Falmouth Citizen

Murder rates don't fall when guns are banned. Murder rates tend to climb when guns are banned. Those are the facts, people. A Sept. 13 report on crime statistics from the FBI shows that all violent crime rates dropped in 2009 – murder rates by 7.4 percent and robbery rates by 9 percent! John R. Lott, Jr., economist and author of "More Guns, Less Crime," credits President Barack Obama's election for causing gun sales to skyrocket and crime rates to plummet. This must tickle Lott a lot, since he was in college with Obama and treated frostily by him when Lott would try to convince Obama that guns weren't evil things. Read the rest of this entry »

What is "is"? An ICLEI city. That stands for International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, now morphed into Local Governments for Sustainability. The International part involves the United Nations' plans for global regional development, although ICLEI is now in the process of eliminating any references to the United Nations on its Web site in order to slip the true intentions of the U.N. under the radar. Read the rest of this entry »

Falmouth Citizens should follow Arizona’s example and protest against any increases in utility bills.

Groups want utilities to fight emission rules that raise costs

by Ryan Randazzo – Jan. 8, 2010 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic

Stop Cap and Trade

Executives from several large, publicly traded electric utilities were greeted in Scottsdale on Thursday by a group of “tea party” protesters demanding that the companies fight global-warming legislation.

The protesters – Americans for Prosperity, the Scottsdale Tea Party and FreedomWorks – said that man-made global warming is not real and that utilities should reject new regulations on the emissions from their power plants that raise energy prices.

Inside the Fairmont Scottsdale, about 75 top executives from major utilities, including Arizona Public Service Co., conducted a private quarterly board meeting of the Edison Electric Institute, including a presentation from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Edison represents about 95 percent of the shareholder-owned utilities in the country and supports legislation that would reduce greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants and other sources, so long as it limits price increases for electricity customers.

“We stopped debating the science of climate change many years ago,” Edison spokesman Jim Owen said. “The science issue is fundamentally settled. Let’s get engaged in the solution.”

Protesters said the utilities should use their vast financial resources to fight “the lies” that scientists spread about global warming, not embrace new regulations.

“Coal is clean, our technology is phenomenal,” said state Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, who addressed the crowd of about 60 protesters. “Those utilities should be helping us fight this battle and should not be saying to me the debate (over global warming) is over. It is bad science.”

Protesters held signs that read “Crooks are running the EPA,” “Carbon isn’t the problem, Congress is.” Some had flags depicting President Obama’s face over crossbones.

Protesters said proposed legislation in Congress regarding global warming is as important as the debate over health care.

“It is going to destroy business and the economy as a whole,” said Judy Hoelscher of Phoenix, who brought her daughters, ages 11 and 14, to the protest.

Officials from Arizona’s largest utility said they agree with Edison’s position on climate change.

“It’s not even a debate over whether the science is sound,” said Jim McDonald, a spokesman for APS, whose CEO is on the Edison board. “It is an acknowledgement that the issue is an important issue. We want to be part of the solution.”

In June 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and in October Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced a new, similar bill, although the issue appears to have taken a backseat to health-care reform.

The aim of the climate bills is to limit the amount of carbon dioxide and other emissions that cause global warming and let companies trade permits to release those emissions.

Over time, the pollution permits, or “allowances,” would be reduced to encourage utilities to switch to technologies like wind or solar or perhaps even nuclear power.

Advocates of a cap-and-trade system hope to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions to avoid catastrophic effects of global warming.

Several groups analyzed what the House bill could cost the average U.S. household in higher energy bills and costs for goods and services that use a lot of energy.

“We believe there will be a cost, and our goal is to make the costs manageable,” said Owen, from Edison. “But we would not support a poorly designed bill, one we thought was unrealistic or that did not contain adequate safeguards for customers.”

APS estimates put the cost to its customers at $28 to $112 a year in 2012 if the House bill passed.

Estimates from Salt River Project, which is not a member of Edison because it is a municipal utility, ranged from $65 to $245 a year in 2012.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration concluded the legislation could cost the average household $83 annually, with costs as low as $59 and as high as $292. By 2030, the impact could be from $157 to $850.

How much it would cost consumers and affect the greater economy depends on how fast utilities can build nuclear plants or trap the greenhouse gases from coal plants; how they’ll be credited for doing things such as planting trees; and whether renewable-energy jobs like those at wind farms will adequately replace those lost at coal plants.

The Congressional Budget Office concluded that household expenses would rise $175 a year under the bill. That analysis found the lowest-income households would see an average net benefit of $40 a year, while the highest income homes would take a $245-$340 annual hit.

Activist groups that support a cap-and-trade program say the tea-party groups don’t give enough credit to the jobs that will be created at solar power plants and other alternative-energy projects.

“We can produce more energy than our state uses, and it could be a commodity we export to other states,” said Beth Pramme of Repower America in Arizona. “We could get out of our own state’s financial crisis.”

Many Americans appear to be awakening from their slumber of apathy as government forces are making their move for total control of our lives. Massive TEA Party protests on April 15th, followed by more than 1000 again on Independence Day, show a growing movement of concerned, dedicated Americans. But there is a major component missing from those protests. There is a nearly universal lack of understanding of the issue of Sustainable Development and the dangers it poses to our liberty. Consequently, that issue is being left out of the protests. Read the rest of this entry »