Barton kills green energy project.

[flamin lib]

Joe Barton (R-TX) doesn’t believe that global climate change exists or if it does Man has nothing to do with it. Perhaps he should talk to the families who lost loved ones in this week’s tornados that ripped through the Midwest. Not only were they the worst tornados in recorded history, BUT THEY CAME IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER! Tornados are caused by heating of the atmosphere. In the middle of winter there was enough heat energy to generate more than 15 tornados, some a quarter of a mile wide, that stayed on the ground for up to an hour instead of skipping around like they normally do.

The Democratic leadership in the House plans “cap and trade” greenhouse gas legislation that will give incentives to power companies to cut CO2 emissions. The way it works is the total amount of CO2 emitted is “capped” for power plants. If a company can produce less than the cap it can “sell” the difference to a company that cannot meet the cap. That way the “green” company can invest in building more clean power plants at the expense of the dirtier technology. Joe doesn’t like that. Possibly because he gets so much money from the energy sector; more than $ half a million in 2006, 20% of his campaign war chest.

“Smokey Joe”, a nickname earned for his staunch defense of polluting cement companies in his district, is planning to challenge the science of climate change. He’s building a task force to present evidence that every other climate scientist in the world is wrong. Presumably these “experts” will be provided by the oil and gas companies. Kinda’ like the presidents of all those tobacco companies testifying that nicotine is not addictive.

There may be a legitimate issue with the proposed legislation; that the technology to capture and store the CO2 produced by coal-fired plants won’t be available when the limits kick in sometime in the next ten years. That possibility was made more certain when the FutureGen project was canceled. FutureGen was a $1.8 Billion federally funded green energy project to build a clean coal fired power plant. Texas, specifically Joe Barton’s district, and Illinois were competing for the project and Illinois won. Suddenly the project was canceled by the DoE. Seems undersecretary of energy C.H. "Bud" Albright may have had a hand in canceling the project. Albright once worked for Joe Barton and is an ex lobbyist for Reliant Energy, the Texas company vying for the FutureGen project. Hmmm, if Joe can’t have it nobody can!

FutureGen has been replaced with a less expensive program to test CO2 capture on existing plants, two in Illinois and two in - you guessed it – Texas, one of which is in Joe Barton’s district.

In November we will once again have an alternative to Joe Barton. Steve Bush is running as a Democrat to challenge Barton. In the 2006 race more than 80,000 Texas voted for Barton’s opponent, David T. Harris. If each of those 80,000 voters contributes just $25 to Steve’s campaign we can defeat Smokey Joe and return representation to the people in District six instead of the energy companies and cement plants.

www.SteveBushForCongress.com


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-capandtrade_07bus.ART0.State.Edition1.38ac258.html Barton to fight environmental legislation

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-Futuregen_08bus.ART.State.Edition1.391f8d2.html FutureGen project killed

[sonias]

1. Smokey Joe is a stench in our Texas air

He's never met a polluting industry he didn't like. I knew the project had been canceled but I didn't know Joe's coal-lined, filthy paws were all over the death of the FutureGen project.

But you can bet he's all on board to accept new subsidies for the nuclear industry. Believe me if they were concerned about cost overruns with the FutureGen project the nukes being proposed for Texas should get them all canceled in advance. None of them have ever come in under budget. All of them were twice or three times what orginal estimates were. Yet you're already hearing big industry touting the job creation they'll bring. Yeah right. No mention of the subsidized cost to the industry, not to mention there is still no storage solution for the nuclear waste.

Wind and solar power are our future and we be smart to start investing in those cleaner more renewable industries now.

There's a big conference taking place in April here in Austin. "Texas Solar Forum:The business case for Texas Solar Future". April 24th & 25th at the Texas Capitol
http://www.texassolarforum.com/

Soni

[flamin lib]

2. District six is going more purple all the time.

In the last three elections the Democratic vote grew from 28% to 33% to 37%. David Harris picked up 4% over the previous election and he only raised $28,000, hardly enough to get signs printed.

Steve Bush owns an advertising firm, so we can be sure he knows how to promote himself.

The money is here in district 6 to defeat Barton, it's just in 80,000 different pockets - the 80,000 pockets that voted for Harris in '06. Only $25 each could raise $2 mil and that would be enough to defeat Barton. I'd bet he could be beaten for half that.

In the '06 election Barton put signs out in the southern half of the district for the very first time. All those years in office and he never even put a sign in most of the geography of the district.

[sonias]

3. You need to start making those calls

If you know the names for those 80,000 people start organizing now. Did Steve ever attend a candidate training class? Democracy for Texas did several trainings over the last two cycles. That's the kind of training Steve and his staff, even volunteers, need. If the Democratic base is growing in District 6, you just need a plan to touch those voters.

And don't limit yourself (Steve) to just your district when raising money. Take it from anywhere in the state or country even.

Don't expect to get help from the party. I'm sure you know that already. All the work has to be done by the candidate, but this year, may just be the year that droves of people come out to vote and the coat tails of the winner can help all the candidates on the ballot.

Good luck to you and Steve. I know you did a lot of work for Harris and this is your second run at getting Smokey Joe retired. I admire your drive and dedication.
:applause:

Sonia

[tammywammy]

4. Joe Barton is horrible

And most unfortunately, he "represents" me. x(

I'm more than happy to always vote against him.

[MagickMuffin]

5. I'm giving this a K&R so more eyes will see this shameful display of power brokers and lobbyist

Good Luck to Steve Bush.

It's amazing that anything to advance our civilization, we have the knuckledraggers and knuckleheads like Smokey Joe dragging us backwards instead of forward into the future.

There are so many advancements in renewable energy.

Don't these idiots realize with these new advancements comes jobs opportunities, growing booming economy, no more threats from outside sources who manipulate our government?

I remember back in the late 70's (?) how OPEC would raise the prices on their precious crude, and how there was a movement to develop solar energy to counter the OPEC manipulation of oil, only to have OPEC slash their prices when they saw their livelihood threatened. This happened more than a few times, IIRC.

How can anyone be so damn dumb?

Do these people not care about what happens to their future generations of relatives who will inherit this mess?

Perhaps Smokey Joe has a stash of cash that will protect his family from the dangers facing our planet, our country, our state, our cities and rural counties.

I :cry: for their future.