Media Chaos and Hidden Agendas like Cap & Trade

The daily media chaos with Obama still in campaign mood for Health reform, and other issues, in my opinion, is just a frenzy to cover up other significant changes in policy which will further directly affect our wallets. Just when you think things could not get worse, this morning October 6, 2009, at 3:06am, AP Breitbart released a press release stating that president Obama Signed an Executive Order to expand on the Energy Policy act of 2005. Just another feather in his cap.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a bill passed by Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President Bush on August 8, 2005. The act was an attempt to combat growing energy problems by providing tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types.

Americans should know that In an Executive order # 13423 signed Monday, Obama required all agencies to do what he wants companies operating power plants, running refineries and making automobiles to do: reduce heat-trapping gases.The order also compels agencies to curb petroleum use, conserve water and curtail waste—extending and expanding on an order issued by Bush. Bush's order, unlike Obama's, did not require agencies to set emissions targets. Let’s be clear that those Members who vote for this climate bill are voting for what is likely to be the biggest tax in American history.

This is the first step towards implementing the new Cap & Trade program.

While a successful cap and trade program rewards innovation, efficiency, and early action and provides strict environmental accountability without inhibiting economic growth, the Obama White House admits that this cap and trade policy will increase energy costs for Americans, and admits that this policy will give government more money to blow. Even White House Budget Director Peter Orszag this week on Stephanopolous, admitted that Obama's proposed cap and trade energy legislation will increase energy costs for everyone.

How will this affect your wallet?

The whole point of cap and trade is to hike the price of electricity and gas so that Americans will use less. These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.

The President earlier this year, also issued a memorandum to the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances, like dishwashers and refrigerators. Through this step we‘re told that, over the next three decades, we’ll save twice the amount of energy produced by all the coal-fired power plants in America in any given year. Oh really?

A CBS News blogger named Declan McCullagh seized on the documents, which CEI obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, and said: "The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent." He added: "At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year." But in a recent Washington Post article the administration disputes these figures by blacking out the actual cost.

The government taketh and the Government giveth.

The Wall Street Journal says that the hardest hit areas will be the Midwest, Southern and Plain states which rely on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates the most power.

But let’s not worry just yet, according to the Washington Times, the legislation includes language that provides, should it become law, that people who lose their jobs because of it "could get a weekly paycheck for up to three years, subsidies to find new work and other generous benefits—courtesy of Uncle Sam."

How generous are these benefits? Well, according to the Times, "Adversely affected employees in oil, coal and other fossil-fuel sector jobs would qualify for a weekly check worth 70 percent of their current salary for up to three years. In addition, they would get $1,500 for job-search assistance and $1,500 for moving expenses from the bill's 'climate change worker adjustment assistance' program, which is expected to cost $4.2 billion from 2011 to 2019."

And just when you think you can’t afford to meet the new standards, the government will give you a tax credits of up to 30% of the cost or $1500. The implementation cost outweighing the benefits.

You may be saying to yourself at this point “that doesn’t sound so bad”, so let me ask you this; How successful has anything been the government tried, like ‘Cash for Clunker’ or the ‘Health reform’ or ‘Gitmo’, or the ‘Stimulus” in creating new jobs? Should I continue? Also, where is al this money coming from? More debt to deal with, and more unemployment?

If you are interested in finding out more try looking for 'Climate' instead of Cap & Trade, just like everything else this too has been renamed.

Are you the least bit concerned? With all this Chaos, who’s watching our back?

Editors Note: from an Oct 11, 2009 update:

Billionaire George Soros, looking to address the “political problem” of climate change, said he will invest $1 billion in clean-energy technology and create an organization to advise policy makers on environmental issues. Soros, 79, also will establish the Climate Policy Initiative, a San Francisco-based organization to which he will donate $10 million a year for 10 years. “The system can be gamed; that’s why financial types like me like it -- because there are financial opportunities,” Soros said at a London School of Economics seminar.