Showing posts with label Energy Policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Energy Policy. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
UMWA: Stupid Is As Stupid Does
During his campaigning in 2008, Barack Obama promised, on several occasions, “I will bankrupt the coal industry “.
In spite of that promise, the president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Cecil E. Roberts announced on May 21, 2008 that his organization is endorsing Barack Obama for president. Roberts then added, “He understands and will fight for the needs our members have today and the hopes our members have for a secure future for themselves and their families.”
Obama has taken the steps needed to fulfill that promise. All coal burning power plants are scheduled for shutdown and the supporting mines are being shuttered.
Yet, in several recent appearances Roberts has addressed the issue as if it were a rogue EPA and not Obama that is responsible for the dismantling of the coal industry.
A couple of weeks ago it was announced that the United Mine Workers of America had decided not to endorse either Obama/Biden or Romney/Ryan.
Mike Caputo stated, “As of right now, we have elected to stay out of this election.” Then added,
“Our members right now have indicated to stay out of this race, and that’s why we’ve done that.... I don’t think, quite frankly, that coalfield folks are crazy about either candidate."
(Note: Mike Caputo is an UMWA official and a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates.)
Stay out of the race? Endorse no one? How stupid can they get?
Full disclosure:
The old WachDog grew up (at least my first 23 years) in the coalfields of WV. My Grandfather was a miner (WV and IL); my father was a mining engineer and superintendent, I spent four summers working at assorted mining jobs. And there are still many relatives and friends working in mines.
I was for a brief time a member of the UMWA. At that time, John L. Lewis, a devout communist, was the president. In the fifty years since, the UMWA has had a long history of ho-hum presidents. It would appear that Cecil E. Roberts is no exception!
The rank and file members are not stupid people. You cannot function in a modern mine without a considerable degree of intelligence. So why do these otherwise smart people blindly follow their idiot leadership down the road to oblivion? I could not answer that question in the 1950’s and I can’t answer it now. But I can tell you that if you have a choice between someone that you don't like because he is not a democrat and someone that is is devoted to wiping out your job, your community, and your families future, you want to make damn certain that the bastard is defeated.
To insure that Obama is defeated, you must support Romney!
The choice is yours, defy your union handlers and vote to save your job or spend the rest of your life dreaming of what might have been. -- WD
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Obama’s War On Coal Can Be Stopped, Not Reversed
by Neil W. McCabe / Human Events
8/24/2012 06:15 AM
The founder and CEO of the nation’s 12th largest coal producer told Human Events in an exclusive interview that President Barack Obama’s war on coal has done permanent damage to America’s competitiveness.
“It can be stopped, but it cannot be reversed,” said Robert E. Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, a privately-held coal producer based in Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Obama is planning to close 175 power plants by 2020, roughly equivalent to 83,000 megawatts, he said. Most of the plants will go off the grid by 2014.
The physical reality is that idle coal mines or coal-fired electric generating plants atrophy, he said.
“Those plants are not designed to remain idle,” he said. “The boilers and turbines are made to keep heat in them and they start deteriorating very rapidly.”
The same is also true for coal mines, he said.
“A coal mine is a living thing,” Murray said. “Once you stop the operation of a coal mine, they flood very quickly, and secondly, the roof conditions, even if you can keep it pumped out, slake.”
“The roof slakes, the roof spalls — these are mining terms,” he said. “As the moisture in the air goes underground from the hot air outside into the 58 degrees underground, the air currents just cut the roof down like a knife. The mine was a living thing. When it dies, you cannot bring it back.”
Romney understands that there is a whole segment of the American economy, and the American scheme of things, that is being destroyed, Murray said.
“I’ve been with Romney a number of times, and some of that was one-on-one,” he said. “I can’t betray a confidence, and never would, but I can tell you, he gets it.”
Murray said after working 31 years at a NYSE-traded coal company, he led a leveraged buyout of one of the company’s mines in 1988. Today, Murray Energy is the 12th largest producer of coal with 3,300 employees.
“My sons are fifth-generation coal miners and we were coal miners in Scotland and Wales before that,” he said.
“What has happened in the last three years is unprecedented in the history of the coal industry,” he said.
“Barack Obama and his appointees and his political supporters are destroying the United States’ coal industry deliberately,” Murray said.
When he was running for president, Obama vowed to bankrupt any new coal-fired plant with regulations, he said.
“While Joe Biden said he wanted ‘No coal in America,’” he said.
“They are making good to their promises to their radical constituencies on the Left Coast and California and in New England and elsewhere,” said the coal executive, who is a graduate from an advanced management program at the Harvard Business School and holds a bachelor’s in mine engineering from the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
“Coal-fired electrical generation has historically been $0.04 per kilowatt hour,” he said. “Wind and solar power that Obama promotes is $.22 per kilowatt hour.”
“People who manufacture a product for the global market are not going to be able to compete,” he said.
Electricity from coal is cheap and reliable, he said.
“In 2011, there was major flooding in Ohio, and the power was not available, and the utility commission required American Electric Power, the country’s largest coal-fired producer of electricity, to stay connected to 3,800 megawatts of wind power on their system,” he said.
“When the floods were on, and they needed the power, he drew on his wind power and he had 18 megawatts — ‘cause the wind wasn’t blowing,” he said.
“We can not for economic reasons, for security reasons, continue this insanity,” he said.
“It is insanity to set forth on this future for a staple we need,” he said.
“China has been building a 500-megawatt coal-fired plant every week, for years,” he said.
“What’ll be happening is that they are going to have the low-cost electricity generation and it’s going to make the United States of America even less competitive in the global marketplace, because China will have the low-cost electricity,” he said. “We will end up exporting more jobs to China.”
At the last quarterly auction of a group of electric power companies from 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states the prices for 2015 and 2016 were bid up to a price eight times what the power price was in 2011 and 2012, he said.
After the auction, utilities put out statements explaining why they bid the prices up so high, Murray said.
“There are going to be brownouts and blackouts because of the shortage of power and because they are required by the utility commissions to keep the lights on, the heat on, so they bid it up because Obama is closing all of these coal-fired $.04-a-kilowatt power plants,” he said.
There is also a human dimension to the coal business, because so many families depend on the jobs provided by coal, he said.
At one event in Wheeling, W.Va., organized by Murray, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spent an evening with 800 of his workers and their families, he said. “Afterwards, Romney looked out at the people there and said to me privately: ‘I’ll remember this night forever.’”
Murray, who as a young miner was once trapped in a dark mine for 12 hours, said he has one unionized mine, the first one he bought.
“I have dealt with the unions all my life and I understand them very well.”
Murray said union members through the years have threatened him and his family with harm. “My life has been threatened by them repeatedly during the 55 years that I have been active in the coal industry.”
“I say to my union employees: ‘Why do you let the United Mine Workers take $2,500 a year in dues from you and put it on a guy that is eliminating your job?’” he said. “They just hang their heads.”
“I know these men, they get intimidated by the United Mine Workers and they are afraid to vote them out,” he said.
It is more than just his workers’ jobs that are at risk, he said.
Studies of the economic impact of the coal industry show that because of its place in the food chain, it has a tremendous multiplier effect, he said.
“It’s up to 11 to 1, and that’s to provide the goods and services to our people that our mines require, so with that multiplier, our company accounts for some 40,000 jobs,” he said.
“If these people, who I know by name, lose their homes, they have no one to sell them too.”
“What happens is that these people that I know by name, who just want to work in honor and dignity, are denied that right,” he said.
“These people then go from the positive to the negative side of the ledger, permanently for the rest of their lives — and this is not the America I cherish,” he said.
“I grew up very poor,” he said. “My dad was paralyzed in a mining accident when I was nine-years-old, I supported my mother and my dad from the time I was 16.”
“Obama is eliminating jobs by the tens of thousands in areas where there is nothing else for these people to do,” Murray said.
“You give a 52-year-old man, who’s never had a decent job after working for 30 years, you give that man a job and he just starts bawling in your office,” he said.
“Obama has never had a job, he’s never created a job, he’s never seen that,” he said. “I see it every day.”
Murray said the president and federal regulators target his company.
“I can’t get permits that other coal companies get,” he said. “I get scrutiny from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, Mine and Safety Administration and the Department of the Interior’s office of coal mining that other companies don’t get.”
“I have a target on my back,” he said. I’ve been doing this for 55 years and it’s unbelievable that it is happening in the United States of America,” he said.
“When Obama and his appointees push on Bob Murray, I push back harder — but, I get frightened,” he said. “I am frightened at the moment because of what they do.”
But, he will continue to push back, he said.
“Why? Because, I know the names of those thirty-three hundred people, “Murray said. “Everything that they have is going to be destroyed.”
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
8/24/2012 06:15 AM
The founder and CEO of the nation’s 12th largest coal producer told Human Events in an exclusive interview that President Barack Obama’s war on coal has done permanent damage to America’s competitiveness.
“It can be stopped, but it cannot be reversed,” said Robert E. Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, a privately-held coal producer based in Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Obama is planning to close 175 power plants by 2020, roughly equivalent to 83,000 megawatts, he said. Most of the plants will go off the grid by 2014.
The physical reality is that idle coal mines or coal-fired electric generating plants atrophy, he said.
“Those plants are not designed to remain idle,” he said. “The boilers and turbines are made to keep heat in them and they start deteriorating very rapidly.”
The same is also true for coal mines, he said.
“A coal mine is a living thing,” Murray said. “Once you stop the operation of a coal mine, they flood very quickly, and secondly, the roof conditions, even if you can keep it pumped out, slake.”
“The roof slakes, the roof spalls — these are mining terms,” he said. “As the moisture in the air goes underground from the hot air outside into the 58 degrees underground, the air currents just cut the roof down like a knife. The mine was a living thing. When it dies, you cannot bring it back.”
Romney understands that there is a whole segment of the American economy, and the American scheme of things, that is being destroyed, Murray said.
“I’ve been with Romney a number of times, and some of that was one-on-one,” he said. “I can’t betray a confidence, and never would, but I can tell you, he gets it.”
Murray said after working 31 years at a NYSE-traded coal company, he led a leveraged buyout of one of the company’s mines in 1988. Today, Murray Energy is the 12th largest producer of coal with 3,300 employees.
“My sons are fifth-generation coal miners and we were coal miners in Scotland and Wales before that,” he said.
“What has happened in the last three years is unprecedented in the history of the coal industry,” he said.
“Barack Obama and his appointees and his political supporters are destroying the United States’ coal industry deliberately,” Murray said.
When he was running for president, Obama vowed to bankrupt any new coal-fired plant with regulations, he said.
“While Joe Biden said he wanted ‘No coal in America,’” he said.
“They are making good to their promises to their radical constituencies on the Left Coast and California and in New England and elsewhere,” said the coal executive, who is a graduate from an advanced management program at the Harvard Business School and holds a bachelor’s in mine engineering from the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
“Coal-fired electrical generation has historically been $0.04 per kilowatt hour,” he said. “Wind and solar power that Obama promotes is $.22 per kilowatt hour.”
“People who manufacture a product for the global market are not going to be able to compete,” he said.
Electricity from coal is cheap and reliable, he said.
“In 2011, there was major flooding in Ohio, and the power was not available, and the utility commission required American Electric Power, the country’s largest coal-fired producer of electricity, to stay connected to 3,800 megawatts of wind power on their system,” he said.
“When the floods were on, and they needed the power, he drew on his wind power and he had 18 megawatts — ‘cause the wind wasn’t blowing,” he said.
“We can not for economic reasons, for security reasons, continue this insanity,” he said.
“It is insanity to set forth on this future for a staple we need,” he said.
“China has been building a 500-megawatt coal-fired plant every week, for years,” he said.
“What’ll be happening is that they are going to have the low-cost electricity generation and it’s going to make the United States of America even less competitive in the global marketplace, because China will have the low-cost electricity,” he said. “We will end up exporting more jobs to China.”
At the last quarterly auction of a group of electric power companies from 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states the prices for 2015 and 2016 were bid up to a price eight times what the power price was in 2011 and 2012, he said.
After the auction, utilities put out statements explaining why they bid the prices up so high, Murray said.
“There are going to be brownouts and blackouts because of the shortage of power and because they are required by the utility commissions to keep the lights on, the heat on, so they bid it up because Obama is closing all of these coal-fired $.04-a-kilowatt power plants,” he said.
There is also a human dimension to the coal business, because so many families depend on the jobs provided by coal, he said.
At one event in Wheeling, W.Va., organized by Murray, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spent an evening with 800 of his workers and their families, he said. “Afterwards, Romney looked out at the people there and said to me privately: ‘I’ll remember this night forever.’”
Murray, who as a young miner was once trapped in a dark mine for 12 hours, said he has one unionized mine, the first one he bought.
“I have dealt with the unions all my life and I understand them very well.”
Murray said union members through the years have threatened him and his family with harm. “My life has been threatened by them repeatedly during the 55 years that I have been active in the coal industry.”
“I say to my union employees: ‘Why do you let the United Mine Workers take $2,500 a year in dues from you and put it on a guy that is eliminating your job?’” he said. “They just hang their heads.”
“I know these men, they get intimidated by the United Mine Workers and they are afraid to vote them out,” he said.
It is more than just his workers’ jobs that are at risk, he said.
Studies of the economic impact of the coal industry show that because of its place in the food chain, it has a tremendous multiplier effect, he said.
“It’s up to 11 to 1, and that’s to provide the goods and services to our people that our mines require, so with that multiplier, our company accounts for some 40,000 jobs,” he said.
“If these people, who I know by name, lose their homes, they have no one to sell them too.”
“What happens is that these people that I know by name, who just want to work in honor and dignity, are denied that right,” he said.
“These people then go from the positive to the negative side of the ledger, permanently for the rest of their lives — and this is not the America I cherish,” he said.
“I grew up very poor,” he said. “My dad was paralyzed in a mining accident when I was nine-years-old, I supported my mother and my dad from the time I was 16.”
“Obama is eliminating jobs by the tens of thousands in areas where there is nothing else for these people to do,” Murray said.
“You give a 52-year-old man, who’s never had a decent job after working for 30 years, you give that man a job and he just starts bawling in your office,” he said.
“Obama has never had a job, he’s never created a job, he’s never seen that,” he said. “I see it every day.”
Murray said the president and federal regulators target his company.
“I can’t get permits that other coal companies get,” he said. “I get scrutiny from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, Mine and Safety Administration and the Department of the Interior’s office of coal mining that other companies don’t get.”
“I have a target on my back,” he said. I’ve been doing this for 55 years and it’s unbelievable that it is happening in the United States of America,” he said.
“When Obama and his appointees push on Bob Murray, I push back harder — but, I get frightened,” he said. “I am frightened at the moment because of what they do.”
But, he will continue to push back, he said.
“Why? Because, I know the names of those thirty-three hundred people, “Murray said. “Everything that they have is going to be destroyed.”
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Down Grade Is No Big Deal; But Spending Is!
Late Friday, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) announced that they had lowered the United State’s credit rating from an AAA to an AA+. Moody's also followed suit with a down grade of their own.
In the real world, this reduction in credit rating is not a big deal. The stock market will be volatile for a few days or perhaps a week for investors to figure this out, but in the long run this reduction will have no lasting effect. The U.S. role in the World economy has not changed.
The only exception would be if the Obama administration intentionally creates a crisis.
As soon as the White House heard about the down grade, their spin machine was set into motion. They accused S&P of incompetence, they blamed Bush, they blamed the House of Representatives, they blamed the Tea Party, and they blamed the kitchen sink. Most of all, they blamed the House because of the drawn out negotiations to finally raise the debt ceiling in the eleventh hour.
You will note that they do not see themselves responsible at all. Nor did they point out that they had inherited an AAA rating from George Bush.
The down grade came as no surprise to those who were paying attention! The credit rating agencies had told anyone that would listen that the U.S. needed to cut spending by at least $4 trillion, in real spending, if we wanted to retain an AAA rating.
According to at least one S&P spokesman, the first bill PASSED by the House of Representatives and backed by the “Tea Party” would have met ALL the requirements. But as we all know the White House and Harry Reid declared it dead on arrival. Throughout the discussions on raising the Debt Ceiling, it was the Senate Democrats and the White House that stood as obstructionist’s and offered no plans of their own. And it was the Democrats that opposed all real spending cuts.
It has been made very clear that the only path back to an AAA rating must contain a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment’, because Congress cannot pass a bill that any future Congress or even by themselves cannot change.
Both parties are too blame for the massive debt. However, 80% of the current problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the Obama regime. A quote from S&P specifically said that Obamacare would require significant modifications to bring down the growing costs associated with it.
S&P never, in spite of the Democrats claims, stated that tax increases were needed and neither did Moody's. In fact, one of their concerns was that we keep going to a relatively small number of sources with our ever growing taxation.
A GAO report stated that if we doubled the amount of taxes received from all current payers, we would still fall short of our annual expenditures by about ½ a trillion dollars.
It is the “Tea Party” that was pushing for a ‘Debt Ceiling’ bill that would have protected the AAA credit rating and moved the nation toward a sound financial policy by insisting that a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment” be moved through Congress and sent to the states.
The Democrats have been terrified by the grassroots ‘Tea Party’ movement and take every opportunity to attack them. “Why? Because that is what they do!” (line borrowed from Chris Plante/talk radio host).
However, if we are going to save this nation, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, and others had better adopt the ‘Tea Party’ values of getting back to the Constitution, while reducing the size and cost of the Federal government.
Ronald Reagan used to say, “The government is not the solution to the problem, the government is the problem.”
Never has that been truer than it is today. We have the EPA about to cost millions of jobs and trillions of dollars with phony baloney, Cap and Trade’ carbon regulations, Obamacare is already on its way to bankrupt the nation while destroying the best heath care system in the World, and there is the planned energy policy which will cost even more jobs and kill the economy, just in case all else fails.
If you don’t believe that Obama wants to economically destroy America, ask yourself, If he wanted to destroy America’s economy and prestige, what would he have done differently? The answer is nothing would have been different!
No one could be that wrong or that stupid by accident!
Wake up People! You have to be the ones that save America!
God bless the ‘Tea Party’ and all others that think like them.
In the real world, this reduction in credit rating is not a big deal. The stock market will be volatile for a few days or perhaps a week for investors to figure this out, but in the long run this reduction will have no lasting effect. The U.S. role in the World economy has not changed.
The only exception would be if the Obama administration intentionally creates a crisis.
As soon as the White House heard about the down grade, their spin machine was set into motion. They accused S&P of incompetence, they blamed Bush, they blamed the House of Representatives, they blamed the Tea Party, and they blamed the kitchen sink. Most of all, they blamed the House because of the drawn out negotiations to finally raise the debt ceiling in the eleventh hour.
You will note that they do not see themselves responsible at all. Nor did they point out that they had inherited an AAA rating from George Bush.
The down grade came as no surprise to those who were paying attention! The credit rating agencies had told anyone that would listen that the U.S. needed to cut spending by at least $4 trillion, in real spending, if we wanted to retain an AAA rating.
According to at least one S&P spokesman, the first bill PASSED by the House of Representatives and backed by the “Tea Party” would have met ALL the requirements. But as we all know the White House and Harry Reid declared it dead on arrival. Throughout the discussions on raising the Debt Ceiling, it was the Senate Democrats and the White House that stood as obstructionist’s and offered no plans of their own. And it was the Democrats that opposed all real spending cuts.
It has been made very clear that the only path back to an AAA rating must contain a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment’, because Congress cannot pass a bill that any future Congress or even by themselves cannot change.
Both parties are too blame for the massive debt. However, 80% of the current problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the Obama regime. A quote from S&P specifically said that Obamacare would require significant modifications to bring down the growing costs associated with it.
S&P never, in spite of the Democrats claims, stated that tax increases were needed and neither did Moody's. In fact, one of their concerns was that we keep going to a relatively small number of sources with our ever growing taxation.
A GAO report stated that if we doubled the amount of taxes received from all current payers, we would still fall short of our annual expenditures by about ½ a trillion dollars.
It is the “Tea Party” that was pushing for a ‘Debt Ceiling’ bill that would have protected the AAA credit rating and moved the nation toward a sound financial policy by insisting that a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment” be moved through Congress and sent to the states.
The Democrats have been terrified by the grassroots ‘Tea Party’ movement and take every opportunity to attack them. “Why? Because that is what they do!” (line borrowed from Chris Plante/talk radio host).
However, if we are going to save this nation, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, and others had better adopt the ‘Tea Party’ values of getting back to the Constitution, while reducing the size and cost of the Federal government.
Ronald Reagan used to say, “The government is not the solution to the problem, the government is the problem.”
Never has that been truer than it is today. We have the EPA about to cost millions of jobs and trillions of dollars with phony baloney, Cap and Trade’ carbon regulations, Obamacare is already on its way to bankrupt the nation while destroying the best heath care system in the World, and there is the planned energy policy which will cost even more jobs and kill the economy, just in case all else fails.
If you don’t believe that Obama wants to economically destroy America, ask yourself, If he wanted to destroy America’s economy and prestige, what would he have done differently? The answer is nothing would have been different!
No one could be that wrong or that stupid by accident!
Wake up People! You have to be the ones that save America!
God bless the ‘Tea Party’ and all others that think like them.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Soros/Obama Conspire To, “End America as we know it!”
A few weeks ago, George Soros hosted a major economic conference, called the Bretton Woods Event, whose purpose was to change the entire global economy. The main objective is to remove America as a key player in the world’s economy by destroying the Dollar. The major media paid little attention to the event.
What can George Soros do to harm the Dollar? You may ask.
It was the billionaire Soros who crushed the British pound through currency trading. He has declared that he plans to reform the world’s currency system. The America hating Soros has publicly stated, America must end its reign as the world reserve currency. In 2009, Soros wrote, “The dollar no longer enjoys the trust and confidence that it once did, yet no other currency can take its place.”
In October 2009, Soros founded the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) with a donation of $50 million of his own money. The founding of INET was a major move toward undermining the dollar.
Long time Soros friend, Nobel Prize Winner, Joseph Stiglitz chairs the ‘UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.’ Stiglitz is arguing for a new 'global system,' saying the current one is 'fundamentally unfair because it means that poor countries are lending to the U.S. at close to zero interest rates.'
It has only been a few weeks, since the Bretton Woods event, but the move against the dollar has gained momentum rapidly. In 2009, Soros wrote “The rising powers must be present at the creation of this new system to ensure that they will be active supporters.”
Those rising powers have begun to join together--
The BRICS member nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – held a summit meeting one week after Soros held his. The BRICS nations are calling for “Restructuring of the World War II-era global financial system and an eventual end to the long reign of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.”
One of the options being considered is called “Special Drawing Rights” (SDRs). SDRs are essentially a mix of - the Euro, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling and U.S. Dollar. A switch to the SDRs would result in the decline of the U.S. economy.
There is also considerable support to include the Chinese Remimbi in the SDR’s.
The odds on favorite to become the new leader of the “International Monetary Fund is former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This is significant because Brown is a Soros believer and attended the Bretton Woods Event.
Brown’s major contribution to that conference was the line, “American and European dominance is no longer a fact.'
Soros once pledged that he was willing to spend every penny of his vast fortune to bring America to her knees. He is working hard to make that desire a reality.
For years, Soros has used his billions to influence elections, fund radical anti-American organizations including ACORN, La Raza, MoveOn.org, NOW and the Center for American Progress -- an organization that is feeding progressive talking points to the Obama administration.
There is a great deal of evidence that indicates that Soros, through his many organizations, bought the 2008 election for Obama.
Obama, who also hates America (read his damn books) is repaying Soros big time!
Just look at what Obama is doing to undermine the economy and the dollar:
1. Extremely high fuel prices cause by the administration!
2. Bankruptcy as the result of government spending
3. A total moratorium on any new Oil and Gas production
4. Destruction of the Coal Industry and forcing the shutdown of Coal fueled power plants
5. The pushing of Cap and Trade regulations by the EPA
6. The government seizure of corporations, with more to come
7. The massive redistribution of wealth
8. The takeover (and destruction) of the healthcare system
9. The absolute refusal to recognize the need for budget-cuts
10. He has done absolutely nothing to help create jobs.
All of these have led to a major reduction in the United State’s bond rating, as announced by Standard and Poors, this week.
That reduction in our bond rating has greatly strengthened Soros' hand, and you now have the makings for “The End of America as we know it!”
“The End of America as we know it!”; wasn’t that an Obama campaign pledge?
Obama's answer to everything is a big speech packed with lies.
-- WD
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
What can George Soros do to harm the Dollar? You may ask.
It was the billionaire Soros who crushed the British pound through currency trading. He has declared that he plans to reform the world’s currency system. The America hating Soros has publicly stated, America must end its reign as the world reserve currency. In 2009, Soros wrote, “The dollar no longer enjoys the trust and confidence that it once did, yet no other currency can take its place.”
In October 2009, Soros founded the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) with a donation of $50 million of his own money. The founding of INET was a major move toward undermining the dollar.
Long time Soros friend, Nobel Prize Winner, Joseph Stiglitz chairs the ‘UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.’ Stiglitz is arguing for a new 'global system,' saying the current one is 'fundamentally unfair because it means that poor countries are lending to the U.S. at close to zero interest rates.'
It has only been a few weeks, since the Bretton Woods event, but the move against the dollar has gained momentum rapidly. In 2009, Soros wrote “The rising powers must be present at the creation of this new system to ensure that they will be active supporters.”
Those rising powers have begun to join together--
The BRICS member nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – held a summit meeting one week after Soros held his. The BRICS nations are calling for “Restructuring of the World War II-era global financial system and an eventual end to the long reign of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.”
One of the options being considered is called “Special Drawing Rights” (SDRs). SDRs are essentially a mix of - the Euro, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling and U.S. Dollar. A switch to the SDRs would result in the decline of the U.S. economy.
There is also considerable support to include the Chinese Remimbi in the SDR’s.
The odds on favorite to become the new leader of the “International Monetary Fund is former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This is significant because Brown is a Soros believer and attended the Bretton Woods Event.
Brown’s major contribution to that conference was the line, “American and European dominance is no longer a fact.'
Soros once pledged that he was willing to spend every penny of his vast fortune to bring America to her knees. He is working hard to make that desire a reality.
For years, Soros has used his billions to influence elections, fund radical anti-American organizations including ACORN, La Raza, MoveOn.org, NOW and the Center for American Progress -- an organization that is feeding progressive talking points to the Obama administration.
There is a great deal of evidence that indicates that Soros, through his many organizations, bought the 2008 election for Obama.
Obama, who also hates America (read his damn books) is repaying Soros big time!
Just look at what Obama is doing to undermine the economy and the dollar:
1. Extremely high fuel prices cause by the administration!
2. Bankruptcy as the result of government spending
3. A total moratorium on any new Oil and Gas production
4. Destruction of the Coal Industry and forcing the shutdown of Coal fueled power plants
5. The pushing of Cap and Trade regulations by the EPA
6. The government seizure of corporations, with more to come
7. The massive redistribution of wealth
8. The takeover (and destruction) of the healthcare system
9. The absolute refusal to recognize the need for budget-cuts
10. He has done absolutely nothing to help create jobs.
All of these have led to a major reduction in the United State’s bond rating, as announced by Standard and Poors, this week.
That reduction in our bond rating has greatly strengthened Soros' hand, and you now have the makings for “The End of America as we know it!”
“The End of America as we know it!”; wasn’t that an Obama campaign pledge?
Obama's answer to everything is a big speech packed with lies.
-- WD
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A Sound Energy Policy Could Solve A Lot Of Problems
by Watch Dog
Ronald Reagan told us, “The government is not the solution to the problem! Government is the problem!”
Nowhere is this more evident than in our ‘Energy Policy‘! It is a fact that the current ‘Energy policy’ is a NO energy policy.
There is talk of “renewable” ‘Green Energy ‘; these include Biofuels, solar, wind energy and some wonderful yet to be found unknown. Science tells us that Solar and Wind can reliably supply about 4% of the nation’s energy needs. Technology is not even close to a having method of producing a viable Biofuel in any significant quantity. If or when a new fuel is discovered or created, it will take 20 to 30 years to build the infrastructure to distribute it and the machines that will use it.
There is a Corn to Ethanol program, the Ethanol is used as an additive to gasoline. This program is said to reduce our need for oil by up to 15%; but at what cost? The Ethanol is subsidized to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year and it is 20% less efficient than gasoline! Many studies have also indicated that when one includes the process of fermenting and distilling, Ethanol pollutes more than gasoline. Furthermore, using corn in this manner has contributed to world food shortages and higher food costs here in America. Because Ethanol readily absorbs moisture, it cannot be distributed via regular channels and must be trucked.
Some politician and others claim that all we have to do is fund a “Manhattan Project”. The Manhattan Project” was not the result of giving scientists million of dollars and sending them off to create an awesome unknown weapon. Scientists already knew that if you could create the chain reaction needed, that the Atom Bomb would produce tremendous devastation. Their job was to make a well founded theory in to a working bomb. We have no well founded theory for a new fuel.
The Obama policy is to ban the use of ALL fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) without first finding a replacement. How stupid is that?
Even if a ‘miracle’ fuel is discovered, it will take decades to transform from current systems to new systems. If you want to drive a car, work at a job, or get quality pharmaceuticals over those transition decades, you need oil. A friend told me that she thought that Obama’s plan was akin to doctors removing an ailing heart in the hope that a new one might be found.
If your goal is to destroy the economy and reduce America to the status of a third world power, it makes perfect sense to shutdown all viable energy sources now; otherwise, you would have to be an idiot!
In truth, there is absolutely no reason to ban fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels does not add to the Earth’s temperature. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is an insignificant contributor to any greenhouse effect. CO2 makes up far less than 1% of all ‘Greenhouse Gases” while water vapor makes up more than 95% of all greenhouse gases.
One of the things left out of Global Warming discussions is the fact that during the ‘50’s, ‘60’s, and early ‘70’s industry pumped 1000’s of tons hydrocarbons and CO2 into the atmosphere. Pittsburg for example, was so polluted by smoke from coke ovens and steel mills that if you were on the outside looking in, it appeared as an amber dome. The air was so thick that if you were in the city you could look directly at the Sun without hurting your eyes. At the time Pittsburg was pretty typical of hundreds of similar cities and towns the world over. If CO2 and hydrocarbons were a problem, that would be the time for holes in the Ozone and man caused rising temperatures.
In addition to the false claim that we are creating ‘Greenhouse Gases’, the naysayers tell us that we do not have enough untapped oil or coal to last more than a few months. They also claim that we only have enough natural gas to last a few decades.
The governments own reports show that in we have enough coal, oil, and natural gas to supply our projected needs for several centuries in to the future. The truth is that the United States has more known and yet untapped energy resources than the rest of the world combined. By some accounts, we have enough resources to carry us well into the next millennium. If the reader wishes to confirm these claims, he need only read earlier articles which are posted on this blog. Those articles go into detail and identify the sources of the data. All of the data is also available on U.S. Government websites.
The U.S. has billions of tons of Coal reserves. Coal can be converted to petroleum and in mass production, be competitive with crude oil selling at $35/barrel. We call this product Synfuel. The technology has been around for a long time and has been very well tested.
The Germans used Coal based Synfuel for 50% of all their fuel in WW-II. All most all of their aircraft, tanks, and military trucks were using it.
The U.S. has trillions of cubic feet of Natural Gas which can also be converted to Synfuel.
Our Air Force and Army have conducted extensive testing of Synfuels---their findings are that the Synfuel functions as well as regular petroleum products, but the Synfuels also produce greater energy and burn cleaner; which means less pollution, longer engine life, and better efficiency.
A Synfuel based Energy Policy offers many advantages over anything proposed to date:
1. It can be done without any tax dollars. Industry has made the investments toward developing these products and if government would just get the hell out of the way, these same companies will be happy to complete the task.
2. It will create 100’s of thousands of real jobs and at all skill levels.
3. These jobs cannot be exported.
4. It will help bring our balance in trade under control.
5. It will increase the strength of the dollar
6. It will create 100’s of billions of new taxes without increasing tax rates.
7. Synfuels can be distributed through existing systems.
Nuclear Energy also has a place in a sound energy policy, but we save that discussion for another day.
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Ronald Reagan told us, “The government is not the solution to the problem! Government is the problem!”
Nowhere is this more evident than in our ‘Energy Policy‘! It is a fact that the current ‘Energy policy’ is a NO energy policy.
There is talk of “renewable” ‘Green Energy ‘; these include Biofuels, solar, wind energy and some wonderful yet to be found unknown. Science tells us that Solar and Wind can reliably supply about 4% of the nation’s energy needs. Technology is not even close to a having method of producing a viable Biofuel in any significant quantity. If or when a new fuel is discovered or created, it will take 20 to 30 years to build the infrastructure to distribute it and the machines that will use it.
There is a Corn to Ethanol program, the Ethanol is used as an additive to gasoline. This program is said to reduce our need for oil by up to 15%; but at what cost? The Ethanol is subsidized to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year and it is 20% less efficient than gasoline! Many studies have also indicated that when one includes the process of fermenting and distilling, Ethanol pollutes more than gasoline. Furthermore, using corn in this manner has contributed to world food shortages and higher food costs here in America. Because Ethanol readily absorbs moisture, it cannot be distributed via regular channels and must be trucked.
Some politician and others claim that all we have to do is fund a “Manhattan Project”. The Manhattan Project” was not the result of giving scientists million of dollars and sending them off to create an awesome unknown weapon. Scientists already knew that if you could create the chain reaction needed, that the Atom Bomb would produce tremendous devastation. Their job was to make a well founded theory in to a working bomb. We have no well founded theory for a new fuel.
The Obama policy is to ban the use of ALL fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) without first finding a replacement. How stupid is that?
Even if a ‘miracle’ fuel is discovered, it will take decades to transform from current systems to new systems. If you want to drive a car, work at a job, or get quality pharmaceuticals over those transition decades, you need oil. A friend told me that she thought that Obama’s plan was akin to doctors removing an ailing heart in the hope that a new one might be found.
If your goal is to destroy the economy and reduce America to the status of a third world power, it makes perfect sense to shutdown all viable energy sources now; otherwise, you would have to be an idiot!
In truth, there is absolutely no reason to ban fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels does not add to the Earth’s temperature. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is an insignificant contributor to any greenhouse effect. CO2 makes up far less than 1% of all ‘Greenhouse Gases” while water vapor makes up more than 95% of all greenhouse gases.
One of the things left out of Global Warming discussions is the fact that during the ‘50’s, ‘60’s, and early ‘70’s industry pumped 1000’s of tons hydrocarbons and CO2 into the atmosphere. Pittsburg for example, was so polluted by smoke from coke ovens and steel mills that if you were on the outside looking in, it appeared as an amber dome. The air was so thick that if you were in the city you could look directly at the Sun without hurting your eyes. At the time Pittsburg was pretty typical of hundreds of similar cities and towns the world over. If CO2 and hydrocarbons were a problem, that would be the time for holes in the Ozone and man caused rising temperatures.
In addition to the false claim that we are creating ‘Greenhouse Gases’, the naysayers tell us that we do not have enough untapped oil or coal to last more than a few months. They also claim that we only have enough natural gas to last a few decades.
The governments own reports show that in we have enough coal, oil, and natural gas to supply our projected needs for several centuries in to the future. The truth is that the United States has more known and yet untapped energy resources than the rest of the world combined. By some accounts, we have enough resources to carry us well into the next millennium. If the reader wishes to confirm these claims, he need only read earlier articles which are posted on this blog. Those articles go into detail and identify the sources of the data. All of the data is also available on U.S. Government websites.
The U.S. has billions of tons of Coal reserves. Coal can be converted to petroleum and in mass production, be competitive with crude oil selling at $35/barrel. We call this product Synfuel. The technology has been around for a long time and has been very well tested.
The Germans used Coal based Synfuel for 50% of all their fuel in WW-II. All most all of their aircraft, tanks, and military trucks were using it.
The U.S. has trillions of cubic feet of Natural Gas which can also be converted to Synfuel.
Our Air Force and Army have conducted extensive testing of Synfuels---their findings are that the Synfuel functions as well as regular petroleum products, but the Synfuels also produce greater energy and burn cleaner; which means less pollution, longer engine life, and better efficiency.
A Synfuel based Energy Policy offers many advantages over anything proposed to date:
1. It can be done without any tax dollars. Industry has made the investments toward developing these products and if government would just get the hell out of the way, these same companies will be happy to complete the task.
2. It will create 100’s of thousands of real jobs and at all skill levels.
3. These jobs cannot be exported.
4. It will help bring our balance in trade under control.
5. It will increase the strength of the dollar
6. It will create 100’s of billions of new taxes without increasing tax rates.
7. Synfuels can be distributed through existing systems.
Nuclear Energy also has a place in a sound energy policy, but we save that discussion for another day.
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
"Energy Bill -- All Hype & No Substance"
Yesterday, President Bush signed into law an “Energy” Bill that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles and require wider use of ethanol. Mr. Bush called it, “a step toward energy independence and easing global warming”.
The legislation increases the CAFE standard automakers must meet to 35 mpg for passenger cars, SUV’s and small trucks. The current standard is 27.5 mpg for car, and 22.2 mpg for SUV’s and light trucks.
Refineries will be required to increase the use of ethanol from about 6 billion gallons a year this year to 36 billion gallons by 2022 and mandates that by then at least 21 billion gallons are to come from sources other than corn.
Democrats have hailed the legislation as a turn to a new direction in U.S. energy policy.
Mr. Bush noted that bill failed to address the need for more nuclear energy and domestic oil production. Instead, the bill focuses largely on conservation, calling for more energy efficiency.
In reality, this is one of the most destructive bills ever enacted into law.
The current CAFÉ standards created small, relatively dangerous cars. Americans protested by purchasing SUV’s and pickup trucks in record numbers. Even thought the number of SUV’s and light trucks doubled, more than 2000 addition deaths per year were attributed to under sized automobiles created to meet the CAFÉ requirements.
With the new standards, cars will be even smaller and lighter. In addition, they have taken away the option to purchase a safer SUV or light truck. Estimates on the number of deaths that will result from ultra-light vehicles range from 6,000 to 10,000 per year. Where will those that trailer a boat or use other trailers turn for a tow vehicle?
In spite of claims to the contrary, experts do not believe that this legislation will result in any reduction in imported oil, but will instead, be very harmful to the economy of the U.S. and contribute to global hunger. Most experts, in fact, project major fuel shortages.
Let’s be perfectly clear, this legislation does nothing to reduce the number of coal burning power plants, nothing to increase the use of clean nuclear power, and it does not address the 40% of additional energy that will be required by 2015. It also does not address the problems associated with jet fuel.
The current demand for Ethanol based fuel has doubled the price of corn, decreased the supply of all food grains, and increased the cost of virtually all animal products including milk. This new bill triples the need for corn based Ethanol. Food prices will follow!
Major grain shortages are occurring world wide. These shortages are and will continue to be exacerbated by the use of grains for fuel.
All this legislation does is extend our dependence of OPEC another 20 years and delays any solutions well into the future while sacrificing 10,000’s of American lives at the alter of Environmentalism.
A simple program supporting the conversion of coal into natural gas and other clean burning synfuels would resolve all the above problems.
Furthermore, there are trillions of barrels of recoverable oil lying under U.S. soil just waiting for a Congress with the intelligence and guts to do the right thing.
If Congress had the will, we could be rid of OPEC in a matter of months.
The legislation increases the CAFE standard automakers must meet to 35 mpg for passenger cars, SUV’s and small trucks. The current standard is 27.5 mpg for car, and 22.2 mpg for SUV’s and light trucks.
Refineries will be required to increase the use of ethanol from about 6 billion gallons a year this year to 36 billion gallons by 2022 and mandates that by then at least 21 billion gallons are to come from sources other than corn.
Democrats have hailed the legislation as a turn to a new direction in U.S. energy policy.
Mr. Bush noted that bill failed to address the need for more nuclear energy and domestic oil production. Instead, the bill focuses largely on conservation, calling for more energy efficiency.
In reality, this is one of the most destructive bills ever enacted into law.
The current CAFÉ standards created small, relatively dangerous cars. Americans protested by purchasing SUV’s and pickup trucks in record numbers. Even thought the number of SUV’s and light trucks doubled, more than 2000 addition deaths per year were attributed to under sized automobiles created to meet the CAFÉ requirements.
With the new standards, cars will be even smaller and lighter. In addition, they have taken away the option to purchase a safer SUV or light truck. Estimates on the number of deaths that will result from ultra-light vehicles range from 6,000 to 10,000 per year. Where will those that trailer a boat or use other trailers turn for a tow vehicle?
In spite of claims to the contrary, experts do not believe that this legislation will result in any reduction in imported oil, but will instead, be very harmful to the economy of the U.S. and contribute to global hunger. Most experts, in fact, project major fuel shortages.
Let’s be perfectly clear, this legislation does nothing to reduce the number of coal burning power plants, nothing to increase the use of clean nuclear power, and it does not address the 40% of additional energy that will be required by 2015. It also does not address the problems associated with jet fuel.
The current demand for Ethanol based fuel has doubled the price of corn, decreased the supply of all food grains, and increased the cost of virtually all animal products including milk. This new bill triples the need for corn based Ethanol. Food prices will follow!
Major grain shortages are occurring world wide. These shortages are and will continue to be exacerbated by the use of grains for fuel.
All this legislation does is extend our dependence of OPEC another 20 years and delays any solutions well into the future while sacrificing 10,000’s of American lives at the alter of Environmentalism.
A simple program supporting the conversion of coal into natural gas and other clean burning synfuels would resolve all the above problems.
Furthermore, there are trillions of barrels of recoverable oil lying under U.S. soil just waiting for a Congress with the intelligence and guts to do the right thing.
If Congress had the will, we could be rid of OPEC in a matter of months.
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