And you thought Grover and ALEC were going to ride off, quietly into the sunset ...
Nope, they've just adjusted their targets for their behind-the-scenes Government-Rollback agendas ...
Clean-Energy Requirements Targeted by ALEC, Norquist
by Jim Snyder, bloomberg.com - Apr 23, 2012
Small-government groups including the American Legislative Exchange Council, whose advocacy for Florida’s Stand-Your-Ground law and other measures have drawn calls to revoke its tax-exempt status, are taking aim at state mandates requiring renewable energy use.
While environmentalists view the clean-energy standards as vital to reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, groups like ALEC and the Grover Norquist-run Americans for Tax Reform say the mandates are a hidden tax on consumers and a drag on state economies.
[...]
End of Stimulus
Opposition to the mandates coincides with the expiration of some federal incentives for renewables -- many contained in the 2009 stimulus legislation. The repeal or weakening of state standards puts at risk an industry still dependent on government aid to compete with dirtier but cheaper fossil fuels, advocates say.
State standards have “really helped get the market started for renewable-energy technology,” said Dylan Sullivan, a Chicago-based staff scientist with Natural Resources Defense Council in New York, in an interview. [...]
"State standards" -- Hmmm that's right up the ALEC's alleyway.
Look out green-energy-frontier people. Your government's got your back -- NOT! ... not if the GOP gets their short-sighted, 19th century way ...
It's not like rolling back Clean-Energy tax credits will put MORE money in Grover's greasy pockets.
Nope, it's just that he can't stand having Obama win -- on anything! Nope, the GOP can't have that, their lies depend on it.
Never mind this Renewable Energy rollback will impact real Americans, already working at real American Jobs ...
tens of thousands of them.
Wind Power Layoffs Mounting While Congress Remains Gridlocked
by James McConnell, Chicago Economic Policy Examiner, examiner.com -- May 4, 2012
Federal Renewable Energy Production Tax Credits are scheduled to expire December 31, 2012, unless Congress acts to extend them. Congress isn’t doing anything about moving extension measures forward. The wind energy industry needs at least 18 months of certainty about availability of the credit to make starting a new project economically viable. As a result, industry layoffs are already beginning, and by the end of 2012’s second quarter are expected to reach 10,000 jobs lost.
Passage of time makes the picture even bleaker. Without Congressional action, wind power layoffs could reach 20,000 jobs lost by the end of the third quarter and 30,000 jobs lost by year end. [...]
On the other hand, if Congress were to act now, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the industry could create 100,000 new jobs in the next four years. Certainty about tax credit availability is the key.
[...]
GOP Conservatives talk a big game about "creating jobs" -- but when it comes to putting Americans to work, to build our Energy Independent future, they apparently think
the only good energy subsidy -- is a Big Oil Subsidy.
Ahh, we tried that already. How's that Big Oil promise working out for you people?
Hopefully the American people catch on this time -- and VOTE IN people who actually share our Clean Energy goals ...
Poll: 75 Percent of Americans Support Regulating CO2 As A Pollutant, 60 Percent Support Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax
by Joe Romm, Climate Progress, thinkprogress.org -- Apr 26, 2012
A new national survey confirms strong public support for funding renewable energy research, regulating carbon pollution, and signing a global treaty to slash emissions. The study, [...] found a remarkable 75% of Americans support “regulating carbon dioxide (the primary greenhouse gas) as a pollutant.”
The survey’s results are counter to widely held assumptions among the media and politicians, but consistent with recent polling. The poll found:
* 61 percent said they support holding the fossil fuel industry responsible for “hidden costs we pay for citizens who get sick from polluted air and water, military costs to maintain access to foreign oil, and the environmental costs of spills and accidents.”
[...]
* By 3 to 1 -- 58 percent to 17 percent -- Americans say “protecting the environment … improves economic growth and provides new jobs” vs those who say it “reduces economic growth and costs jobs.”
[...]
We really can't afford many more
"business as usual" years, now can we.
Not when you consider how the cost of nearly everything, is intricately linked with the ever-increasing costs of fossil fuels.
Sooner or later, America's leaders have to get with the 21st century Clean Energy program -- like most of the American People already have.
... hopefully it's SOONER ... afterall, we really can't afford many more "business as usual" years, of what those ALEC and Norquist manipulations would free-market give us, now can we?