Lawmakers meet with Fire Fighters Union

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Today Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Legislative Conference about the importance of collective bargaining. Pelosi awed at “what a difference an election makes” in addressing workers’ rights as well as their right to organize. Union representatives said that the Obama Administration is much friendlier to unions than the Bush Administration was, and is looking forward to the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Pelosi hammered home her commitment to that bill, and highlighted how the Economic Recovery Package provided billions of dollars to help prevent job loss in the public safety sector.

Also speaking at the event was Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who showcased his support for the Fire Fighter Fatality Reduction Act. The proposed law would set national requirements at fire stations for staffing, training, and equipment, moves that Lieberman believes will save lives. Additionally, Lieberman said he supports a national credentialing program for fire fighters, to make sure those responding to emergencies are properly trained to meet the national requirements he hopes are created.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) talked to the crowd about the Federal Firefighter Fairness Act, which would create a “rebuttable presumption” that certain diseases contracted by fire fighters are "job related”, and thus subject to compensation programs. Collins said that this would apply to federal fire fighters, because it was "fundamentally unfair" that federal fire fighters would not be able to receive the same health protection as those on the state and local level.

Both Collins and Lieberman spoke in support the right of workers to bargain collectively.

Vice President Joseph Biden is scheduled to speaker later today at the event.

Obama must commit to human rights in Tibet

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a roundtable discussion today on China and Tibet, and from it came calls for the Obama administration to place increased focus on human rights in Tibet. Elliot Sperling, Associate Professor of Tibetan Studies at Indiana University, said that China has created stability on the Tibetan region by "imposing an effective lockdown on Tibet" through "severe restrictions on movement and communication." Sperling said that Chinese officials have blocked Internet and cell phone communication over the region and have held firm with the detention of people speaking out against the government.

Sperling highlighted that President Bill Clinton periodically threatened to revoke the Most Favored National Trade Status (or PNTR) with China if they did not reform human rights, but that revocation never happened. He felt that such empty threats were worse than if the President had said nothing. Sperling referenced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's February 21st comment that human rights issues with China "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis" and said that Mrs. Clinton can "commit to a forceful human right agenda" without empty threats. Sperling said that the Obama administration must support, "in absolute terms, the right of Tibetans to voice their aspirations peacefully."

Power lines: What the Senate is doing to ensure Americans have electricity

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

The Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources met today to discuss the means by which Americans have access to electricity across the nation through a modernized transmission system, sometimes called the Smart Grid. Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said that the nation’s transmission system has not kept up technologically with both the energy potentials before us and the sheer volume of electricity flowing through it. Also concerning was the fact that regionally based renewable energies, such as solar power in the Southwest or wind energy in the Midwest, cannot efficiently be transmitted across the nation to areas that might need that energy. Ranking Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said, “We can generate all the electricity from wind and other renewable sources we want, but it doesn’t do us any good if we don’t have the capacity to get it to consumers.” Murkowski said that, “by 2013, the EIA projects a 30% increase in U.S. electricity demand, but the transmission has only grown 6.5% since 1996.” Given this, she said, “It’s understandable that our transmission isn’t adequate to meet our future energy needs.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) testified before the committee, but said that in the past 10 years, the U.S. has developed over 6,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, and less than 600 miles of new electrical lines. “We’ve got a problem” Reid said. He likened the national transmission system to the railroad network across the country or the national highway system, because it would provide a uniform means of connecting the nation.

While testifying, Senator Reid said that he is introducing a bill, S. 539, which would have the president designate national areas of renewable energy and establish a structure for linking that with the nation. The proposed legislation would create a federal back-stop transmission citing authority, which would give the federal government the power to place power lines where necessary. It would also give the FERC the ability to move along siting projects which have stalled in one way or another. Reid said the bill gives states authority to move forward on their own in developing the infrastructure, but gives the federal government the power to step in if progress is not made. This bill is similar to the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which gave the Department of Energy the power to designate National Transmission Corridors across the nation in especially congested areas of electricity flow. Senator Murkowski’s office said that to date, not one transmission line has been sited pursuant to the 2005 Act, prompting the additional legislation.

Energy secretary calls for diversity in energy approach

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

While testifying before the Senate Committee on the Budget, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that the solution to America’s energy woes must combine many different approaches, based both on renewable and fossil fuels. Chu said that all of the following should be part of the solution of ensuring sustainable energy independence:

• Improved CAFE Standards
• Conservation
• Plug-In Hybrid Cars
• Reducing dependence on Foreign Oil
• Biofuels
• Nuclear technology
• Offshore drilling
• Expanding natural gas
• Clean coal technology
• Hydropower
• Wind energy
• Post-Combustion technologies
• Solar Technology (both photovoltaic and thermal)
• Improving the energy efficiency of buildings

Chu highlighted the importance of coal by saying that the US has the highest coal reserves in the world. He continued that China and India also have high coal reserves, and they won’t turn their backs on that potential technology, so America shouldn’t either. Regarding solar technology, Chu said that presently solar thermal technology is better than photovoltaic technology, but that if photovoltaic technology was more deployed, the costs would begin to come down and the technology in general would improve. Chu continued that natural gas, hydropower, and nuclear technology are all rather clean, and should all be part of America’s approach. Post-combustion technologies are those that pull carbon out of the atmosphere once it has been released, and Chu said that there is a “reasonable chance of success” in those capturing methods, which he noted is a place where he and Al Gore differ in opinion.

President Obama’s FY2010 Budget allots $26.3 billion to the Department of Energy for clean energy. The other main priorities of the administration include doubling the federal government’s investment in basic science, increased focus on climate science, and expanding graduate fellowships in sciences.

Republicans move for stimulus package free of spending

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

It may seem like magic to some these days that one could stimulate the economy without spending a nickel, but that’s exactly what Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and 40 other Congressmen are proposing. A bill to be introduced concurrently in both the Senate and the House would provide revenue and create jobs by drilling for oil domestically. The focus of The No Cost Stimulus Act of 2009 would be primarily energy, because in addition to further tapping domestic gas and oil reserves, it would streamline the process for creating nuclear power plants, which the bill sponsors say would create jobs. According to the sponsors, it would also lessen EPA regulation of CO2 under the Clean Air Act, which the Congressmen claimed would save 500,000 jobs annually and saves over $7 trillion in GDP over the next 20 years.

Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) said that currently we are outsourcing our energy production, providing jobs to regimes such as Russia, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia, when these very same jobs can be done domestically with our reserves.

The specific regions to be further tapped for their energy potential include the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and ANWR, which the Congressmen estimate alone would create nearly 2 million long term high paying jobs.