The U. S. Treasury Is Officially The Mother Of Us All

For the first time in American history, the United States Treasury provides a larger share of revenue to the 50 states and their local units of government than any other single revenue source, including sales taxes, property taxes, and state and city income taxes. Overall state and local government revenues are up 1.6% this year, despite a 2.9% drop in total state and local tax collections. The difference came from federal stimulus appropriations.

Sales tax revenues are down because people are shopping less often and spending less when they do, crashing real estate values are driving down property tax revenue, and state and local income tax revenue has fallen dramatically as more and more workers are forced to take pay cuts, or furloughs, or get laid off completely in this economic crisis. States and cities are also sending out staggering income tax refunds to workers laid off during 2008. Does Nero's fiddle even have strings any more?

Power Grid "Cybersecurity" Measures Facing Congressional Turf Battles

Competing and conflicting bills aimed at beefing up the safety of our mostly computer controlled power generation and distribution facilities in the United States is being discussed in the House Homeland Security Committee, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee, and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Unless Representatives Bennie Thompson, Peter King, Henry Waxman, Edward Markey and John Barrow can quickly resolve their differences with Senators Joseph Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller and Thomas Carpenter, in the jurisdictional turf battle over which Committee has the drafting authority over this legislation, any new construction of power plants and transmission lines is like to be delayed even further than it is already being held up by disputes respecting authority over power transmission line routing.

Stewart Baker, a Bush administration bureaucrat who served in both the Homeland Security Department and NSA, fears that executive branch turf wars are spilling over into Congressional committees regarding the power grid cybersecurity issue. Baker4 commented: "Devoting all of our attention to fighting about the arrangement of the seats at the table is not going to be productive."

Coal's Glow Fades At The Capitol

Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers tells Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid that as of now the Capitol Building will use only natural gas to fire its heating boilers and water heaters, unless, of course, there is a cold spell or the capacity of the gas pipeline feeding the Capitol Building is exceeded, in which the coal fired boilers are still in place as a back up system. Cost of the switch over: $7 million.

Reid says the switch shows "that the House and Senate are leading by example in reducing our emissions." Pelosi says the power plant is moving "from the 19th century to the 21st century." Wait a minute, doesn't burning natural gas to produce steam heat and hot water still generate tons of CO2 emissions?

SBA Bill Supports Developing "Green Entrepreneurs"

The House Small Business Rural Development, Entrepreneurship and Trade Subcommittee yesterday approved a series of bills which will expand SBA programs for green entrepreneurship. Congressman Aaron Schock sponsors a bill authorizing $310 million for the Small Business Development Center to fund courses in energy efficiency and green technology. Another bill, sponsored by Congressman Vern Buchanan funds a volunteer program for retired executives and small business owners to counsel small business startups. A third bill sponsored by Congressman Mary Fallin provides $42 million over two years to fund SBA women's business centers.

Highway Reauthorization Stalls Over Funding

Despite the statements by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar, Ranking Member John Mica, Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter Fazio and Ranking Member John Duncan that the four have agreed on the "major parameters of a surface transportation reauthorization bill which they hope will total between $450 and $500 billion for highways and mass transit, they can't agree on where the money will be coming from. Oberstar wants to increase fuel taxes, but increases in gas and diesel taxes are opposed by Mica and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Although Oberstar promises passage of a bill in June, the dispute over fuel taxes versus mileage taxes as a funding mechanism makes that prediction optimistic. Current funding legislation expires at the end of September.

Energy Policy Difficulties Put Power Plant Construction On Hold

The Navajo Nation planned to build a 1,500 megawatt coal fired power plant on its reservation in New Mexico, and expected to earn $50 million per year from sales of electric power produced by the new facility. Earlier this week the Obama administration's EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson moved to revoke the project's permit and block construction of the plant. John Walke, EPA's Clean Air Director, says the move was closely coordinated with the White House as part of President Obama's agenda to combat global warming. U. S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President for the Environment William Kovacs says there are between 60 and 70 power plant construction projects stalled by EPA permit issues.

Meanwhile, the debate over proposed cap and trade legislation limiting CO2 emissions, and over FERC authority to establish routing of new power transmission grid lines stalls legislation which will let the construction of new technology power generation facilities move forward. Finally, the debates over whether hydroelectric power plants and nuclear reactor generated power do or do not count as "renewable energy" production are delaying groundbreaking of facilities for power production using those modalities. Unless Congress and the related executive agencies can get their acts together, there won't be any new power plants or transmission lines built using either new or old technologies any time soon.

Homeland Security Department IG Investigation Delayed

Homeland Security's Inspector General told congress this week that it won't be until August that an investigation into alleged improprieties in the site selection of Kansas State University for the $720 million high containment biodefense lab facility can begin, due to the demands of other Congressional requests for information from the Homeland Security Department. Between the federal lawsuit filed last week and this delay in internal investigation, a lot of Kansas trade contractors will be sitting on their shovels this summer.