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POPSMagical Thinking vs. Reality amount to $1.05 to $1.38 per gallon, or 42 to 55 percent of ethanol's wholesale market price. Ethanol does not reduce gasoline prices. If you lived in urban areas that used reformulated gasoline last summer -- that's the environmentally "clean" gasoline required for areas with air pollution problems -- you might have paid up to 60 cents a gallon more for gasoline. That's because the federal government required oil refineries to use 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, regardless of price, and gas pump prices last summer reflected the fact that ethanol was twice as expensive as conventional gas in wholesale markets, and far more costly to deliver. The truth is that if ethanol has commercial merit, it doesn't need the subsidy. And if it doesn't, no amount of subsidy will bestow it.
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POPSUnderstanding the full cost of a nuclear power plan History has taught us that civilian nuclear programs can -- and do -- lead to the production of nuclear weapons as happened in India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. The presence of nuclear power plants has provoked acts of aggression, even war. Israel bombed nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. went to war in Iraq at least on the pretext that the country was developing nuclear weapons. The concerns surrounding Iran's nuclear intentions are indicative of the blurred line between civilian and military nuclear activities. Iran's uranium enrichment program has inspired 14 other Middle Eastern countries to express an interest in acquiring nuclear power programs, a poorly-disguised cover story for nuclear weapons posturing.
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POPSS&L Scandal Tidbits * The rip-off began in 1980 when the government raised the federal insurance on S&L's from $40,000 to $100,000 even though the typical savings account was only around $6000. * Some of the seized assets were a buffalo sperm bank, a racehorse with syphilis, and a kitty litter mine. * James Fail invested $1000 of his own money to purchase 15 failing S&L's. The government reimbursed him $1.85 billion in federal subsidies. * It sometimes took over 7 years to close failing S&L's by the government. * When S&L owners who stole millions went to jail, their sentances were typically one-fifth that of the average bank robber. * The goverment bail out will cost the taxpayers around $1.4 trillion dollars when it is over. * If the White House had stepped in and bailed out the S&L's in 1986 instead of delaying until after the 1988 elections, the cost might have been only $20 billion. * With the money lost from the S&L scandals, the government could have provided
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POPSThe Illustrated Results of Obama's "Community Organizing" "Obama's Katrina," explaining that if Obama is running on his record as a community activist and advocate, it's a pretty big deal a housing project he had his hand in is an almost-unlivable slum... Perhaps Obama had good intentions here. Trouble is, he has a decidedly thin resume, and one of the biggest bullet points on it reads Miserable Failure. The poor people living here have gotten the shaft from Obama and his developer buddies. And the mainstream media couldn't care less.
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POPSMORE "Splash and Dash" Scam On U.S.Taxpayers - Manning Feraci, vice president of federal affairs at the National Biodiesel Board : “Ultimately when you dig down it gets to the point that you would have to have access to IRS information…Taxpayer information is confidential, so we can’t have access to it…”
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POPS Farming For Riches for direct payments each year to farmers, regardless of whether they grow anything. Can we honestly demand fair and free trade from other countries when this bill increases trade distorting payment rates and restores an illegal cotton program? Sen. Barack Obama has raised the rhetoric on fair trade and restoring fiscal discipline, but his support for the farm bill betrays the inconsistency of his position: Cry foul with our trade partners, but break the rules at home. It is time to wean ourselves from the huge crop subsidies being paid by taxpayers and the flawed policies that distort the markets, artificially raise prices for consumers and pit producers against consumers.
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POPSOil Prices Require More Than Congressional Accusations He was correct to remind Americans that if we want to lower the cost of energy we must be willing to use our own resources, whether they are natural or those we can build, rather than rely upon others to provide for our needs. After all, isn’t self-reliance part of the American spirit. We should not recontributely on foreign governments, many of which are volatile, to supply our energy needs, nor should our large farmers rely on Federal Government handouts to prop up their financially lucrative businesses. President Bush was correct to note that Congressional support for farm subsidies will do little other than contribute to the rising prices of food. He was correct to remind Americans that if we want to lower the cost of energy we must be willing to use our own resources, whether they are natural or those we can build, rather than rely upon others to provide for our needs.
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POPSCongress Considers Cellulose Ethanol In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Wishful Thinking on Cellulosic Ethanol," Indur Goklany, author of the Cato book The Improving State of the World, writes: "If cellulosic ethanol proves to be as profitable as its backers hope, farmers will divert even more land and water to producing the cellulose instead of food. All this means we'll be more or less back to where we were. Food will once again be competing with fuel. And land and water will be diverted from the rest of nature to meet the human demand for fuel.
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POPS Dumb as We Wanna Be
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN he goes on: Are you sitting down? Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies. These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies. The
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POPSDo you support nuclear energy? from 'The Nation': "This much seems clear: a handful of firms might soak up huge federal subsidies and build one or two overpriced plants. While a new administration might tighten regulations, public safety will continue to be menaced by problems at new as well as older plants. But there will be no massive nuclear renaissance. Talk of such a renaissance, however, helps keep people distracted, their minds off the real project of developing wind, solar, geothermal and tidal kinetics to build a green power grid."
1
POPSPelosi To President Bush On Gas Prices
Your support is the more critical as your Administration has failed to persuade OPEC to increase their oil production, despite your influence with OPEC nations. The New Direction Congress is providing forward-looking leadership that will fuel America’s energy future, save Americans’ money, create good jobs, improve our national security, and preserve our planet for our children. This critical issue needs Presidential leadership and I urge you to please join us to address the skyrocketing price at the pump. best regards, NANCY PELOSI House GOP challenges Pelosi for gas price plan House Republican leaders on Tuesday challenged Nancy Pelosi to release a plan to lower gas prices that they say Democrats touted when they were in the minority. (Press release dated April 24, 2006, Pelosi said, “Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.....) http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-gop-challenges-pelosi-for-gas-price-plan-2008-04-22.html
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POPSSubsidies And High Crop Prices Dooley says the net impact is bad for the food producers he represents. "For most American farmers, they're producing commodities—they're seeing their best years ever. But for farmers that have to feed grains and corn to livestock, they're seeing very tough times.... The policy is having a significant adverse impact on a significant sector of our agriculture, while I admit it is helping some farmers." These higher costs are also seen in consumers' grocery bills, and that has made ethanol subsidies an issue in Washington. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York this month proposed legislation that would end the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff* as a way to stop a spike in milk prices. "There are a lot more milk consumers than ethanol producers in New York. He's hearing an earful from his constituents," Griswold says of Schumer. *The federal government gives preferential treatment to domestic, corn-based ethanol in the form of a 54-cent tax on imported Brazilian ethanol.
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POPSU.S. Gives Nuclear Power A Second Look The plants would benefit from federal subsidies and from a new Florida law that allows utilities to recover from ratepayers the cost of plant construction when it's incurred — years before the plant goes online. Those costs can be eye-popping. Florida Power and Light estimates its two new plants will cost as much as $24 billion. Progress Energy projects that its new plants will cost at least $14 billion. "In no other industry do you commit the type of capital that you commit a project of this size—that takes nine to 10 years, from the filing of the need through the construction process —without recouping any of the cost associated with that project." New laws in Florida, Georgia and many other states where plants are proposed now allow utilities to charge ratepayers whether the units are completed or not. The company expects its customers' bills to increase, on average, no more than 4 percent each year during construction.
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POPSThe Biggest Big-Government Conservative Candidate Most of the leading Republicans running for president show some support for Bush's ideology, but no other candidate so completely embodies it. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee dramatically increased state spending. During his two-term tenure, spending increased by more than 65 percent — at three times the rate of inflation. The number of government workers increased by 20 percent, and the state's debt services increased by nearly $1 billion. Huckabee financed his spending binge with higher taxes. Under his leadership, the average Arkansan's tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, including increases in the state's gas, sales, income, and cigarette taxes. He raised taxes on everything from groceries to nursing home beds.
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POPSMarines Unwelcome A community that decides to disparage a federal program, particularly the military, can do without federal subsidies. I think the federal government would be justified in revoking all funding for the offending community. It's a big club that the feds wield all the time - and we let them. It's why they have so much power, because we give it to them. Constitutionally, they can't require many of the things that they try to get states/communities to do, but when there's a big carrot (grants, roads) there for compliance, too many comply. It'd be nice if Berkeley had the stones to make a stand and regain some independence from the federal gov't. However, that doesn't mean I'd ever spend one dime in that disrespectful community.
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POPSU.S. waits for others to save us from oil dependence As long as this remains the case i will remain skeptical that the U.S. government truly wants to end our dependence on oil. That reality basically means that the needs of lobbyists (Big Oil) are considerably more important than the needs of the people. That depresses me a lot!
0
POPS Ethanol's Subsidy::It Has No Commercial Merit The truth is that if ethanol has commercial merit, it doesn't need the subsidy. And if it doesn't, no amount of subsidy will bestow it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes the practical limit for domestic ethanol production is about 700,000 barrels per day -- in 2030. In 23 years, that will translate into about 6 percent of the U.S. transportation fuels market. Ethanol does not reduce gasoline prices. If you lived in urban areas that used reformulated gasoline last summer -- that's the environmentally "clean" gasoline required for areas with air pollution problems -- you might have paid up to 60 cents a gallon more for gasoline. That's because the federal government required oil refineries to use 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, regardless of price, and gas pump prices last summer reflected the fact that ethanol was twice as expensive as conventional gas in wholesale markets, and far more costly to deliver.
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POPSDemocratic Sweep Would Bring Mammoth Tax Increases All told, the Democratic platform could cost more than $700 billion over four years. �I have a million ideas,� Clinton tells the Boston Globe, �and the country can�t afford them all.� On that point, even Clinton�s critics agree with her. �It is pretty clear that more spending programs have been promised out of repealing the top Bush tax cuts than repeal would be able to fund,� Nate Bailey of the Tax Foundation tells Newsmax. �It�s almost certain that funding all of these proposed programs would require massive tax hikes, the scale of which the U.S. has never seen. Sabato, author of �A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution,� believes taxes will be a cornerstone of the coming Republican campaign.
4
POPSNo fairness for PBS Strange how democrats want to 'balance' free speech in the private sector, but don't want the same when it comes to tax payer funded programing.
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POPS The Unfair Leftist Slant Of Tax-Funded PBS Despite taking federal money from all taxpayers, PBS stations across America often air programs and documentaries that tilt decidedly to the left. The report concludes with some simple recommendations for public broadcasting executives. Since public television is supported by taxpayers of all political stripes, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ought to live up to its mandate to monitor content for objectivity and fairness.Calling for impeachment of Republican presidents with one-sided panels doesn't help make PBS look fair . If public broadcasters want to moderate presidential debates, its moderators ought to display fairness and balance toward both political parties. If the system funds liberal filmmakers, it ought to fund conservative filmmakers as well, and not just serve as a political organizing tool for one side. The nation's PBS stations should reflect the diversity of its whole audience.
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POPSU.S. Biofuel Subsidies Goose Commodities Markets With oil futures approaching $100 a barell. biofuels are helping push world commodities markets to record levels. This paper from the Global Subsidies Institute takes a hard look at the astronomical level of subsidies that the U.S. government is pushing into biofuels development.
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POPSTake The Federal Out Of Farming Why, oh why is Big Agri so subsidized? This piece says the farming biz needs to undergo the transofrmation that every oher American industry has undergone in the past 75 years.
1
POPSAustralian Government Believes Gay Gouples are Not Equal How a governing party whose leader claims that gay couples are not equal to heterosexual couples for the purpose of medical care, taxes, inheritance etc. can call itself Liberal, is totally beyond my comprehension. Stuff like this, and the attitudes of the government in my home country, the U.S. reinforces my pride of being a permanent resident of Canada. It isn't anywhere near perfect, but when it comes to social issues, such as equality and health care, it's the best.
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