Hey folks,
Yesterday, in a rare Saturday Post here at the OPNTalk Blog, I posted the entire Transcript of Barack's Speech given yesterday about Job loss, and his Clean Energy Investment. What do I think of what he had to say? Here is my analysis of his speech.THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Before I announce a significant new investment we’re making in clean energy, I want to give an update on a matter of concern to every American — and that’s our employment picture.
The jobs numbers that were released by the Labor Department this morning are a reminder that the road to recovery is never straight, and that we have to continue to work every single day to get our economy moving again. For most Americans, and for me, that means jobs. It means whether we are putting people back to work.
Cut taxes, DROP Cap and Tax, Kill Obamacare, and WATCH Jobs SORE!
Job losses for the last quarter of 2009 were one-tenth of what we were experiencing in the first quarter. In fact, in November we saw the first gain in jobs in nearly two years. Last month, however, we slipped back, losing more jobs than we gained, though the overall trend of job loss is still pointing in the right direction.
Why would this be a surprise to anyone? Seriously folks. EVERY YEAR, we have a Job surge in November, and a reduction between December and January. Why? The Holiday Season. Part time and Seasonal Jobs. EVERY YEAR this happens. Due to the slower Shopping Season, and the increase of Internet Shopping, retailers found that they did not need as much help as needed this year. So they started unloading their Holiday Season Jobs earlier.
What this underscores, though, is that we have to continue to explore every avenue to accelerate the return to hiring, which brings me to my announcement today. The Recovery Act has been a major force in breaking the trajectory of this recession and stimulating growth and hiring. And one of the most popular elements of it has been a clean energy manufacturing initiative that will put Americans to work while helping America gain the lead when it comes to clean energy.
{Sigh} It's only Popular to the Kooks, and those ignorant to still believe in the whole SCAM that is GWBS. The Recovery Act has done NOTHING. As this new report shows, we are STILL at record Unemployment with people still losing jobs. People are still losing their homes. People are still can't get loans. All the Recovery Act did, was line the pockets of a handful of people.
It’s clear why such an effort is so important. Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future — jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. But it’s also how we will reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, a dependence that endangers our economy and our security. And it is how we will combat the threat of climate change and leave our children a planet that’s safer than the one we inherited.
All complete BS. Why can these jobs NOT be outsourced? Who is making some of the Solar Panels in use TODAY? What an ignorant thing to say. ANYTHING can be outsourced. I'm not sure when that could be said to be good. But Anything can and WILL be, if some Company Heads discover, "I can move my plant to XWZ, NOT pay Taxes, NOT be regulated to death, NOT be forced to pay Oppressive Healthcare costs. Hell, why not."
As for our decreased security and dependence on foreign governments, we could have achieve that YEARS ago. We could do that within TWO years. It's called use our own resources. Drill Here, Drill Now, that will do it. There IS NO Man-Made Global Warming. Ask Britain right now with 50 BELOW tempts, and most of America. South Florida never got out of the 40s yesterday. No storms to speak of. The Ice is NOT melting. We are in a COOLING CYCLE. A natural pattern.
Harnessing new forms of energy will be one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. And unfortunately, right now the United States, the nation that pioneered the use of clean energy, is being outpaced by nations around the world. It’s China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We spearheaded the development of solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. And almost all of the batteries that we use to power our hybrid vehicles are still manufactured by Japanese companies or in Asia — though, because of one of the steps like the one we’re taking today, we’re beginning to produce more of these batteries here at home.
These Hybrids are not the saving grace everyone though they were folks. I know a few people that have gone out and bought one. They ALL say the same thing. "Kind cool, but over priced, and the savings on gas seems insignificant in the long run." OH, and did Obama not just say that these "green Jobs" CAN'T be outsourced?
Now, I welcome and am pleased to see a real competition emerging around the world to develop these kinds of clean energy technologies. Competition is what fuels innovation. But I don’t want America to lose that competition. I don’t want the industries that yield the jobs of tomorrow to be built overseas. I don’t want the technology that will transform the way we use energy to be invented abroad. I want the United States of America to be what it has always been — and that is a leader — the leader when it comes to a clean energy future.
That's NOT going to create the jobs we need TODAY!
And that’s exactly what this clean energy manufacturing initiative will help us do. It will help close the clean energy gap that’s grown between America and other nations. Through this initiative, we’re awarding $2.3 billion in tax credits for American manufacturers of clean energy technologies — companies that build wind turbines, and produce solar panels, and assemble cutting edge batteries. The initiative we’re outlining today will likely generate 17,000 jobs, and the roughly $5 billion more that we’ll leverage in the private sector investments could help create tens of thousands of additional jobs.
WAIT!! STOP!! NO. 17,000? Do you know how many employees Wal-Mart has? 2.1 million employees. Do you know how many McDonald's has? 1.5 million. We already talked about the fact that if we allowed the Oil and Natural Gas Companies to do what they do, they would create 650,000 REAL, Long term jobs. 17,000? I could buy a couple of fast food franchises and produce more jobs than that. $2.3 Billion dollars for 17,000 new jobs, that may or may not last? After LOSING 7.3 MILLION jobs? Doesn't seem all that worth while or logical.
At the same time, this initiative will give a much-needed boost to our manufacturing sector by building new plants or upgrading old ones. And we’ll take an important step toward meeting the goal I’ve set of doubling the amount of renewable power we use in the next three years with wind turbines and solar panels built right here in the U.S. of A. Put simply, this initiative is good for middle-class families. It is good for our security. It’s good for our planet.
Well, doubling nothing is pretty easy. But who is going to BUY all these things?
Over 180 projects in over 40 states will receive these tax credits. And one of them is TPI Composites, Inc., which is based in Newton, Iowa — one of America’s leading wind turbine manufacturers. Because of these tax credits, TPI Composites will not only be able to expand an existing facility in Newton, they’ll not only be able to build a brand new facility in Nebraska, they’ll also be able to hire over 200 new workers. And it’s my hope that similar stories will be told in cities and towns across America because of this initiative.
In fact, this initiative has been so popular that we have far more qualified applicants than we’ve been able to fund. We received requests for roughly three times as much in funding — $7.6 billion — as we could provide. And that’s why, as part of the jobs package on which I’m urging Congress to act, I’ve called for investing another $5 billion in this program, which could put even more Americans to work right away building and equipping clean energy manufacturing facilities here in the United States.
In the letters that I receive at night, and I — many of you know I get about 10 letters a night that I take a look at — I often hear from Americans who are facing hard times — Americans who’ve lost their jobs, or can’t afford to pay their bills; they’re worried about what the future holds. I am confident that if we harness the ingenuity of companies like TPI Composites; if we can tap the talents of our workers, and our innovators, and our entrepreneurs; if we can gain the lead in clean energy worldwide; then we’ll forge a future where a better life is possible in our country over the long run. That’s a future we’re now closer to building because of the steps that we’re taking today.
Thank you very much, everybody.
10 letters a night? {Laughing} OK. Not sure the point. I can name over 100 people off the top of my head that are not happy with ANY OF THIS. There are MILLIONS of people out there, the MAJORITY of Americans that understand that this is all a SCAM and that YOU, Mr. President, are destroying this Economy. 10 letters? Whatever. Of course if you are giving free money away, you will have a request for MORE. {Sigh}
Folks, my reaction to this is simple. More spending, no answers. Not really.
Peter
2 comments:
Non-oil and coal sources of energy are OK, status quo guy.
This story is about my neighborhood. Notice the intelligent dissenting viewpoints presented by LOCAL RESIDENTS.
(Article IX of the Montana Constitution: Section 1. Protection and improvement. (1) The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.)
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and other members of the State Land Board, all Democrats, voted 4 to 1 on December 21 to open up Otter Creek, an approximately 10,000-acre checkerboard of public lands, to coal development in Montana's region of the Powder River Basin. An estimated 572 million tons in all will be auctioned off to coal companies for 25 cents a ton, with a small percentage of the money to be funneled to public schools.
"The main beneficiaries of leasing Otter Creek coal won't be coal miners or schools or the Northern Cheyenne or the residents of Powder River County," wrote local residents Bill and Judy Musgrave in the Billings Gazette leading up to the vote. "It will be coal speculators and the proposed Tongue River Railroad."
As of 2006, an estimated 74.6 billion tons of coal reserves existed in Montana, which is the largest recoverable coal reserves of any state in the country. In fact, nearly 7.5 percent of the world's entire coal reserves reside in the Big Sky state.
Denise Juneau, Montana's superintendent of public instruction was the only Land Board member that didn't take the bait that the money would be going to fund the schools she oversees. On the contrary, she argued, the land would benefit the public more if it were left untouched.
"We could sell every parcel of state land and log every tree on state lands, but we don't," said Juneau. "We don't because we want to sustain Montana's lands for future beneficial use ... Of course there is [monetary] value in mining the coal. But there is also value in keeping Montana 'Montana.'"
In November Great Northern Properties leased its rights to Arch Coal Inc. to mine 9,600 acres of land that is interspersed with the State's Otter Creek parcels. The opening of these private reserves was a power play that forced the Land Board to consider opening its own lands in the area.
In all, a total of 1.3 billion tons of coal will be opened for development, which equates to about 3,834 pounds of CO2 per ton of coal, or a total of 2.6 billion tons of CO2 if all coal is burned to produce electricity - 78 times the state's annual output of CO2.
"We are disappointed they decided to stay with old, dirty energy instead of clean, sustainable energy of the future, but this isn't over," Jeanie Alderson, a Birney, Montana, rancher and co-chair of Northern Plains Resource Council's Tongue River Railroad Task Force, told Truthout in regard to the Otter Creek deal. "We still maintain the entire process is flawed. There has been no overarching public process that includes a discussion of the environmental, economic, and social aspects and costs associated with leasing this coal."
I guarantee this will never happen in Montana. The constitution won't allow it. We (citizens) won't allow this. I worked in the natural gas fields of the Powder River basin of Wyoming for many years and saw first hand the total destruction of the land, the water and the wildlife (you ask bird hunters these days how that's going for them. There is simply no clean water left for migratory fowl to use. No clean water -> no birds -> no hunting.) Find another way.
Hey Peter,
THANK YOU! I mean that. I really did love this article. See From the Energy Front 011210.
Peter
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