|
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
March 13, 2011
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Average Freshman Senator Worth $4 Million
2. China’s CO2 Emissions Confirm Kyoto Critics’ Fears
3. Sabato: 6 Democratic Senate Seats ‘Toss-ups’ in 2012
4. Expert: New Light Bulbs Bring ‘Deadly Poison’ Into Homes
5. Regional Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming
6. New ‘Dust Bowl’ Threatens Great Plains
1. Average Freshman Senator Worth $4
Million
Sixty percent of Senate freshmen and more than 40 percent of freshmen
in the House are millionaires, compared to 1 percent for Americans at
large, according to a new report from the Center for Responsive
Politics.
The median estimated wealth for Senate freshmen is $3.96 million,
topped by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, at $94.87
million. The median estimated wealth for House freshmen is $570,418.
“Even though millions of Americans continue to struggle financially,
most of the nation’s newest congressional representatives are a world
away from such constituents’ financial realities,” said Sheila
Krumholz, executive director of the Center
The figures are not precise because members of Congress are required to
report their assets only in broad ranges. The Center, a nonpartisan
research group, uses minimum and maximum asset values to arrive at an
“estimated” figure.
Overall, freshman members of Congress have an estimated wealth of
$533.1 million and a maximum net worth of $845.2 million.
Blumenthal, who married into a fortune, spent millions to defeat
Republican Linda McMahon, herself a multimillionaire, in 2010’s most
expensive congressional campaign.
After Blumenthal, the next seven wealthiest freshmen in Congress are
all House members and all Republicans. They are: Diane Lynn Black of
Tennessee ($49.4 million), Rick Berg of North Dakota ($39.2 million),
Blake Farenthold of Texas ($35.8), Scott Rigell of Virginia ($29.9),
James Renacci of Ohio ($28.4), Steve Pearce of New Mexico ($23.2), and
Richard Hanna of New York ($22.1).
At the other end of the scale, Rep. Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican,
has an estimated worth of minus-$317,498.
Other members of Congress whose minimum worth is less than zero: Sen.
Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis.
Among all freshmen, “some are Democrats, some are Republicans, many are
tea party conservatives while others are unabashedly liberal,” said Dan
Auble, manager of the Center’s personal financial disclosure database.
“What unites these freshmen is that, on balance, they’re rich.”
2. China’s CO2 Emissions Confirm
Kyoto Critics’ Fears
Here’s what worries American critics of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol: Any
reduction in U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases could be outweighed by
increases from China and other developing nations not required to cut
their emissions.
A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency confirms those
fears.
Carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, which is not a signatory
of the Kyoto Protocol, actually declined by 6 percent in 2009, and are
now 8 percent below 2000 levels, according to the EPA.
Global emissions, however, have risen more than 25 percent since 2000,
and developing nations accounted for virtually all of the increase.
China alone accounted for about half.
“A closer look at global emissions trends show how futile it would be
for the U.S to impose economically punitive self-restrictions on carbon
dioxide,” James M. Taylor, senior fellow for environmental policy at
The Heartland Institute, writes in Forbes magazine.
By 2009, China was the largest emitter, accounting for 24 percent of
global emissions, while the United States was responsible for 17
percent. China will likely account for 26 percent when 2010 figures are
released, with the U.S. contributing about 15 percent, according to
Taylor.
China’s emissions have been increasing by nearly 10 percent a year, and
in 2010 probably surpassed the emissions of the entire Western
Hemisphere.
“This means that even if the U.S. and the entire Western Hemisphere
immediately and completely eliminated all carbon dioxide emissions, the
growth in Chinese emissions alone would likely render this action moot
within a decade,” Taylor notes.
“China, moreover, has made it very clear it will not agree to carbon
dioxide restrictions.”
Reducing U.S. emissions by producing less power from fossil fuels would
force consumers to rely on more expensive alternative sources such as
wind and solar power, resulting in “very painful economic
consequences,” the Forbes article states.
Solar thermal power, for instance, will be 208 percent more expensive
than natural gas by 2016, the U.S. Energy Information Administration
estimates.
Taylor concludes: “Attempting to fight global warming by restricting
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions is therefore both ineffective and
painfully costly.”
3. Sabato: 6 Democratic Senate Seats
‘Toss-ups’ in 2012
After losing Senate seats in 2010, Democrats likely face more of the
same in next year’s elections, according to political pundit Larry
Sabato — who says six seats now held by Democrats will be up for grabs
in 2012.
Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics,
acknowledges on his Crystal Ball website that it is “premature to issue
hard projections” at this point, noting that “a thousand things will
change along the way to November 2012.” But he is willing to issue what
he calls “descriptive short-term forecasts” for the Senate races.
Next year 23 Democratic seats will be up for election, as will 10
Republican seats. The six Democratic seats Sabato rates as “toss-ups”
are held by Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Ben Nelson
(Neb.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), and Jim Webb (Va.).
He also rates the seat held by Republican John Ensign of Nevada as a
toss-up.
Bingaman, Webb, and Ensign are retiring.
Three other Democratic incumbents are stepping down. The seat now held
by Kent Conrad of North Dakota is very likely to go a Republican,
Sabato says, while Democrats will probably hold on to the seats being
vacated by Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an
independent Democrat.
Two other Republicans are also retiring, but odds favor the GOP
retaining the seats now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Jon
Kyl of Arizona.
“With six Democratic toss-ups to just one Republican toss-up, the GOP
can obviously win the Senate in theory — but it is far too soon to say
whether theory will become reality,” Sabato observes.
He also forecasts that Florida Democrat Bill Nelson will be
“vulnerable” in 2012, with a host of Republicans being cited as
potential opponents.
“Without question, Florida Republicans would rather have former Gov.
Jeb Bush as their nominee,” Sabato adds, “but there are no signs that
he is interested in the seat or a 2012 presidential run — as some
national Republicans would like to see.”
In governorships, he predicts that Republicans will increase their lead
by up to three in the 2011 and 2012 elections.
4. Expert: New Light Bulbs Bring
‘Deadly Poison’ Into Homes
A lighting expert has told a Senate committee that the federal
government is endangering Americans by promoting new kinds of light
bulbs to replace ordinary incandescent bulbs.
The Energy Independence and Security Act, signed into law by President
George W. Bush in 2007, requires that bulbs be about 25 percent more
efficient by 2014.
The act serves as a “de facto ban on traditional incandescent light
bulbs,” said Howard Branston, who has overseen lighting projects
including the Statue of Liberty and the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
Testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on
Thursday, Branston said compact fluorescent light bulbs, the most
popular alternative to incandescent bulbs, pose a risk to public health.
“The compact fluorescent lamp contains mercury,” he said. “One gram of
mercury will pollute a two-acre pond. This 2007 light bulb standard
brings a deadly poison into every residence in the nation.
“We do not have enough knowledge of the potential consequences of being
continuously exposed to the electromagnetic field that compact
fluorescent lamps emit. There are millions of people in this country
with lupus, an autoimmune disease. Exposure to low doses of light from
these lamps causes a severe rash.”
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said during the committee sessions: “Has
anybody looked at the EPA recommendations put out in January 2011 about
what you do if one of these mercury light bulbs breaks in your home? In
Idaho, we’ve had a number of instances where they’ve had a mercury
spill in a science laboratory and they immediately closed the school
down.
“Can you imagine mercury bulbs throughout a school?”
Branston also warned about the use of LED (light-emitting diode) lamps,
another alternative to incandescent bulbs, CNS News reported.
“The French have found that the output of these lamps is harming the
vision of children,” he said. “They contain arsenic and other poisonous
materials. Why aren’t we looking at that?”
He also asserted that the Energy Independence Act would cost jobs,
burden businesses with the expense of updating lighting fixtures, and
be an unnecessary government intrusion on Americans’ ability to choose
the bulbs they want.
Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, is promoting a bill to repeal the
2007 law and give consumers the choice to buy any light bulbs they
want. His bill has the support of 26 senators — all Republicans.
5. Regional Nuclear War Could Reverse
Global Warming
Even a localized nuclear conflict could have a devastating effect on
the earth’s climate and reverse global warming for more than 10 years,
according to a new report.
To assess the impact on the climate from a regional nuclear conflict —
between, for example, India and Pakistan — scientists from NASA and
other scientific institutions modeled a war involving 100
Hiroshima-sized bombs — just 0.03 percent of the world’s current
nuclear arsenal, National Geographic reports.
Fires resulting from the detonations would send about 5 million metric
tons of black carbon into the lowest level of the Earth’s atmosphere,
the experts estimated.
According to NASA climate models, the carbon would absorb solar heat,
leading to global cooling and “unprecedented climate change,” said
research physical scientist Luke Oman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center.
Following the nuclear exchanges, temperatures in the tropics, Europe,
Asia, and Alaska would drop by up to 7.2 degrees F, the models predict.
Even after 10 years, average global temperature would still be nearly 1
degree cooler than before the nuclear war.
The climate change would also reduce precipitation by 10 percent
globally for up to four years, and decreased precipitation would last
more than seven years. It would also lead to a decrease in the earth’s
protective ozone layer, harming the environment and people, National
Geographic noted.
“Examples similar to the crop failures and famines experienced
following the Mount Tambora [Indonesia] eruption in 1815 could be
widespread and last several years,” Oman said.
That eruption led to the “year without a summer,” a time of great
famines in the Northern Hemisphere.
Oman added: “The main message from our work would be that even a
regional nuclear conflict would have global consequences.”
6. New ‘Dust Bowl’ Threatens Great
Plains
For decades, the Ogallala Aquifer has provided the water needed to
irrigate farms in America’s semi-arid Great Plains. Now it is running
dry — and that could have a devastating impact on food supplies around
the world.
The aquifer is a vast underground lake that stretches from South Dakota
to the Texas Panhandle and is thought to be the world’s largest body of
fresh water. It was formed between two million and six million years
ago, when tectonic shifts trapped water below the surface. It does not
replenish.
In the 1940s, after the Dust Bowl days, farmers and engineers began to
dig wells to tap into the aquifer, turning dry plains into fertile
farmland.
Since then, Americans have drained enough water to half-fill Lake Erie,
according to David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service, a U.S.
Agriculture Department agency.
“The problem is that in a brief half-century, we have drawn the
Ogallala level down from an average of 240 feet to about 80 feet,” he
told The Telegraph.
The U.K. newspaper looked at one town in the Texas Panhandle, Happy,
where the water has run out, businesses have been shuttered, and the
population has plunged.
The farms in the area have been turned over to the government’s
Conservation Reserve Program, to lie fallow, in exchange for grants.
“Now Happy is the harbinger of a potential Dust Bowl unseen in America
since the Great Depression,” the Telegraph observes.
The Great Plains account for 20 percent of U.S. grain and corn
production, and a plunge in production there could lead to “starvation
in Africa and anywhere else where a meal depends on cheap American
exports,” according to the Telegraph.
The hope is that with less wasteful irrigation and seeds genetically
engineered for drought conditions, farming may continue in the Plains
for another 60 years.
Otherwise, the report warns, “the dust will start blowing in as few as
10 years.”
|
|
|
|
