Are Electric Rates Hurting Your Business?
December/16/2011
As a business owner, I’m alarmed by rising electrical rates. We have shut down rooms in our admittedly too-large studio, and we’ve organized our sessions and sales meetings to only several days a week so that we can turn off the heat or airconditioning for several days at a time. We use oil space heaters in the office when the heat is off, and we have installed the most energy-efficient heat pump we can buy. Still, our electric bills have doubled in the last year. Are we surprised? Heck no! We took the President at his word when he said that EPA rules would make electric rates “necessarily skyrocket.” Nothing like a politician who keeps him promises when the economy is on the rocks!
Those rules just began kicking in this year, and there’s lot more to come, so when the lights go out, pull out your flashlight and read this piece from the National Center for Policy Research.
It’s the Environmental Protection Agency, Stupid - The EPA is Causing Job Losses and Blocking Economic Development
President Obama's New Economic Plan Must Reign in the EPA, says National Center for Public Policy Research
August 24, 2011
Washington, D.C. - Due to the severe negative impact regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency are having on jobs and economic growth, policy experts from the National Center for Public Policy Research today are urging President Obama to reign in the EPA as the fastest and cheapest way to stimulate the economy.
"If President Obama is really serious about stimulating economic growth he must get control over the EPA bureaucracy, which is operating as a job killing machine. The EPA is infecting the business environment with a plague of new regulations and is compounding its affliction on the economy by denying permits for job creating projects," sai said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center's Free Enterprise Project.
"In addition to harming today's economy, the actions taken by the EPA will reduce our competitiveness and our national security," added Tom Borelli.
As a result of new EPA regulations, several utilities including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, and Southern Company recently announced they are closing coal-fired power plants because of the excessive costs to meet the agency's new standards. Layoffs, increases in electricity prices and possible power shortages from the power plant closings will exacerbate the negative economic landscape.
States such as Ohio that are dependent on coal for energy would be preferentially harmed by the EPA. A study by National Economic Research Associates reported that EPA's Cross-State Air Rule and the Utility MACT Rule would result in a loss of 53,500 job-years in Ohio by 2020. The report also estimated that these new regulations could increase the average price for electricity in Ohio as high as 12.9 percent by 2016.
"The economic impact of EPA's actions in Ohio alone is staggering; just imagine what the damage will be for the entire country," said Tom Borelli.
The EPA is also blocking development of important projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline that would pump oil from Canadian oil sands to refineries in Texas. It's estimated that construction of the 2,000-mile pipeline would produce billions of dollars in tax revenue from thousands of construction jobs. The added 900,000 barrels a day would contribute to our energy security.
"In the wake of our current economic crisis, President Obama must surrender his war on fossil fuels by calling off the EPA's harassment of the industry. Obama needs to examine his options to stop EPA's regulatory madness. Jobs are desperately needed in our country, especially among blacks who are being disproportionately harmed by the high unemployment rate," said Deneen Borelli, full-time fellow of Project 21.
"Halting the EPA is an economic emergency. Obama's homework while on vacation in Martha's Vineyard should be to find a way to control the EPA that does not require Congressional action. All Obama needs is the will to do the right thing for the American people," added Deneen Borelli.
The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters. Its 2010 revenue was over $12 million. It receives less than one percent of its revenue from corporate sources. Contributions are welcome and appreciated.
Those rules just began kicking in this year, and there’s lot more to come, so when the lights go out, pull out your flashlight and read this piece from the National Center for Policy Research.
It’s the Environmental Protection Agency, Stupid - The EPA is Causing Job Losses and Blocking Economic Development
President Obama's New Economic Plan Must Reign in the EPA, says National Center for Public Policy Research
August 24, 2011
Washington, D.C. - Due to the severe negative impact regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency are having on jobs and economic growth, policy experts from the National Center for Public Policy Research today are urging President Obama to reign in the EPA as the fastest and cheapest way to stimulate the economy.
"If President Obama is really serious about stimulating economic growth he must get control over the EPA bureaucracy, which is operating as a job killing machine. The EPA is infecting the business environment with a plague of new regulations and is compounding its affliction on the economy by denying permits for job creating projects," sai said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center's Free Enterprise Project.
"In addition to harming today's economy, the actions taken by the EPA will reduce our competitiveness and our national security," added Tom Borelli.
As a result of new EPA regulations, several utilities including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, and Southern Company recently announced they are closing coal-fired power plants because of the excessive costs to meet the agency's new standards. Layoffs, increases in electricity prices and possible power shortages from the power plant closings will exacerbate the negative economic landscape.
States such as Ohio that are dependent on coal for energy would be preferentially harmed by the EPA. A study by National Economic Research Associates reported that EPA's Cross-State Air Rule and the Utility MACT Rule would result in a loss of 53,500 job-years in Ohio by 2020. The report also estimated that these new regulations could increase the average price for electricity in Ohio as high as 12.9 percent by 2016.
"The economic impact of EPA's actions in Ohio alone is staggering; just imagine what the damage will be for the entire country," said Tom Borelli.
The EPA is also blocking development of important projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline that would pump oil from Canadian oil sands to refineries in Texas. It's estimated that construction of the 2,000-mile pipeline would produce billions of dollars in tax revenue from thousands of construction jobs. The added 900,000 barrels a day would contribute to our energy security.
"In the wake of our current economic crisis, President Obama must surrender his war on fossil fuels by calling off the EPA's harassment of the industry. Obama needs to examine his options to stop EPA's regulatory madness. Jobs are desperately needed in our country, especially among blacks who are being disproportionately harmed by the high unemployment rate," said Deneen Borelli, full-time fellow of Project 21.
"Halting the EPA is an economic emergency. Obama's homework while on vacation in Martha's Vineyard should be to find a way to control the EPA that does not require Congressional action. All Obama needs is the will to do the right thing for the American people," added Deneen Borelli.
The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters. Its 2010 revenue was over $12 million. It receives less than one percent of its revenue from corporate sources. Contributions are welcome and appreciated.
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Oil Crisis Wisdom from Garfield
October/31/2011 Humor
A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country. Well, there's a very simple answer . . .
Nobody bothered to check the oil.
We just didn't know we were getting low.
The reason for that is purely geographical.
Our OIL is located in:
- Alaska
- California
- Coastal Florida
- Coastal Louisiana
- Coastal Alabama
- Coastal Mississippi
- Coastal Texas
- North Dakota
- Wyoming
- Colorado
- Kansas
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
Our dipsticks are located in Washington, DC!!!!!!!
Any Questions? NO? Didn't think so.
Elegy on a Budget Compromise
April/08/2011 Polinomics
I’ve tried holding my tongue on matters political for over a year, but after a month of witnessing Washington’s attempt to pass the 2011 budget, which a Democrat-controlled Congress was too “busy” to pass last year, and after watching a government shutdown be averted by legislation passed less than one hour before the midnight deadline, I simply have to say something about numbers, courage, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Why Gates? In my opinion, had it not been for Secretary Gates’ well-publicized explanation to troops in Iraq as to how their paychecks would be affected by a D.C. shutdown, I’m not so sure Congress would have recognized what a dangerous game of brinksmanship they were playing. After the Gates revelation, it was clear that both parties could win nothing but national disdain had the issue not been resolved.
It’s simply too much to watch the self-congratulatory fist-pumping and rhetoric emanating from Washington once LAST YEAR’S budget was a done deal. We are so not out of the woods. Like much of the western world, the U.S. is still lost on a very dark financial path that will ultimately crush the private sector: the now-heralded $3.8 billion in budget cuts are merely crumbs from a not-so-tasty pie.
At the start of this ridiculous “negotiation,” the Republicans wanted $39 billion in budget cuts and the Democrats wanted $0. So I guess you could say that the Republicans “won.” In my opinion, you have won nothing when a budget, which in the last two years has become so inflated with new government bureaucracy, leaves a $1.65 trillion deficit to add to the more than $14 trillion dollar debt that now threatens to collapse our currency and bankrupt our country. The folks in Washington are acting as if they are clueless that nearly half of the budget will be funded by borrowing from abroad or printed by the Federal Reserve . . . a sure prescription for hyper-inflation. Today our debt is larger than the combined economies of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined. Good grief! What kind of out-of-control government is it that keeps coming up with new programs to fund when we’re BROKE! Why is the press more interested in writing about celebrities than the fact that Moody’s is about to downgrade our debtworthiness, which will itself add more debt? it certainly isn’t fun to read about, but if you want to learn more about the debt, click here.
The state of our economy, the inability of our elected representatives in Congress to craft a reasonable budget, and the Obama administration’s outward hostility to the private sector, along with its zeal to grow the public sector until there is nothing left of private enterprise, occupies my mind much more than it should. It makes it hard for me to write about the good things going on in the photography industry. I know that this is an unpleasant and unpopular subject for many people, but I still believe it’s important to know and write about. So as of this posting, I’m transfering Polinomics postings to a new Polinomics Blog on this website. If you’re not interested in concerns about the intersection of politics and economics, just don’t go there. In my present state of mind, I might not go there either.
It’s simply too much to watch the self-congratulatory fist-pumping and rhetoric emanating from Washington once LAST YEAR’S budget was a done deal. We are so not out of the woods. Like much of the western world, the U.S. is still lost on a very dark financial path that will ultimately crush the private sector: the now-heralded $3.8 billion in budget cuts are merely crumbs from a not-so-tasty pie.
At the start of this ridiculous “negotiation,” the Republicans wanted $39 billion in budget cuts and the Democrats wanted $0. So I guess you could say that the Republicans “won.” In my opinion, you have won nothing when a budget, which in the last two years has become so inflated with new government bureaucracy, leaves a $1.65 trillion deficit to add to the more than $14 trillion dollar debt that now threatens to collapse our currency and bankrupt our country. The folks in Washington are acting as if they are clueless that nearly half of the budget will be funded by borrowing from abroad or printed by the Federal Reserve . . . a sure prescription for hyper-inflation. Today our debt is larger than the combined economies of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined. Good grief! What kind of out-of-control government is it that keeps coming up with new programs to fund when we’re BROKE! Why is the press more interested in writing about celebrities than the fact that Moody’s is about to downgrade our debtworthiness, which will itself add more debt? it certainly isn’t fun to read about, but if you want to learn more about the debt, click here.
The state of our economy, the inability of our elected representatives in Congress to craft a reasonable budget, and the Obama administration’s outward hostility to the private sector, along with its zeal to grow the public sector until there is nothing left of private enterprise, occupies my mind much more than it should. It makes it hard for me to write about the good things going on in the photography industry. I know that this is an unpleasant and unpopular subject for many people, but I still believe it’s important to know and write about. So as of this posting, I’m transfering Polinomics postings to a new Polinomics Blog on this website. If you’re not interested in concerns about the intersection of politics and economics, just don’t go there. In my present state of mind, I might not go there either.