer broke world records, and set them on the path leading our country to energy independence. Below is a short clip from the program;
In the fall of 2000 over 300 million gallons of coal slurry were spilled into the Big Sandy River in Martin County, KY. Although this ecological disaster was 30 times greater than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, very few people outside of Kentucky hear about it.
Visibility in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has declined 60% over the last 60 years. (We need plants to breath, eat and drink. Plants need sunlight to grow) 83% of the visibility-reducing haze in Smoky Mountains National Park is from sulfate particulates from coal-burning power plants. The American Lung Association listed 10 southern cities in the Southeast among the top 25 most air-polluted cities in America. The EPA estimates that 33 million Americans in the Southeast alone live in bad-air areas.
40 of 50 states post statewide mercury advisories warning that fish are unsafe to eat.
The Centers for Disease Control say that 1 in 10 women of childbearing age carry unsafe levels of mercury in their tissues.
• Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 20% as much electricity as a 100-watt incandescent bulb and last years longer too.
• New energy-efficient refrigerators are 40% more efficient than they were just two years ago.
• If just one room in every home in America were lit by Energy Star lighting, it would be like removing 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
• A typical washing machine uses 1,000 kWh per year of electricity. An energy-efficient frontloading washer uses only 280 kWh.
• The city of Birmingham, Alabama, now saves $220,000 after upgrading all 700 street intersections with LED traffic signals.
• When the Sumner County School System in Tennessee found that geothermal heating and cooling in a new school helped them save $5,000 per month on energy, they decided to retrofit every school in the county with this cost-cutting technology.
• Smith Middle School in North Carolina uses a technique called “daylighting” to flood classrooms with natural light.
• The Sullivan County School System in Tennessee finances their $24 million energy upgrade with the $1 million they save on energy every year.
• 31,500,000 kWh could be saved every year if every exit sign in America were upgraded to LED bulb.
So please, visit http://www.kilowattours.org/ and see what our efforts can accomplish. Sign up with their program to do your small part in a world changing effort, and save money along the way. Purchase the DVD or find the program airing on a local station and take the time to watch it. Contact your representatives http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml and tell them you want to see these sorts of money saving, job providing, clean earth policies in YOUR town and be sure to tell them to watch Kilowatt Ours - A Plan to Re-Energize America. For your wallet, for your health and for our security and independence, demand a Conservation Power Plant in every town across America.
Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands
By Wayne Madsen - Online Journal Contributing Writer - Sep 16, 2008, 00:26
(WMR) -- WMR has learned from a senior Democratic congressional source that the Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.
The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.
The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients.
Click on the photo for a look back in time at the Bush's perceived financial woes in March. You can find another take on it Here. Be sure to head to the bottom of the page for a fun filled playlist of videos I refer to simply as "Impeach"
"The American News Project has put together a great video highlighting how little drilling would do to lower gas prices, as well as the amount of money the oil industry has given to Republican candidates. It features regular Grist contributor Joe Romm, and provides some good insight into the current energy debate on the Hill:"
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other Democratic leaders in the House have outlined a new energy plan that proposes allowing drilling 100 miles off the Atlantic coast and Florida's Gulf coast. The buffer zone could be reduced to 50 miles if a state's governor and legislature consent (which is a big "if"). The plan, which hasn't yet been formally released, also contains increased funding for renewable energy. They're calling it the "Comprehensive American Energy Security & Taxpayer Protection Act," and it includes a number of measures that have stalled previously -- curbing energy speculators, establishing a renewable electricity standard, and repealing subsidies to Big Oil.
It has become very, very clear that unless you personally and directly profit from the increased cost of gas or oil, such as stockholder, then opening up sensitive areas for drilling and decreasing the current regulations in place to keep us safe would not benefit you at all. By the time the pennies worth of savings trickle down to you (if they do) they won't be worth what it took to get them there. Our belief in this lie will keep the funding from flowing into alternative, locally produced, clean energy that will truly free us of our dependence on foreign powers. At the price oil is selling for today, the fact that our oil industries still receive the subsidies and special tax incentives they do, and the millions they spend lobbying to keep them, is disgusting as well as standing in the way of our energy independence. The oil companies couldn't have gotten where they are are today, an embedded part of our infrastructure, without that public support and neither can Alternative Energy. When you have a leg to stand on, when you are on the side of the science and the people, you don't resort to propaganda and lies. That's what big oil has done, and are still doing. The time to stop them is now.
Below find just a few of the thousands of articles and blogs, scientists and professionals from all walks screaming and waving flags in the air in an attempt to warn you and I. This is a VERY important, time sensitive issue, please schedule some time to review and consider them carefully. Further down, you will find links to contact your elected officials, and ideas about what to say to convey what you feel and what you've learned and how you would like them to represent you on the matter.
Drill here, drill now: a pipe dream 12,954 Nuclear Power Plants - That's how many nuclear plants the world would need to build to replace its current fossil-fuel-based energy.
Newt Gingrich-led 527 group behind 'drill baby drill' The slogan “Drill here. Drill now. Pay less.” is fueling Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future, a so-called 527 group not subject to federal campaign finance law and its limits on donations. So far this election cycle, it has raised $13.1 million.
Study links oil prices to investor speculation "We have clear evidence the fund flow pushed prices up and the fund flow pushed prices down," said Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management. (perhaps you remember Michael Masters from a previous posting of his testimony before congress on the matter ,"McCain Not Helping". here's the link to the testimony)
Drill drill drill, then sell to Japan Dear Secretary Bodman, On June 3, 2008 and July 30, 2008 respectively, your Department issued and affirmed an order pursuant to Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act that will allow two major integrated oil companies – ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – to export 98.1 billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. This order, which will allow the export of as much natural gas as is used by 1.4 million American families in a year, comes at a time when the President had demanded that the moratoria on oil and gas drilling along our environmentally-sensitive coastal areas be lifted and Americans are being warned that their winter heating bills are going to be dramatically higher.
Pimping for Oil Currently the crisis is energy, and with the Bush administration’s expenses on military security topping 500 billion dollars this year only 1 percent is being spent on energy security. The grim prospect of Thomas Fingar who is the top US Intelligence analyst predicts military strength will be the least important goal compared to the acquisition of water, food and energy.
Prices are Down, not due to drilling There are arguments that much of the price movement is due to speculation. But the driving public also forced gasoline prices down all by themselves, and they did it in quick fashion. They did it by reducing their demand for gasoline. They simply drove less; they took public transportation; they shared car pools and yes, they inflated their tires. And where they had a choice, they chose more fuel efficient vehicles and got rid of their gas guzzlers (or used them less)
Alaska drilling will have little effect on Prices The opening of the ANWR 1002 Area to oil and natural gas development is projected to increase domestic crude oil production starting in 2018. In the mean ANWR oil resource case, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR reaches 780,000 barrels per day in 2027 and then declines to 710,000 barrels per day in 2030. (we use 21 million barrels per day currently, according to this same site)
A RAND Corporation study says that the savings from making shale-based oil available is only 3-5% and that it’ll be 2020 at the earliest before any oil could be available. And More....
Exxonmobil Spent Nearly $16 Million to Fund Skeptic Groups, Create Confusion. Honestly, if you want to boil it all down to business, does a corporation spend this kind of cash to fund skeptics and risk bad press and shareholder backlash (they did, actually, get pummeled by their investors) if they had science and environmental groups behind them for free?
You can re-visit my other postings by clicking on any of the pertinent tags below, or along the right side of the blog for further study before you reach out to your representatives and local media.
You will want to keep your messages brief and to the point, but clear. For recorded messages on answering systems, think along these lines:
"Hi, my name is xxx xxx, I live in Xcounty, State (or other area designation, so they know you are their constituent) and continuing the current ban on drilling is important to me. I have looked into the details and am convinced it will not result in enough of a benefit in the long or short term and considering our current level of technology, combined with the current global energy situation. Please vote to continue restrictions on drilling, and stand firm in your vote to support funding and incentives for alternative energy. Thank you, xxx."
You can use a form of this, personalized of course, in email and written correspondence. In emails, include links to the postings that made the most impressions on you. In my case, the governments own EIA website, Micheal Masters testimony to congress and the report from the union of concerned scientists regarding the money spent by Exxon to confuse us really stand out. When sending written correspondence, include a page for each bit of information you find critical and remember not to send a book that will simply be set aside. If you can make the time, try to schedule an appointment with your local representatives. Get your family involved, give them each a piece of the information and let them work out a bit to say on it. It will make a strong statement to your representative and be a fabulous community action activity for your family. The same goes for your friends, co-workers and neighbors. A well thought out, well planned, informative, respectful presentation will be well appreciated and your concerns will be heard even more loudly than in email. Dropping a line to local media advising them of your appointment and the topic of your meeting may garner you some publicity and further support.
EDIT: 11/18/2012 The senator has been re-elected as the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, further proof that nothing has changed inside the Republican party. Too bad, it is clear to everyone that without a mass exodus of the 'old school' party there will be no Republican party resurrection. end edit.
He quotes that a Russian Olive tree consumes 500 gallons of water per day, and a certain type of cedar requires 200 gallons per day. Has anyone checked this man's credentials? I think 5Th grade science class explained the fresh water cycle pretty clearly, and if I remember correctly it's fairly dependant on trees and other flora to operate properly. And just to confuse you a bit further, he brings this up in a speech on the pending Budget. Gosh, whats this guy about...
In John's Words(Edit: the link to the Senators statement was broken, added his public page link 11/2012)
In a press release put out when the de-listing announcement was made last week, the senator said, “The special interest groups advocating keeping the animal on the list wouldn't know a gray wolf if it blew their house down.”
And finally the research pays off... no one has in fact checked his credentials. He wants to cut down the trees to save water, and spend money on incentives for developing technology to remove existing excess green houses gases from the atmosphere and permanently sequester them.
Lets see if we can make this easy and get it to him fast:
Fresh Water Cycle
Carbon Cycle:
Note the Green "Trees" in both Cycles
What you'll want to be doing, Mr Barrasso, is getting a carbon credit or a tax credit or something beneficial for each of the trees you and your state plants. Shoot, you and yours could lead the way in water and air purity and not have to do much more than STOP CUTTING DOWN TREES.
This article was posted on AlertNet, a website that posts it's purpose as "Alerting humanitarians to emergencies". It is a Reuters foundation website, and here is their stated purpose "Created in 1982 to support journalists from developing countries, the Foundation today embraces a wide range of educational, humanitarian and environmental causes and projects. " My hat is off to AlertNet and the foundation for not only reporting on existing emergencies, but keeping an eye out for potential emergencies, hopefully giving us time to do something about it before the need to report it as an actual emergency. Below is an excerpt, please click the title to be taken to the webpage containing the entire article.
REPUBLICAN REBEL
A former small town mayor and mother of four, Palin was appointed chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), the board that sets technical standards for oil and gas produced on state lands, by Republican governor Frank Murkowski in 2003.
Palin's stint with the normally staid AOGCC was tumultuous. Soon after joining she began complaining about the conduct of Randy Ruedrich, the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, who Murkowski appointed as the AOGCC's top petroleum engineer. Palin accused Ruedrich of ethical violations and resigned in disgust after less than a year in office. Before stepping down, she turned over incriminating evidence against Ruedrich to investigators. Faced with this evidence, Ruedrich pleaded guilty to violating the state ethics act and was fined $12,000. But he remains chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.
A social conservative, Palin found herself a rising political star ahead of the 2006 elections as Alaskans grew disenchanted with Murkowski's scandal-plagued administration. Palin's squeaky-clean image and outrage over Murkowski's attempt to negotiate a natural gas pipeline contract behind closed doors propelled her to the top of the polls. She humiliated Murkowski in the Republican primary and cruised to victory in the general election just as news of another scandal, this one implicating Republican members of the legislature, began to break.
A federal investigation had turned up evidence that executives at VECO Corp, Alaska's biggest oil services company, had been bribing some Republican lawmakers to ensure support for legislation favorable to the oil companies. Although no evidence has been brought to light linking the oil companies with VECO's activities, recordings of senior oil company executives discussing political lobbying efforts with VECO officials led many Alaskans to conclude the majors were behind the bribery. Palin used the uproar over the VECO scandal to partner with Democrats in the legislature to push through an increase in taxes on oil production and to set up a new state-backed effort to design a natural gas pipeline project free of the influence of the majors.
The companies are not backing down without a fight. They have already announced investment cuts due to the tax hike and have warned the Palin's gas pipeline plan is doomed to failure without their support.
(Additional reporting by YerethRosen, editing by Alan Elsner) Reuters AlertNet - REFILE-NEWSMAKER (Click the title to read the full article)
And with this little tidbit falls one of the stanchions on the 'Non-Believers' tally sheet of evidence. Long have they stated that the 'Believers' have paid or otherwise compensated scientists to lend credence to their cause. You only have to have met a scientist or two to understand the chances of so many of them participating in such a scheme is none to zilch.
PeakOil.com: "The Heartland Institute must have realized that this is not what drives the kind of people they are trying to attract as speakers: they are offering $1,000 to those willing to give a talk. This reminds us of the American Enterprise Institute last year offering a honorarium of $10,000 for articles by scientists disputing anthropogenic climate change.
So this appear to be the current market prices for calling global warming into question: $1000 for a lecture and $10,000 for a written paper." (click on the headline to view the full article)
I woke to the local FOX news station this morning, reporting on the rise in ridership for our local Metro bus system. I was initially excited, but soon aggravated. I thought to myself 'YEAH', people thinking green! Even if it was the higher gas prices that contributed. This station chose to announce the cause as increased employment downtown and increased fuel costs, but then went on to conclude ONLY that this means people can't afford to drive anymore. That's it. Nothing else was discussed. Not that the point had finally been reached where concern for the environment combined with the rising cost of fuel resulted in a greener lifestyle swing, no rational as to how higher employment results in fewer people with money to drive. Appalled, I switched over to the local CBS news to see if they were taking this same stance. Fortunately they were not. They reported the facts as presented by the Metro Transportation media service. Cheers CBS! As a sidenote, if CBS ran watchable late night television I might wake to CBS news. As a second thought, this sort of goes along with a previous blog "Not all is As it Appears".
The turtle race that you enjoyed watching this past April is in serious jeopardy.
Not because we don't have enough caring people like you to watch but because in just a few years there may not be a single Pacific Leatherback Turtle left to race. The future for Pacific Leatherback Turtles has reached a critical point. To save these wonderful animals, we need your help now. After 10 million years of survival making it past dinosaurs, meteors, droughts, floods, tsunamis it's humans that threaten their lives. Their nesting areas are ruthlessly being swallowed up by developments … their breeding grounds polluted and their fragile lives threatened by reckless fishing techniques and the careless dumping of plastic bags that their innocent little eyes see as a life-sustaining jellyfish. In fact, scientists predict Pacific Leatherback Turtles could be extinct in just 10 years. I don't need to tell you that losing a single species affects our whole planet. But you can help save the lives of Pacific Leatherback Turtles and all endangered species simply by making a donation today. Your generous year end, tax deductible donation of $10, $20 or even $50 will help Conservation International protect breeding and nesting areas so the Pacific Leatherback Turtles might flourish again. Conservation International, with our partners The Leatherback Trust and Tagging of Pacific Predators, is working right now to protect these charismatic animals. Donate before December 31st and your donation is worth twice as much! Now is the perfect time to donate because our board members Harrison Ford and Jeff Gale and Chairman’s Council Member Jane Greenspun Gale are matching all donations dollar for dollar up to the $5 million challenge limit. That means when you make a year end, tax deductible donation of $10, the Pacific Leatherback Turtles and other endangered species get $20 … give $25 and a happy Pacific Leatherback and his friends get $50. The important thing is to act now. Once an endangered species like the Pacific Leatherbacks are gone there's nothing we can do to bring them back. That's why protection right now is urgent. Donate today and you'll be helping us ensure that these gentle giants and their friends are around for another 10,000,000 years. I can't thank you enough for your generosity.
Sincerely,
Vinnie Wishrad Director, Community and Membership Conservation International ________________________________________________________________________________ You may contact us anytime by emailing community@conservation.org or writing to: 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22202 Call us toll free within the US at 1-800-406-2306 or (703) 341-2400.
The 380,000-plus-word database presented here allows, for the first time, the Iraq-related public pronouncements of top Bush administration officials to be tracked on a day-by-day basis against their private assessments and the actual “ground truth” as it is now known.
Throughout the database, passages containing false statements by the top Bush administration officials are highlighted in yellow. The 935 false statements in the database may also be accessed by selecting the “False Statements” option from the “Subject” pull-down menu and may be displayed within selected date ranges using the selection tool below.
Searches may also be limited by person or subject, or both, by using the appropriate selections from the pull-down menus.
THIS SPACE USED TO CONTAIN A 'WAKEUPWALMART' BANNER, THE LINK NOW POINTS TO A UFCW UNION WEBSITE 'PROMISING TO MAKE THINGS BETTER AT WALMART. ALL SIGNS OF WAKEUPWALMART ARE GONE.
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