CEI Today: White House immigration bill, WSJ crony capitalist conference, and Windsorgate/carbon tax

IMMIGRATION - DAVID BIER
   
Openmarket.org: White House Immigration Bill Will Be A Disaster Without Accessible Work Visas

 

President Obama’s recently leaked immigration bill left off the most important component of an immigration bill: the immigration part. Given the fact that the Chamber of Commerce and the big unions — the AFL-CIO and the SEIU — were still locked in vain negotiations over a potential guest work program, the president clearly did not want to leak a version that would step on the toes of his two biggest backers. Unfortunately, without a robust work visa system, the White House bill will be a disaster. >Read more

> Interview David Bier

WSJ CRONY CAPITALIST CONFERENCE - MYRON EBELL Globalwarming.org: Wall Street Journal’s Crony Capitalist Conference Turns Sour Times have changed since the Wall Street Journal held its first “ECO:nomics—Creating Environmental Capital” conference.  I was there in 2008 when several hundred investors and corporate CEOs listened to leading crony capitalists, including Jeff Immelt of GE, James Rogers of Duke Energy, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, and John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers (where Al Gore was also a partner), smugly explain how they were going to strike it rich off the backs of consumers and taxpayers with green energy subsidies and mandates, federal loan guarantees, and the higher energy prices that would make renewable energy competitive with coal, oil, and natural gas once cap-and-trade was enacted. > Read more > Interview Myron Ebell

WINDSORGATE, CARBON TAX The Daily Caller: Emails: Treasury Dept. showed interest in carbon tax data, legislation The Obama administration has repeatedly said it has no plans to propose a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, but emails from 2012 show that U.S. Treasury Department officials were very interested in learning more about such a tax. But emails released as part of a lawsuit by the Competitive Enterprise Institute show that Treasury officials were interested in learning more about past iterations of such policies.  According to the emails, officials looked for data concerning carbon trading legislation in South Korea, the European emissions trading system, and 2009 cap-and-trade bill that failed to clear Congress. They were also attending conferences on carbon emissions. > Read more  > Interview Christopher Horner

More in the news... TSA Still Isn't Complying With the Law on Body Scanners UK Energy Policies Worsen Impact of Cold Spell Education Department Joins EPA In Touting Communist Killers

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

AFPNH - Let’s Lower Electric Rates by Repealing RGGI

On Wednesday the NH House will vote on HB 630 which would finally remove our state from the failed cap-and-trade scheme known as RGGI. If passed, this could lead to a reduction in your electricity rates! 

RGGI has operated as a hidden tax collected on energy consumers in this state for TOO LONG. But now we have the chance to repeal the failed program and lower our electricity rates!

Unfortunately, the House has added an amendment to alter the bill repealing RGGI.

Contact your House Members today and ask them to support the RGGI repeal bill WITHOUT the amendment!

CLICK HERE to find your House Members and their contact information.

Remember, repealing RGGI could lead to electricity rate reductions! Couldn’t you and your family stand to see lower electricity rates at your home or your business?! If so, contact your House Members and ask them to support the RGGI repeal without the amendment.

CLICK HERE to find your House Members and their contact information.

Contact your House Members today and ask them to support removing NH from RGGI WITHOUT the amendment!

It’s time to remove this hidden tax from our electric bills. Thank you for your help in our efforts.

Sincerely,

Greg Moore

State Director

Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire

ALG's Daily Grind - No Fed exit anytime soon

March 13, 2013

No Fed exit anytime soon

If new Federal Reserve purchases, particularly of treasuries, were to suddenly stop, interest rates for government debt sold on the market would likely have to rise to attract buyers, crushing taxpayers with hundreds of billions of dollars of higher interest payments.

The cowardly carbon tax

By taxing carbon based energy sources at their origin, the tax would ripple through the economy, leading to higher prices for consumers, who would naturally blame the grocer, the energy company, utility, car-maker or just the seeming whims of others that cause prices to skyrocket.

New York's 'Sustainability' Plan: aka 'Agenda 21'

"Agenda 21" was first introduced to the world at the 1992 UN-sponsored "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro. It addresses virtually every facet of human life and describes in great detail how the concept of "sustainable development" should be implemented at every level of government.

Investment News: SEC says Illinois misled investors over pension funding

"Agency claims the state raised $2.2B in bond offerings without full disclosure."

CEI Today: EPA's FOIA stonewalling, immigration opponents, and Exxon Mobil's carbon tax

OBAMA FOIA POLICIES, WINDSORGATE

Washington Examiner: Think tank says EPA helps friends' FOIAs, while foes' are delayed or blocked

Environmental Protection Agency officials are making an "on-going practice" of "near-immediate turnaround to provide records to environmentalist pressure groups," while imposing "starkly disparate treatment of groups with different perspectives but which are otherwise similarly situated," a conservative think tank charges today in a unusually lengthy Freedom of Information Act request."

In the 21-page request, Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Christopher C. Horner said "the public particularly deserves to know whether EPA is singling out groups it does not perceive as friendly to EPA's agenda for discriminatory treatment, in the form of denying fee waivers, placing a barrier to access at minimum to delay and possibly denying access to public records." > Read the news story

> Interview an expert

> See also, cei.org/richard-windsor

IMMIGRATION - DAVID BIER USA Today: The third side of the immigration debate Viewed from afar, America's immigration debate appears to center on two groups: liberals whose primary concern is the welfare of immigrants and conservatives whose primary concern is ending illegal immigration. But there is a third element that has inserted itself into the conversation: those who oppose immigration -- legal and illegal. This group is led by three major anti-immigration organizations: Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA and Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Their work on immigration has led major news media to often label them "conservative." Yet the reality is that these groups do not share conservatives' interest in ending illegal immigration, if doing so might mean more legal immigration. > Read more > Interview David Bier

CARBON TAX - MYRON EBELL   Globalwarming.org: Exxon Mobil’s Carbon Tax Follies It was a busy week for promoting and opposing a carbon tax.  Two studies on the economic effects of a carbon tax that draw opposite conclusions were released by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Brookings Institution.  Kevin Hassett, Ph.D., director of economic policy studies at the “pro-business” American Enterprise Institute, continued his advocacy of a carbon tax at a Resources for the Future forum.  And most interestingly, former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly, said at a conference that, “The strongest advocate on our task force for a carbon tax was ExxonMobil.  I had previously thought that was a public relations thing — I didn’t think they were quite interested in it.” > Read the full commentary > Interview Myron Ebell

More in the news... Sequester Begins With Devastating Spending Cuts Green-Jobs Survey Dies as U.S. Readies Sequestration Cuts Hoover Didn’t Cut Spending County Cigarette Tax Hike Goes Into Effect Today The Real Dangers of Crying Wolf On BPA

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

ALG's Daily Grind - The Non-Existent Spending Cuts Wrought By The 'Devastating' Sequester

Feb. 25, 2013

The Non-Existent Spending Cuts Wrought By The 'Devastating' Sequester

Obama and Boehner both supported the sequester as an excuse for yet another unsustainable run-up of our nation's credit limit — which exhausted its latest $2.1 trillion increase last December (after less than seventeen months).

Republicans raise taxes in Virginia in return for… expanding Medicaid?!

With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?

What do the Enviros Really want?

The ironic result of pushing a U.S. carbon tax is that the tax will likely cut carbon dioxide emissions in the United States while increasing them elsewhere. 

Zerohedge.com: When The Fed Has To Print Money Just To Print Money 

A new study that takes a look at what will happen when the Federal Reserve runs out of capital to back all of its quantitative easing and debt monetization.