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.
The Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration sums up the government’s best estimates of energy trends through 2035. Buried in the projections is a seismic change in energy policy, and it’s about coal. The EIA is projecting that utilities won’t build any new coal-fired electricity plants in the United States, aside from the projects already under construction or built as “clean coal” experiments. The projections say that all our new electricity plants are expected to be either renewables like wind and solar, or natural gas (which releases about half the carbon emissions of coal).
BUT:
But if you look at the long-term projections, the amazing thing is how little the energy mix will change in 25 years. Right now, we get 84 percent of our energy from fossil fuels. In 2035, we’ll still be getting 78 percent of our energy from fossil fuels. Read the rest Here.
The power plant pictured below, planned to go online from a near downtown location, no longer has to thanks to an equal amount of energy SAVED through conservation alone. No noise or pollution, no resources wasted, no energy burned. Click the image to get the details, then be sure to share them with your city, county and state officials.
February 4, 2009, 8:44 am — Updated: 12:34 pm --> By Tom Zeller Jr.
Protesters chained themselves to an excavator at a coal operation in West Virginia on Tuesday. (Photo: West Virginia Blue/Flickr)
The coal industry, which suffers from an image problem to begin with, has had a particularly rough few days. Without additional interpretation, we present a selection of articles, published over just the last 48 hours, from around the Web:
THE GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE A Bad Week for Coal Plants in North-Central MontanaLast Thursday, the Air Force announced that it had rejected proposals to build a large coal-to-liquid-fuels plant at or near Malmstrom Air Force Base. Tuesday, Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission announced it is giving up on a proposed coal-fired power plant northeast of the city, at least for now.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS W.Va. Towns With Bad Well Water Sue Coal Companies About 250 people with orange and black water in their taps are suing eight coal companies they believe poisoned wells in two southern West Virginia communities.
Click Here to read the remaining "Bad Coal Day" Headlines from the NYTimes.
Just as a reminder, There Is No Clean Coal.
The Myth of Clean Coal The coal industry and its allies are spending more than $60 million to promote the notion that coal is clean. But so far, “clean coal” is little more than an advertising slogan.
Collapse of the Clean Coal Myth More broadly, the authority’s recent travails may help persuade the public that coal is nowhere near as “clean” as a high-priced industry advertising campaign makes it out to be.
Even Obama has been duped, I hope his promise to listen more to science than corporations is one he intends to keep.
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.
"McCain's hoping to use gas prices as a wedge issue to win the election. That's why it's so critical that we keep spreading the message that McCain's been heavily influenced by the oil companies.When people think of Bush, they think 'oil,' but that's not true of McCain yet—even though his energy policy is almost identical to Bush's and his campaign is literally run by oil lobbyists! Check out this video from our friends at Progressive Accountability. Once you've watched, pass it on! And then please consider a donation (below) to help us spread the word." MoveOn.org Political Action: Democracy in Action
Below is are a few things I've read on the matter:
"The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017. Total domestic production of crude oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the reference case, and 3 percent higher in 2030 alone, at 5.6 million barrels per day. For the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher—2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case (Figure 20). Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant." http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/ongr.html
On MSNBC Live, Andrea Mitchell discussed Sen. John McCain's call to end the moratorium on offshore oil drilling with RNC deputy chairman Frank Donatelli, but did not mention that Donatelli was a registered lobbyist for energy sector clients ExxonMobil and Dominion Resources before joining the RNC. Click here to read more... http://mediamatters.org/items/200806180004
Suppose we raised average fuel efficiency to 40 MPG by 2030; this would save us more than 5 million barrels of oil per day, 25 times as much as we would get from Senator McCain's offshore drilling. Since many cars sold today already get more than 40 MPG, this is hardly an unrealistic target. Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles in '07 http://www.dot.gov/affairs/fhwa1108.htm.
Robert Kaufmann, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University, talks about the realities of offshore oil drilling, including how much oil there might be, when it would be available and what the consequences could be. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92677194
Alaska's longtime senator, Republican Ted Stevens, has been indicted by a federal grand jury as part of a continuing investigation of corruption in Alaska politics. The indictment accuses Stevens of filing false disclosure reports about his personal finances for 2001-2006, concealing more than $250,000 in home renovations that a private company paid for. That company was VECO, a multinational oil services company that has been at the center of the feds' corruption investigation since it was made public in 2007. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/feds-indict-alaska-sen-stevens.html
Testimony before Senate by Michael W Masters:
I have been successfully managing a long-short equity hedge fund for over 12 years and I have extensive contacts on Wall Street and within the hedge fund community. Itʼs important that you know that I am not currently involved in trading the commodities futures markets. I am not representing any corporate, financial, or lobby organizations. I am speaking with you today as a concerned citizen whose professional background has given me insight into a situation that I believe is negatively affecting the U.S. economy.While some in my profession might be disappointed that I am presenting this testimony to Congress, I feel that it is the right thing to do.You have asked the question “Are Institutional Investors contributing to food and energy price inflation?” And my unequivocal answer is “YES.” http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/052008Masters.pdf
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government charged an oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating oil prices in the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets.http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/24/markets/cftc/
"WASHINGTON (AP) - People will be paying higher energy prices under a Senate bill to limit greenhouse gases, but how much will depend on how well the country can shift away from burning fossil fuels, an Energy Department analysis said Tuesday. The Energy Information Administration said annual energy costs could increase on average of as little as $30 or as much as 10 times that much by 2020. The projected cost increases per household ranged from $76 a year more to as much as $723 a year more by 2030. The agency said the difference depends on how successful the country will be in replacing significant amounts of energy production from coal and oil to nuclear power as well as solar and wind energy, and how successfully it adopts conservation measures.
Overall, the report said the U.S. economy will continue to grow, but at a lower pace.""
Of course energy prices are going to go up, when was the last time they went down? Things are uncertain enough, ixnay on the arescaactictsta eh? I've seen the price of oil in my lifetime go from about $15 to what we see today, with some pretty big swings noted, but the price of the end product really never seems to go down all that much for all that long. Everything goes up in price over time, now that we've resigned ourselves to that, it's time to move on to 'Controlling' the increase.
The first best way, in my opinion, is for people to own the energy plants. Energy is justsomething that shouldn't be speculated on, and subject to the corporate "what is best for the shareholders" credo, it's far too integral and important to the big picture for that, as Enron and various other energy scams have taught us recently. States, counties, cities and towns should be the owners of the energy plants. Private homeowners and commercial building owners should adopt forms of energy productions, probably passive, and source the extra back into the system for credits. With local public funding and oversight, fundamental energy sources can be implemented with a focus on efficient, sustainable, dependable practices.
Local governments already have the inter-communication necessary to share pertinent project information, especially important in keeping costs down when developing new technologies. Local governments are 'Tops' when it comes to any grant available for local energy projects, especially alternative energy projects. Local governments employ local people, returning the monies we pay out in taxes to the project back to the community (back to US). Local governments that set up public utilities are mandated to act in the communities good, and would not be profit driven, keeping cost increases level with the economy, not the whim of the market (or of a couple of guys on the phone in a foul mood).
Here are some examples of local success in alternative energy:
Searsburg Wind Power facility A limited success story, but invaluable research and experience have come from this project as well as some unexpected benefits.
Sacramento Municipal Utility Districts Photovoltaic program. Participating customers to pay an additional $4 per month to have SMUD install a 2-4 kilowatt (kW) solar array on their rooftops. This additional cost covered only a portion of the cost of the PV systems. The remaining costs were spread across the entire customer base of SMUD.
Now imagine instead of foreign or mega-corporation ownership, that you and your neighbors own these new plants.
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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