Stop the Energy Tax

Americans Across the U.S. to 'Rally for Jobs' in Energy

By Steve Everley on August 31, 2010 10:45 AM
Starting tomorrow, a new series of rallies will showcase Americans across the country publicly fighting back against job-killing policies, including President Obama's politically-motivated deep water oil and gas drilling moratorium.

The events, known as the Rally for Jobs series, are intended to highlight how vital the energy industry is to the American economy and how affordable energy is necessary for economic growth. According to the official website:
More energy equals more jobs, higher incomes and greater economic growth. We must come together to tell Washington that our livelihoods depend on the oil and natural gas industry and consumers who rely on access to affordable energy will not be overlooked...
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Help Stop the Lame Duck Session

By Tim Cameron on August 4, 2010 8:50 AM
Congressional Democrats are plotting right now to subvert the will of the American people.  You have the power to stop them. 

Leading Congressional Democrats are dead set on passing controversial and unpopular legislation in a special Lame Duck session of Congress, after the November 2nd Election.   It's the only way they can succeed, because they know they do not have the support of the American people to act now.  You, along with thousands of citizens like you, can stop Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in their tracks. 

At American Solutions, we have developed the No Lame Duck Pledge.   Click here to join Newt  Gingrich in asking you member of Congress to stop the Lame Duck session:

I, undersigned Member of the 111th Congress, pledge to the citizens of the State of _____________  I will not participate in a Lame Duck session of Congress.  I believe reconvening the Congress after the  November 2nd election and prior to the seating of the new 112th Congress, smacks of the worst kind of political corruption.  Attempting to pass unpopular legislation subverts the will of the American people and is an abusive power grab.     

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The Trojan Horse Spill Bill

By Steve Everley on July 28, 2010 2:02 PM
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a package of energy reforms intended primarily to address the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The legislation includes raising the spill liability cap to $5 billion, increasing funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and structural reforms to the bureaucracy formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS), among other things.

But buried deep in the "Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act" is a dangerous provision that will compromise America's ability to reduce its dependence on foreign energy while having literally nothing to do with the Gulf spill.

The language is found on page 404 in Section 4301, under the headline "Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Chemicals." The language is designed to protect Americans from polluted drinking water as a result of a natural gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, even though the connection between that process and water contamination has been repeatedly debunked... more »
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Send Harry Reid a Message

By Dan Kotman on July 27, 2010 10:21 AM

Harry Reid is setting the ground work to impose new energy taxes.
 
Now is the time to stop him.
 
Will you chip in at least $10 to help put this ad on television in Harry Reid's home state of Nevada so that he gets the message now that Americans don't want a new energy tax?
 
Higher taxes kill jobs.

The jobless rate in Nevada is already 14.2% and yet Reid doesn't care that his energy tax will kill even more jobs in his home state.

If Harry Reid doesn't care about killing jobs in his own state, do you think he cares about killing jobs in your state?
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EPA Threatens Affordable Electricity with Ideological Mandates

By Steve Everley on July 26, 2010 4:54 PM
Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new regulations for "criteria pollutants," mandates that could significantly impact the cost of electricity generation in the U.S.

The suite of regulations, known collectively as the "Transport Rule," would target coal-fired power plants in 31 states for their emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. The new mandate would establish a cap-and-trade system for the pollutants, which are blamed for causing acid rain and smog.

The rule would also replace the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) of 2005, which also capped SO2 and NOx from power plants. A federal appeals court in 2008 struck down CAIR on the basis that the rule inadequately recognized how emissions were traveling to neighboring states, making it harder for "tailpipe" states to comply with clean air standards.

The new rule, however, faces its own set of challenges... more »
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Punishing You for BP's Spill

By Dan Kotman on July 16, 2010 5:31 PM
Senator Harry Reid is about to sneak an energy tax into the Gulf Oil Spill bill. Disguised as an attempt to introduce new safety measures for offshore drilling, Reid is actually using this disaster and playing off the hardship of the American people on the Gulf Coast as a way to play politics and increase your taxes.

The idea behind Reid's approach is that Senators will not want to vote against new oil drilling safety measures in the wake of the Gulf spill no matter if the bill also contains new energy taxes. He's using this tragedy to punish you for driving to work, adjusting your thermostat, and powering your home.

Reid's global warming plan will likely limit how many tons of carbon dioxide electric utilities can emit, which makes it a massive new tax on energy that will kill jobs and send electricity prices skyrocketing.

To give you an idea of exactly how destructive Reid's plan could be, a recent study found that cap and trade could kill 5 million jobs over the next few decades and cost each taxpayer thousands of dollars in higher energy costs.
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White House View: Never Let a Crisis Go Without a Tax

By Steve Everley on June 29, 2010 9:26 AM
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

So said Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's Chief of Staff, shortly after the election in November 2008. Four months later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed Emanuel when she said in Brussels that we should "never waste a good crisis".

Translation: a crisis is the perfect time to raise taxes.

True to form, the White House and their liberal allies in Congress are now attempting to explain why the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is the perfect time to impose new energy taxes as part of the global warming bill authored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

By their economic logic, an accident that is already costing jobs and millions of dollars of economic losses in the Gulf requires imposing more taxes that will cost even more jobs and billions of more dollars in economic losses in both the Gulf and across the country.

This is tantamount to arresting the victim after he was mugged.
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Obama's Gulf Coast Tax Hike

By Vince Haley on June 16, 2010 3:55 PM
Last night -- 57 days after an oil-rig explosion triggered an uncontrolled deep-water oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico -- President Obama spoke to the nation about his administration's efforts to address the crisis. After offering two short paragraphs to explain what is being done to stop the leak, Obama devoted most of his speech to explaining why now is the time to dramatically and permanently raise the cost of gasoline, diesel, and electricity for every American.

Jay Leno gave voice to the widespread puzzlement over this misplaced focus:  "President Obama said today he is going to use the Gulf disaster to immediately push a new energy bill through Congress. I got an idea. . . . How about first using the Gulf disaster to fix the Gulf disaster?"

President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said at the start of the Obama presidency that "you never let a crisis go to waste."
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EPA Confirms Kerry-Lieberman is a Gas Tax

By Steve Everley on June 15, 2010 3:45 PM
A much-anticipated economic analysis of the energy tax shows that the global warming bill authored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will dramatically increase gasoline prices for American consumers.

The Environmental Protection Agency concluded that under the American Power Act gasoline prices would more than double. The EPA also found that electricity prices could increase by more than 50%.

The EPA analysis is the second major study showing that Kerry-Lieberman would increase the price of gasoline. Point Carbon found earlier this year that the gas tax provision of the bill, disguised as a fee on "refined product providers," would result in higher costs for gasoline producers, which would in turn be passed on to consumers in the form of higher gas prices at the pump... more »
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The Intangible Energy Tax

By Steve Everley on June 15, 2010 1:21 PM
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20th, in which 11 workers lost their lives and which has become an environmental disaster for the Gulf of Mexico, lawmakers in Washington are searching for creative ways to punish American energy producers.

The latest example is an overlooked amendment offered by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) that will, according to Sanders, "eliminate big oil and gas company tax loopholes."

Senator Sanders recently tried to capitalize on the human and environmental tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico to push for higher energy costs, particularly in the form of stopping domestic energy production. Since Americans do not support such job-killing energy taxes, Sanders is trying to sneak his agenda past the American people by inserting an anti-energy amendment into a massive bill intended, ironically, to boost job creation... more »
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Jonathan Williams

I am currently a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC.

Here, I write for BlatantReality.com, a website following political and energy issues, and SCStatehouseBlog.com, a webs... more

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Randy Evans

Randy Evans is a partner at McKenna, Long, & Aldridge and the chair of its Financial Institutions practice. He handles high profile, complex litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the United States for some of the ... more

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Matt Lefkowitz
I am working as a summer intern for American Solutions. I am currently a student at Cornell University, with a major in history and minor in international relations.... more
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Austin Baird
I'm a journalism and English student at the University of Tennessee. In the summer of 2009, I'm working as an intern at American Solutions in Washington, D.C.... more
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Vince Haley

Vince Haley serves as the Vice President for Policy at American Solutions for Winning the Future. Formerly the Research Director for Speaker Gingrich at the American Enterprise Institute, Haley is a contributing author with Rick Tyler of Newt Gingrich’s New York Times bestseller "Real Change: Mo... more

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Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich is well-known as the architect of the “Contract with America.” After he was elected Speaker, he disrupted the status quo by moving power out of Washington and back to the American people. Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, passed the first balanced budget in a ge... more

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Steve Everley
I currently serve as Manager of Policy Research at American Solutions. Prior to joining the team here, I was a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, where I focused on energy and environmental policy. I was born in Kansas and attended the University of Kansas, where I graduated i... more
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Benjamin Locher
At American Solutions, I help develop energy policy and organize online advocacy. Before coming to American Solutions, I worked for CGI Federal as an Information Technology consultant. In 2007, I graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA with a degree in government and Inf... more
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Adam Waldeck

I currently serve as the Online Community Manager at American Solutions. Before joining American Solutions in 2007, I was a student at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. There, I majored in Political Science with a Concentration in American Government and Politics.

I first came to Washing... more

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Dan Kotman
Dan is currently the Director of Online Communications at American Solutions.... more
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