"change the way we eat, change the way we treat each other" 2pac
"i like beef and broccoli motherfucker" immortal technique
"you're boyfriend's got beef. tell him i'm a vegetarian and i aint afraid of him" - plain white tees
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Australia Coal 1NC
A. Uniqueness – Australia’s Economy is on the brink of collapse due to declining demand for exports – coal demand and prices are high now and set to increase which is the only thing sustaining the continent’s economy
Kerrie Sinclair, Writer, April 6, 2009, The Courier-Mail Online, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25292325-3122,00.html
Australia is in or near recession largely because global demand for its export products and services has nosedived amid a deep global recession. That has caused companies to cut back spending at a time when households are saving as wealth levels fall and full-time jobs are shed. For now, the prices that appear to have been reached by Australian coking coal and PCI producers with their Japanese steel mill customers have proven stronger than many analysts had expected. There could even be scope for Treasury's estimate for about $1.695 billion in coal royalties for the year to June 2010 to be revised higher given some analysts are slightly lifting their estimates for next year's coal contract prices, due to come into effect from April 1 next year.
B. Links
1st - Any attempt to lower GHG emissions or switch to alternative energy tanks US coal demand
Research Recap, Investment Research Blog, July 27, 2008, ResearchRecap.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.researchrecap.com/index.php/2008/02/12/research-roundup-are-high-coal-prices-here-to-stay/
IBISWorld also says environmental concerns will have an impact on the US coal industry. “Attempts by electricity generators to control their greenhouse gas emissions in response to rising public concern would almost certainly take the form of switching to lower carbon sources of fuel, adversely affecting the demand for coal. Continued investment in cleaner coal technology, by both the private sector and the government, offer only limited scope for reducing greenhouse emissions, “IBISWorld says in Coal Mining in the US.
2nd – Which, because of its massive purchasing power and demand tanks global coal prices and industry
Paul Roberts, Energy Expert and writer for Harpers, 2004, The End of Oil, p 14-15
Some of this discrepancy is owing to the American economy, which is bigger than anyone else’s and therefore uses more energy. But it is also true that the American lifestyle is twice as energy-intensive as that in Europe and Japan, and about ten times the global average. The United States is thus the most important of all energy players: its enormous demand makes it an essential customer for the big energy states like Saudi Arabia and Russia. Its large imports hold the global energy market in thrall. (Indeed, the tiniest change in the U.S. energy economy — a colder winter, an increase in driving, a change in tax law —can send world markets into a tailspin.)
C. Internal Links
1st – That Would Collapse the Australian Economy
Kingsgate Consolidated Limited, Mining Industry Analysts, 2008, Kingsgate.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.kingsgate.com.au/links/coal-mining-and-exploration-companies.htm
Mining of black coal is one of Australia 's most important industries, creating significant employment in regional Australia , fuel for low-cost electricity generation and steel-making, and vital export income. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, and black coal is Australia 's largest export, worth around $A22.5 billion in 2006-07. In addition to providing Australian consumers with affordable electricity, coal underpins the international competitiveness of the entire Australian economy.
Australia Coal 1NC
2nd – And US/Australia Relations – economic and trading ties are critical to the alliance – the plan would be seen as an attack on Australian GDP and spill over to other issues
Gary Brown and Laura Rayner, parliamentary researches for the Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, 28 August 2001, APH.gov, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/CIB/2001-02/02cib03.htm
The effect of US economic policies on Australian trade has been a source of tension between the two countries. Australian farmers have seen themselves as casualties of the US government subsidy war with Europe which has damaged Australian trade in commodities such as wool and wheat. While the ANZUS alliance gave Australian politicians access in Washington which they used to protest about the effect of US policies, the ANZUS Treaty is a security treaty in the traditional sense of security. Accusations that US is acting as an ally but not a friend of Australia and threats to the continuation of the alliance misunderstand the nature of the ANZUS Treaty. It deals first and foremost with military security and its function is not to protect Australia from the consequences, mostly unintended and however unfair, of US trade subsidies. Given the relative size and strengths of the alliance partners, Australian governments have wisely resisted domestic pressure to use the alliance as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations as such pressure would be likely to do damage to the usefulness of the Treaty without solving any Australian trade disputes with the US. Notwithstanding these considerations, if the US wishes public support for the alliance to remain high in Australia, it should make every effort to minimise the effect of its trade policies on the Australian economy. This will have to be kept in mind by both parties in any future negotiations on a possible US-Australian free trade agreement. Failure to secure a bilateral trade agreement which includes satisfactory coverage of agricultural issues could tend to 'generate disillusionment with the relationship more generally'. 62 As Ross Garnaut argues, 'the economic interests at stake … are too small to warrant any compromise or controversy in the wider political and strategic relationship'. 63 The challenge for Australian governments in the future will be to continue to insulate the security benefits of the alliance from domestic anger if US trade policies continue to damage Australia's trading position and economy.
D. Impact - US-Australia relations prevent US-China war
Gary Brown and Laura Rayner, parliamentary researches for the Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, 28 August 2001, APH.gov, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/CIB/2001-02/02cib03.htm
Australia's alliance membership and its mostly friendly relations with China give it the opportunity to play 'a good offices role' in helping to dispel distrust and build confidence between China, Taiwan and the US.(56) As discussed above, Australia's relationship with the US is valuable to China as an indirect and face-saving way to gauge the mood in Washington. Australia's access to the US decision makers should also give it an opportunity to offer wise counsel to the US to assist it to avoid the major policy miscalculation of underestimating China's willingness to escalate a cross-strait conflict. Without overstating the influence Australia can have on the US, as an alliance partner Australia has a better chance of helping the region to avoid the horrendous consequences of an open conflict between China and the US.
US Coal 1NC
A. Uniqueness – The US Coal sector is well contracted for 09 but is on the brink and slowdown in demand could tank it
Reuters, International News Wire, March 27, 2009, Forbes.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/03/27/afx6222941.html
Goldman Sachs on Friday started coverage on the U.S. coal sector at neutral, arguing that demand for domestic coal and coal exports could fall because of global economic weakness. It also said that excess capacity is likely to keep coal prices near cash costs for the next six months. 'While many U.S. coal producers are well contracted for 2009, there is risk of further contract deferrals,' the firm wrote. 'The fall in demand has caused met coal consumers to defer or cancel met coal contracts with producers.'
B. Link - Any attempt to lower GHG emissions or switch to alternative energy tanks the US coal sector
Research Recap, Investment Research Blog, July 27, 2008, ResearchRecap.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.researchrecap.com/index.php/2008/02/12/research-roundup-are-high-coal-prices-here-to-stay/
IBISWorld also says environmental concerns will have an impact on the US coal industry. “Attempts by electricity generators to control their greenhouse gas emissions in response to rising public concern would almost certainly take the form of switching to lower carbon sources of fuel, adversely affecting the demand for coal.
C. Internal Link – Collapse of the Coal Sector would send the already shaky US economy into a full on collapse by resulting in mass job loss, GDP downturn and higher energy costs for consumers
Ryran Bynes, Reporter for CNSNews, April 2, 2009, CNSNews.com http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45994
Shimkus and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) held a press conference Wednesday to rally support opposing the cap and trade proposals, which they said would lead to both higher energy costs and severe job loss in the coal mining industry. Given the already hostile national economic climate, Shimkus said such a change would be especially overwhelming. “I think it’s a very scary time to say you want to raise costs on the individual consumer and to raise taxes,” Shimkus told CNSNews.com. “This is a monumental change.” Coal mining, which provides more than half of the nation’s electricity, generates more than 550,000 jobs nationwide, contributing $8.2 billion in payroll, according to a study by the National Mining Association. Total economic output from coal approached $80 billion in 2007
D. Impacts –
1. The US is key to global economy
Walter Russell Mead, Kissinger Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, March 3, 2004, Foreign Policy, p.2
Similarly, in the last 60 years, as foreigners have acquired a greater value in the United States--government and private bonds, direct and portfolio private investments--more and more of them have acquired an interest in maintaining the strength of the U.S.-led system. A collapse of the U.S. economy and the ruin of the dollar would do more than dent the prosperity of the United States. Without their best customer, countries including China and Japan would fall into depressions. The financial strength of every country would be severely shaken should the United States collapse. Under those circumstances, debt becomes a strength, not a weakness, and other countries fear to break with the United States because they need its market and own its securities. Of course, pressed too far, a large national debt can turn from a source of strength to a crippling liability, and the United States must continue to justify other countries' faith by maintaining its long-term record of meeting its financial obligations. But, like Samson in the temple of the Philistines, a collapsing U.S. economy would inflict enormous, unacceptable damage on the rest of the world. That is sticky power with a vengeance.
2. Global Economic Downturn Means Extinction
Lt. Col. Tom Bearden, PhD Nuclear Engineering, April 25, 2000,Cheniere.org, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.cheniere.org/correspondence/042500%20-%20modified.htm
So there will erupt a spasmodic unleashing of the long range missiles, nuclear arsenals, and biological warfare arsenals of the nations as they feel the economic collapse, poverty, death, misery, etc. a bit earlier. The ensuing holocaust is certain to immediately draw in the major nations also, and literally a hell on earth will result. In short, we will get the great Armageddon we have been fearing since the advent of the nuclear genie. Right now, my personal estimate is that we have about a 99% chance of that scenario or some modified version of it, resulting.
Link – Cap ‘n’ Trade
A Cap ‘n’ Trade System would collapse the coal mining industry
Ryran Bynes, Reporter for CNSNews, April 2, 2009, CNSNews.com, Accessed 4/6/2009 http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45994
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said cap and trade systems would be devastating to coal manufacturing states like Illinois and West Virginia and proposed cap and trade legislation could kill the entire coal mining industry. “This cap-and-trade scheme may not just reduce Illinois coal jobs further – it is my worry that this legislation aims to kill the entire coal industry,” Shimkus told CNSNews.com. Shimkus and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) held a press conference Wednesday to rally support opposing the cap and trade proposals, which they said would lead to both higher energy costs and severe job loss in the coal mining industry.
A Cap ‘n’ Trade System would literally kill the coal industry
Matt Laslo, Reporter for the Capital News Connection, April 2, 2009, West Virginia Public Broadcasting Online, Accessed 4/6/2009, http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=8942
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito accuses Democrats of trying to destroy the coal industry with a newly-introduced climate change bill. A cap and trade bill just introduced by House Democrats would cut carbon emissions by twenty percent. The legislation would trade carbon credits with companies that pollute in an open market. Capito fears the bill could devastate West Virginia’s big coal industry. “The direction in which this legislation seems to be taking it is to kill coal, quite frankly,” she said. The bill promotes the construction of a pilot facility for carbon capture and sequestration, where carbon emissions are stored under ground.
Greenhouse Gas Caps would tank US GDP
Thomas Gale Moore, Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution,1997, Hoover Digest Online, Accessed 4/6/2009, www.hooverdigest.org/974/moore.html
Yale economist William Nordhaus estimates a net discounted cost of seven trillion dollars for stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels. Presuming that some system of carbon taxation would have to be implemented, a study by DRI/McGraw-Hill economist Lawrence Horwitz estimates that a levy of one hundred dollars a ton would cost the American economy two hundred billion dollars a year. Raising the carbon tax estimate to two hundred dollars a ton produces a three hundred and fifty billion dollar decline in the production of goods and services, a cost of 4.2 percent of our entire gross domestic product.
Link – Market Perception
The Coal Market is based entirely on perception the plan wrecks it simply by indicates the government is bailing on coal
Dana Waldo, Charleston Gazette Writer, Friday March 20, 2009, iStockAnalyst, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3136480
You stated that coal reserves slowly are vanishing and as they dwindle, prices will soar. That's simply conjecture, not fact. Today, coal prices are based on market demand and production costs, not an erroneous myth about vanishing reserves. You said that the jump in coal prices last year hardly seemed steep enough to justify this increase. The fact is, a $20-a-ton difference in the price of coal equates to a penny-a-kilowatt-hour difference in rates.
Internal Link – Coal Industry Key to US Economy
The continual utilization of coal is critical to the US economy. Any regulations will affect millions of workers. John Grisham, President of Buckeye Industrial Mining CO., May 12, 2003, FDCH Congressional Testimony May, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house
It is appropriate to expand this vision once more to include all of the industrial base of this country, and to evaluate its dependence upon readily available, reliable, low-cost electricity. Let's face it, coal-fired electricity is alone in its ability to satisfy all of these requirements simultaneously. We cannot dismiss the value of competing fuels in the total energy mix or even in the generation of electricity, nor can we dismiss the environmental considerations associated with the different sources of electric power. But we certainly cannot put them on equal footing with coal when it comes to meeting the requirements of the electricity-consuming industries of America. And, of course, these industries are the employers of many millions of Americans across our nation. Meeting these energy requirements- reliable, readily available and low cost- is not a "choice" in this marketplace of employment, and Americans must not be misled when it comes to the competitive importance of electricity in the global economy. They cannot be lured into believing that the cost of environmental policy can always be defined as a "few cents on your household electric bill".
A. Uniqueness – Australia’s Economy is on the brink of collapse due to declining demand for exports – coal demand and prices are high now and set to increase which is the only thing sustaining the continent’s economy
Kerrie Sinclair, Writer, April 6, 2009, The Courier-Mail Online, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25292325-3122,00.html
Australia is in or near recession largely because global demand for its export products and services has nosedived amid a deep global recession. That has caused companies to cut back spending at a time when households are saving as wealth levels fall and full-time jobs are shed. For now, the prices that appear to have been reached by Australian coking coal and PCI producers with their Japanese steel mill customers have proven stronger than many analysts had expected. There could even be scope for Treasury's estimate for about $1.695 billion in coal royalties for the year to June 2010 to be revised higher given some analysts are slightly lifting their estimates for next year's coal contract prices, due to come into effect from April 1 next year.
B. Links
1st - Any attempt to lower GHG emissions or switch to alternative energy tanks US coal demand
Research Recap, Investment Research Blog, July 27, 2008, ResearchRecap.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.researchrecap.com/index.php/2008/02/12/research-roundup-are-high-coal-prices-here-to-stay/
IBISWorld also says environmental concerns will have an impact on the US coal industry. “Attempts by electricity generators to control their greenhouse gas emissions in response to rising public concern would almost certainly take the form of switching to lower carbon sources of fuel, adversely affecting the demand for coal. Continued investment in cleaner coal technology, by both the private sector and the government, offer only limited scope for reducing greenhouse emissions, “IBISWorld says in Coal Mining in the US.
2nd – Which, because of its massive purchasing power and demand tanks global coal prices and industry
Paul Roberts, Energy Expert and writer for Harpers, 2004, The End of Oil, p 14-15
Some of this discrepancy is owing to the American economy, which is bigger than anyone else’s and therefore uses more energy. But it is also true that the American lifestyle is twice as energy-intensive as that in Europe and Japan, and about ten times the global average. The United States is thus the most important of all energy players: its enormous demand makes it an essential customer for the big energy states like Saudi Arabia and Russia. Its large imports hold the global energy market in thrall. (Indeed, the tiniest change in the U.S. energy economy — a colder winter, an increase in driving, a change in tax law —can send world markets into a tailspin.)
C. Internal Links
1st – That Would Collapse the Australian Economy
Kingsgate Consolidated Limited, Mining Industry Analysts, 2008, Kingsgate.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.kingsgate.com.au/links/coal-mining-and-exploration-companies.htm
Mining of black coal is one of Australia 's most important industries, creating significant employment in regional Australia , fuel for low-cost electricity generation and steel-making, and vital export income. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, and black coal is Australia 's largest export, worth around $A22.5 billion in 2006-07. In addition to providing Australian consumers with affordable electricity, coal underpins the international competitiveness of the entire Australian economy.
Australia Coal 1NC
2nd – And US/Australia Relations – economic and trading ties are critical to the alliance – the plan would be seen as an attack on Australian GDP and spill over to other issues
Gary Brown and Laura Rayner, parliamentary researches for the Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, 28 August 2001, APH.gov, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/CIB/2001-02/02cib03.htm
The effect of US economic policies on Australian trade has been a source of tension between the two countries. Australian farmers have seen themselves as casualties of the US government subsidy war with Europe which has damaged Australian trade in commodities such as wool and wheat. While the ANZUS alliance gave Australian politicians access in Washington which they used to protest about the effect of US policies, the ANZUS Treaty is a security treaty in the traditional sense of security. Accusations that US is acting as an ally but not a friend of Australia and threats to the continuation of the alliance misunderstand the nature of the ANZUS Treaty. It deals first and foremost with military security and its function is not to protect Australia from the consequences, mostly unintended and however unfair, of US trade subsidies. Given the relative size and strengths of the alliance partners, Australian governments have wisely resisted domestic pressure to use the alliance as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations as such pressure would be likely to do damage to the usefulness of the Treaty without solving any Australian trade disputes with the US. Notwithstanding these considerations, if the US wishes public support for the alliance to remain high in Australia, it should make every effort to minimise the effect of its trade policies on the Australian economy. This will have to be kept in mind by both parties in any future negotiations on a possible US-Australian free trade agreement. Failure to secure a bilateral trade agreement which includes satisfactory coverage of agricultural issues could tend to 'generate disillusionment with the relationship more generally'. 62 As Ross Garnaut argues, 'the economic interests at stake … are too small to warrant any compromise or controversy in the wider political and strategic relationship'. 63 The challenge for Australian governments in the future will be to continue to insulate the security benefits of the alliance from domestic anger if US trade policies continue to damage Australia's trading position and economy.
D. Impact - US-Australia relations prevent US-China war
Gary Brown and Laura Rayner, parliamentary researches for the Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, 28 August 2001, APH.gov, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/CIB/2001-02/02cib03.htm
Australia's alliance membership and its mostly friendly relations with China give it the opportunity to play 'a good offices role' in helping to dispel distrust and build confidence between China, Taiwan and the US.(56) As discussed above, Australia's relationship with the US is valuable to China as an indirect and face-saving way to gauge the mood in Washington. Australia's access to the US decision makers should also give it an opportunity to offer wise counsel to the US to assist it to avoid the major policy miscalculation of underestimating China's willingness to escalate a cross-strait conflict. Without overstating the influence Australia can have on the US, as an alliance partner Australia has a better chance of helping the region to avoid the horrendous consequences of an open conflict between China and the US.
US Coal 1NC
A. Uniqueness – The US Coal sector is well contracted for 09 but is on the brink and slowdown in demand could tank it
Reuters, International News Wire, March 27, 2009, Forbes.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/03/27/afx6222941.html
Goldman Sachs on Friday started coverage on the U.S. coal sector at neutral, arguing that demand for domestic coal and coal exports could fall because of global economic weakness. It also said that excess capacity is likely to keep coal prices near cash costs for the next six months. 'While many U.S. coal producers are well contracted for 2009, there is risk of further contract deferrals,' the firm wrote. 'The fall in demand has caused met coal consumers to defer or cancel met coal contracts with producers.'
B. Link - Any attempt to lower GHG emissions or switch to alternative energy tanks the US coal sector
Research Recap, Investment Research Blog, July 27, 2008, ResearchRecap.com, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.researchrecap.com/index.php/2008/02/12/research-roundup-are-high-coal-prices-here-to-stay/
IBISWorld also says environmental concerns will have an impact on the US coal industry. “Attempts by electricity generators to control their greenhouse gas emissions in response to rising public concern would almost certainly take the form of switching to lower carbon sources of fuel, adversely affecting the demand for coal.
C. Internal Link – Collapse of the Coal Sector would send the already shaky US economy into a full on collapse by resulting in mass job loss, GDP downturn and higher energy costs for consumers
Ryran Bynes, Reporter for CNSNews, April 2, 2009, CNSNews.com http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45994
Shimkus and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) held a press conference Wednesday to rally support opposing the cap and trade proposals, which they said would lead to both higher energy costs and severe job loss in the coal mining industry. Given the already hostile national economic climate, Shimkus said such a change would be especially overwhelming. “I think it’s a very scary time to say you want to raise costs on the individual consumer and to raise taxes,” Shimkus told CNSNews.com. “This is a monumental change.” Coal mining, which provides more than half of the nation’s electricity, generates more than 550,000 jobs nationwide, contributing $8.2 billion in payroll, according to a study by the National Mining Association. Total economic output from coal approached $80 billion in 2007
D. Impacts –
1. The US is key to global economy
Walter Russell Mead, Kissinger Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, March 3, 2004, Foreign Policy, p.2
Similarly, in the last 60 years, as foreigners have acquired a greater value in the United States--government and private bonds, direct and portfolio private investments--more and more of them have acquired an interest in maintaining the strength of the U.S.-led system. A collapse of the U.S. economy and the ruin of the dollar would do more than dent the prosperity of the United States. Without their best customer, countries including China and Japan would fall into depressions. The financial strength of every country would be severely shaken should the United States collapse. Under those circumstances, debt becomes a strength, not a weakness, and other countries fear to break with the United States because they need its market and own its securities. Of course, pressed too far, a large national debt can turn from a source of strength to a crippling liability, and the United States must continue to justify other countries' faith by maintaining its long-term record of meeting its financial obligations. But, like Samson in the temple of the Philistines, a collapsing U.S. economy would inflict enormous, unacceptable damage on the rest of the world. That is sticky power with a vengeance.
2. Global Economic Downturn Means Extinction
Lt. Col. Tom Bearden, PhD Nuclear Engineering, April 25, 2000,Cheniere.org, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.cheniere.org/correspondence/042500%20-%20modified.htm
So there will erupt a spasmodic unleashing of the long range missiles, nuclear arsenals, and biological warfare arsenals of the nations as they feel the economic collapse, poverty, death, misery, etc. a bit earlier. The ensuing holocaust is certain to immediately draw in the major nations also, and literally a hell on earth will result. In short, we will get the great Armageddon we have been fearing since the advent of the nuclear genie. Right now, my personal estimate is that we have about a 99% chance of that scenario or some modified version of it, resulting.
Link – Cap ‘n’ Trade
A Cap ‘n’ Trade System would collapse the coal mining industry
Ryran Bynes, Reporter for CNSNews, April 2, 2009, CNSNews.com, Accessed 4/6/2009 http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45994
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said cap and trade systems would be devastating to coal manufacturing states like Illinois and West Virginia and proposed cap and trade legislation could kill the entire coal mining industry. “This cap-and-trade scheme may not just reduce Illinois coal jobs further – it is my worry that this legislation aims to kill the entire coal industry,” Shimkus told CNSNews.com. Shimkus and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) held a press conference Wednesday to rally support opposing the cap and trade proposals, which they said would lead to both higher energy costs and severe job loss in the coal mining industry.
A Cap ‘n’ Trade System would literally kill the coal industry
Matt Laslo, Reporter for the Capital News Connection, April 2, 2009, West Virginia Public Broadcasting Online, Accessed 4/6/2009, http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=8942
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito accuses Democrats of trying to destroy the coal industry with a newly-introduced climate change bill. A cap and trade bill just introduced by House Democrats would cut carbon emissions by twenty percent. The legislation would trade carbon credits with companies that pollute in an open market. Capito fears the bill could devastate West Virginia’s big coal industry. “The direction in which this legislation seems to be taking it is to kill coal, quite frankly,” she said. The bill promotes the construction of a pilot facility for carbon capture and sequestration, where carbon emissions are stored under ground.
Greenhouse Gas Caps would tank US GDP
Thomas Gale Moore, Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution,1997, Hoover Digest Online, Accessed 4/6/2009, www.hooverdigest.org/974/moore.html
Yale economist William Nordhaus estimates a net discounted cost of seven trillion dollars for stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels. Presuming that some system of carbon taxation would have to be implemented, a study by DRI/McGraw-Hill economist Lawrence Horwitz estimates that a levy of one hundred dollars a ton would cost the American economy two hundred billion dollars a year. Raising the carbon tax estimate to two hundred dollars a ton produces a three hundred and fifty billion dollar decline in the production of goods and services, a cost of 4.2 percent of our entire gross domestic product.
Link – Market Perception
The Coal Market is based entirely on perception the plan wrecks it simply by indicates the government is bailing on coal
Dana Waldo, Charleston Gazette Writer, Friday March 20, 2009, iStockAnalyst, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3136480
You stated that coal reserves slowly are vanishing and as they dwindle, prices will soar. That's simply conjecture, not fact. Today, coal prices are based on market demand and production costs, not an erroneous myth about vanishing reserves. You said that the jump in coal prices last year hardly seemed steep enough to justify this increase. The fact is, a $20-a-ton difference in the price of coal equates to a penny-a-kilowatt-hour difference in rates.
Internal Link – Coal Industry Key to US Economy
The continual utilization of coal is critical to the US economy. Any regulations will affect millions of workers. John Grisham, President of Buckeye Industrial Mining CO., May 12, 2003, FDCH Congressional Testimony May, Accessed 4/7/2009 http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house
It is appropriate to expand this vision once more to include all of the industrial base of this country, and to evaluate its dependence upon readily available, reliable, low-cost electricity. Let's face it, coal-fired electricity is alone in its ability to satisfy all of these requirements simultaneously. We cannot dismiss the value of competing fuels in the total energy mix or even in the generation of electricity, nor can we dismiss the environmental considerations associated with the different sources of electric power. But we certainly cannot put them on equal footing with coal when it comes to meeting the requirements of the electricity-consuming industries of America. And, of course, these industries are the employers of many millions of Americans across our nation. Meeting these energy requirements- reliable, readily available and low cost- is not a "choice" in this marketplace of employment, and Americans must not be misled when it comes to the competitive importance of electricity in the global economy. They cannot be lured into believing that the cost of environmental policy can always be defined as a "few cents on your household electric bill".
Sunday, April 5, 2009
someone should write a paper around this
The Obama administration has ordered an end to use of the phrase "Global War on Terror," a label adopted by the Bush administration shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
extra-ordinary
do you think that the 'extra-ordinary rendition' crisis has tainted the actual word 'extraordinary'?
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