The ground is still frozen here, and the last two days have been a chilly 40-degrees.
Some spring!
"Obama unyielding on energy proposals; Budget pushes R&D tax credits" by Philip Elliott, Associated Press | March 24, 2009
WASHINGTON - President Obama declared yesterday that the nation must move quickly to develop clean and innovative sources of energy after years of delay.
"We can remain the world's leading importer of foreign oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of renewable energy," Obama said at a White House event intended to draw attention to his energy proposals.
Administration officials say his campaign promise to explore new sources of renewable energy is one element of his budget that is nonnegotiable. Obama is devoting much of his time these days to build support for his $3.6 trillion budget proposal, which includes almost $75 billion over 10 years to make permanent a tax credit for research and experimentation.
Obama's budget would invest billions more in research designed to reduce climate change and guarantee loans for companies that develop clean energy technologies.
More giveaways.
Speaking to entrepreneurs in the fields of energy, Obama told them their country needs them to create jobs and be inventive. In turn, he said, "Your country will support you. Your president will support you."
The president pointed out specific businesses that are creating energy jobs, and praised his new science adviser, John Holdren, who came from Harvard, and MIT's president, Susan Hockfield, for research being done there. The administration's $787 billion stimulus package includes $39 billion for the Department of Energy and $20 billion in tax incentives for clean energy.
Declaring leadership in science "vital to America's prosperity, energy security and global competitiveness," Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced yesterday that $1.2 billion in stimulus money will be distributed to nine national laboratories across the country.
Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, made the announcement after touring the Brookhaven National Laboratory on eastern Long Island. The lab will be receiving $184 million in stimulus money, including $150 million to build a light source that aims to create the brightest X-ray source in the world.
The project, called National Synchrotron Light Source II, would produce X-rays about 10,000 times brighter than an existing version at the lab, used by about 2,100 researchers a year. Scientists hope the new version would yield breakthroughs in disciplines including biology, medicine, chemistry, environmental sciences and physics.
Obama and his aides have begun an aggressive effort for the president's budget - including a prime-time news conference today - that contains many of his campaign promises but that faces opposition from members of both parties. The core principles are providing affordable health coverage, improving education, and diversifying the nation's energy supply with a focus on so-called green jobs.
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Is it just me, or was that article mostly dung? It DIDN'T TELL YOU ANYTHING!!
The Environmental Protection Agency, about to declare heat-trapping gases to be dangerous pollutants, has embarked on one of the most ambitious regulatory challenges in history.
See: Coal to Get Credits For Reducing Greenhouse Gases
The move will probably have a profound effect across the economic spectrum, affecting transportation, power plants, oil refineries, cement plants, and other manufacturers.
Yup:
"Gore said the single most important policy change would be placing a carbon tax on burning oil and coal."
"Obama's promise to use most of the revenue to award $400 tax credits to most workers hasn't quelled the controversy since the increases in utility bills could easily exceed the amount of the tax cut"
Also see: Environment (and scroll down)
It sets the agency on a collision course with automakers, coal plant owners, and other businesses that rely on fossil fuels, wary that the finding will impose complex and costly rules. But it may also help the Obama administration’s efforts to push through a federal law to curb carbon dioxide emissions by drawing industry support for legislation, which many companies see as less restrictive and more flexible than being monitored by a regulatory agency. And it will lay a basis for the United States in the negotiations leading up to a new a global climate treaty to be signed in Copenhagen in December.
If you don't think an agenda is being pushed, then you are blind.
The EPA's finding, once made final, will pave the way for federal regulation of carbon dioxide, methane, and other heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.... "This finding will officially end the era of denial on global warming," said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat who leads a select committee on global warming.
These guys are truly making me sick with their bullshit-spewing garbage!
But Bill Kovacs, a specialist on global warming issues with the US Chamber of Commerce, said an endangerment finding would automatically provoke a tangle of regulatory requirements for businesses large and small. If finalized, the EPA's finding could lead to a vast extension of the agency's reach. Much is unknown about the details of what the EPA is proposing, including how stringently the agency would regulate the emissions and how it would go about doing so....
Specialists said yesterday that the EPA's action would put pressure on Congress to pass federal legislation that could supplant the agency's plan or guide how it is carried out. A federal bill is preferred by many environmentalists and policy makers, as well as by industry....
It's always the same model for every issue, isn't it?
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