“Green Power Failure” is a May 10, 2012 article by Canadian columnist Lawrence Solomon for Canada’s Financial Post.
The article is a warning for the United States of pitfalls from adopting renewable electricity sources of solar and wind. Quoting Mr. Solomon, ”Global-warming-related catastrophes are increasingly hitting vulnerable populations around the world, with one species in particular danger: the electricity ratepayer. In Canada, in the U.K., in Spain, in Denmark, in Germany and elsewhere the danger to ratepayers is especially great, but ratepayers in one country — the U.S. — seem to have weathered the worst of the disaster.”
Mr. Solomon then addresses situations in the U. K., Germany, Denmark and other countries which have adopted sizable amounts of solar and wind electricity generation that has led to electricity rates so high that 15 percent of households or more are in “fuel poverty”–ten percent or more of household income goes to electricity or gas. Many of these countries pay electricity rates triple the U. S. average.
In the midst of state budgetary turmoil, it is not surprising that legislators are turning to unconstitutional regulatory measures in the pursuit of a few extra tax dollars. Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, North Carolina, and Rhode Island are among those states that have attempted to force Amazon.com to collect taxes on Internet sales. The tax has become a reality in Illinois, with Gov. Quinn’s signing of the “Mainstreet Fairness Act.” The online retailer has challenged and resisted these attempts at taxation, shutting down its affiliates program in the aforementioned states in retaliation.
Justifying the selective elimination its affiliates, Amazon points to the economic losses that are starting to add up as a result of these regulations. In a letter sent to its affiliates in Arkansas and Connecticut on June 10 2011, the company asserted that the increased regulatory efforts are the work of “big box retailers” hoping to harm the competition:
Youth under the age of 14 are already banned from artificially tanning in California, and teens under the age of 18 must have parental permission. However, State Senator Ted Lieu argues that the mandate is still not strict enough. Therefore, a ban is being proposed to “protect teens” from tanning.
The war against tanning beds heated up when the Obama Administration made a last-minute decision to tax tanning as a part of the new health care law. The decision, disguised as an attempt to limit tanning and promote public health, was really just a strategy to help fund a massive expansion of government into the health care market.
The Supreme Court’s June 27th decision to strike down a California law prohibiting the sale of violent video games to minors is a victory for both the video game industry and concerned parents everywhere. As a nation, we concern ourselves with the well-being of our children as well our economic health, and the court’s ruling reaffirms our commitment to both.
Since the inception of video games, from “Pong” and “Postal 2” to “Mortal Kombat” and “Grand Theft Auto,” the topic of violence has been highly contentious and polarizing among the industry’s supporters and detractors alike. Positions on the issue differ greatly, especially from state to state.
The United States Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that California must release about 46,000 of the 156,000 inmates in its prison system or find other ways to relieve prison overcrowding. (Read a PDF of the ruling here.) Releasing those imprisoned for drug offenses would go a long way toward meeting this quota.
According to Jacob Sullum, blogging at Reason’s Hit & Run, there are nearly 25,000 drug offenders in the prisons now. Of these, 8,587 are in for simple possession of a controlled substance and 1,401 for marijuana-related offenses. He cites information gathered by the California chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which analyzes a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation prisoner census, linked at Sullum’s blog.
I used to live in California. I like to joke (to keep from crying) that I left the political and fiscal mess of the formerly Golden State for the sunny uplands of Illinois. At least the streets get cleared of snow in Chicago, my new home town.
Anyway, my family left California after five years there knowing (1) it was not as awesome as most believe, and (2) that state is screwed. It has a level of dysfunctional politics that makes hopelessly corrupt Illinois look good. (Chicago is especially corrupt, but has some efficiency.)
But it’s the public pension system — the sort that Scott Walker was trying to rein in up in Wisconsin — that is the eternal screw for California. The state is already broke, and the economy doesn’t look like it’s gonna rev up any time soon to continue the papering-over of California’s fiscal mess — like Silicon Valley and the dot.com boom did in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Ed King at City Journal has a must-read post titled “What If Everyone Had a California State Pension?” Short answer: America would be Greece.
Rock-Paper-Scissors is a game most any child can grasp. Rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper, paper covers rock. California’s landmark Parent Empowerment Act—a.k.a. the Parent Trigger—is a little bit like the child’s game, with a concept so simple even a child could understand it and only an educrat could foul it up.
The point of the Parent Trigger is to empower parents of children at failing schools to surmount local bureaucracies that often stand in the way of meaningful reforms. If half of parents at a failing public school sign a petition, the local district must undertake one of several reforms prescribed by law. (You can read all about it here.)
Out of the Storm News is the Heartland Institute’s site from the Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Here is a round-up of some of the best recent pieces from OOTS News.
OOTS On Wealth – How Much Money Does It Take To Be A Sugar Daddy? This article is the first in a new Out of the Storm News series examining how people from different walks of life perceive their own wealth and wealth in general. OOTS News interviewed Stephan Smith, PR director for SeekingArrangement.com, billed as the Elite Sugar Daddy Dating site.OOTS News asked Mr. Smith about how elite a sugar daddy has to be to seek an arrangement through his site.
Crash Taxes: Q&A with Mary Bonelli of the Ohio Insurance Institute New proposals to create accident or “crash” taxes continue to emerge in town councils across the country. The prevalence of these proposals has risen as local government officials nationwide struggle to balance their budgets. Out of the Storm News conducted a Q&A with Mary Bonelli of the Ohio Insurance Institute, one of the leading insurance groups following the crash tax issue.
Tens of thousands of people in at least 36 states this week will participate in more than 140 events touting the virtues of school choice. It’s the first annual National School Choice Week, a collaboration of more than 150 school reform groups, schools, philanthropic foundations, and businesses. The Heartland Institute is a proud participant in the effort to highlight how empowering parents to choose the best schools for their children is essential reform.
I attended a kick-off event sponsored by KRLA 870 AM and Americans for Prosperity last Thursday at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California, where about 800 people packed into a scale replica of the White House East Room to hear Dick Morris and radio talkshow host Hugh Hewitt discuss why 2011 may well be the year everything changes in school reform.
Why this year? Because, as Morris explained, 2011 will be the year states reckon with their yawning state budget deficits.
State governors and legislatures across the United States this year are facing up to a grim financial reality: More than $100 billion in federal education stimulus money is gone. Another bailout isn’t forthcoming, and voters have no great appetite for higher taxes. After years of pumping up school spending, real cuts are overdue.
Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana are among the states considering bills either to establish or expand opportunity scholarship programs currently aimed at offering low-income parents or parents with disabled children the means to attend the school of their choice.
As you may have read, parents at McKinley Elementary in Compton, California, on Tuesday submitted petitions to convert the failing school into a charter school under California’s “parent trigger” law.
Turns out, the date — December 7 — was serendipitous. Organizers, who pulled together a magnificent campaign in just a few months with the help of the savvy progressives at L.A.’s Parent Revolution, planned their precedent-establishing petition drive as kind of sneak attack on the education establishment.
“Green Power Failure” is a May 10, 2012 article by Canadian columnist Lawrence Solomon for Canada’s Financial Post.
