Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) told the Environmental Protection Agency that its national carbon capping plans were not welcome in the Lone Star State: Implementing such regulations would cripple the Texas’ energy sector, irreparably damaging both the state and national economies, and severely impacting national oil and gas supplies. … Costly regulation that reduces our ability to provide energy and other products to the nation will have a disproportionate impact on Texas. Reuters also reported: Despite its traditional oil-and-gas image, Texas also has more installed emission-free wind generation than any …
It’s time for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to put his money where his mouth is. He’s a vehement believer that the United States needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and in March he advocated the use of nuclear power in America. He said, I myself think that nuclear power has a great future, and I think that we should look at it seriously again. I know there are people who are scared about it, and I know there are certain environmentalists that put the scare tactics out there, and …
California’s Air Resources Board issued its final draft of an economy-wide plan that would slash the state’s emissions about 15% below today’s level by 2020. California voters and state legislators will not get to vote on the plan. Just like the EPA’s power grab at the federal level, unelected government officials already hold the fate of the entire economy in their hands. The Air Resource Board can turn its plan into law by its own vote this December. The environmental left is making fantastic claims to justify this unprecedented expansion …
The Gang of 10 now rolls 16 deep. Six more Senators, three Democrats and three Republicans, joined the original gang of ten Senators seeking to expand offshore drilling, albeit the production expansion would be limited and taxes would be raised over $80 billion to promote renewable sources of energy. Repealing tax breaks for oil companies would be a part of the strategy to raise this money. President Bush did his part by repealing presidential restrictions on offshore drilling, an executive moratorium that was in place for nearly twenty years. And …
George Skelton makes the case that Californians should “let go of the past and allow offshore oil drilling” in the Los Angeles Times: California is the nation’s biggest consumer of gasoline — 45 million gallons a day, plus 10 million gallons of diesel. That makes us the third-biggest petroleum-consuming entity in the world, behind only the United States and China. We are the nation’s No. 3 oil-producing state, behind Texas and Alaska. But California produces only 39% of the crude oil it uses. An additional 16% comes from Alaska and …
The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that a new Public Policy Institute of California poll shows that, for the first time in 30 years, a majority (51%) of Californians support drilling off the coast of California. Responding to the fact that a majority if her constituents disagree with her on the issue, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told the Chronicle: “The appropriate question is if you knew you could get more energy from efficiency and clean technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal, would you rather do that or drill along …
The biggest reason liberals failed to get the Senate to pass the Lieberman-Warner mandatory carbon emission cap bill was because they failed to convince the American people that the economic harm carbon caps would cause were worth the meager and mostly symbolic benefits. Since very few analysts believe the price of energy will be any lower in 2009, the left faces certain failure should they try a legislative fix again next year. Enter the California model. Last week the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unveiled its plan to reduce California’s …
Despite an $8 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is refusing to address the impact illegal immigration has on the state’s budget. California Republicans have introduced two dozen bills that would reduce the negative impact illegal immigrants have on the budget. Assemblyman Ted Gaines (R) explains: “There’s a cost associated with illegal immigration whether we’re in a deficit mode or not. I think it just becomes more (significant) when we’re in a deficit mode and we’re having to make tough cuts across the board in education and health and human …
If something does not change fast the city of Vallejo, California will soon declare bankruptcy. The San Francisco Chronicle tags the departure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard on April 1, 1996, as the “key moment” in Vallejo’s woes, but a closer read of the article shows that the true culprit is organized labor. Despite being a destination for middle class families to find affordable housing, the famously pro-labor town has the highest paid police officers and firefighters in the Bay Area. The city pay firefighters 10 percent more than others …
When California passed its Global Warming Solutions Act in August 2006 environmentalists hailed it as “a breakthrough piece of legislation” they hoped would lead to “a domino effect prompting other states, other countries, and — who knows? — maybe even the United States government to jump on board.” Of course, like everything else in environmentalist la-la land, the real costs and details of reaching the act’s 25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 were either completely ignored or papered over with hollow rhetoric about how green industries would create thousands …
