Last July ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and Conoco/Phillips promised and has since pooled $1 billion in assets to form a new company called The Marine Well Containment Company which will be available for any company in its pool in the event of an emergency in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has now also joined the group.

The marine well containment system is an advanced, rapid-response system that will significantly exceed current U.S. Gulf of Mexico response capabilities.

Below is their press release:

Marine Well Containment Company Launches Interim Containment System

Of key note is:

The initial response system includes a subsea capping stack with the ability to shut in oil flow or to flow the oil via flexible pipes and risers to surface vessels . The system also includes subsea dispersant injection equipment, manifolds and, through mutual aid among members, capture vessels to provide surface processing and storage. The company has consulted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) to ensure the system is designed to meet the government’s requirements as outlined in NTL No. 2010-N10.

The new company has had months to perfect the new system said Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers. Houston will be the base for the equipment which can be dispatched and sent to the spill location within 24 hours notice. This new system can respond to spills up to 8,000 ft. in depth [ABC says 10,000 ft, but the document above says 8,000 ft.] and will be able to process up to 60,000 barrels of liquid per day.

Any member company will have access to the equipment, those who are not members will need to have a service agreement and will be charged a fee. The management team was also announced today:

• Marty Massey as chief executive officer. Formerly U.S. joint interest manager for ExxonMobil Production Company, Massey will lead the management team and operations of the Marine Well Containment Company, with headquarters in Houston.

• Dan Smallwood, formerly operations manager of Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana for ConocoPhillips, has been named chief operating officer for the company.

• Astley Blair, formerly division finance officer for Chevron Global Supply and Trading, has been appointed as chief financial officer.

• Charles Miller, formerly vice president production, Shell Brazil Ltda., has been named chief technology officer.

• Carmine Dulisse, formerly security and emergency preparedness and response manager, ExxonMobil Development Company, has been named health, safety, and environment officer.

One large company, BP slipped through the cracks. The Industry has been ‘responsible’ by responding to one company’s misguided safety culture with the most expensive well capping system on earth. Now, it is the regulator’s turn to be responsible and put the thousands waiting idly in the Gulf back to work.

More information can be found at Marine Well Containment.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Federal Court Orders Obama Administration to Act on Stalled Deepwater Drilling Permits.

H/t to Kenny Solomon who assisted with finding some of this info.

OK guys. This is tough love time. I can’t put it any other way, things are getting really serious. While we have been distracted with goings-on in the Middle East those in the present administration are wrecking havoc on our domestic fossil fuels and will stop at nothing to cripple our whole energy system. And we know this has been the plan all along.

Make no mistake. It’s all. About. Control.

I am talking about Sunstein, Obama, EPA, Steven Chu (Dept of Energy), Ken Salazar, Soros, Brasil, BOEMRE, Working Families Party, the whole nine yards. Did I leave anyone out?

There is so much going on here, so as not to take up too much space I am going to bullet the more urgent and important items and the others will be in the scribd. document below.

People are going to have to start paying attention and this has to get to the right people who can legislate, go to court, enforce contempt of court rulings, etc. or we’ll be living in caves with no wood, no matches. Only solar panels where there is no sun and windmills where there is no wind.

And to Doc Hastings Chair of House Natural Resources: let me be perfectly CLEAR, I’m sure you are competent and a very nice man, but writing letters to Obama’s minions, doing op-eds in The Hill and issuing press releases is NOT going to get this fixed. Even if Obama does read these letters, which I highly doubt, I am sure he immediately tosses them in the huge trash can next to his desk which also contains wadded up copies of the Constitution. We are losing thousands of jobs. We are losing coal mines, natural gas and oil wells and exploration. Millions upon millions of dollars in revenue and taxes which should be keeping us energy independent from the Middle East especially now when things are so uncertain are going down the tubes.

I am not normally an alarmist, but what I am seeing is truly alarming. A four-alarm fire with no fire hydrant in sight. Gonna lay it all out:

• EPA pulls permit for Arch Coal mine in WVA citing “Clean Water Act” abuse. Aleady in use. WVA is second in coal production in the country.

• Troubled Massey Energy is bought by Alpha Natural Resources. George Soros had 59,800 shares in Massey. No wonder Arch Coal lost the bid. Soros is now the proud owner of MOST of WVA coal mines.

• Chevron, who has been embroiled in a lawsuit in Ecuador for 18 years, and was a couple days ago ordered by an Ecuadoran court to fork over $8.6 billion announced it is exiting the coal business. Chevron on twit says “no connection.” But I ain’t so sure.

• Shell, who was the sole grantee of a permit for oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea after Dept. of Interior announced it’s moratorium was slapped down by the EPA who pulled their air permits. Shell has apparently decided it ain’t worth the hassle to fight the EPA and is pulling the plug on offshore drilling in Alaska.

• Interior Dept. in civil contempt of court for failure to lift Gulf drill moratorium.

• Obama in PA a couple weeks ago touting solar panels and wind while standing on 750 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale.

• Hey, Mr. Obama. Bet ya already knew this, but I’m gonna tell these folks here: where does the metallurgy come from to build those solar panels? You guessed it: China, which has a monopoly.

• With the assistance of ACORN/Bertha Lewis-spawned Working Families Party and actor Mark Ruffalo, NY Gov. Paterson bans natural gas horizontal hydrofracking.

• PA puts Ruffalo on terror watch list for promoting ultra-lib/inflammatory/anti-natural gas hydrofracking film “Gasland.” The film shows a young kid from PA tooling around PA and the country attempting to set tap water on fire, and blaming it on natural gas. FYI this film is up for an Academy Award. Unfortunately NOT in the fiction category, so let’s keep this one quiet and hope it doesn’t win otherwise the libs will be out buying it like hotcakes and causing more troubles.

• At least 50 Texas coal and NG plants go down in cold weather and they have to buy electricity from Mexico. Did EPA orchestrate this with their new regs? Pat Dollard says “yea” but I can’t confirm this as yet. But mighty suspicious…

• Obama loans Brasilian mega-oil company Petrobras $2 billion when they have tons of revenue and we have plenty of areas here for drilling. Coincidentally, Soros a couple days before dumps 22 million shares of common stock and buys 5.8 million preferred. FYI Common stock has voting rights but the preferred is paying in excess of a 10% dividend.

I am going to stop here and continue with the scribd. doc below. For those who have read the above, the below document begins on page 3, No. 12.

The Obama Administration

And for all those who think that wood and timber are not on the table, think again. I met a colleague at CPAC from California who told me they have “rolling blackouts” on wood burning fireplaces and 65 “chimney police” who patrol looking for smoke out of chimneys.

Everything is on the table except for coal, wood, oil, and natural gas.

I hope I have overwhelmed and filled your brains which is what the Obama administration wishes: to deflect, to disorient and to distract.

FYI you can find the members of the House Natural Resources Committee here which I suggest everyone contact pronto.

Members of Fred Upton’s House Energy and Commerce Committee are here.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Because he has raised at least $5,000 he will be a “federal” candidate and knows his run against Obama is a long-shot but is taking this on solely in order to be able to place photos of aborted babies in television ads. His campaign slogan is “A Democratic primary for President – to bring Americans face to face with aborted babies.”

He plans to appeal to the Catholics, pro-lifers and Hispanics and because the FCC prohibits censoring ads he hopes to raise enough money to get a wide audience.

Terry has a Masters Degree in terrorism and stated to me:

The US has a suicidal foreign policy. We have to start drilling in ANWAR and to be able to stop buying oil from Saudi Arabia, because $50 million a year goes to Al Qaeda.

We touched briefly on other issues. He believes in the limited power of the presidency, the debt ceiling should not be raised and it is ludicrous to propose only a $32 billion reduction in spending which is only 1 1/2% of the deficit. He’s also opposed 100% to socialized medicine, believes Obamacare should be repealed and all entitlements, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid should be phased out.

Terry is opposed to homosexual marriage, believes in right-to-work, is not opposed to unions and the government should be kept out of the internet. He also believes the notion of a high-speed rail system is absurd and would be a boondoggle. He also stated the US should be pulling out of Afghanistan and using only Delta Forces when necessary to take out Al Qaeda and their supporters.

I’m sure there will be some interesting comments, so let ‘em fly.

You can find Terry’s website here.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Americans were predictably outraged. After all, here and in many other parts of the world internet and social media networking have become almost a necessity. I hunted down some tweeps on twitter from the Middle East and found some who were tweeting instructions with proxies on how to “beat” Mubarak’s order and get back on twitter, facebook and the internet. After all, I thought I was doing the correct thing.

But things are not always what they seem from another country’s point of view.

I have friends here from Egypt. They are Copts and emigrated 25 years ago because they were persecuted in Egypt. Both husband and wife are highly intelligent and educated and still have family there.  He a physician. I saw them at a dinner last week and questioned them about the situation in Egypt.

My first question was about Mubarak’s decision to shut down the internet and how could he possibly make the decision to cut off all communication. I even told them I had sent out some info on twitter on how to get around this shutdown.

Boy was I in for a surprise.

I was told by the couple that Mubarak’s decision in their eyes was absolutely correct.

Stunned I asked why and was told because it was the young people who were using the internet and social media networking to foment the revolution, it was an absolute necessity.

Very interesting. Now that the FCC has passed “net neutrality” *cough* could it happen in the US? Obama has said in the event of a “national emergency” he would hit the internet kill switch.

The 64 dollar question is, of course, what constitutes a “national emergency”?

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

US District Court Judge Martin Feldman of New Orleans has found the Department of Interior in civil contempt for continuing the Gulf drilling moratorium against his orders.

Yes, folks. You heard that correctly. Back in June Judge Feldman had refused, at the Interior Department’s request, to delay the decision’s effects after he earlier struck down the moratorium. Now the judge has found the Interior Department in contempt for failure to adhere to his ruling. House Natural Resources Committee Chair Doc Hastings issued a press release today.

“The federal judge’s initial ruling striking the offshore moratorium and his most recent decision to hold Interior in contempt of court correctly puts the letter of the law ahead of the Obama Administration’s agenda. Hopefully this ruling takes us one step closer to ending the de facto drilling moratorium in the Gulf, which will put people back to work and allow us to start producing more of our own energy at home.”

And Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) also praised the ruling:

“Judge Feldman’s decision is a sharp rebuke of the Interior Department for continuing to place politics before all else following the BP spill. A ruling of this nature reveals that the judge believes that Interior blatantly disregarded his earlier ruling – undoubtedly because of their actions that led to the current de facto moratorium,” said Vitter. “Federal permitting has fallen off a cliff, and the resulting impact on Louisiana families, jobs and domestic energy production has caused a lot of pain in coastal Louisiana.”

Now all we have to do is to get Interior to comply…

And the head scratcher, h/t to Mike “Gamecock” Devine:

Power Plants Go Down in Texas, State Buys Electricity from Mexico

Texas? Has to BUY electricity from Mexico? Yep. They sure do right now. The state, according to the Institute for Energy Research, holds one quarter of our oil reserves and 30% of our natural gas reserves, and receives almost half of it’s electricity from natural gas and 35% from coal.

I spoke with Dan Simmons of IER to get some insight into this most unusual phenomenon. He said their organization is scratching their heads too. Fifty plants of all kinds, all over the state are down, at this point he believes because of the coldest weather Texas has had in fifteen years and the plants weren’t built to tolerate this kind of weather.

Come on. I live in northwest Ohio. We have temps well below zero, lots of snow and had a huge ice storm a couple days ago. I’ve lived here all my life. Yes, we have had the power go out in neighborhoods and grids in severe weather. But actual plants go down? I can’t remember this ever happening here.

Vladimir joked about this earlier today.

How’s all them tur-bines workin’ out for y’all?

Of course, lawmakers have vowed to hold hearings. Mexico’s Federal Electrical Commission agreed to transmit 280 megawatts of electricity to Texas, enough to power only about 56,000 homes.

Could this have anything to do with the EPA cracking down on Texas “polluters”?

Federal regulators say the move, set to take effect next year, is designed to cut toxic emissions and bring Texas in line with the Clean Air Act. And environmental groups say it will help improve the state’s ecology and the health of Texans and those living nearby.

One never knows with the EPA. After all, they did pull the permit from an already-in-use coal mine in West Virginia, the state which mines the second most amount of coal in this country.  Just saying, not drawing any conclusions at this point.

And now onto this little tidbit of news, h/t to Kenny Solomon, which I’m sure no one is surprised about:

As Egypt Burns, Obama Fiddles in PA to Announce “Clean Energy”

From Reuters:

With U.S. unemployment at 9.4 percent despite signs of economic recovery, Obama’s push for green energy jobs is an important part of his high-stakes effort to tackle joblessness — the problem most on the minds of voters, even as issues like the turmoil in Egypt dominate the headlines.

Hey Mr. Obama. Isn’t it a little ironic while visiting Pennsylvania you are standing right on top of the Marcellus Shale which contains huge amounts of our coal and natural gas? The Obama administration wouldn’t give any details, but stated all these “clean energy upgrades” for commercial buildings would be paid for by eliminating tax subsidies for oil, natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels. Surprise!

Economist Joseph Mason found that higher energy taxes on oil and gas companies in the form of repeal of Section 199 and dual capacity credits will lead to over 150,000 job losses in 2011 alone. Couple that with oil and gas companies supporting more than 9 million jobs and account for nearly 7.5% of GDP, raising taxes on them makes no sense.

When I questioned Mr. Simmons about ending the subsidies, he stated his organization supports ending all subsidies for all kinds of energy. Right now the wind industry gets a subsidy of $23-$24 per megawatt, while the oil and gas industry gets only $1-2 a megawatt. Of course it is the taxpayer who is footing the bill for that mega subsidy on wind.

Mr. Simmons ended by saying “any kind of energy which is more costly, like solar and wind, Mr. Obama is in favor of.”

Of course he is.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Crossposted at Procinct.net

After almost two months of testimony a Rensselaer County, New York Grand Jury handed down indictments for Troy, NY city councilman Michael LoPorto and Democratic Elections Commissioner Edward G. McDonough. According to the Times Union McDonough faces 38 counts of forgery and 36 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument. LoPorto faces 13 counts of forgery and 29 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument. Mugs of the alleged crooks below, courtesy of NY State Police. McDonough is the clean shaven one, LoPorto the mustachioed SEIU-looking one.

Edward McDonough

Michael LoPorto

The Dems being investigated in Bucks County PA#8 are amateurs compared to these two. A DA in Bucks County is looking into the Dems use of a phony letter from a phony organization telling voters to send their requests for absentee ballot applications to the Dem’s P.O. box instead of to the county Board of Elections.

The two above were being investigated, along with seven others in Troy City Council and other positions for actually forging absentee ballots, not applications, and then casting those ballots. Many didn’t even know they had “voted.” This was all an elaborate scheme in collusion with the ACORN-spawned Working Families Party in New York in the 2009 primary. Indictments weren’t handed down for the other seven but the investigation is continuing.

And let me me perfectly clear, these nine are all Democrats.

Just like in a CSI episode, saliva samples were taken upon orders of Special Prosecutor Trey Smith from all nine to try and match up the saliva with licked absentee ballot envelopes. The brazenness and boldness of the Dems never ceases to amaze me. Somehow I have the foreshadowing we have much more to look forward to before Election 2012.

Both these dudes pled “not guilty” natch, and were released without bail. Why no bail folks? Both were led into the courtroom in handcuffs to face voter fraud charges.

Photos courtesy of the Times Union.

Oh, LoPorto. Don’t we look a little cocky here? Just like a Mafia boss. Fifty absentee ballots were at question, mostly from those who are “less fortunate” and presumed not to have questioned any possible shenanigans. Sixteen of those voters testified before the Grand Jury. Interestingly enough, McDonough’s father went to federal prison in 1994 on charges of abuse of power of his position of Democratic Chair. Dad taught you well, right Ed?

And Weiss begs the question in his article, why did the Working Families Party exit unscathed from this? Well, ain’t this special. Patrick Gaspard, who will now head the DNC’s Organizing for America (OFA) was well schooled in corrupt Alinsky-style organizing tactics and was one of those who helped establish Working Families Party with the assistance of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis.

ACORN would like us to think they ain’t around anymore. But turn over a rock, and there they be. Different name but same corrupt organization.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Natural gas drilling has been going on for a very long time in West Virginia. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Corky DeMarco, the Executive Director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) and he has provided me with a wealth of information. The first commercial well started producing in 1859 and here’s a bit of trivia for everyone: George Washington even surveyed a natural gas well there in 1750.

There are currently 60,000 active NG wells in West Virginia, with 300 of them being in the Marcellus Shale. Because of the unique properties of shale, special and different drilling techniques must be used. The problem with shale is it has insufficient permeability to allow enough fluid flow to a well bore. Because of the unique properties of shale, the extraction of natural gas in these areas requires a different method called “hydraulic fracking.” This “fracking” or “fracturing” of the rock can be either natural or man-made and is extended by internal fluid pressure which opens the fracture and causes it to grow into the rock. Man-made fractures are created by pumping a cocktail of various chemicals through a bore hole. The fracture must then be kept open, usually by sand. This process can be controversial and environmentalists and citizens have chimed in. Please see my previous post on hydro-fracking for more in depth info and a power-point presentation of the process.

Below is a map of the Marcellus Shale, courtesy of the USGS, which covers most of West Virginia, a good part of Pennsylvania, southern New York and eastern Ohio:

Because shale NG extraction is relatively new to West Virginia, WVONGA commissioned an independent economic impact study by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research College of Business and Economics West Virginia University. This 57-page study was released on January 25, 2011 at a press conference in Charleston and can be seen here. Below is a one-page summary:

WVONGA_SummaryPts

As one can see, many jobs will be created. Of key note is the point:

Future development of Marcellus Shale in West Virginia is dependent on changes to federal and state policies [emphasis mine] as well as changes to tax and environmental policies in other Marcellus Shale states.

Please see my post on the EPA recently revoking an already-in-use coal mine permit in West Virginia, so naturally one of Mr. DeMarco’s key statements to me was:

When the EPA comes in and withdraws permits it is certainly disconcerting and what it really amounts to is a “taking” of the company and assets which have already invested. We can’t expect to compete in a global economy if we have uncertainty in the industry.

Mr. DeMarco explained to me originally in the Marcellus, drilling took place where oil pooled, not in the source rock. As a result 60-80% of the NG in those wells was left, however those wells can be revisited with the new technology used to drill in shale. And here is the shocker. According to Mr. DeMarco the US as a whole uses less than 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually. At a meeting 2 years ago in Pennsylvania, estimates were the Appalachian basin collectively with the Utica shale in Ohio held 180 trillion cf of natural gas. Later estimates rose to 500T cf, and now current estimates are a whopping 750 trillion cubic feet of reserves, enough to keep this country energy independent for a very long time, of course if there is no interference from the Feds and companies are willing to invest the huge amount of dollars it would take. These reserves if correct even far outweigh those in the Middle East. And yes, I am positive I heard him correctly. I even asked him to repeat because I was so stunned.

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), co-chairs of the Natural Gas Caucus sent this letter off to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on January 5 of this year because of concerns

the Department of the Interior may seek to impose new regulations on the natural gas extraction process on federal lands and urge you to not institute any new regulatory burdens before the completion of the 2010-2012 Environmental Protection Agency study on hydraulic fracturing.

Check out the other signatories. And of course, not to be outdone progressives in Congress led by Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) fired their own letter off to Salazar on the 12th to

express our strong support of your recent announcement of plans to develop a new policy for the public disclosure of chemical compounds used in hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking on public lands. This is a critical step forward in encouraging the oil and gas industry to be more transparent and responsibly address the potential implications of hydraulic fracturing on water supplies and public health.

I can’t make out all the signatories, but we have many of the “usual suspects” such as Frank, Kucinich, Moran, Woolsey, et al. And on the heels of Obama’s State of the Union address, even before he finished speaking, I had this statement from Doc Hastings, Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee in my email box:

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 25, 2011 – House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding the President’s State of the Union address:

“The President spoke at length tonight on the need to increase our economic competiveness and create new jobs. However, it’s the spending and job-destroying policies of his Administration that are jeopardizing our economic future.

“Today, American families are facing the harsh realities of rising gas prices, higher electricity costs and near double-digit unemployment. Instead of addressing these issues head-on, the Administration has spent the past two years blocking access to America’s resources that create jobs and produce more energy. These policies have only succeeded in driving American jobs overseas, threatening our economic recovery and making us more dependent on hostile foreign nations for our energy needs.

“A strong economy needs access to an abundant and affordable energy supply – we have both here in America. The President needs to embrace a robust plan to produce all types of American energy – from renewable to American-made oil and natural gas – and it has to be done without harmful government subsidies or unrealistic mandates. America cannot regulate its way back to prosperity. Certainty in the free market, not fear of red tape, is what will ultimately create jobs and grow the economy.

While it certainly appears that West Virginia is well on its way, at least at this point, with proceeding with drilling more wells in the Marcellus, the same cannot be said for New York. Ex-governor Paterson recently Executive Ordered a ban on horizontal fracking in NY after ACORN-spawned Working Families Party convinced the State Assembly to pass a bill placing a moratorium on all hydrofracking for fears residents might be able to set their tap water on fire. Here is Mark Ruffalo, spokesman for WFP or this subject:

Guess what Ruffalo: you may be a looker but no way will I be going to one of your movies, ever again. And yes, I know WFP was leading the charge because I signed up for their emails long ago and have been following the progress of this. Mr. DeMarco assured me if the process is done correctly, with cement and steel casings on the drill pipes at least 100 feet down, hydrofracking is extremely safe.

I just checked our natural gas bill. We used 189 cubic feet in December. In northern Ohio. $148 at the rate of $0.59360 per CCF for a 3,000 sq ft house kept at 70 degrees. Imagine what 750 trillion cf can do.

Fuel for thought.

Please visit the WVONGA website for a wealth of info on natural gas, including this interactive map of wells there.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Crossposted at Procinct.net

I’ve been there. China, that is. North, south east and west. From Beijing to Xian to Chongqing to Shanghai to Hong Kong. This is going to be a post of observations. First hand. And it ain’t pretty. And this was 2 years ago. Imagine what they’ve accomplished since. Vassar Bushmills, eat your heart out cuz I am gonna do an editorial.

I was there, in the plush hotel in Beijing when the “big one” hit. That devastating earthquake in 2008. It rocked the hotel 1200 miles from the epicenter. I turned on the news. All in Chinese. No good. Finally found CNN, 4 people died they reported. Our tour guide the next day told us FoxNews is not allowed in China, only CNN and then only in the tourist hotels. It was not until I came home 3 weeks later to find that 85 thousand people died. Yes, they tried their best to save people in the shanty towns and cardboard boxes, but then contrast that to below.

Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing are the power houses of the country. Beijing and Hong Kong financially, but Shanghai in industry and technology. The Communist hold over the citizens and the little pay they receive are readily apparent.  Families vie for their 9 year old boys to be taken into the service of Communism. They rely mostly on coal for energy and don’t care about raping the environment. I’m all in favor of using coal for energy but after seeing the Three Gorges Dam and how they killed millions of flora and fauna, displacing millions with no regard to the environment it’s a different matter there. China, you could have done much better.

Shanghai in appearance looks just like NYC with small homes interspersed within the skyscrapers. China has a work ethic which is unknown in the US because they are under the hold of Communism and have no entitlements like here in the US. I used to teach “English as a second language.”  Many of my students were Chinese, industry and technology. I asked them what would happen if the government-mandated “only one child per family” was not adhered to. Oh, one is shunned by the government. No pension, no retirement, you are a pariah.

In my visit to Beijing I needed some sunscreen because TSA in Chicago thought it was a weapon and took it from me. The manager of the Westin in Beijing personally escorted me to a pharmacy which was the only place he told me I could purchase sunscreen. It was $25 for a tiny, small tube. Can one imagine what birth control protection must cost in that country and how many babies are aborted by the coat-hangar/mail opener system??? Just to adhere to government mandates??

I visited the silk factories. Girls at the age of 6, 7 or 8 are put into service to make silk rugs for the tourists, at little or no pay. It takes them a year and a half to make these exquisite rugs which the government in turn sells to the tourists for $4-5 thousand dollars. I’ve seen the factories where they can churn out transistors, batteries, radios faster than Ford in Detroit can make a carburetor.

Right before Christmas a diarist here advocated “buy American” which I am all in favor of, however:

I got curious. I have a Blackberry and pulled the back. Made in Canada by RIM. OK, good deal. But the battery, the DC charger and the car charger are made in China. Not much good without the accessories. We had a devastating tornado here in June 2 miles from my house. We barely escaped. Five people died. I bought a weather alert radio for myself, my parents and my kids which would wake us up if there was a tornado. Works great. We’ve been to the basement several times. But made, you guessed it. China.

I took 8 Chinese domestic flights. Yes, at least at the time they did use Boeings. And the service was like it was here in the 70′s. Flight attendants dressed to the 9′s and food and liquor included at no extra charge.

I’ve heard jokes all week a la “Horton hears a Hu.” Except Hu is no dummy. And neither should we be. I believe China is absolutely capable of making an aircraft to rival Boeing.

Don’t underestimate China. They have 1.6 billion people ready, willing and able to take on the US. And they put people into service at 5, 6, or 7 years of age. Five times as many workers as here. And with them being our largest creditor stakes are extremely high.

My friends, the “enemy” is NOT at the gate. It is already well past the gate, it’s over the threshold and inside the front door.

What remains to be seen is how we fight it. Freshmen Congress, are you ready?

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Crossposted at Procinct.net

In a nutshell:

The Spending Reduction Act of 2011

+ $80 billion Take current non-security discretionary spending back to 2008 levels.

+ $45 billion Repeal unspent stimulus funds.

+ $46.1 billion End federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac & return Medicaid FMAP spending to 2008 levels.

+ $2.3 trillion On Oct. 1, 2011 (start of FY 2012), reduce non-defense discretionary spending to 2006 levels and implement a hard freeze through FY 2021 (removes inflation increase from CBO’s baseline).

• Includes $330 billion from specifically targeting more than 100 programs and spending reforms (i.e. $7.5 billion annually by cutting the federal travel budget in half).

• Also includes shrinking the size and cost of the civilian federal workforce (reduce workforce through attrition by 15% and no automatic pay increases for 5 years).

= $2.47 Trillion

Total savings add up to approximately $2.5 trillion when one includes reforms and reductions. The full document can be seen below:

Spending Reduction Plan

I had the pleasure of being included on a conference call with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Market and Government-Sponsored Enterprises for the House Financial Services Committee, and Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) with a preview of their Spending Reduction Act.

There are hopes if this Spending Reduction Act is passed the US can realize $2.5T in savings over the next 10 years. This is the beginning of a process which will play out in the House and then will be passed over to the Senate, according to Sen. Demint. Although the time frame is up for debate, this is the only way we can save our country and our currency. A salient quote from Sen Demint:

We can’t mix free enterprise with socialism and expect it to work.

The Congressmen are ferretting out waste and have asked their constituents for input where costs can be cut and this plan is a starting point, to force a debate and pass a balanced budget amendment. If the Feds can cede control of many functions and programs back to the states it will be a win for all of us.

The plans are to introduce this as a “stand alone” legislation. When asked about the possible default of states and/or their state pension programs Sen. Demint responded there will be framework for the states to set up for bankruptcy, but he was firm that no states will be “bailed out.” THAT would:

devolve into a Ponzi scheme which would have worldwide consequences. We need to draw a line in the concrete, not in the sand.

Rep. Jordan stated this is “tough love” time and it will be difficult but we will all come through it and it will send a message to the White House the Republicans are committed to enacting a realistic budget and debt ceiling.

Tune in about noon or 12:15 pm today to hear the “unveiling.”

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Our government seems to know no bounds these days. In a stunning, but not surprising power-grab, and show of boldness, the EPA, specifically Chair Nancy Sutley of the Council on Environmental Quality, revoked the coal mining permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce Mine No. 1 in Logan County, West Virginia. The action happened on January 13 after 9 months of threats from the EPA that the mine would cause irreparable harm to the environment. Area businesses sent this letter to Ms. Sutley expressing opposition. Of keynote is the following observation:

If EPA is allowed to revoke this permit, every similarly valid Section 404 permit held by any entity — businesses, public works agencies and individual citizens — will be in increased regulatory limbo and potentially subject to the same unilateral, after-the-fact revocation. The implications could be staggering, reaching all areas of the U.S. economy including but not limited to the agriculture, home building, mining, transportation and energy sectors.

Arch Coal, which contributes 16% of America’s coal supply, had the project in the works for over a decade and received its permit in 2007 during the Bush administration. This mine, a “mountain top removal mine” when fully operational would have employed 235 miners and 300 indirect jobs in support services. Arch Coal has already set aside $250 million for this project, which now, under EPA orders, will have to be shut down.

The EPA cited its authority under the Clean Water Act, an action taken place only twice in the last 40 years and never before to a coal mine. This action predictably will send chills up the spines of business and industry who will assuredly be fearful of undertaking projects and investing money in those projects, especially now that we see an almost unprecedented revocation after a permit has been issued by the proper agency. Local reaction, including concerns by Senator Manchin can be see on this video here. Sorry, no embed code.

West Virginia is the second largest coal producer in the country:

• $26 billion pumped into the West Virginia economy annually
• $3.2 billion in wages for West Virginia families
• 60,000 jobs
• Jobs pay an average of $68,500 annually, more than twice the state average wage
• 60% of the state’s business taxes are paid by coal and utilities

I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Bill Raney, President of the West Virginia Coal Association regarding the EPA’s arrogance and total disregard for “coal families” in West Virginia. He tells me there are of course the resident environmentalists and their “concerns”, mainly a study which shows the mine may have the potential of one insect, the mayfly, disappearing. However he has spoken openly and collectively with the residents who live in this rural area and they welcome the mine, the jobs and the dollars it will place into the West Virginia economy. He assured me unlike the Feds, the process has been open and transparent with community input all along and the mining company is always accessible to residents to listen to any concerns they may have. He also stated to me the claims of water contamination are unsubstantiated and some opponents are fabricating a “there will be cancer” fear. Also there are no streams involved, only ditches which are dry most of the year. In this type of mining the top of the mountain must be removed to extract the coal underneath. The “overburden” or material on top of the coal, is moved into the ditches. After the coal is extracted the overburden is placed back into its original area, reinstating the natural look of the environment.

Mr. Raney tells me the major problems began when the Obama administration came on line with its new staff. What do you know about that.

Arch Coal has already filed suit in DC court and also in the WVA southern district court. Reactions of West Virginia Congressional representatives and Governor Earl Tomblin are aggravation. Tomblin has announced a “Rally for Coal” on Thursday, January 20 in Charleston:

“Our coal industry provides jobs for our men and women, money for our children’s education, and energy for our country’s growing appetite for electricity,” Gov. Tomblin said. “We must stand up and show federal regulators that we will not retreat from their unfair actions. We will continue the fight not just for the Spruce Number One mine but for every coal miner, coal company and for our way of life.”

Senator Jay Rockefeller has sent a letter to President Obama, excerpted below:

I am writing to express my outrage with the EPA’s decision to veto a rigorously reviewed and lawfully issued permit at the Spruce Number 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. This action not only affects this specific permit, but needlessly throws other permits into a sea of uncertainty at a time of great economic distress. It is further upsetting that the EPA is seeking to veto a permit that has already been so thoroughly reviewed.

Senator Manchin in this press release calls the EPA’s action “unprecedented and irresponsible.”

“It goes without saying, such an irresponsible regulatory step is not only a shocking display of overreach, it will have a chilling effect on investments and our economic recovery. I plan to do everything in my power to fight this decision.”

Rep. Nick Rahall, in this interview, calls the EPA’s decision “chilling.”

We presently have an oil drilling moratorium in parts of the Gulf and eastern seaboard. And Governor David Paterson of New York recently signed into law a ban on horizontal natural gas hydro-fracking under pressure of the ACORN-founded Working Families Party.

Now our coal is at risk. What’s left, my friends?

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks

Crossposted at Procinct.net