Saturday, May 9, 2009

Michigan pays a heavy burden to be "green"

Residents of Michigan have been beaten mercilessly for years with economic woes.President Obama aims to extend and even increase the pain with his climate change agenda.This is not simply a friendly fire casualty.We are in the crosshairs because the make-up of our state doesn't fit his ideology and he wants to forcibly change it.

The plight of the auto industry is well-known and documented ad-nauseam.The bottom line is the UAW survives due to a trade-off.Washington has tried for decades to impose higher CAFE and emissions standards despite constant rebellion from the big 3.The price for survival is building the green cars the Government is mandating.The automakers don't believe they will sell as well and carry a high technology cost to build.This will impact Michigan more than any other state.

Another shot to the gut was just delivered by Obama.A new Soo lock has been on the books since 1986.The engineering is complete.Prep work has been done.It's shovel ready.Over 70% of freighters need the larger Poe lock currently used and a back-up is sorely needed.Plus this is a 10 year build so the construction work is long-term,not simply one season like most of the road projects.All it needed was the stimulus money.The Army said no with no reason given.The real reason?Most freighters carry "dirty" coal and iron ore and this is definitely not Obama "green".Maybe we should put a sail and some solar panels on the freighters to be more eco-friendly.

Next up?The carbon tax.Guaranteed to impact every wallet in the state.Maybe it's cap and trade or some other version,but it's impact will hit hard here.Our power plants are heavily dependent on fossil fuels,so they will have to spend much on pollution credits.As always,any industry or corporate taxes are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.So the real bearer of the burden is the Michigan residents.

Our state can least afford to take on these higher taxes and costs headed our way.Yet this is the cost of being on the Obama train and our Governor fully backs him.Clean air,clean water,clean soil,low impact environmental living.Great things to be sure.But Michigan residents will pay a higher share than any other state.Granholm promised we would be "blown away" in 5 years.I didn't know she meant by windmills on every block!More to come...

1 comment:

RightMichigan.com said...

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the breakdown, Bug. Got you up "in the Sphere" over on RightMichigan this AM.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com