In the Pipeline: 3/8/2013

It’s hard to believe how fast they grow up. One minute you’re dropping your subsidies off for their first day of kindergarten, and before you know it they’re taking victory laps in college. Politico (3/7/13) reports: “Just months after the wind power production tax credit won a last-minute renewal by Congress, opponents of the subsidy are circling the wagons to make sure it doesn’t happen again… The loose coalition of anti-PTC groups has just begun meeting to map out an advocacy and lobbying strategy. The credit will expire at the end of this year without congressional intervention… They’re seeking to attract like-minded members of Congress and the public, raise the issue’s profile and take aim at wind power jobs claims from the industry.”

Wait, what?  I thought all insurance companies recognized that the science was settled and the world was in fact ending. Now it turns out . . . not so much. Bloomberg (3/7/13) reports: “Almost 90 percent of insurance companies lack a comprehensive plan to address climate change and fewer than half of them view it as a likely source of financial losses, according to a report released today.”

These people have perfected the art of making the selfish look selfless. MasterResource (3/7/13) reports: “Just a few years ago, environmental leaders were saying that we faced a climate emergency, that emissions must start declining rapidly, and that enemy number one was coal. Now the same leaders are saying we have to stop shale fracking even though it is crushing coal and driving down American carbon emissions… Of course, the fractivism isn’t really about the fracing. Matt Damon’s anti-natural gas movie was originally an attack on wind farms. In 2005, Bobby Kennedy Jr. helped lead a campaign to stop the Cape Wind farm from being built because it will be visible from the Kennedy compound. Meanwhile, he was championing the construction of a massive solar farm in the Mojave Desert, 3,000 miles away — itself opposed by local environmentalists.”

The following think tank chiefs are opposed to a carbon tax. Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to join our growing ranks. We are thinking about starting a new list – trade association heads. We fear, however, it will be pretty small.

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance / Institute for Energy Research
Myron Ebell, Freedom Action
Phil Kerpen, American Commitment
William O’Keefe, George C. Marshall Institute
Lawson Bader, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
Joe Bast, Heartland Institute
David Ridenour, National Center for Public Policy Research
Michael Needham, Heritage Action for America
Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Sabrina Schaeffer, Independent Women’s Forum
Barrett E. Kidner, Caesar Rodney Institute
George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom
Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government