George Allen, Chairman

Congress makes U.S. energy policy
Sen. Rockefeller’s warning letter to the Obama EPA is long overdue

West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller led a group of coal state senators in warning the head of the Environmental Protection Agency that Congress, not unelected bureaucrats, will make comprehensive energy and climate legislation.

As chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Rockefeller said in a press release that he is drafting legislation to suspend the EPA’s regulatory authority until Congress can consider “the nation’s larger energy policy and economic needs.”

The EPA, using the Clean Air Act, issued a determination that greenhouse gases could reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare – the first step in the rule-making process.

In a letter signed also by Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Carl Levin of Michigan, Mark Begich of Alaska and Max Baucus of Montana, Rockefeller wrote:

“We strongly believe this is ultimately Congress’ responsibility, and if done properly, will create jobs, spur new clean energy industries, and greatly advance the goal of U.S. energy independence. If done improperly, these opportunities could be lost.”

The EPA recently listed carbon dioxide, methane and other gases as endangering the public.

Congress, not the EPA, should deal with those questions, said the coal-state senators.

In a recession that has killed trillions in wealth and millions of jobs, ill-considered environmental regulation is the last thing Americans need.

Rockefeller is correct.

Members of Congress, elected by and accountable to their constituents, have the responsibility for determining how to regulate carbon dioxide and other gases.

But talk is cheap.

If the Obama administration proceeds on its own, West Virginia expects its senators to block that move.

Republicans, major business groups and a handful of coal-state Democrats are launching a barrage of attacks against the Environmental Protection Agency, hoping to stop new rules that would regulate greenhouse gas emissions across the economy.

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Enormously costly capital intensive Nuclear is a more reliable source for electricity than the expensive intermittent sources of wind and solar. But beware that electricity sourced by nuclear is significantly more expensive than power from hydroelectric and clean coal technology sources.

Maybe that’s why this Administration continues its attack on our plentiful, job-creating American coal via proposed draconian EPA regulations, harmful cap and trade energy tax schemes, and UN Climate change regulations.

A few months ago, didn’t this Administration say they were against energy subsidies? And they have shut down the national radioactive waste repository in Nevada. Thus, all nuclear reactor sites will continue to store high level radioactive waste. We must allow reprocessing and recycling of spent radioactive fuel a la the French if nuclear is to maintain or expand its desirability in the US.

The bottom line: Notwithstanding subsidies, our American coal remains the best job creating, most affordable and reliable source for electricity, And coal is available as a source throughout the US and world.

-George Allen

February 13, 2010

The Obama administration’s planned loan guarantee to build the first nuclear power plant in the U.S in almost three decades is part of a broad shift in energy strategy to lessen dependence on foreign oil and reduce the use of other fossil fuels blamed for global warming.

Ben Feller

President Barack Obama called for “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants” in his Jan. 27 State of the Union speech and followed that by proposing to triple loan guarantees for new nuclear plants. He wants to use nuclear power and other alternative sources of energy in his effort to shift energy policy.

Associated Press

Obama in the coming week will announce the loan guarantee to build the nuclear power plant, an administration official said Friday. The two new Southern Co. reactors to be built in Burke, Ga., are part of a White House energy plan that administration officials hope will draw Republican support.

Obama nuke plant loan reflects new energy strategy

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By Bryan McKenzie
The Charlottesville Daily Progress

Drivers around the country and the world will be getting a charge out of Albemarle County-based Aker Wade Power Technologies, if the company has anything to say about it. The manufacturer of fast-charge devices used to repower forklifts and other battery-operated equipment in manufacturing plants and industry has entered into an agreement with Japanese carmakers and power companies to build quick-charge devices for electric cars.

Read the full article at the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

The harmful energy proposals in Washington will exacerbate the problems for people to have access to affordable electricity and energy. Many Virginia and American families are presently having a hard time paying electricity bills. The counterproductive energy mandates and regulations proposed in Washington would increase electricity costs and exacerbate these energy problems for lower income people. -George Allen

Record numbers of households struggling to pay their utility bills
By Maegan Smith
The Daily Press
January 6, 2010

For the second year in a row, record numbers of households across the nation are receiving heating assistance, according to a study released last month. That’s because as frigid temperatures set in amid the lingering effects of the economic crisis, more and more people can’t pay their utility bills.

In Virginia, the number rose just over 13 percent, from 108,040 in 2008 to 122,625 in 2009, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association.

Social services departments around Hampton Roads have said those numbers are likely to keep rising this winter.

“People are starting to understand that it’s there,” Charlene Collins, chief of eligibility for James City County social services, said of funds for heating assistance. “It’s becoming more and more popular.”

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Good news! It appears that American sovereignty has not been formally surrendered as the expensive UN Climate Change Conference breaks up. Stay vigilant! The battle continues. Ironically thousands of US government officials, social engineers, and journalists have to rearrange the flights of their carbon-based fueled jets to get back to record snow blizzard in Virginia-DC-Maryland area. -George Allen

Climate deal falls short
By: Glenn Thrush and Louise Roug
December 18, 2009
The Politico

The climate deal reached between U.S, China and other great powers on Friday night is so vague, hastily hatched and non-binding President Obama isn’t even sure he’ll be required to sign it.

“You know, it raises an interesting question as to whether technically there’s actually a signature… It’s not a legally binding agreement, I don’t know what the protocols are,” said a bleary-eyed Obama, before hopping in Air Force One for the trip back to Washington.

The official accord voted on by the 193-nation COP-15 Conference noted but did not endorse the deal struck by the leaders of the U.S., China, India, South Africa and Brazil.

“It’s a catastrophe,” said Dan Joergensen, a member of the European delegation, of the five-nation agreement. “We’re so far away from the criteria that was set up in order to call it a success, and those weren’t really that ambitious to start with.

Continue reading this article at Politico >

“Had a great conversation with Laura Ingraham today. Hope you all caught it. I summed up our goal with the SOS Petition on her blog.” -George Allen

President Obama is using EPA power to placate UN Climate Change bureaucrats and harm American jobs, families and businesses. Judges and bureaucrats should not make laws, nor should we be surrendering our sovereignty, diminishing the American Dream or sending our money to other countries for this global warming hype. In today’s global economy, Americans compete with people from nations all around the world and any plan that makes America less competitive by restricting our energy use through heavy government regulation – under the guise of global warming – is Unilateral Economic Disarmament.

We must rise up and act! Join the American Energy Freedom Movement and sign the American Energy Freedom Center’s “Save Our Sovereignty” Petition at www.EnergyFreedomCenter.org today!

Visit Laura Ingraham’s homepage at http://www.lauraingraham.com.

Very telling story. President Obama is using EPA power from an errant US Supreme Court ruling to placate UN Climate Change bureaucrats and harm American jobs. Judges and bureaucrats should not make law nor should we be sending money to other countries for this global warming craze. – George Allen

By JEFFREY BALL and CHARLES FORELLE

Officials gather in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit, but business leaders are focusing even more on Washington, where the Obama administration is expected as early as Monday to formally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant.

An “endangerment” finding by the Environmental Protection Agency could pave the way for the government to require businesses that emit carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases to make costly changes in machinery to reduce emissions — even if Congress doesn’t pass pending climate-change legislation. EPA action to regulate emissions could affect the U.S. economy more directly, and more quickly, than any global deal inked in the Danish capital, where no binding agreement is expected.

Many business groups are opposed to EPA efforts to curb a gas as ubiquitous as carbon dioxide.

An EPA endangerment finding “could result in a top-down command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said in a statement. “The devil will be in the details, and we look forward to working with the government to ensure we don’t stifle our economic recovery,” he said, noting that the group supports federal legislation.

EPA action won’t do much to combat climate change, and “is certain to come at a huge cost to the economy,” said the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade group that stands as a proxy for U.S. industry.

Dan Riedinger, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a power-industry trade group, said the EPA would be less likely than Congress to come up with an “economywide approach” to regulating emissions. The power industry prefers such an approach because it would spread the burden of emission cuts to other industries as well.

Electricity generation, transportation and industry represent the three largest sources of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.

An EPA spokeswoman declined to comment Sunday on when the agency might finalize its proposed endangerment finding. Congressional Republicans have called on the EPA to withdraw it, saying recently disclosed emails written by scientists at the Climatic Research Unit of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia and their peers call into question the scientific rationale for regulation.

The spokeswoman said that the EPA is confident the basis for its decision will be “very strong,” and that when it is published, “we invite the public to review the extensive scientific analysis informing” the decision.

Continue reading at the Wall Street Journal >