June 18, 2013

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The “Cut, Cap and Balance” pledge

June 24, 2011 By Carol Greenberg

Despite our nation’s staggering $14.4 trillion debt, there are many in the Obama Administration and Congress who want to raise our nation’s debt limit without any spending cuts or reforms.

We believe that this is a fiscally irresponsible position that would place America on the Road to Ruin. At the same time, we believe that the current debate over raising the debt limit provides a historic opportunity to focus public attention, and then public policy, on a path to a balanced budget and paying down our debt.

We believe that the “Cut, Cap, Balance” plan for substantial spending cuts in FY 2012, a statutory spending cap, and Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution is the minimum necessary precondition to raising the debt limit. The ultimate goal is to get us back to a point where increases in the debt limit are no longer necessary.

This is the coalition:


Please sign the pledge and it will take you to a page that has your Congress Critters info for contact…
Then do this:

1. Call your member of Congress and Senators  and ask them to sign the pledge – if they have signed it, thank them

2. Email the website (http://www.CutCapBalancePledge.com) to your friends, neighbors and colleagues

3. Post the website address (http://www.CutCapBalancePledge.com) on Facebook and Twitter

4. Follow the coalition’s account on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CutCapBalance

Stay tuned for future announcements.

Thank you for your support,
The Cut Cap and Balance Coalition

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Filed Under budget Tagged With cap and balance coalition, Cut

Obama raids SPR, oil rigs will be going, going, GONE

June 23, 2011 By Carol Greenberg

Offshore oil rig

The above as I am sure everyone can recognize as a picture of an off-shore oil rig. Nice to see, right? When they are in your own backyard. Like say, in the Gulf of Mexico, in Alaska, and off the Atlantic coast.

But these oil rigs are disappearing. Rapidly. As a result of President Obama’s energy policy that is costing jobs and choking the economy. 12 of these rigs have gotten fed up with Obama and his bureaucracy which includes the Department of the Interior (Ken Salazar, Secretary), the EPA, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management and Regulation Enforcement (BOEMRE, Michael Bromwich heads) and moved to sunnier shores. Brazil, the north Atlantic and off the coast of Venezuela. Yep, to Hugo Chavez territory.

I had the pleasure of being part of a conference call with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA #5), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA #22) and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA #1). All are part of the Energy Action Team in the House.

Most of you are probably aware that today Obama raided the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 30 million barrels out of 727 million barrels. Enough to keep the U.S. supplied with oil and gasoline for a mere 2 days, at the most. A political move which was a reaction to U.S. consumers’ ire about the rising cost of gasoline and yet this action did not create one job.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was created in 1973 and is meant to be used only when a dire national emergency exists. It has been tapped only twice before: once under President George H.W. Bush during the first Gulf War when the Iraqis set fire to oil fields and once again under George W. Bush  during hurricane Katrina when rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were at risk.

Where is the “emergency” today, Mr. Obama? It is a crisis of your own making. Slow-walking of oil and gas rig permits, ping-ponging bureaucracy WITHIN the EPA, not between other agencies. A moratorium in the Gulf, which a federal judge has ruled twice is illegal, yet DOI Secretary Ken Salazar is not in jail for civil contempt, as any other person would be. The permatorium has cost over 13,000 jobs, and one company even has been investigating moving shop to Africa.

Shell has spent over $4 billion in the permit-process in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, only to be told NO! over and over again.

When the Department of Energy was created in 1977 with the mission to reduce our dependence on foreign oil only 1/3 of our oil was purchased from overseas. Today, 2/3 of our oil is purchased from countries who don’t like us very much.

But the House Republican Conference, the House Natural Resources Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee have all introduced common sense solutions to our domestic energy policy which would save and create jobs and stimulate the economy.

Several are The Keystone Project, which would create and utilize a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf off of Texas. Areas in Alaska would be open to drilling again. The permit process for oil and gas companies must be done in an expeditious manner. The House has passed bills with bi-partisan support with the goal of making the U.S. energy independent, however they have been blocked in the Senate by Harry Reid.

It’s time for the American public to wake up and realize where the fault lies: not with the oil and gas companies, or the Wall Street gurus; but with the present administration. When enough of these roadblocks appear it is time to take action. The public must demand immediate results of their congressional representatives whether they be Republican or Democrat.

Mr. Obama, your move today may be “strategic and political”  for you, but this writer predicts it will be short-lived. The mere fact that you took some action, which in many eyes was not in the best interest of this country, tells everyone you are feeling the H.E.A.T.

And in Congress, that is the House Energy Action Team.

Related articles: House legislation on oil and gas energy.

House Republicans announce H.E.A.T.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots

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Filed Under energy Tagged With BOEMRE, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dept. of Interior, energy, EPA, gas, Gulf of Mexico, H.E.A.T., Ken Salazar, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Bromwich, Obama, oil, Shell, SPR, Steve Scalise, Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Obama releases 30 million barrels of oil from our SPR

June 23, 2011 By Carol Greenberg

Resourceful information

In a what is for certain a political and campaign  move to mitigate consumers’ anger over rising gasoline prices, President Obama today ordered the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Via an email from House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) this is his response:

Obama Admin. Taps SPR in Short-term Political Reaction, Ignores Job Creating Potential of New American Energy Production

In a blatant admission that increasing the world oil supply will affect prices, the Obama Administration today released 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).  However, the SPR is not a political tool; it is intended for emergency situations when there is a dramatic shortfall in world oil supplies – which is not currently the case.  The question must be asked—why is the Obama Administration tapping the SPR now? What has suddenly changed in Libya to make this an emergency situation?

Unfortunately, the damage caused by Obama Administration policies that lock-up our American energy resources greatly exceeds any gain from releasing just 30 million barrels from the SPR.  Instead of the tapping the SPR, President Obama should support House Republican legislation to expand American energy production, put people back to work and lower energy costs.

Jobs

  • Releasing oil from the SPR doesn’t create one single job.
  • The Obama Administration’s energy policies have cost thousands of American jobs.  The offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf cost 12,000 jobs according to the Administration’s own estimates and could cause a loss of over 36,000 jobs nationwide in the long term.
  • Bipartisan legislation passed by the House (H.R. 1229, 1230 and 1231) to expand offshore drilling could create 250,000 jobs short-term and 1.2 million jobs long-term.

Energy Production

  • 30 million barrels (the amount being released from the SPR) is less than two days of American oil consumption.
  • The Obama Administration SPR release is equal to one-half of the production that has been blocked in the Gulf of Mexico due to the de facto moratorium and ongoing permitting delays since May of 2010.
  • There is an estimated 85 billion barrels of American energy we cannot develop in our nation’s OCS due to the Administration’s energy policies.
  • In total, the Obama Administration is blocking access to 162.9 billion barrels of recoverable American oil for production, including in the NPR-A.

·         Bipartisan legislation passed by the House (H.R. 1231) would lift President Obama’s ban on new offshore drilling and set a goal of producing 3 million barrels of oil per day, which could reduce foreign imports by one-third.

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Filed Under Strategic Petroleum Reserve Tagged With gasoline, House Natural Resources Committee, Jobs, Obama, oil, Rep. Doc Hastings, SPR, Strategic Petroleum Reserve

FreedomWorks to make Orrin Hatch its first target

June 22, 2011 By Carol Greenberg

The Utah Republican senator has officially become under fire from one of the most influential conservative PACs in the country: FreedomWorks.

FreedomWorks plans a “Retire Orrin Hatch” campaign beginning this Saturday at the Utah Republican Convention. Hatch is pictured below:

orrinhatch

According to the Daily Caller:

Among grievances FreedomWorks has with Hatch is they say is a legislative history of voting to increase the debt ceiling 16 times, voting in support of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation and voting against a ban on earmarks.

Hatch’s campaign manager Dave Hansen had this to say:

If FreedomWorks is anxious to spend their money, why not put it into defeating Barack Obama in the presidential race?” Hatch’s campaign manager, Dave Hansen told the conservative blog The Daily Caller. “There is no other person, in recent history, who has been such a major affront to the Constitution and conservative values than our current president.”

Hansen claims Hatch has a 90% rating from the American Conservative Union, a 97% rating from the Club for Growth and the highest rating in Congress from the American Taxpayers Union. However Club for Growth’s Communications Director Barney Keller added this correction:

I wanted to note for you that while Sen. Hatch did, in fact, receive a 97% (not 100%) on our scorecard for 2010, he has a 74% lifetime rating, placing him towards the bottom of Republicans serving in the Senate in 2010,” Keller wrote in an email.

FreedomWorks believes it is time for Senator Hatch to retire. There is a possibility that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT #3) will run in the primary for his seat, in which case the Club for Growth’s President Chris Chocola tells us Chaffetz will have their full support.

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Filed Under Uncategorized Tagged With American Conservative Union, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Orrin Hatch, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah

Salazar announces 6-month extension of uranium mining moratorium

June 20, 2011 By Carol Greenberg

Natural Resources Committee

Here We Go Again: Obama Admin. Blocks Access To American Energy, Sends Jobs Overseas, Increases Dependence on Foreign Energy

Administration Bases Decision on Special Interest Politics, Not Sound Science

Another blow to jobs and for U.S. energy independence. Today Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced he is extending the already 2 year-old uranium mining moratorium in Arizona for another 6 months. This mine is outside the borders of the Grand Canyon National Park. Here is the background info:

In July, 2009 the Obama Administration blocked new uranium mining for two years on a million acres of land in Arizona.

In April 2011, the Arizona Geological Survey wrote a letter to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer with a report to reassure her that uranium mining near the Grand Canyon would be safe. Below are excerpts from the letter:

  • “We conclude that even the most implausible accident would increase the amount of uranium in the Colorado River by an amount that is undetectable over amounts of uranium that are normally carried by the river from erosion of geologic deposits.”
  • “Even if the entire annual uranium production from an operating mine were somehow implausibly dumped into the river, the resulting increase in uranium concentration in river water would increase from 4.0 to 12.8 parts per billion (ppb) for one year, which is still far below the 30 ppb EPA Maximum Contaminant Level.”
  • “We believe the fears of uranium contamination of the Colorado River from mining accidents are minor and transitory compared to the amounts of uranium that are naturally and continually eroded into the river.”

In an email to me, House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) had this to say about Interior’s announcement:

“Today’s announcement by the Obama Administration plunges America even deeper into the depths of dependence on foreign sources of energy. Under the guise of protecting the Grand Canyon, one of our Nation’s great national treasures that we all agree should be preserved, this Administration will send thousands of jobs overseas by extending the moratorium on the mining of 40 percent of America’s uranium. Studies have shown that uranium mining outside the park’s border will have negligible environmental impacts and it appears the Administration is basing this decision on politics instead of science.

“The United States currently imports over 90 percent of its uranium and the Obama Administration is actively moving the county in the wrong direction by increasing our dependence on foreign supplies. Furthermore, if President Obama wants to achieve a clean energy future, he must stop blocking efforts to expand domestic uranium production, which is necessary for clean, American-made nuclear energy. It’s unfortunate that the President has chosen to use the Grand Canyon as a political pawn to block American job creation and the future of one of America’s clean energy sources.”

Oil, gas, coal, and now uranium is targeted by this administration. Can’t think of anything that’s left, except for wind and solar..But we all know, that’s been the goal all along.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots

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Filed Under uranium mining Tagged With Arizona, Arizona Geological Survey, Dept. of Interior, Gov. Jan Brewer, Grand Canyon, House Natural Resources Committee, Ken Salazar, Obama, Rep. Doc Hastings, uranium