Recently in Politics Category

Friday, February 12, 2010

Rep. Tom Emmer's House office issued the following Press Release:

Rep. Tom Emmer has introduced legislation to remove Minnesota from the cap and trade scheme the state entered into with passage of the 2007 Next Generation Energy bill. In order to comply with the new law, Minnesota joined the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) which uses data from states and provinces in the Midwest to create a Renewable Energy Credit (REC) in the form of a tradable digital certificate for each MWh of energy produced.

"With the economy slowly recovering and the state facing another budget shortfall, the last thing we need is an artificial tracking system that will be used to raise our energy rates," said Emmer. "We need to get Minnesota out of this cap and trade system before the federal government starts penalizing businesses and homeowners for using more energy."

The cap and trade system was put in place as part of the Next Generation Energy Act that also forces utilities in Minnesota to produce 25% of their energy from renewable sources by the year 2025.

Read the full press release at Tom's House website.

Tom Emmer is also front-runner for the GOP endorsement for governor,
Unfortunately Emmer's amendment failed 88-44 Today.

By Gene J. Koprowski, FOXNews.com

Global warming skeptics are agog that President Obama is seeking to dramatically increase federal funding for global warming research in the wake of the Climate-gate scandals that have emerged during the last three months.

The federal budget for 2011 proposes $2.6 billion for the Global Change Research Program, a 21 percent boost over 2010. It will bring funding to a level higher than under any administration dating back to 1989 -- when global warming first attracted federal budget funds.

In fact, critics note, overall climate funding is approximately as large as the entire federal government's budget was in 1932 -- $3.994 billion. (Additional money for climate science is apportioned to a number of federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.)

Doing some digging here and found this clip of Marty Seifert saying he was going to vote for the Renewable Energy Act of 2007.

By Erika Bolstad, Anchorage Daily News

Murkowski tries anew to block EPA regulators

The Alaska Republican announced she would seek to keep the EPA from drawing up rules on greenhouse gas emissions from large emitters, such as power plants, refineries and manufacturers. Murkowski did it by filing a "disapproval resolution," a rarely used procedural move that prohibits rules written by executive branch agencies from taking effect.

By Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune

Two Republican Party superstars -- Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin -- will be stumping in Minnesota in April.

The former Alaska governor will make a campaign appearance with the Sixth District congresswoman who's running for a third term, Bachmann announced Tuesday.

Announcing Palin's scheduled appearance, Bachmann is quoted as saying: "There is absolutely no one more in tune with the hearts and minds of everyday Americans than Governor Palin, and I'm excited to welcome her back to our beautiful state this spring."

Palin was last in Minnesota in December for a signing of her best-selling autobiography at the Mall of America. That followed her star turn as vice-presidential nominee at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

By Darren Samuelsohn, New York Times

An already tough climb to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation in the Senate just got a bit tougher with Republican Scott Brown's upset victory yesterday in Massachusetts.

Brown's win takes a guaranteed "yes" vote off the board for advocates of setting up a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions. It also could serve as a warning shot for moderate senators nervous about voting for a sweeping new government program headed into their own tough re-election campaigns.

At his victory rally in Boston, Brown warned that his election puts Democrats on notice that they may pay a political price come November if they do not take a second look as they work through the major pieces of President Obama's legislative agenda.

"When there's trouble in Massachusetts, rest assured there's trouble everywhere and they know it," Brown said.

Climate bill advocates yesterday noted that the Massachusetts special election never ventured into a debate on global warming policy. And given the likely Democratic defections, they added that the issue always required bipartisan outreach to cross the 60-vote threshold, unlike the health care bill that was a central battleground in the campaign to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D).

Read the rest of the article.

Good article, not sure on this guys tone however, is he happy about this?

By Dana Milbank, Washington Post

The New World Order came into being at 4:25 Tuesday afternoon

It arrived at the Capitol, until that moment the seat of American government, in the form of the stooped and bespectacled figure of Ban Ki-moon, who as U.N. secretary general is the de facto leader of what conspiracy theorists call the One World Government. One floor beneath the Senate chamber, Ban, a South Korean national, took his place behind a lectern bearing the Senate seal and spelled out his demands.

"I would certainly expect the Senate to take the necessary action; that's what I have encouraged the senators," he told reporters as a trio of lawmakers stood at his side. He added an admonition for the chamber to deliver "as soon as possible."

The One World Government has specific requirements, Ban added, namely a "legally binding" commitment to "25 to 40 percent greenhouse gas reduction . . . as recommended by the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."

Uh-oh. A U.N. official standing in the Capitol telling U.S. lawmakers what binding commitments intergovernmental authorities expect from them? Glenn Beck was going to burst a blood vessel.

By Elmer Beauregard

On July 4, 1776, with the stroke of a pen, our Republic was founded when the Declaration of Independence was signed. On December 7, 2009, with another stroke of the pen, our Republic might come to end.

Lord Christopher Monckton recently spoke at an event put on by the Minnesota Free Market Institute, he SHREDDED the whole "Global Warming" theory, he was great! But it was his closing statement that shocked me.

When I started Minnesotan's For Global Warming, I knew the whole Global Warming theory was a joke. It was easy to make fun of the whole thing, especially with a cooling planet, and to portray Al Gore as a buffoon. Little did I realize that the "Global Warming" theory would be the excuse needed to set up a One World Communistic Government.

Let your Senators know that you and 31,478 scientists don't believe in man-made global warming, and that passing Cap and Trade would "harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind".

Sign The Petition Here.

By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus sharply criticized a U.N. meeting on climate change on Tuesday at which U.S. President Barack Obama was among the top speakers, describing it as propagandistic and undignified.

"It was sad and it was frustrating," said Klaus, one of the world's most vocal skeptics on the topic of global warming.

"It's a propagandistic exercise where 13-year-old girls from some far-away country perform a pre-rehearsed poem," he said. "It's simply not dignified."

Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. -- Nearly all of the Republicans running for governor next year say they don't believe in human-caused climate change.

In fact, eight of the nine declared GOP candidates say they view global warming science as an unproven theory that should no longer drive state policy. Environmental activists say the prevailing GOP view not only runs counter to the beliefs of most scientists, but also to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

The global warning debate has not yet eclipsed the economy or health care as a campaign issue, but the topic has been coming up at Republican gatherings.

Climate Depot

Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about "global governance."

"I bring you good news from the U.S., "Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.

"Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill," Gore said, noting it was "very much a step in the right direction." President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.

Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it "will dramatically increase the prospects for success" in combating what he sees as the "crisis" of man-made global warming.

"But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements." (Editor's Note: Gore makes the "global governance" comment at the 1min. 10 sec. mark in this UK Times video.)

Anthony Watts - wattsupwiththat.com

OK folks, time to engage in our rights of citizenship. You know what to do. Phones and email contact info at the bottom. - Anthony

UPDATE2: test vote passes narrowly, 7 votes needed to defeat this bill - Anthony

UPDATE: C-SPAN1 is covering this live, there is a live media streaming page which you can access here:

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx

CSPAN also has live phone in. Phone in your comments: (202)585-3885 , -3886, -3887

Waxman and Markey

Dan Spencer, The Examiner

A focus group tells Ben Lieberman, the Heritage Foundation's Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment, what they think about global warming and cap and trade. Lieberman points out some key misconceptions that might change their minds about this new energy tax.

Watch the video:

By KEVIN DIAZ and BILL McAULIFFE, Star Tribune

Minnesota's members are getting put on the spot over energy legislation meant to slow global warming, and the debate splits on regional as well as party lines.

WASHINGTON -- It's showtime for global warming in Congress, and a number of Minnesota lawmakers are starting to feel the heat.

Congress is readying for what energy lobbyists call "the mother" of all climate debates, with a target of Memorial Day to pass major legislation in the House.

"We are at a crossroads," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the leading voices in the push to combat global warming by creating a "cap-and-trade" law that would slash emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

I don't remember Pawlenty switching parties

A regional, market-based pollution strategy for carbon dioxide mirrors an earlier effort to reduce acid rain.

By Bill McAuliffe and Paul Walsh, Star Tribune

Through a system of buying and selling rights to emit carbon dioxide, nine Midwestern states and the province of Manitoba will work together to reduce air pollution linked to global warming.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty was joined by eight other governors and the premier of Manitoba in an agreement Thursday on a regional, market-based strategy for controlling carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other facilities.

Read the rest of the article

It's been 50 years and Florida is still here.

Marc Sheppard, American Thinker

The latest Rasmussen poll reports that the lowest number of voters ever polled -- one-in-three -- believe that global warming is caused by human activity. That's an astonishing figure, especially considering the all-out green propaganda assault the mainstream media (MSM) exposes the public to on a daily basis.

After all, it's become nearly impossible to open a magazine, unfold a newspaper or turn on the television without being scolded about the selfishness of your energy consumption and the damage your unworthy existence does to the planet. And yet, Friday's Rasmussen found that forty-eight percent of all likely voters attribute climate change to long-term planetary trends, not their so-called carbon-footprint. That's up 4% in less than three months.

Just in case you were going to a Tea Party and didn't have any cool sign to carry around.

Here are a bunch to download, they are 11 x 17 you can just bring them to Kinko's, or you can print them at 8 1/2 x 11.

Tom LoBianco, Washington Times

Allows action from those 'expected to suffer'

Self-proclaimed victims of global warming or those who "expect to suffer" from it - from beachfront property owners to asthmatics - for the first time would be able to sue the federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under a little-noticed provision slipped into the House climate bill.

Environmentalists say the measure was narrowly crafted to give citizens the unusual standing to sue the U.S. government as a way to force action on curbing emissions. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees a new cottage industry for lawyers.

"You could be spawning lawsuits at almost any place [climate-change modeling] computers place at harm's risk," said Bill Kovacs, energy lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Complete Article.

Paul Fuhr, Cleveland Weather Examiner

"59" might be the magic number for Americans to start thinking twice about global warming fears.

59 scientists around the world have officially added their names to the much-publicized U.S. Senate Minority Report that denounces claims about man-made global warming. This pushes the tally of skeptical scientists to well over 700.

According to a new report, the 700-plus scientists are "now more than 13 times the number of U.N. scientists who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers." Many of the scientists are "affiliated with prestigious institutions" including NASA, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Defense Department, Princeton University, as well as countless others.

Nick Loris, The Heritage Foundation

The current recession is causing Americans to take a second look at their household budget. Well, if Congress enacts cap and trade legislation, recently proposed by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA) of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, families will have to take an even harder look at their budget and be forced to make additional cuts.

As recently acknowledged by a top White House official, a global warming tax could generate as much as $1.9 trillion in tax revenue over eight years, which amounts to a nearly $2,000 tax every year for every American household.* For comparison, the chart below indicates how much typical household expenditures cost families.

By Noel Sheppard, Fox Forums

For years, climate realists around the world have been warning the international community that the entire man-made global warming myth and resulting hysteria is all a scheme to redistribute wealth under the pretense of saving the planet.

In a document obtained by FOX News, the United Nations has made it official.

As FOX News executive editor George Russell reported Friday:

A United Nations document on "climate change" that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes -- all under the supervision of the world body.

Those and other results are blandly discussed in a discretely worded United Nations "information note" on potential consequences of the measures that industrialized countries will likely have to take to implement the Copenhagen Accord, the successor to the Kyoto Treaty, after it is negotiated and signed by December 2009. [...]

The 16-page note, obtained by FOX News, will be distributed to participants at a mammoth negotiating session that starts on March 29 in Bonn, Germany, the first of three sessions intended to hammer out the actual commitments involved in the new deal.