"Make a Hole Make it Wide"
Big Poppa's taking notes today, maybe because he's waiting to see how buoyant his plastic water bottle raft will be due to all this rain in his home town!!!
1. "Clean Election">Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer is in another fight this week. This time it's a federal judge on the 9th Supreme Court circuit. Arizona's "Clean Election" law was taken to the Supreme Court and the Court ruled against it.
The law sounds pretty simple, those candidates that use publicly funded campaign money will receive payments to help their campaign match dollar for dollar against privately or self funded candidates. At this time Gov Brewer was looking for a public transaction close to $2 million to help her campaign, but the Supreme Court put a hold on that transaction.
Her opponent, Buzz Mills, has spent close to $2.3 million to date. Many privately/self funded candidates are saying the "Clean Election" law limits their voice, due to the fact if they spend more then their publicly funded opponent will receive more public assistance, therefore forcing them to spend less for their voice to be heard.
So Gov Brewer is getting the shaft until the Supreme Court decides to hear the case come this August.So until then, Gov Brewer is gonna have to prove even harder through her work as the current Governor to make her case for re-election.
Who says we don't need Election Finance Reform, whether it be state or federal?
2. Drill Babies turn silent
Funny how the "Drill Baby Drill" voices are now calling for more Federal Government intrusion into oil company corruption.
Former Gov Palin, spoke many times during the 2008 campaign on how safe offshore drilling was, is leading the verbal charge to clean up "oily corruption." And others that led the "Drill Baby Drill" mantra have silenced themselves as well.
And many of these "D.B.D's" who fought against intrusive federal government into big business are calling for the federal government to do the opposite and go after these companies.
Florida Senate Candidate Marco Rubio & Louisana Gov Bobby Jindall, once the darlings of the "Smaller Less Intrusive Fed Government" are calling for the opposite. As Gov Jindall said last week "well this is when we need big government to get involved" and Minnesota's Michelle Bachmann calling for Pres Obama to "use his executive authority to “commandeer” boats in the Gulf region to “deal with that oil plume as it was coming up in the water.”
It always amazes me how those who were once against something are for it once they see an opportunity for free press exposure.
3. Plumes what plumes?
Speaking of opportunities, it's nice to see BP trying to save face and hiring some 8,000+ residents of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida on temporary "Ready Alert Clean Up" status. These folks are being hired as temporary workers for $18/hour to be ready to go clean up the beaches, marches, etc. in their areas. Talk about a Public Relations move.
Now BP admits there might be plumes of oil underneath the waters. Really? Seriously?
BP's new cap is taking in only 14,000 gallons of oil, but that's only 20% of what is escaping from the leaking head. BP's trying to capture more,so it can sell it, but the fines from the Government could be close to $4,300/barrel lost!! That's somewhere near $10 billion to date owed in fines. Not to mention the lawsuits to come and clean up bills. But don't worry, BP will survive this catastrophe as they have done since the Prudhoe Bay & Texas City accidents over the past 10 years.
It was the Exxon Valdez that ran aground in AK - Mobil. Mobil survived only because the Supreme Court dismissed the original fines against to only about 2.5b and most of that was paid for from their insurance, not out of their pocket/profit.
ReplyDeleteYes, I want the feds to quit intruding into business; however, we do expect them to set the policy, ensure safety of what they already have oversight of - granting permits for drilling and the environmental studies and safety issues that goes along with it. As you have said several times, the Canadians have a far better track record for safety than we do, yet the same oil companies are drilling there as here.
...and even after all is said and done, I say "drill, baby, drill" or "nuclear is nice" because the alternate is to be reduced to a 3rd rate nation, a bankrupt nation, or one at the mercy of every terrorist nation out there. Which do you prefer?
I have said in the past and you know this, I am for Nuclear Energy as long as it is regulated correctly.
ReplyDeleteMany Americans as well as Congress complain we shouldn't be like Canada or Europe, yet they have the better track records on Nuclear Energy and Offshore Drilling. Why? Tougher standards and regulations.
In Europe if BP is drilling offshore, they must drill a second well as well. If US Regulations would have had that, the mess in the Gulf may have been less then 1/4 of what we have now.
Honestly, get big business out of government. For every 1 Senator or Representative, there is a minimum of 6 Oil Lobbyists. So who really is setting up legislation.
Another perfect reason for term limits!
But we can't starve the American Oil beast. Imagine if that happened, what was it twice in the 70's there was fuel rationing. We can't starve the beast into Alternative energy, when the alternativ energy products aren't being massed produced.
...and except for nuclear energy, the alternates will never produce much.
ReplyDelete1 wind farm produces enough energy for 500,000-650,000 homes. Which is about 1/3 of Allegheny County in Southwestern Pa.
ReplyDeleteIf I had unlimited funds and was building a home, I'd order the Solar Panels and get the Geothermal dug up. I know a few people that have built homes in the past 6 years and they did the Geothermal deal. House constantly around 75 degrees sounds nice to me
Wind farms are not viable and comes with a whole slew of environmental issues. There is a huge wind farm in Altamont Pass- A study last year by the California Energy Commission estimated that up to 4,720 birds from 40 different species are killed each year at the wind farm, including as many as 1,300 protected raptors. The yearly death toll includes more than 100 golden eagles plus red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls, kestrels, and meadowlarks, according to the Audubon Society. Then there is disfigurement of the countryside with giant wind turbines and the NOISE - constant noise. When living in CA, we drove thru Altamonte Pass quite often - always a curiousity and point of interest as we drove thru miles and miles of wind turbines - but we wouldn't want it near our back door - ask the Kennedys.
ReplyDeleteDo you know how much land would be needed in a wind farm to supply your half million homes? I read once that almost the entire state of Connecticut would be needed to supply NYC.
They've been trying to build them off the shore in the northeastern USA for sometime now, but blocked for this or that.
ReplyDelete