Tag: FOSSIL FUEL

Democrats Introduce Climate Bill One Day After Green New Deal Failure. One Lawmaker Was Noticeably Absent From The Roll Out

By Chris White

Screen Shot 2019-03-27 at 3.16.00 PM

Democratic lawmakers introduced a stripped-down climate bill Wednesday less than a day after Senate Republicans dinged a more ambitious plan.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the Climate Action Now Act as one of many steps toward Democratic efforts to confront global warming. In particular, the bill aims to preventPresident Donald Trump from removing the United States from the non-binding Paris Climate accord. (RELATED: McConnell And Senate Republicans Vote To Kill Green New Deal)

The bill is a watered-down version of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, which called for shifting completely away from fossil fuels and toward green energy. The GND was torpedoed in the Senate on Tuesday after Republicans voted en masse against the resolution while Democrats voted present.

Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, was not present Wednesday during the roll out of the Climate Action Act.

Screen Shot 2019-03-27 at 3.18.24 PM

The GND was introduced in February and called for “10-year national mobilizations” toward a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming. A fact sheet posted online during the introduction claimed the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen since World War 2.” It also became an object of ridicule as a draft suggested the end of cows and drastically curbing airplane travel.

House Democrats along with most of the Democratic Party’s quickly expanding 2020 presidential field have voiced support for the measure. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who both announced their bids for the 2020 nomination, for instance, signed on as Senate co-sponsors of the proposal.

Pelosi’s office has not yet responded to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about why Ocasio-Cortez was absent.

0

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff Ran Slush Fund – Funneled Over $1 Million in Campaign Donations to His Own Companies

by Cristina Laila March 4, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-03-04 at 5.59.10 PM.png

According to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Committee Monday (FEC), two PACs founded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide, Saikat Chakrabarti funneled over $ 1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, reported the Washington Examiner.

So much for Ocasio-Cortez’s promise to reduce “dark money” in politics!

According to a complaint filed by government watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center, it appears Chakrabarti set up his two companies for the sole purpose of hiding how the donations were used.

The Washington Examiner reported:

The arrangement skirted reporting requirements and may have violated the $5,000 limit on contributions from federal PACs to candidates, according to the complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group.

Campaign finance attorneys described the arrangement as “really weird” and an indication “there’s something amiss.” They said there was no way of telling where the political donations went — meaning they could have been pocketed or used by the company to pay for off-the-books campaign operations.

PACs are required to disclose how and when funds are spent, including for expenditures like advertisements, fundraising emails, donations to candidates, and payments for events and to vendors.

The private companies to which Chakrabarti transferred the money from the PACs are not subject to these requirements.

The complaint names Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti and asks the FEC to investigate and audit the two PACs alleging they were engaged in “an elaborate scheme to avoid proper disclosure of campaign expenditures,” reported the Examiner.

“It appears Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her associates ran an off-the-books operation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus violating the foundation of all campaign finance laws: transparency,” Director of National Legal Policy Center Tom Anderson said.

Chakrabarti founded the two PACs in question in 2016 and 2017.

Brand New Congress was founded in 2016 and Justice Democrats was founded in 2017 with the end goal of getting ultra progressive candidates elected to Congress — ultimately these two PACs helped radical Communist Ocasio-Cortez win a Congressional seat last November.

The Washington Examiner explains how Chakrabarti set up the PACs and his shell companies to move the money around in secret:

In 2016 and 2017, Chakrabarti’s PACs raised around $3.3 million for the project, primarily from small donors. During this time, the committees transferred over $1 million to two shell companies controlled by Chakrabarti with names similar to one of the PACs, Brand New Campaign LLC and Brand New Congress LLC, according to federal election filings.

A few weeks after starting the Brand New Congress PAC, Chakrabarti formed one of the companies, Brand New Campaign LLC, in Delaware, using a registered agent service and mailbox-only address.

Over the next seven months, as small-dollar political donations poured into the PAC from progressives across the country, the committee transferred over $200,000, 82 percent of the contributions, to the company Brand New Campaign LLC. The payments were for “strategic consulting,” according to federal election filings. They were sent to an apartment address listed for Chakrabarti in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan.

In 2017, Brand New Congress PAC transferred another $240,000 to Brand New Congress LLC, also for “strategic consulting.” Another PAC co-founded by Chakrabarti that year called “Justice Democrats” transferred an additional $605,000 to Brand New Congress LLC in 2017.

Bradley A. Smith, a former chairman of the FEC, said he has never seen such an arrangement. “It’s a really weird situation,” he said. “I see almost no way that you can do that without it being at least a reporting violation, quite likely a violation of the contribution limits. You might say from a campaign finance angle that the LLC was essentially operating as an unregistered committee.”

Recall, AOC’s Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti is a radical Communist and a huge fan of Indian political leader Subhas Chandra Bose who was an ally of Adolf Hitler and Imperial Japan.

Ocasio-Cortez was lambasted by conservative media after her boyfriend’s name appeared on the House directory list — many speculated she put her boyfriend on payroll like a good Socialist.

“Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly,” writer Luke Thompson said after discovering AOC’s boyfriend was designated as House staff a few weeks ago.

0

Sanders on Green New Deal: Doesn’t Go Too Far — ‘The Future of the Planet Is at Stake!’

https://youtu.be/mRQbtoFpfhY

By Pam Key

Friday on ABC’s “The View,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Green New Deal does not go too far.

Co-host Sunny Hostin asked, “Does the Green New Deal go too far?”

Sanders said, “No. You cannot go too far on the issue of climate change. The future of the planet is at stake, OK?”

He added, “We have, according to the best scientists in the world, we have 12 years to begin substantially cutting carbon emissions before there will be irreparable damage to the planet. I talked to some folks who were in Paradise, CA, remember the terrible, terrible fire that wiped out the whole community?”

0

Sound Familiar? Dem Governor Running For President Vowing To Switch To 100% Clean Energy, Provide Millions Of Green Jobs

Screen Shot 2019-03-01 at 3.02.12 PM

By James Barrett

Second-term Washington Gov. Jay Inslee officially announced his presidential candidacy Friday, and he’s running on a platform that sounds like it was ripped from the since-deleted, much-maligned FAQ for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s “Green New Deal.”

In a presidential announcement video released Friday, Inslee issues some rather familiar doom-and-gloom warnings as well as some pie-in-the-sky promises.

“We’re the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we’re the last that can do something about it,” the governor says ominously as apocalyptic images play in the background, which the viewer is clearly supposed to believe are the grim results of global warming.

“We went to the moon and created technologies that have changed the world,” he continues. “Our country’s next mission must be to rise up to the most urgent challenge of our time: defeating climate change. This crisis isn’t just a chart or graph anymore. The impacts are being felt everywhere.”

“We have an opportunity to transform our economy, run on 100 percent clean energy, that will bring millions of good paying jobs to every community across America, and create a more just future for everyone,” Insleee proclaims.

https://youtu.be/mlgdlWO-4yI

Inslee is a former congressman who was elected governor in 2012 and has another two years in office after winning his second election in 2016. Calling his bid a “longshot campaign,” The Seattle Times provides some highlights of Inslee’s progressive and largely “climate-focused” political career:

As governor, Inslee generally has pursued a liberal agenda, backing minimum-wage increases, higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses, raises for teachers and state government employees and declaring a moratorium on the death penalty. He also backed a record-setting, $8.7 billion tax-break deal to lure Boeing’s 777 plant and angered labor leaders by pressuring the Machinists union to approve a contract that ended workers’ defined-benefit pension plan.

He also has pushed an ambitious climate agenda, with mixed results, failing to persuade lawmakers and voters to adopt pollution fees on carbon emissions, but boosting electric-car infrastructure and creating a clean-energy fund that has poured millions into green projects. Despite Inslee’s agenda, greenhouse emissions in Washington have continued to rise, missing near-term reduction goals set in state law.

The Times reports that Democratic lawmakers in Washington are currently “making a big push” to try to ram through Inslee’s climate change agenda, many of the proposals of which have been stalled for “years.” Just a day before his announcement, the State Senate was debating his radical request to phase out the use of fossil fuels at Washington utlities, the paper notes.

Inslee, 68, has also proven that he’s willing to take on Trump on the national stage, opposing the president on rolling back business-stifling environmental regulations, arming teachers to better protect students, and the administration’s so-called “Muslim ban.”

The Democratic governor’s “green” candidacy shares much in common with AOC’s “Green New Deal,” which sets as its goals a massive overhaul of the economy, which will include 100% use of renewable energy in ten years, net-zero emissions, massive infrastructure projects — including high-speed rails all over the country and the “greening” of all buildings — Medicare-for-All, and living wage jobs for every American.

0

‘I’m the boss’: Ocasio-Cortez slams climate plan critics, unleashes internet scorn

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.41.53 AM

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has, once again, raised the ire of many online. This time the freshman congresswoman is being accused of arrogance for her dismissal of critics of the Green New Deal climate initiative she is spearheading.

The ambitious climate plan has attracted numerous detractors with many saying it is unrealistic and unachievable. Speaking at a Girls Who Code event in New York on Friday the 29-year-old hit back at those who shot down the deal, saying, until they come up with a plan of their own, she’s in charge.

“Like I just introduced Green New Deal two weeks ago and it’s creating all of this conversation. Why? Because no one else has even tried,” she said. “So people are like ‘oh it’s unrealistic, oh it’s vague, oh it doesn’t address this little, minute thing.’ And I’m like ‘you try! You do it. Cause you’re not. Cause you’re not.’”

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.45.35 AM

Video footage of the remarks shows they sparked a gushing response in the room. Online, however, it has been a different story with those opposed to Ocasio-Cortez’s political views seizing the opportunity to attack the left wing politician.

Many accused the Democrat of being “entitled” and labelled her “arrogant” for describing herself as “the boss” only a few months into her congressional career.

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.48.00 AM

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.49.00 AM

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.49.57 AM

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.51.01 AM

Apparently undeterred by the backlash Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on her stance on Twitter, accusing critics of “shouting from the cheap seats.”

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.52.35 AM

That message sparked a spate of responses containing graphs which appeared to show declining carbon dioxide emissions.

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.53.21 AM

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.54.14 AM

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 9.54.57 AM

 

0

WHY SO SCARED? DEMS PANIC OVER UPCOMING GREEN NEW DEAL SENATE VOTE

Why So Scared? Dems Panic Over Upcoming Green New Deal Senate Vote

Vote will either turn off independent voters or anger far-left base

 | Infowars.com – FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Democrats are freaking out over the prospect of an upcoming Senate vote on the Green New Deal, especially the proposal’s co-sponsor Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.).

“Don’t let Mitch McConnell fool you: this is nothing but an attempt to sabotage the movement we are building,” Markey warned Wednesday.

“He wants to silence your voice so Republicans don’t have to explain why they are climate change deniers. McConnell wants this to be the end, this is just the beginning.”

Bizarrely, Markey not only claimed that holding a high-profile public Senate vote on the proposal would somehow “silence” the far-left, he also insisted it would “avoid a true national debate.”

“This isn’t a new Republican trick. By rushing a vote on the #GreenNewDeal resolution, Republicans want to avoid a true national debate & kill our efforts to organize. We’re having the first national conversation on climate change in a decade. We can’t let Republicans sabotage it.”

In reality, holding a vote would do just the opposite.

By holding a vote on socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s signature proposal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is forcing the Democrat Party to put their far-left beliefs on the record.

But why would Democrats not want to vote on legislation they’ve been championing for the last week?

Because it would expose and separate the Democrats who’ve been politically posturing on the proposal from the far-left wing vying for power, potentially creating a rift within the party.

Several users on Twitter pointed out as much.

“This is called a backfire. You’re admitting you sponsored a bill you didn’t want a vote on,” one user said. “Now you and all your friends have to go on record voting for the Green New Deal monstrosity that would destroy our country OR admit you’re hypocrites. Mitch McConnell is undefeated.”

CAP

“Hello Ed….IT IS YOUR LEGISLATION…..normally people that sponsor legislation want a vote on it……BUT then again you are a Democrat, which might explain your angst,” said another.

CAP

CAP

CAP

CAP

The Democrats will either scare off independent and moderate voters with their radical plan by voting for it, or anger their far-left base by voting against it.

0

EPIC! McConnell to Set Up Vote on Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, ‘Give Everybody an Opportunity to Go on Record’ (VIDEO)

by Cristina Laila February 12, 2019

CAP

Never underestimate Cocaine Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on Tuesday that he will be setting up a vote on Ocasio-Cortez’s insanely radical Green New Deal.

There is no way Ocasio-Cortez’s radical plan will pass the Senate because it needs 60 votes, but Mitch McConnell is forcing Democrats, many of whom are running for president in 2020, to go on the record about something as radical as eliminating airplane travel — this vote would give the Republicans great fodder for the 2020 presidential election cycle.

“I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal. And we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate. Give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

Notice McConnell’s green tie and smirk as he trolls Senate Democrats on the radical Green New Deal.

VIDEO:

Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released information on the Democrat Party’s radical and lunatic Green New Deal last Thursday.

It was a complete disaster.

The Green New Deal is a Communist scam that included guaranteed income for Americans ‘unwilling to work.’

The 14-page Commie wishlist also included a plan to transition to all electric cars and completely eliminate airplane travel — because trains over the ocean is a genius idea!

The Democrats also want to get rid of cow flatulence — which means all cows would be eliminated.

Within hours, the Green New Deal was yanked from Ocasio-Cortez’s webpage.

President Trump mocked the Democrat-Green-New-Deal-clown-show last Saturday evening, calling the resolution, “Brilliant.”

CAP

Senator McConnell’s move to force a vote on Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is just glorious — thank you, Mitch! 

0

LABOR UNIONS FEAR ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ A JOB KILLER

Labor Unions Fear 'Green New Deal' a Job Killer

Unions withhold support for economy-destroying scheme

Valerie Volcovici

4 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Labor unions say they are withholding support for a Green New Deal unveiled by Democrats last week to transition the American economy away from fossil fuels, arguing the loosely-defined plan could kill jobs if its architects aren’t careful.

The cool response from unions underscores the challenge facing Democratic presidential hopefuls who support aggressive action on climate change but must also win back the blue-collar voters that swept President Donald Trump to victory in 2016.

The Green New Deal is a non-binding Congressional resolution introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey that would legislate government-led investment in clean energy infrastructure with the goal of making America carbon neutral within a decade.

Democratic presidential hopeful Senators Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren have already thrown their support behind it.

The resolution’s backers say the plan – once fully sketched out in the legislation – would create jobs in much the same way as President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s by putting Americans to work on transformative government-led projects.

It also calls for a “just transition” for current fossil fuel workers – from coal miners to pipeline workers – through guarantees of healthcare, jobs, and job training.

Union officials told Reuters they were skeptical.

“We will never settle for ‘just transition’ language as a solution to the job losses that will surely come from some of the policies in the resolution,” said Yvette Pena O’Sullivan, executive director of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), whose members work in construction and other industries.

Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers (UMWA), which represents workers in the coal industry, echoed the concerns.

“We’ve heard words like ‘just transition’ before, but what does that really mean? Our members are worried about putting food on the table,” he said.

LIUNA and UMWA said they were not contacted for input on the resolution before it was released.

Sean McGarvey, president of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, representing construction workers across all sectors including energy, said his staff had been contacted by Markey’s office about the Green New Deal, but said his members are skeptical of “green job” promises.

Members “working in the oil and gas sector can make a middle-class living, whereas renewable energy firms have been less generous,” he said at a pipeline safety event last week.

APPALACHIAN BACKLASH

Democrats backing the resolution are seeking to highlight the contrast in their position with the Trump administration’s vocal support for drilling and mining and its skepticism about the causes and impacts of global warming.

Trump’s approach was warmly received in 2016 in parts of Appalachia and the Rust Belt, which have been suffering from manufacturing and mining jobs losses.

Trump’s Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton struggled to sell her clean energy agenda in those regions, and suffered politically after saying her policies would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

The Sunrise Movement, a youth organization backing the Green New Deal, plans to launch a multi-state campaign in March to drum up support, featuring stops in Michigan, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

“A lot of places struggling with joblessness are fossil fuel dependent places that suffer from poor air and water quality. Guaranteeing the right of clean air, water and jobs is something we think a lot of people can get behind,” said Stephen O’Hanlon, a spokesman for the group.

Unions have expressed support in the past for more moderate approaches to addressing climate change, including cap-and-trade systems to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

Ocasio-Cortez and Markey’s offices did not respond to a request for comment.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑