Feb 11 Conference: Citizens Concerned for Property Rights
(The Treasure Coast, FL) – Several locally affiliated conservative action groups announce a one-day program of distinguished speakers and events focusing the spotlight on the continuing encroachment of rights in the U.S. by groups that promote the United Nations Convention to establish uniform regulations to manage “the Earth’s resources” and its population. “
These “central planners” are hostile to private property rights – the legal mainstay of our free-market system. Their denial of your right to keep the fruits of your own labor is a back-door attack on our republican form of government as well as to American sovereignty itself.” – Leigh Lamson
Featured Speakers: Dr. Michael Coffman John Casey
Dr. Tom Cuba Dr. Allison Ramsersaad
Krisanne Hall, Esq. Karen Schoen
DATE: February 11, 2012, Saturday
RESERVATION: $25 [cash at door] R.S.V.P
website – http://gulfspeaks.info/Conferences.html
R.S.V.P. will get you a seat at a table. Without reservation, general seating is available.
TIMES:
8:00 Doors open for registration and continental breakfast (included)
8:45 Program begins with Pledge of Allegiance and invocation
11:45 – 12:15 Lunch Break (included in registration)
4:00 expected adjournment
LOCATION: Genesis Community Church auditorium – MAP ( http://g.co/maps/am3ye)
rear of the Crowne Plaza shopping center
8643 U.S. Highway 1
Port St. Lucie, FL 34953 Office phone: 772-873-1075
The St. Lucie 9-12 Group and The Martin 9/12 TeaParty Committee are local grassroots public-issues groups associated with the 9-12 Project and Tea Party Patriots, a grassroots coalition with more than 3,500 locally-organized chapters and more than 15 million supporters nationwide. www.stlucie912.org http://the912-project.com/ http://www.m912tc.com
Agenda21Today – http://americanfreedomwatchradio.com/
Change in Direction Needed by Mark Wohlschlegel
I am by nature an optimist—I have all my life looked at the glass and concluded that it was half full not half empty. I am an engineer and technologist by profession—so I question things and therefore classify myself as a realist as well. Through some research that I have recently done and through my good friend Tom Boyton, who is owner and President of WJTW radio Jupiter, Florida who I thank for many of the statistics that follow, I would like to make a case for the fact that our current direction in our country is wrong, and that we must make some significant re-direction of priorities and fix what is clearly broken. Solving problems requires first understanding the problem. What concerns me most is that our leaders and elected representative don’t seem to get it and we the people, simply are not elevating our voices to put sufficient pressure on these elected officials to change course. Therefore, I feel that we all have a personal obligation to educate and present facts to as many people as we can to engage them in this debate and generate interest and involvement. This is our country—and there are no guarantees for continued prosperity. We can through action and inaction, destroy what our forefathers have handed to us.
I also love history and know that great nations and nation states that once found themselves “on top of the world” and enjoyed great prosperity through conscious decision destroyed wealth and their positions in the world. I am a believer in the fact that basic beliefs lead to decisions, and decision then lead to consequences. If one’s basic beliefs are not sound, then bad decisions follow and in turn bad consequences and outcomes will result. I grew up under the guidance that solid values and hard work will result in prosperity. I was blessed to have been born in the USA—and to have lived under a government for the most part that adhered to basic principals set forth by our founders. Our leaders practiced what our founders had framed for us. Unfortunately, we have significantly drifted from these principals, and unless we can change our current course, we are destined to some pretty bad outcomes. I believe we have already strayed from what has made our country great, and the outcomes are pretty apparent by the stats I present below. So I ask the question, do you think we are headed in the right direction as a country? If the answer to this is no—then get involved—make your voices heard. It is only through the voices of the people that things will be set back on course.
1. Today, a staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty
2. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the US are living in homes that are either considered to be “low income” or impoverished.
3. If the number of Americans that “wanted jobs” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the US government would be up to 11 percent or higher.
4. The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the US is now over 40 weeks.
5. A recent survey found that 77 percent of all US small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers and we all know that the engine that drives employment in the US is not large corporations it is small businesses.
6. There are fewer payroll jobs in the US today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
7. Since December 2007, median household income in the US has declined by a total of 6.8% accounting for inflation.
8. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million
9. A recent Gallup poll found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed
10. According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all US adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
11. Back in 1980, less than 30 percent of all jobs in the US were low income jobs. Today, more than 40 percent of all jobs in the US are low income jobs.
12. Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July of this year, only 81.2% of men in that age group had a job.
13. One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.
14. The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of US households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
15. According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the US is now 154 percent.
16. As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all US adults were married.
17. The US Postal service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year
18. In Stockton, CA home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were in 2005-2006
19. Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row
20. The median price of a home in Detroit is now $6,000
21. According to the US Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was 10 years ago.
22. New home construction in the US is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011
23. 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
24. Electricity bills in the US have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
25. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5 percent of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today, they account for approximately 16.3 percent.
26. A recent study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
27. One out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
28. The US spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the US.
29. Projections for the US trade deficit for 2011 will be $558.2 billion.
30. The retirement crisis in the US just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
31. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below federal poverty line.
32. According to an analysis by the Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 55.
33. 37 percent of all US households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
34. A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7 percent) than has ever been measured before.
35. Child homelessness in the US is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007
36. . Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty. 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty. 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty. 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
37. Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
38. . In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7 percent of all income. Today, government transfer programs account for more than 18 percent of all income.
39. A staggering 48.5%of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
40. Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
41. For fiscal year 2011, the US federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars; that was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped a trillion dollars. Translated, we are spending over a trillion dollars more than we are taking in.
42. . If Bill Gates one of the wealthiest people in the world gave every single penny of his fortune to the US government, it would only cover the US budget deficit for about 15 days.
43. The US government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was 10.6 trillion dollars.
44. . If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the US national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
45. . The US national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
46. During the Obama administration, the US government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
A trend that must be broken—
An article that appeared in the Bangor Daily News stated that in the state of Maine, “445,074 Mainers paid state income tax while 453,194 received some sort of state aid. In Maine, Medicaid, welfare, food stamps and subsidies for education have a combined enrollment of 660,000.”
Nationally, only 53% of all Americans living in households pay income taxes. Translated—47% or nearly half of all Americans don’t pay any federal income taxes.
We are continuing to depend on fewer and fewer wealth producers to pay for those who are on the take. This is re-distribution—this is socialism—which has proven to fail over and over again. This trend must be reversed—socialism works always for a while—until you run out of other people’s money!
We now have 92 million people on public assistance in one form or another. This includes 33 million children or 45% of all the people under the age of 18. Medicaid is the largest of all government programs and covers 74 million people—translated—one in four Americans. Food stamps now cover 34 million Americans or one in nine people! Almost 20 million people live on cash welfare and 11 million people live in public housing. Our federal policies do in fact incentivize people to depend on federal government programs and discourage job creation. Allowed to continue, this truly is a formula for disaster.
Understand our direction, and understand it is unsustainable. Have the guts to get involved and make your voices heard. Engage people, friends, acquaintances, young people, we are entering one of the most significant political elections in the history of our country. If we do not change the direction that our country is headed, it will be destroyed.
Why Do You Continue to Lie to the People Mr. President?
There is in Washington an ideological riff between the socialist/progressive party and the conservative party. The socialist/progressive party with their titular head, Mr. Obama believe that we have a tax problem—that is we must tax the rich to solve our debt problem. The conservatives clearly understand that we have only one problem in Washington—a spending problem.
I have collected some “facts” on what is happening with taxes in spite of Obama’s continual reminder that we must tax the rich folks not the middle class. My question is once again, he is either stupid or he is lying and I don’t believe he is stupid. He claims to be targeting the rich but in the example below, I certainly would not call this family “rich”.
If the President and Congress do not proactively work to keep the Bush tax breaks, we are going to have a significant tax jump for a very large part of our population come 2013.
The fact is, if nothing is done in terms of putting into place long term “permanent” set of tax laws, many average American families will get whacked. See the article by Bob Jennings on Fox Business: Why Your Tax Bill Might Surge Next Year
With our economy in such poor shape, why would anyone in their right minds want to put this additional burden on the American people? The above represents one of the biggest tax increases on our citizens in the history of our country.
Once again, millions of small business owners had better enjoy the next 16 months, because come January 2013, they are going to get whacked with a giant tax bill.
Oh, I forgot one other tax not mentioned above. See: The 2013 Tax Cliff in the Wall Street Journal.
Ladies and gentlemen, get out and vote these people out in November of 2012!
Federal Government’s Continued Medling in the Private Sector Will Make It Impossible For US Industry to Recover
The oppressiveness of our federal government continues to constrain any real recovery in our economy and until we can get them off the private sectors back, economic stagnation will continue in the US making us more and more non-competitive in both our own markets and overseas markets.
Take the example that I am pointing out in only a single industry and multiply the same kind of behavior across many industries including the power sector, the energy sector, and others. It is no wonder we can’t snap out of this recession that we find ourselves in today.
The airline industry in the US is a significant “driver” of our economic engine. Yet our federal government continues to use the industry and their investors as a piggy bank to fund their outrageous, undisciplined, and out of control spending. The airlines today and we the passengers currently pay 17 different federal aviation taxes and fees which totaled last year $16.5 billion. Federal taxes have increased from 7 percent of the price of a ticket in 1972 to 20 percent in 2011. By the way, this excludes income taxes paid by the airline companies! When is this going to end? Just imagine if you started a business and the federal government took 20% off the top before you saw any money coming into your business operations. Airlines are now taxed higher than the so-called “sin” taxes which are applied to alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.
The airline industry is a significant driving force to the US’s economic activity and employs millions of Americans. They also are involved in creating lots of jobs at hub cities and reaching out to small and medium-sized communities. Why do they deserve to be taxed as they are today? When will it stop?
Guess what, the federal government is not stopping here. Obama administration is now proposing under the American Jobs Act a new $100 per flight tax that would cost $11 billion over the next 10 years. The proposal also seeks increase the passenger security tax from today’s minimum of $2.50 per customer per flight segment to $7.50! This is outrageous—a 3x increase! This proposed increase would cost nearly $25 billion over 10 years. More than half of that would be not to improve security but instead applied to paying down our federal government’s debt. Why should the airline industry be singled out to pay for Washington’s irresponsible spending?
If these major tax increases get put into place, not only will we as consumers be saddled with them but airlines themselves being increasingly squeezed, will be forced to pull out of serving smaller communities. The airlines then will be forced to lay off more employees as it downsizes to eliminate routes and service that become unprofitable. It is a death spiral.
Our airlines also compete against foreign airline companies whose government in many cases have enlightened aviation policies.
Again, just multiply these oppressive government taxes and tariffs across many other industries and it does not take a rocket scientist to understanding how damaging the current federal government is to industry and job creation.
EPA and Obama are Bullies
Please email your Senator in support of Senator. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., bill introduced into the Senate on Nov. 3 that prohibits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from rejecting a state implementation plan under certain provisions of the Clean Air Act when the state has not been given “reasonable time” to develop the plan.
The bill, S. 1805, comes in response to EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which addresses power plant emissions the agency has identified as crossing state lines. The EPA rule became final in July and requires compliance starting in January 2012, a timeframe many state officials have argued will be nearly impossible to meet. Under the legislation, the compliance deadline for the rule would be
delayed until states have been given at least two years to develop a state regulatory plan.
The fact is that the EPA is crafting new rules left and right with little to no regard for their practicality and negative consequences on our economy, the cost of electricity, and the severe unemployment situation that the US is currently dealing with at this time. Complying with these rules under the current timeline is not feasible and freezing states out of the due process is unprecedented and wrong,” The states in the past have always had a chance to at minimum develop their own rules to try to balance environmental issues and to protect jobs and avoid skyrocketing electricity bills. The proposed legislation trying to move back to the ways the process used to work, not as it is working under the current administration.
States have long been given the power to develop their own regulatory regimes, with federal intervention occurring only under limited circumstances.
EPA and the Obama administration in recent months has taken steps to disregard this process by implementing federal emissions rules on a rushed timeline without giving states adequate time to develop their own plans. Unless action is taken states are faced with meeting new EPA regulations starting in January, which could lead to layoffs, tens of millions of dollars in increased utilities costs and dramatically increased electricity prices for many Americans. S. 1805 requires the EPA to give states at least two years to submit their own regulatory plan and prohibits the agency from implementing a federal plan if states have not been given enough time.
By a vote of 249-169, the House of Representatives on Sept. 23 approved H.R. 2401, the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act, which mandates a study of the cumulative impact of several EPA rules, including the cross-state rule, on the economy. The White House threatened to veto the House legislation.
The Obama administration under his leadership either doesn’t appreciate or understand the impact of these onerous EPA mandates or they do and are supporting them with no interest of truly trying to get our country back on the right track but instead are doing it exclusively for political means. I think the latter is the case.
During these difficult times, why is our administration and the EPA pushing accelerated and overly controlling restrictions on our economy when in fact our economy especially now, needs to recover. It simply makes no logical sense. There are reasonable balances and trade offs in all choices that are made—why doesn’t our federal government recognize this—well—you know the answer to that question now don’t you?
Action Alert – Congressional “Super Committee”
We need everyone to contact the Super Committee with your demands. Their contact information is below but first, here is a little background information that you may or may not know.
The “Super Committee” was formed as a condition to the “Debt Ceiling” debate, this past late-summer’s effort to increase federal spending authority for the president without really saying so.
We believe it is an unconstitutional construct, but it is there and we have to deal with it.
This Super Committee, comprised of twelve Congressmen (six from each party; half from the House and half from the Senate) was tasked to reduce the deficit. If the Super Committee does not come to bi-partisan terms, and Congress fails to pass the recommendations they propose, automatic “cuts” kick in.
Democrats are looking to pass $1.3 trillion in tax increases, with a similar amount in cuts, over the next 10 years. As usual, especially with the likes of Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Patty Murray sitting on this Super Committee, the Democrats are pushing for more spending on top of the tax increases. The same game plan they have been preaching for the last 3 years.
For a good analysis on the Super Committee, see this from The Heritage Foundation:
http://heritageaction.com/2011/10/note-to-super-committee-don%e2%80%99t-raise-taxes/
It appears that those involved are NOT attempting to look for real cuts. And any cuts to Medicare/Medicaid will be overturned as soon as the next Congress convenes.
Republicans offer to cut deficits by about $2.2 trillion over a decade; about one-third of that coming from increases in items such as Medicare premiums, the sale of public lands and airport fees — measures that increase government revenue without raising taxes. The GOP plan also assumes that tax reform would generate economic growth that would also lift revenues.
The GOP plan would also cut about $500 billion from Medicare over the next decade and $185 billion from Medicaid, officials said.
Democrats say that elsewhere in the budget they plan to reduce deficits by more than $3 trillion over the coming decade, while financing a $450 billion jobs bill along the lines that President Barack Obama is recommending. The same worthless “jobs bill” that was defeated in the Senate.
If the Democrats were serious, they would cut Obamacare, which could save over $2 trillion during same time ten-year period. See this link for the detail:
http://www.kiowacountysignal.com/opinions/x703875050/Repeal-of-Obamacare-could-save-2-6-trillion
Tea Party Patriots has railed over the last 2 ½ years – Reduce the size of government; Slash spending and Repeal Obamacare – for trillions in savings!
Credit rating agencies, yet again, have stated emphatically that nothing less than $4 to $5 trillion in spending cuts will stem another downgrade in the U.S. credit rating… but, apparently, members of the Super Committee believe their half-baked ideas (that they know will be rejected) will lead to some sort of consensus (and maybe political gain) in 2012?
Write to the Super Committee – but don’t just stop there; e-mail, phone, fax, and tweet!
Here is a direct link to their website:
http://www.deficitreduction.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Whatever you can do – create a presence, from the Palm Beach County Tea Party as well as for the Tea Party Patriots groups all across the country!
The lobbyists are all there, waiting to add more dollars to Super Committee members’ campaign coffers! We have millions of members, enthusiastic Patriots who stand for their Country, NOT Party! Put pressure on them for: NO increase in ANY taxes, and CUT spending, PERIOD!
Here are your “Super Committee” members:
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) Committee Co-Chair: @RepHensarling
Phone: 202-225-3484 Fax: 202-226-4888
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) Committee Co-Chair: @PattyMurray
Phone: 202-224-2621 Fax: 202-224-0238 Toll Free: 866-481-9186
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): @ChrisVanHollen
Phone: 202-225-5341 Fax: 202-225-0375
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ): @SenJonKyl
Phone: 202-224-4521 Fax: 202-224-2207
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA): @JohnKerry
Phone: 202-224-2742
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA): @SenToomey
Phone: 202-224-4254 Fax: 202-228-0284
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT): No Known Twitter Account
Phone: 202-224-2651 Fax: 202-224-9412
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH): @robportman
Phone: 202-224-3353
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA): @RepBecerra
Phone: 202-225-6235
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI): No Known Twitter Account
Phone: 202-225-3561 Fax: 202-225-9679
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): @Clyburn
Phone: 202-225-3315 Fax: 202-225-2313
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI): @RepFredUpton
Phone: 202-225-3761 Fax: 202-225-4986
Tweeting to the Super Committee, should have a # setup… something like this:
@RepHensarling #SuperCommittee – NO tax inc., CUT spending #tpp
@RepHensarling #SuperCommittee – Repeal Obamacare, Save $2T #tpp
County Tax Rate Comes Closer to TAB Target
Last evening at about 11:00pm, the County Commission voted to set the county-wide tax rate at $4.79 per $1K valuation, up 0.8% from last year. While still technically an increase, it is much better than the number set in the July meeting and an indication that all the work of the last few months has had an effect.
Thank you to those who attended or wrote letters and emails, but a very special thanks to those who stood up at the meeting and spoke their mind. Of the 80 people speaking at the meeting, 75% were there to protect “their” county funded programs, but 25% were on our side, a rising tide.
From South Florida 912, speakers included Marianne Polulack, Iris and Fred Scheibl, Rita and Jim Boger, Victoria Theil, Albert Key, Alison Rampersad, Nancy Hogan, Mike Lameyer, Shannon and Doug Armstrong, and Jason Shields.
Palm Beach County Tea Party was represented by Anita Carbone.
For a synopsis of the meeting and what the tax decision means, see: A Surrealistic Budget Hearing on the TAB website.
Obama Administration Energy Obstructionism- Part II
There are so many examples demonstrating that this administration policy of anti-energy policy for the United States. Here is yet another example of this administrations agenda to drive energy prices higher and make us dependent on foreign energy sources when we have within our own indigenous country vast sources of energy.
There is current a pipeline trying to be developed by TransCanada, a large Canadian pipeline and energy company. The name of this pipeline is called the Keystone XL pipeline which if built, could deliver 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. Just to give you an idea of how much oil this represents, Oman a country in the Middle East produces about this much oil! TransCanada estimates that this would bring $20 billion in investment to the US along with 13,000 jobs with sub-suppliers engaging another 118,000 jobs.
There is one big hurdle—the US State Department. Getting approval has proven to be extremely difficult in getting the 1,170 mile underground (that’s right underground so it would not be an eyesore or serve as an obstruction to some rare animal in it’s path)pipeline approved. In fact, TransCanada filed for a permit in 2008—that right almost four years ago. After dozens upon dozens of meetings, hundreds of thousands of comments, and extensive interaction with the EPA, DOT, USDA, DOI, DOE and numerous other federal and state agencies, finally an environmental impact statement was finally issued stating that the pipeline posed little risk to the environment.
The issuance of this EIS was in April of 2010. But, the EPA cried foul. Sixteen months later, another impact statement was produced. The first volume of the EIS was more than 500 pages, and there were actually eight volumes. Once again, in the second report, the conclusion was that the pipeline posed no significant impact to the environment.
The State Department is the ruling authority for the final permitting. After the submission and approval of the second EIS, the State Department issued a press release stating that the impact statement now will be followed by a 90 day review to “determine if the proposed project is in the national interest.”
During this time period, the State Department will consult with at least eight agencies identified in President Obama’s executive order to obtain their views. The State Department will also solicit public comments and meetings in at least six states through which the proposed pipeline will pass.
Meanwhile, separately, the “greenies” are gearing up for a fight with the Administration that they feel they were not given an ample opportunity to resist the project and state their opposition. There actually have been days of protests outside the White House resulting in arrests of a number of these greenies. The Sierra Club is warning President Obama that is will not mobilize its environmental voter base if he approves the project.
We yet do not know where Obama will come down on this; however don’t hold your breath. On the one hand he has driven unemployment to unprecedented levels even after clearly his fiscal stimulus give away has failed. This was substantiated just today when the White House projects unemployment to remain above 9% throughout calendar year 2012! What a sad state of affairs—we need energy security, we need jobs, and this kind of opposition goes on right before our very eyes.
Ladies and gentlemen, change is not only desired it is a necessity—get out and vote in November 2012 and make some real change—the Presidency and the Senate must be placed in the hands of people that will return our nation to greatness!
Obama Administration Energy Obstructionism
I have in the past written a number of articles on the current administrations “anti-energy” policy. Regardless of what this administration says, it is imperative to watch what they do because their actions are generally diametrically opposite to what they say!
Consider the recent discovery by ExxonMobil of the Julia oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. The field is believed to hold more than 700 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent. Exploiting the newly discovered field would yield billions of dollars for both ExxonMobil and royalties paid to the US government, not to mention the creation of thousands of jobs. In fact, a 1 billion barrel field could generate around $10.95 billion in government royalties—Mr. Obama—that is revenues—like taxes! Mr. Obama—this is called becoming “energy independent” and less dependent on the 60% of our oil that we now import from hostile people that want to do ill will to the United States. Get it!
Obama’s Interior Department is fighting this development. The Interior Department regulates offshore drilling and they are claiming that Exxon’s leases have expired and the company hasn’t’ met the requirements for an extension. In this industry, the re-instatement of leases has been in the past almost a rubber stamp, but for whatever reason, this is not the case for the Julia field. This discovery is one of the largest ever.
There is currently a court battle in place and the government is denying the oil company’s lease on the field, despite it being the biggest oil find ever! Furthermore, the signal to the industry that the Interior Department’s current position is extremely damaging for oil producers—typical Obama administration behavior—that is create as much uncertainty for industry so they do nothing—don’t invest, don’t create jobs—it is the same signal that they continue to send industry either through this kind of governmental restrictions or EPA rulings or nationalized healthcare. Same old same old.
Please find one of the best articles that I have recently read that appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal opinion page. The fallacy of “green energy” producing jobs has been proven over and over—it doesn’t—in fact, it costs jobs as these projects do not require nearly the labor to build as conventional sources plus the high cost of subsidy pulls money from the economy that private industry otherwise would invest in real wealth producing ventures that would in fact produce jobs. The cost of energy resulting from these green technologies also drive companies to move overseas for production due to higher electricity costs all of which diminish the number of US jobs!
Please read this article–it is very good!
By STEPHEN MOORE WSJ Opinion Section September 2, 2011
CLICK HERE for the article.
Smart Meter???
There is continual interest, speculation and concern surrounding Smart Meters and Smart Meter Grids. The first Florida community to resist the implementation of Smart Meters that I have heard of is Lakeshore Neighbor’s Association, Lakeland, FL. I have not yet received the results of their August 15, 2011 6:00pm meeting at City Hall. I will post updates. The purpose of this post is to invite dialog and provide resource information.
Florida Power and Light provides web sites www.fpl.com/energysmartflorida and www.fpl.com/contents/privacy_policy.shtml. These sites will suggest that there are benefits including improving the efficiency of meter reading and billing, increasing the quality of customer service by eliminating the need for estimated bills, saving staff time and fuel, preventing recording errors and minimizing the need for personnel to go on the property.
The privacy concerns from citizens are denied by FPL. They will tell you they only monitor how much electric you use, not how you use it. When I asked them how they interface with Grid Glo I was referred to a supervisor. I am still waiting for a reply. I urge you to research gridglo.com. The company is located in Delray Beach, Fl. According to the web site, utility companies are rapidly installing smart meters resulting in massive amounts of data being gathered. Grid Glo assigns an EPM score, (Energy People Meter) which is a real time digital fingerprint of people’s energy use.
Web sites opposing Smart Meters continue to grow. Concerns over violations of our fourth amendment persist: www.stopsmartmeters.wordpress.com and www.refusesmartmeter.com. You can also contact florida@bansmartmeter.com for local information.
To date FPL has not addressed the health concerns. What are the risks from the microwave radiation are detailed by Dr. Zory R. Glaser Ph.D. www.zoryglaser.com and “The Sage Report sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf . Excerpt from the Sage Report *the reflectivity of polished metal surfaces is usually quite high (such as stainless steel and polished metal surfaces typical in kitchens.
In my next post I hope to have the answers to:
Do Smart Meters have a second antenna that will eventually talk to my appliances? Will my washer and refrigerator report me? Use www.govtrack.us and read bill S398 Implementation of National Consensus Appliance Agreements Act of 2011, HR 2208 Smart Grid Advancement Act of 2011 and HR 2748 Smart Electronics Act.
Are Smart Meters UL (Underwriters Laboratory) listed and certified? Of the people I have talked to they do not see the UL tag on their meters.
Some Smart Meters are being installed with prior notice to the home owner and some meters are installed without any prior notice. In my next post I hope to have photo examples of both. If you search google you can see the different types now available. Ask your family and friends to look at their own house and submit pictures.
Additional Resources:
www.augustreview.com/issues/technocracy
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