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The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) recently announced the creation of Human Achievement Hour (HAH) to be celebrated tomorrow, March 28^th, between 8:30pm and 9:30pm.  This is the same time and date as Earth Hour, a period of time when individuals, businesses, and governments are being encouraged to “turn off the lights” in an effort to draw attention to global warming.

Human Achievement Video

The supporters of Earth Hour include the United Nations, which is understandable in light of the revelation today that the United Nations is backing a “huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes — all under the supervision of the world body.”

But there is another story; one we intend to keep telling.  That story is that energy is the lever of labor Archimedes of Syracuse referred to when he pointed to something that could move the Earth.  Affordable, reliable and abundant energy is a good thing – for people, for prosperity, for growth and for the Earth – not the sum total of its external costs, as it is depicted by those who wish to control its availability and ration our access to it as a means of increasing their own power – at the expense of our liberty and well-being.  Nothing has done more to improve the quality of life for people on earth than abundant energy.  At AEA, we believe that and will continue to speak out on behalf of those who understand and share our beliefs. 

AEA encourages Americans to join us in celebrating Human Achievement Hour by simply going about your daily lives, doing any one of the millions of activities electricity and affordable energy makes possible, or reflecting on the simple fact that energy is what drives  human achievement and is the lifeblood of American prosperity.

Instead of “turning off the lights” and putting prosperity, human achievement, and the nation’s economy on hold for an hour, we would do better by celebrating the good fortune energy has brought us, and remembering that not all humans – at least not yet – are blessed with the quality of life that abundant, affordable energy makes possible.

Photo Credit: Photo by Flickr user Yodod.  Women collecting cow dung to be used as fuel for cooking is a common practice in parts of the world where energy is scarce and expensive.

American Energy Alliance Alert

Senators Force Open and Transparent Debate on Cap and Trade Tax

28 Say No To Carol Browner’s Plans To Regulate the Means of Production Through Cap and Tax Proposal

The American Energy Alliance is pleased to report that attempts to bypass regular-order procedures and enact the largest (and most regressive) tax in American history by White House Climate Czar Carol Browner have been met with aggressive bipartisan resistance on the steps of Capitol Hill. Browner secretly sought commitments from key lawmakers that would have allowed the Obama Administration to slip its proposed cap and tax plan into the 2010 federal budget, without having to meet the normal 60 vote standard necessary to reshape and reorder the nation’s economy for decades to come. As the Washington Post describes the proposal in today’s newspaper, “Either way, climate legislation will aim to reduce emissions by putting a price on carbon, raising the cost of everything from gasoline to plastics to electricity.”

The bipartisan group of 28 senators, led by West Virginia’s Robert Byrd and Nebraska’s Mike Johanns, are saying no to this budgetary sleight of hand, and are to be commended for standing up for Americans who believe that affordable, reliable, and abundant supplies of energy must be central to any plan for economic growth and stability in the future.

Spring is coming, and hope springs eternal that this budding movement to resist Big Government and a weaker America will gather momentum. Americans must convey their growing concerns about the negative consequences of energy policies based upon faulty intelligence to their elected leaders. AEA posts the letter below:

March 12, 2009

Dear Chairman Conrad and Ranking Member Gregg:

We oppose using the budget reconciliation process to expedite passage of climate legislation. Enactment of a cap‐and‐trade regime is likely to influence nearly every feature of the U.S. economy. Legislation so far‐reaching should be fully vetted and given appropriate time for debate, something the budget reconciliation process does not allow. Using this procedure would circumvent normal Senate practice and would be inconsistent with the Administration’s stated goals of bipartisanship, cooperation, and openness.

We commend you for holding the recent hearing, entitled “Procedures for Consideration of the Budget Resolution/Reconciliation,” which discussed important recommendations for the upcoming budget debate. Maintaining integrity in the budget process is critical to safeguarding the fiscal health of the United States in these challenging times.

The American people have consistently voiced their support for affordable energy and the production of domestic energy resources. Polling shows that 52 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents, and 89 percent of Republicans support increased offshore energy exploration and development. But just a few short weeks into his administration, President Obama has sent Americans a clear message: the demands of a majority of Americans will be thwarted by a tiny minority opposed to economic growth.

In 45 days, the Obama Administration terminated 77 legitimate oil and gas leases in Utah, scrapped leases to develop America’s two trillion barrel oil shale resource, and kicked the can down the road on a plan to begin developing our abundant offshore energy supplies after 3 decades of moratorium. If observers remained confused about the President’s plans for domestic energy after he unveiled that aggressive and restrictive agenda, he cleared it up when he released his budget proposal last week.

In addition to $989 billion in new taxes, many on affordable energy, the President’s budget includes a $646 billion tax on gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and coal. Washington’s spin doctors dubbed this massive new tax “cap and trade”. Cap and trade amounts to a tax on 85 percent of the energy we use. It will result in higher gasoline prices, higher electricity prices, and higher costs for American businesses—many of which are already struggling to keep the lights on. In short, the President’s budget proposal is an outline of his plan to force Americans to pay more money to buy less energy.

Increasing the cost of gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and coal isn’t an unintended side-effect of President’s plan—it is the point of the President’s plan. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently told Congress, “Cap and trade will increase the cost of energy on those fuels that are high in carbon [oil, natural gas, and coal]. For people whose behavior in energy use doesn’t change, their costs will go up.”

China, Brazil, and our other competitors around the globe are aggressively seeking and securing the abundant supplies of affordable energy they know they need to grow their economies. Meanwhile, our government passed laws and regulations to keep us away from most of our own domestic energy resources and make the rest more expensive.

In effect, this budget increases the cost of doing business in America at a time when we face unprecedented economic challenges. Instead, the government should work to create conditions that will attract businesses and economic investment—that means low taxes, low fees, and minimal regulatory burdens.

Much of the discussion on President Obama’s budget has focused on his $989 billion tax hike. These provisions overwhelmingly target domestic energy access, including:

• $61 billion – repeal LIFO accounting
• $4 billion – information reporting for rental payments
• $5.3 billion – excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
• $3.4 billion – repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
• $62 million – repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
• $49 million – repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
• $13 billion – repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
• $1 billion – increase to seven years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
• $882 million – eliminate advanced earned income tax credit

The government initially floated the $13 billion “repeal of manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies” proposal last year. AEA’s independent affiliate, the Institute for Energy Research, produced a report that examined that plan’s economic impact. IER found that over 10 years, these taxes would lead to:

• 637,000 jobs lost
• $34.9 billion reduction in household income
• $13.6 billion of taxes paid by pension fund holders
• $185.9 billion decrease in total economic output
• Increased U.S. reliance on unstable regimes for oil

Instead of reducing access to our abundant domestic energy resources and increasing taxes on affordable sources of energy President Obama has a job-creating alternative—increasing access to America’s offshore energy resources. AEA recent released a study that found increased offshore production would produce:

• $8 trillion in additional economic output (GDP)
• $2.2 trillion in total tax receipts
• 1.2 million new, well-paying jobs annually across the country
• $70 billion in additional wages each year

Bottom Line: The Obama Administration has a simple choice to make. They can choose policies that increase energy prices and destroy American jobs, or they can allow Americans to access the vast taxpayer-owned energy resources, creating thousands of jobs and trillions of dollars of economic stimulus. One has to wonder if the Administration’s plan is designed to restore the economy or to punish American consumers, evict American businesses, and make us less competitive in the world.