Hodes, Shea-Porter Traded Your Freedom

Hodes, Shea-Porter Traded Your Freedom for Nothing
by Steve MacDonald

Ignorance is no excuse of the law, but if you’re a congressman from New Hampshire ignorance of the law is both necessary (and it would seem desirable) as a prerequisite to creating it. Just remember that when Hodesheaporter vote for Waxman-Markey, a climate bill that mandates a bountiful cornucopia of political abuse from every corner of the fruited plain, they do it in your name, so you might want to see some of what you have wrought.

Your cap and trade bill, weighing in at 1,428 pages has the bulk of Tolstoy but none of the substance. Chekov however is said to have made some remarks that might be suitable here, particularly to our congress in regard to this bill.

Even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone.

Replace Tolstoy with Obama and were there. He will certainly try to use his power to enact as much of this as he can if it fails.

But all that incompetence aside you still deserve to see some of what they ‘achieved’ so that you know what your reps have decided you, the People of New Hampshire, want from your government.

This list comes to us courtesy of Stephen Spruiell and Kevin Williams at NRO. It is entirely their work, though I have tried to paraphrase it here to save some space. (Read the original. It’s only 8 printed pages and far more detailed.)

Hodesheaporter Clean energy and Security act particulars.

1 ) 85% of the permits will be given away to big business. That’s why big business loves this bill. Free money for their business, an angle on beating out small competitors, and they pass the increased cost on to you.

2 ) Wall Street gets richer. Someone has to sell the permits and Goldman Sachs tops the list. They are highly invested in carbon offset development and stand to reap a fortune from this bill.

3 ) It creates a new special interest group, USCAP that lobbies for politically connected businesses, and gets them sweet deals among other things. Some of the businesses that will benefit include.

Alcoa, American International Group (AIG) which withdrew after accepting government bailout money, Boston Scientific Corporation, BP America Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Chrysler LLC (which continues to lobby with taxpayer dollars), Conoco-Phillips, Deere & Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Duke Energy, DuPont, Environmental Defense, Exelon Corporation, Ford Motor Company, FPL Group, Inc., General Electric, General Motors Corp. (now owned by the Obama administration), Johnson & Johnson, Marsh, Inc., National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NRG Energy, Inc., PepsiCo, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, PG&E Corporation, PNM Resources, Rio Tinto, Shell, Siemens Corporation, World Resources Institute, Xerox Corporation.

4 ) What money comes in from the sale of credits goes to more nondescript pointless bureaucratic projects open to massive abuse.

5 ) The bill creates offsets or indulgences which allow the bills environmental targets to be “met” by offsetting costs of compliance through any approved activity. These costs are then passed down to consumers and in some cases the activity is also subsidized by your tax dollars as well.

6 ) To compensate for unintentional advantages to foreign competition the bill tries to buy off domestic producers with your money to even the field again.

7 ) Agribusiness is exempt, but the farm lobby got itself free permits anyway which they can sell to smaller businesses who are required to comply (and who are not politically connected) further enriching corporate farms and expanding their lobby in Washington.

8 ) USDA gets all oversight on Farm based offsets, so Cargill and ADM have nothing to fear, and can make money off the project at the same time.

9 ) The bill purposefully ignores the environmental impact of ethanol. (Ethanol is actually worse than standard fuels)

10 ) Rural cooperatives demanded that offsets be awarded based on historic emissions that means high polluters may get paid to pollute more.

11 ) Farm lobby gets cash rewards for doing things that make no practical difference like No-till. No-till may be worse, but it requires more weed control, (farm chemicals) which explains why Monsanto—the inverter of Round Up—has lobbied hard for the bill and the no-till offsets.

12 ) The bill requires trade protectionist practices against other emitters in other countries.

13 ) Billions (about 8 billion) will be channeled into subsidies for international clean technology deployment…to be run through the fingers of such cash strapped global organizations as Sequoia Capital, United Steelworkers Union, Clinton Climate Initiative, Ernst & Young, Duke Energy, SunPower, Honywell, Shell, Conoco Phillips, Credit Suisse, Chrysalix Energy, Venture Capital, and Goldman Sachs.

14 ) Big labor wins big. Every penny spent requires Davis Bacon Union wage rules making it almost impossible for non union firms to compete for a share of the handouts, and these standards apply all the way down to the light bulb changing level. Removing wage competition also increases end prices we all pay.

15 ) 20% mandate for electricity from renewables forces companies to rely more on the most expensive forms of energy and the cost to get them from places where the can be obtained which are then passed on to you.

16 ) Waxman Markey creates another entire offset market for renewable electricity credits. Utilities that can’t create or access wind or solar will have to pay for additional credits from those that can and that additional fee gets passed on to you.

17 ) Current cheap renewables are excluded, like Nuclear and Hydro, as well as gasification of coal. Only new expensive renewables count towards the 20% mandate.

18 ) It creates the Carbon Storage Research Corporation (CSRC) to steer 1 billion annually into carbon capture technology. This Billion is paid by government assessments on you utility company which then appears on your bill.

19 ) Carbon capture creates new regulations, permitting processes for burying captured carbon, rules on how to and where to bury it, and regulations to keep it there at taxpayer expense.

20 ) Imposes performance standards that reduce efficiency increasing costs to rate payers.

21 ) It regulates every light fixture invented, and mandates more expensive and dangerous bulbs that burn out quicker.

22 ) It regulates all appliances, spas, showerheads, faucets, televisions, and just about everything that uses electricity.

23 ) Appliances will have carbon output labels with taxpayer funded bonuses for retailers who market and sell these best in class appliances to us. The appliances will all cost more as a result.

24 ) It mandates EPA environmental standards for your home no matter where it is or what you need it to do.

25 ) It mandates commercial properties governed by a national energy efficiency building code that mandates efficiency reductions targets that will add to the cost of business offset by increased costs to consumers. You pay for the retrofit, and the more expensive energy they have to buy to operate it.

26 ) EPA will regulate emissions from mobile sources—anything with an engine that moves.

27 ) Instructs EPA to cap and reduce emissions from everything that does not move as well.

28 ) Instructs EPA to create a federal greenhouse gas registry. Businesses would be required to collect and submit data on their own emissions and compliance, the cost of which you will pay for in increased cost of goods and services.

29 ) States won’t be able to create their own cap and trade programs—ones that might fit their unique circumstances. (No idea how that affects RGGI, but I suspect it kills it.)

30 ) Mandates deployment by utility companies for a massive plug in car infrastructure—so in the future when we all drive plug in cars, we can charge them almost anywhere (for a fee). In the meantime, we pay for the mandate now, even if it’s a pipe dream.

31 ) Energy Sec is required to create a large scale program to create the new plug in cars they want us to drive, with another 25 billion for loans to car companies (Obama Union motors) to actually develop these cars.

32 ) Energy Sec directed to create regulation on automaker fleets—how many plug ins, how many ethanol, etc.

33 ) Guarantees more money for ethanol pipelines. Ethanol pipelines get money every year. (You can’t pump ethanol in a pipeline.)

34 ) Cash for clunkers expanded to apply to all appliances, presumably to offset the increased cost of spending our money to mandate the need for new appliances.

35 ) 15 Billion Additional dollars to encourage wind and solar. (30 years of funding didn’t work, but maybe this time.)

36 ) EPA can give your tax dollars to freight carriers that meet certain goals.

37 ) Energy Sec has to make a program to award utilities with taxpayer money for finding innovative ways to use thermal energy.

38 ) 1.5 Billion for Hollings Manufacturing Partnership Program; aka even more corporate welfare

39 ) 65 million more in handouts for research into gas turbine technology.

40 ) 7.5 million To promote Bio-fuels.

41 ) Billions to left wing university cronies to leverage expertise and private research.

42 ) Billions more for ACORN and similar groups through energy department grants to community development organizations.

43 ) Amends the IRS code to allow for energy credits defined by EPA to citizens who experience a reduction in purchasing power by the regulation of GHG. (Where denying them their own income and choices because of new Waxman Markey programs cost so much that they need money through another new federal program to make up for some of it.)

44) Adds an Energy Refund program (a monthly check) on the same thinking as item 43.

45) Provides Climate change adjustment assistance to those put out of work by this legislation. (See 43, and 44.) So much for creating green jobs?

46) Bill creates at least five new government agencies on top of those mentioned above all paid for by taxpayers.

47 ) Money for wildlife resource adaptation. (43-45 for our animal friends)

48 ) States are encouraged to create their own agencies to interact with the federal ones created, and as a place to deposit allowances from the government.

49 ) DHS to develop a program to prepare health professionals for the affects of climate change. (How about for the affects of the cost of a Waxman Markey?)

50 ) Loads of money for partnerships and grants on emerging careers, renewable this and that, mitigation, etc.

So there you have it. Hodesheaporter just voted for corporate cronyism, massive federal expansion, violations to federalism, rent seeking, distribution of wealth, taxpayer funding of democrat political groups, and invited the government to regulate everything in your home, outside your home, where you work, and how you will be permitted to power your life, for a climate bill that does nothing to improve the climate at a cost of trillions in handouts and lost productivity. Of course they may have no idea they did it. As always, you decide which is worse.

Here is a press release from Frank Guinta.

Guinta Releases Video Highlighting Carol Shea-Porter’s National Energy Tax Vote –
Shea-Porter Casts Critical Vote that could Cost Constituents Millions of Dollars and Thousands of Jobs

Manchester – On Friday, June 26th, at the behest of Speaker Pelosi, Carol Shea-Porter voted for the job-killing Waxman-Markey National Energy Tax. This is a “cap-and-trade” scheme which will destroy jobs here in New Hampshire and across America. This National Energy Tax will raise the prices of gasoline, electricity, and other sources of energy, which will devastate middle-class families and small businesses who are already struggling in these tough times. This vote is just another example of how Carol Shea-Porter’s blind allegiance to her party’s leadership is costing New Hampshire businesses and families money and hurting our economy. Shea-Porter’s support was crucial to the passing of this latest installment of legislation that is out of step with the needs and priorities of New Hampshire voters. Today, the Guinta for Congress campaign released the following video to highlight Carol Shea-Porter’s ill advised vote.

“As Mayor of New Hampshire’s largest city, I know firsthand the challenges this economy is putting on our families. People are losing their jobs and their homes. Businesses are failing and families are hurting. I do not understand why Carol Shea-Porter would put her party’s interests before the interests of the voters of New Hampshire. Thanks to her vote, if you drive a car or flip on a light switch you will now pay a national energy tax,” said Manchester Mayor and First Congressional District Candidate Frank Guinta. “New Hampshire voters want solutions that will produce more American energy in an environmentally safe manner and get us closer to energy independence. They want solutions that encourage the use of alternative fuels and reduce carbon emissions. They certainly do not want ill conceived legislation that in less than three years may cost New Hampshire more than $550 million dollars and 4,900 jobs.”