Right next to me I have a memo from State Senator Bob Wirch's office on the current climate change legislation, 2009 Assembly Bill 649 and 2009 Senate Bill 450. On the last page of this memo is the listing of the members that make up the Task Force currently. Since I don't want to list all of them, I will list some notable individuals who, in my opinion, possibly have a conflict of interest with being on this task force:- Gale Klappa, President & CEO of WE Energies: who just opened up operations this week of its new $2.3 billion dollar coal plant in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, the largest plant operation in the State's history! They fought for it despite much opposition, since the thing is not needed! Maybe WE Energies thinks "Brownouts" means "lack of stupendous profits". Oh, I guess its approved plans to build a 90-turbine wind farm in Glacier Hills will make up for its massive contribution to the pollution of Lake Micigan and rural and metro areas throughout Wisconsin and SE Minnesota? Sure. Jackasses. WE Energies is also one of the anti-public energy corporations rushing to influence "green energy" policies and developments, so, in case coal becomes obsolete.
- Larry Weyers, Executive Chairman of Integrys Energy Group: based out of Chicago, IL. this holding company is the owner of the Wisconsin Public Service, a natural gas and electric utility provider in Wisconsin, as well as other energy utility companies in Minnesota and Michigan.
- Michael Swenson of Xcel Energy: Mr. Swenson is CEO and President of Northern States Power Company - Wisconsin, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy. How commited can Xcel be to effective legislation to address climate change and promote greener technologies when they own 14 coal plants, 25 natural gas plants, 4 oil plants, 2 nuclear plants, among others, and only 2 wind farms? Really?
But, don't take it from me. Through some research, I stumbled upon an economic analysis done by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a free marketist non-profit organization, along with the Beacon Hill Institute on the 13 proposals put for by the Task Force, in exception to the cap-and-trade proposals. Ultimately, the conclusions were unfavorable, saying that these proposals have a large net negative impact on the current manufacturing industry, and would potentially cost thousands of jobs. Yes, this is where the current information is coming from that the Right Wing is using across the State of Wisconsin and the United States of America, alleging that Climate Change legislation will destroy the economy by "costing us 1,000's of jobs for jobs that don't even exist". You may have seen the commercials, if not, here is an article on the opposition: Manufacturers Oppose Clean Energy Plan
There is something interesting about the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute's conclusion with the Beacon Hill Institute. BHI is well-respected and renown across the nation for its conservative economic standings, and politically is in support of fiscal-conservatives (and their PSEUDO-fiscal conservatives, ahem Republican Party), as its Executive Director David Tuerck (who I am ashamed to say is more than a free-market economist, but a political economist =/), has both been in support of the conservative hold on Massachusetts and a proponent speaker againt climate change legislation. WPRI is no different, and has some "special" people on it's board.
WPRI is led by Board Chairman James Klauser, a former Senior V.P. of Wisconsin Energy Corp. the Parent-Company of WE Energies, and a representative from the super-law firm Quarlees & Brady, which represents some of the largest corporations and wealthiest individuals in the nation.
As an entrepreneur and civic activist for human rights, equal rights, and economic justice in Southeastern Wisconsin, I've come to learn how the "elites" of Wisconsin work, Wisconsin's economic history, and who drives its industrial economy and where they are from. This has allowed me to see and learn first hand that executives from WE Energies are associated with friends of major engineering, legal, manufacturing, and legal firms throughout Wisconsin. Simply, names and people keep popping up together all too commonly at the same places, events, and lists. Heck, I go to a private university that is associated with the epicenter of these wealthy industrialists.
So, I ask you, how successful ecan a Task Force on climate change be successful when it includes parties that are directly involved with its opposition? Don't be surprised that Nuclear Power provisions are part of the Clean Energy Jobs Act when you have executives who run companies that HAVE NUCLEAR POWER! And don't be surprised, simultaneously, non-profit "research" firms are going to have extensive negative reports against these initiatives, along with a wealthy advertising budget since their donors and managers come from the same private energy companies and their supporters!
And people wonder why Goldman Sachs, AIG, CitiGroup, and others easily recieved trillions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money (ask former U.S. Treasury Secetrary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, and former New York Federal Reserve Chairman and current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner).
KA-BOM
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