In the Pipeline: 5/29/13

The first rule of Fair-Share Club is you do not talk about Fair-Share club. The second rule of Fair-Share Club is you do NOT talk about Fair-Share Club… NYTimes (5/25/13) reports: “Last week, in a Congressional hearing, Apple got grilled for its low-tax strategy. But not every business can copy that approach. Here is a look at what S.&P. 500 companies paid in corporate income taxes — federal, state, local and foreign — from 2007 to 2012, according to S&P Capital IQ.”

Guys like Josh Nelson, not Fox, are a reminder that there is still hope for America. This kid packs a lot of punch. Coal Valley News (5/28/13) reports: “After coming out of Allegiance Mine, a mine that Joshua Nelson worked at last year and filing for candidacy for the West Virginia House of Delegates, Delegate Nelson made a decision that he wanted to stand up for West Virginia and its coal miners… During his campaign he stated that he believed that the state of West Virginia could do more to stand up to the federal government’s overregulation… He actually went on the Fox News Channel’s “The Huckabee Show” as well as spoke to the United States Congress on a piece of legislation called the “Stop the War on Coal” act.”

Linguists? Poets? How crazy do you have to be to stand out in California? Sacramento Bee (5/25/13) reports: “The core talent of a successful environmental activist is not science and law,” Suckling said in a 2009 interview with the High Country News. “It’s campaigning instinct.” In the same interview, Suckling even bragged about his staff’s lack of scientific qualifications… “It was a key to our success,” Suckling said. “I’m more interested in hiring philosophers, linguists and poets.”

Solution to save the environment? Do less. Work less. Create less. Improve less. Prosper less. Live, well, less! Carbonated.TV (5//13) reports: “Think about it: there is nothing sacred about the pattern of five days on, two days off. It’s an absolute miracle that we have the entire world on the same seven day week, and we probably shouldn’t mess with that, but what if we made the standard national work week 32 hours instead of 40? Here’s what: 1. The environment would heave a giant sigh of relief. The reduction in commuting time alone is reason enough to consider a four day work week. It would be all the better if not everyone took the same three days off: spreading out the traffic would reduce the overall burden.”

If we had a penny for every problem with this industry, we’d probably be able to afford one of the darn things ourselves. NYTimes (5/28/13) reports: “It was not an isolated incident. Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting similar problems and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis just as solar panels are on the verge of widespread adoption… No one is sure how pervasive the problem is. There are no industrywide figures about defective solar panels. And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult… But at stake are billions of dollars that have financed solar installations, from desert power plants to suburban rooftops, on the premise that solar panels will more than pay for themselves over a quarter century.”

Apparently you can win a boatload of money for fear mongering. Huffington Post (5/28/13) reports: “OSLO, Norway (AP) — American environmentalist Bill McKibben has won the $100,000 Sophie Prize for being a mobilizing force in the fight against global warming… The award committee commended McKibben for ‘building a global, social movement, fighting to preserve a sustainable planet.’”