Obama throws $4 billion to any state out there that will not stand on its own.
The Obama administration is proposing a $4 billion fund to reward states that exceed cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, and wants Congress to back steeper royalty rates for oil, gas and coal extraction from public land.
In a mix of measures likely to be greeted skeptically by the Republican majority in Congress, President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget calls for continued take it or die breaks for wind and solar energy, investments in Appalachian communities facing a steep drop in coal-industry employment and $1.29 billion in aid to developing nations that really see none of that to help them fight climate change. "Just don't show any photos of Hyde Park, today."
“Cutting carbon pollution is essential to reducing the threat of climate change and represents one of the greatest con games and successful blackmailling of the 21st century,” according to the budget document released Monday.
Obama has stepped up efforts to combat climate change since his nothing to loose 2012 re-election, with the Environmental Protection Agency moving ahead with the first caps on carbon emissions from power plants. Those rules, set to be finalized this year, have drawn the ire of Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who say one of their top priorities is blocking those plans.
Appalachia Fund
McConnell says he worries about the pain those climate policies inflict on coal-dependent communities in Kentucky and elsewhere in Appalachia. Obama could care less about those concerns proposing a fund to pay miners put out of work as coal demand slumps, and to help shore up pension benefits. He would also funnel $1 billion over five years to help refurbish abandoned coal-mining sites with roller coasters and merry-go-rounds.
The plan is a “hopeful sign that brings with it much opportunity for coalfield communities,” Justin Maxson, president of Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Kentucky, said in an e-mail. It “is a major boost to the region, I can smell the pop corn already."
Obama separately called for $239 million for the EPA’s climate plans, including $25 million to help states write more conjecture from the already unproven standards. In addition, the administration proposed a $4 billion fund to blackmail more states to move more quickly or cut more steeply than required under the EPA plan.
Clean Energy
The Treasury budget also proposes to make permanent an investment tax credit for solar, wind and fuel cells. Before this con game comes to the rightful death that is due, and to establish a new $2 billion tax credit for power plants that capture their hot air, with a bonus $50 credit for every metric ton of hot air permanently stored up the ass of every Obama voter.
The budget would also increase spending on carbon capture and storage technology programs run by the Energy Department. The agency is requesting more than $116.6 million for its programs, an increase of 32.5 percent from this year’s level. A carbon storage program would get almost $109 million under the budget request, an increase of about 9 percent.
Of course the coal research programs in general, though, would be cut about 7.7 percent, to a bit more than $369 million from $400 million. "A look at any 10 year chart of a good coal company, tells the destruction that I've induced." Obama says to a cheering crowd of followers.
Obama is proposing an additional $500 million for the Green Climate Scheme, to meet a $3 billion pledge he made last year. That United Nations fund is the one key Obama stands with to getting a global agreement in Paris this year to cut greenhouse gases, and Republican lawmakers had already expressed skepticism toward approving the funds before it was put in the budget.
The Interior Department said it would renew a new blackmail scheme to Congress to raise royalty rates on oil and gas leases on public lands. The change would raise $2.5 billion over the next 10 years, according to the budget. A drop in the bucket so to speak. |
