(Originally written in the community blogs by Nick Barbknecht)

H/T to Michelle Malkin for this great video obtained by her for your viewing pleasure!

I am kind of wondering if this song went through her head while she was sitting their all by herself?

This comes from Doug Theis of Lifeline Data Centers.

“At Lifeline Data Centers, we are always looking at ways to be more efficient with electricity to keep our customers’ rates as low as possible.  Accordingly, we keep a finger on the pulse of energy and have kept close tabs on the Cap and Trade bill currently in the US House.

We at Lifeline encourage you to read and act on the following article from the Wall Street Journal:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124588837560750781.html [Dead Link]

Here are the important points, but please read the article and understand its ramifications:

• Cap and Trade is a tax on energy that will be passed through to the consumer, or the people that can least afford to pay for it.
• Cap and Trade, as it stands today, will cost every family about $6,800 per year at full rollout.

In another analysis from Heritage Foundation, the average cost of power will go up 45% with Cap and Trade.  This means that your personal electric bill at home will increase 45% and the power bill associated with every product you use or purchase will go up 45%.  We all know that manufacturers simply pass that cost on down to the consumer.  This is the source of the $6,800 per year increase per family calculation.

We all need to continually pursue energy efficiency.  Complete energy efficiency, in Lifeline’s opinion, will not be met until we have discovered a source of pure energy that does not require a mechanical source of production.  Until then, one thing we know is that a burdensome tax will not help with the birth of that new energy source technology.

[emphasis added by me]

This has NOTHING to do with alternative energy production, or creating “green” jobs unless you’re referring to bureaucrats in DC to count the tax money coming in the door, or changing the climate of the earth. This is just another tax. A tax which will send even more jobs to countries where environmental laws are non-existent or if they exist are ignored. Nations like China and Mexico.

Of course who needs jobs when you have free Government Health Care, right? Yep. The Government manages health care *cough* VA *cough* so well they want everyone to participate.

I know I am on my soapbox lately on Cap and Trade, but I am personally sick and tired of the tax and spend policies coming out of DC. Cap and Trade is one those issues. Recently I wrote a Letter to the Editor for the IndyStar and Bloomington Herald, which I don’t believe has been posted yet, but will see what the response is, you can read that letter here.

Then a co-worker of mine led me to this Op-Ed by Congressmen Hill from the 9th Congressional District here in Indiana. You can read the full Op-Ed here. In the Op-Ed he states we all need to find “common ground” and “prevent from spiking utility rates” Congressman Hill, are you kidding me? Also, the comments are a must read.

This recent post by my friend Scott tells a different story, in it he states our utility rates will go up at least $3,100 and that is by one MIT study. You can read the full post by Scott here. Congressmen Hill for once in your career as a Representive of the Southern District of Indiana and for the rest of the Country, vote against this poor…poor piece of Legislation when it hits the House floor for a full vote, will you stand up to your own party and tell them NO? This will not help the Hoosier state and you know it, but it seems to me you really could care less.

Their are so many studies out here on Cap and Trade that it would scare you what this will cost the taxpayers and our economy. We cannot afford this and Congress knows it, but could care less. When someone tells me Democrats are more fiscially responsible then Republicans….I wanna just laugh (and most of the time I do). It is obvious the Democrats in Congress have no clue of what they are doing and honestly neither does the President!

List of Studies here:

National Black Chamber of Commerce

The Heritage Foundation

Op-Ed from the Washington Examiner here

Cap and Trade…where do I start with this very bad piece of Legislation coming out of Congress. Congressman Hill passed it out of committee and oviously did not listen to the people he represents down in the Southern part of Indiana, otherwise he would have not allowed this out of committee. You can read more about this here $3,100 dollar tax hike

Then this report came out the other day from the National Black Chamber of Commerce on how the Federal Cap and Trade System outlined in the Waxman/Markey bill “would reduce the national GDP roughly 350 Billion below the baseline level, cut net employment by 2.5 million jobs (even after accounting “green jobs”), and reduce annual earnings for the average U.S. worker by $390 by 2030″ You can read the full report here NationalBCC

If you did not see what Governor Daniels had to say about it, he wrote a great Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal on how this will affect Indiana in a very bad way. He states this small piece of it “The Waxman-Markey legislation would more than double electricity bills in Indiana. Years of reform in taxation, regulation and infrastructure-building would be largely erased at a stroke. In recent years, Indiana has led the nation in capturing international investment, repatriating dollars spent on foreign goods or oil and employing Americans with them. Waxman-Markey seems designed to reverse that flow. “Closed: Gone to China” signs would cover Indiana’s stores and factories.” You can also read the full Op-Ed here Governor Daniels

In ending this post I would like to make a few points about Waxman/Markey Cap and Trade

1. Waxman/Markey is the mother of all pork bills. Lawmakers are allowing these allowances and offering up billions of dollars in free emission credits to favored industries. Washington’s pork propensity could turn well-intentioned policy into a special interest bonanza at the expense of the environment and American families.
2. The government-regulated trade of carbon dioxide (CO2) not only implements a complex system susceptible Washington’s costly pork habit, it’s also opens the door to corruption by Wall Street opportunists. The emissions trading system could drive the creation of risky financial tools like the  hedges and credit default swaps that led to our recent economic crisis and the scandals associated with it.
3. The Black Chamber of Commerce study’s findings add to a growing body of evidence that demonstrates cap-and-trade would make American consumers poorer and the products they buy more expensive. Moreover, there will be little, if any, environmental impact to justify the high price U.S. families will have to pay, since the trading system will deliver virtually negligible changes in global CO2 emissions.

As you can see this is a very pork filled piece of Legislation and Congressman Hill and others in Congress need to take a long hard look at this and complety understand this is not good for America and not good for Indiana and other Midwest states that surround us.

By: Brian Sikma

As Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) works to move cap and trade legislation through his House Energy and Commerce Committee, he’s finding it a bit hard to sell the whole idea to members of Congress who come from districts that would be hit hard by carbon taxes.  States with heavy industry or states that rely extensively on existing energy sources as part of their economy would be hardest hit with job losses, price increases, and taxes should the legislation pass.

In an effort to secure much needed support, Waxman has started talking to individual members about providing credits to various industries that are a big part of their local economies.  While the cap and trade bill would apply across the board to many industries and businesses, specific exemptions for coal fired power plants, for example, would allow them to feel less pain from a new tax and regulatory structure.

What this kind of behind the scenes maneuvering seems to boil down to is green earmarking.  If a member of Congress wishes to show his dedication to the folks back home he or she can do so by securing an earmark for this project or that project, a bridge, a dam, or some other public works initiative that would generate jobs and goodwill for the incumbent member.  With the high economic costs of cap and trade standing tall against any future plans by businesses and industries to expand and grow, affected communities and businesses would benefit by exemptions and built in carbon credits that give them a pass from the otherwise broad regulations.

Green earmarking will allow members of Congress to appear to be concerned about the environment and be on the politically correct side of the climate change discussion while at the same time giving them a tool to make sure that nothing they do is going to really harm their districts.  If we thought that earmarks were a bad part of the process now, let’s imagine what they will be like when a new program designed to raise hundreds of billions of dollars becomes open to special amendment by individual members of Congress.

By: Brian Sikma

President Obama and House and Senate Democrats have joined forces with the environmental lobby to promote a “cap and trade” plan for dealing with global climate change. Under a cap and trade plan the government would sell carbon credits to businesses and the money raised by those sales (where the customer has no other option to turn towards outside of simply closing up shop) goes towards carbon reducing programs and policies. Companies that cannot buy enough credits will-if they intend to keep up production-need to invest in expensive new technology designed to reduce carbon emissions.

The creation and implementation of these carbon reducing measures is not just about saving the environment but is, according to Democrats, about jobs. Indeed, this plan is about jobs. I will cost the American economy jobs, increase unemployment, and drive up the cost of products and services that Americans use every single day. With cap and trade, while the net amount of carbon emissions will decrease, so will the number of good American jobs. Without a specific tie between carbon emissions and global warming being scientifically proven and without a meaningful cost/benefit analysis showing that it is better to impose an entire new class of taxes than to allow the current situation to exist, cap and trade legislation is not a good idea.

[More Below The Fold]

Jerry Davich at the Post Tribune points out today an article suggesting that Indiana taxpayers are footing the bill for Big Oil’s tax deductions. You’ll note if you go to the article that I disagreed, respectfully of course, and spent a few minutes trying to spell out why this line of thinking is really a trap.

• Basically companies don’t pay taxes, they build those taxes into their prices and levy them on their customers. Sure there are times when the government changes the taxes so quickly that the owners of the company get nailed, and have to borrow or take from savings to pay the government, but eventually they build the new tax into pricing. Increasing taxes on any company is really just taxing the consumer more.
• Tax deductions that were designed to encourage some kind of energy investment, perhaps even a risky venture that doesn’t make money but is worth researching, are merely a way to provide incentive. If the government removes these deductions, the companies may just stop the venture, thus there won’t be any new money that the government can burn on something else.

There are really two ways of looking at government spending. The first and at least 53% of the population thinks this way, suggests that the more government spends the faster the economy grows. The second, suggests that when government spends it tends to waste a good part of the money on inefficiency and when it manipulates markets it upsets the natural order of capitalism.

I’ll have to agree with the second … and suggest that a general reduction of all tax deductions toward a flatter more transparent taxing policy would be best for our country and our state. But to suggest that there’s a way to grab a bunch of cash from Big Oil and dump even more government money on the streets is to blur the truth.

Cross Posted from Northwest Indiana Porter County Politics

From Ace of Spades:

President Obama plans to instruct key federal agencies today to reexamine two policies that could force automakers to produce more fuel-efficient cars that yield fewer greenhouse gas emissions, according to sources who have been briefed on the announcement.

The move, which the White House has privately trumpeted to supporters as “the first environment and energy actions taken by the president, helping our country move toward greater energy independence,” could reverse two Bush-era decisions that have helped shape the nation’s climate policy and its auto market.

Obama will instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider whether to grant California a waiver to regulate automobile tailpipe emissions linked to global warming, sources said, and he will order the Transportation Department to issue guidelines that will ensure that the nation’s auto fleet reaches an average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, if not earlier.

Yeah, they are going to study it. Sure. This was part of Obama’s campaign and his new team at EPA is almost certain to grant the waiver.

And what might the cost of this waiver be?

Carmakers also contend that the law could increase manufacturing costs, which then would be passed along to consumers. Environmentalists counter by saying consumers would save money in the long run because higher purchase costs would be offset by lower fuel costs.

The Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group that represents Honda, Toyota and 12 other international manufacturers, objects to the law on the grounds that it would lead to “a patchwork of state laws” instead of one federal standard. Allies note that the auto industry is already under tremendous financial pressure, with car sales lagging, and can’t afford to comply with new regulations.

“The net effect of his request would add between $1,000 and $5,000 to the price of every car sold in California,” (CA Congressman Tom) McClintock said.

(Read more after the leap)

As you might have noted at your local gas station, the price of a gallon of gasoline has dramatically dropped over the last few weeks. A quick glance at Indy Gas Prices as I write this shows the lowest gas prices in the Indianapolis area costing $1.55 per gallon!

I want to address two aspects of this price. First is the greed of “big oil”. In all of the following number, I get my information from Trading Charts as of noon on November 21, 2008. All numbers subject to change!

Today, the price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX is $49.10 (January delivery). The wholesale price of a gallon of gasoline on NYMEX is $1.029 (taxes, transportation, and retailer profit must be added to this to get to your pump price). Just a bit of math here: a barrel is 42 gallons of oil. If all 42 gallons of oil was refined into gasoline (an impossibility) the price of a barrel of finished gasoline would be $43.22. This means that refiners are losing 14 cents per gallon of gasoline right now.

Diesel, by the way, is the only way that refiners are making money right now.

This shouldn’t cause anyone outside of the industry any particular concern. But the second issue should cause outrage.

Regulatory stupidity below the fold:

It’s practically official, if only because he was unopposed, but Mike Pence is going to become the next Chairman of the Republican Conference.

The Indy Star Reports:

Rep. Mike Pence’s communications skills and conservative credentials are about to land him the House’s No. 3 Republican leadership position, giving him a key role in shaping and delivering the GOP message as the party regroups after its November losses.

The Columbus lawmaker is running unopposed for Republican conference chairman, the lead GOP communications job and one of the leadership positions House Republicans will fill during closed-door elections today.

He does have a challenge ahead of him though should he be in pursuit of higher office.

Whether this is the start of an even bigger political future for Pence depends on how well his party does in finding a path back to a majority in Congress and in retaking the White House.

“It makes him more prominent. It gets him more media time,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “But you have to have a message that sells, once you get access to people.”

(Read more after the leap)

(Post updated to reflect Democrat Scott Reske’s victory in HD 37 after barely holding off Republican challenger Kelly Gaskill)

Here is a note to my fellow conservatives and Republicans.

I did not have the highest of expectation for last night.  I had hope that John McCain might some how pull off a miracle (because really that’s what he needed to win), but it wasn’t a lot of hope.  And like many of you who may have stayed up fairly late (after the webcast which ended at midnight, I went out and picked up yard signs to get some much needed alone time) I’m still recovering from yesterday’s action.  But I came to this conclusion.

It’s time to face the facts.  Barack Obama will be our 44th president.  And a historic congratulations should be sent his way.  But we should take solace in the fact that Democrats did not net major gains in the House or get their filibuster proof Senate, though they could still up with (a worst case scenario) 59 seats.

But there were some positives for us as well last night.  Governor Daniels smoked Jill Long Thompson (no surprise there) and Greg Zoeller and Tony Bennett won their statewide races.  The Indiana House will end up with only one seat gained by the Democrats after much hand wringing they could end up with as many as a three to four seat gain. On the congressional level.  Everybody stayed the same.  Many thought Congressman Souder could be a loss in the Republican column, but he showed his tenacity and didn’t just win by a small margin, he kicked his young upstart opponent to the curb.

But now onto my message.

Fellow Republicans, this is no time to give up.  This is also no time to resort to childish pettiness, bemoaning and name calling that the left resorts to when they lose.  This is a time to step up!  We do have a lot of ground to make up nationally, and while our state still leans red, it certainly is becoming a closely and evenly divided state.

We need to re-energize our base and return to what made our party great!  I encourage our state and national Republicans to return to the principles and virtues of the Contract with America.  We need to raise the level of discourse on the issues that matter most to Americans at this time; the economy and energy independence.  And while I believe social values cannot be ignored (though we must never give up on the issue of Abortion), we must understand, as a Party, that in these tough economic times, voters are thinking mostly with their wallets.  We must return to a message of fiscal restraint.  We must hammer the message of an “all of the above’ approach to energy independence.  We must hold our new President’s feet to the fire when it comes to the issues of coal and nuclear power.  Nothing can be off the table if we want to break free from the shackles of foreign oil.  President-Elect Obama seeks energy independence, but he must seek all avenues, closing off nothing.

We lost the American’s public’s faith in us when we lost our way as a party.  We have only ourselves to blame for the situation we are in.  Now is the time to make up for our past mistakes.  Now is the time to take action and to be the party of solutions and ideas.  We gave that away, but it’s time to take it back!

(But should you need it, here is Red State’s Obama Administration Survial Guide)