The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began their hearings on the 1,500 page Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation Tuesday, and ranking member Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) won a startling admission from Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson. Inhofe produced an EPA chart generated last year during the Senate’s debate of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade legislation. The chart showed that the carbon reductions under that bill would not materially effect global carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. Inhofe then asked Jackson if she agreed with the chart’s conclusions. Jackson replied: “I believe that essential parts …
Panic seems to be setting in among some Democrats as the economy continues to falter. Important political leaders, such as Majority Leader Stenny Hoyer (D-MD), and economic commentators, such as Laura D’Andrea Tyson, unofficial economic advisor the President, are calling for yet another stimulus bill. Already we have had two stimulus bills, totaling almost a trillion dollars in the last eighteen months. Both were ineffective. House Democrats especially are worried they will be held responsible in the 2010 election for the failure of the recent stimulus bill enacted during the …
With the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passing the House on June 26th, we turn our attention to the Senate side of the debate. And it’s already starting: Cabinet officials pressed President Barack Obama’s case for climate-change and clean-energy legislation at a Senate hearing on Tuesday as lawmakers clashed over whether a ‘cap-and-trade’ system for cutting greenhouse gases would help the U.S. economy or hurt it. ‘Denial of the climate-change problem will not change our destiny; a comprehensive energy and climate bill that caps and then reduces carbon emissions will,’ said Energy …
Two dozen U.S. and South Korean government websites were attacked in early July. Malicious programs were found to have targeted 26 websites, including that of the White House, as well as the South Korean presidential office, legislature, and ministry of defense. The cyber attackers utilized a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) approach to overwhelm the websites with data to impede or disable service. If Pyongyang were behind the recent cyber attacks, it would mark another escalation in North Korean provocations against Washington and Seoul. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service stated that such …
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that investment in renewable energies, and the green jobs that go with it, is being stifled by the stimulus. How? No one knows where, when, or if the stimulus money from Washington will arrive, sowing uncertainty among investors and businesses alike: New incentive programs haven’t yet been defined, and uncertainty about program rules has deterred investors from backing companies that also may get government money. At the same time, companies are holding off from accepting private capital because of the possibility of getting it more …
Yesterday, Dr. Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), delivered at The Heritage Foundation his first major address since being appointed six weeks ago. Read more on his visit and what needs to be done about clean, renewable energy here.
CNSNews reports: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it. … In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said. Is this really what the liberal majority in Congress …
The Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis opens his article on health reform today: The question came from a Colorado neurologist. “Mr. President,” he said at a recent forum, “what can you do to convince the American public that there actually are limits to what we can pay for with our American health-care system? And if there are going to be limits, who . . . is going to enforce the rules for a system like that?” President Obama called it the “right question” — then failed to answer it. This was …
President Obama triumphantly declared on July 1: “The Recovery Act was designed to make sure local school districts didn’t lay off teachers and firefighters and police officers. And its done its job.” Whether the stimulus has actually “done its job” is up for debate. But the release of a Government Accountability Office report today calls into question Obama’s vision for how stimulus funds should be spent. Even the liberal Center for American Progress plays up the fact that “states aren’t using funds as intended.” Citing the GAO report, today’s Progress …
The trumpets are blaring to announce with great fanfare another “historic” political deal designed to give a boost to the sagging fortunes of health care reform and convince the public real progress is being made. Hospitals are linking arms with the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders to announce “savings” of $150-155 billion over the next ten years. This is a shellgame that should fool no one. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospital expenditures between 2009 and 2018 will total $10.5 trillion. So the “savings” represent about …
