One Wisconsin Now

Last week Rep. Frank Lasee announced his latest harebrained scheme, to drill for oil in the Great Lakes. There is nothing like handing over your most precious resource to an industry that can’t be trusted. And for what? For the remote chance that they will find (or spill) oil in 15 years and possibly save a few cents off gas prices? As if that is not enough for one month, now Lasee is cheering his Republican friends on the Natural Resources Committee who voted to block a reasonable rule to protect us from mercury contamination.

Almost every Wisconsin lake is under warning for mercury pollution but Lasee and his friends on the committee would rather obey the corporate interests that pull their strings. The rule was proposed by the Department of Natural Resources as crafted by an independent group of experts. It would have required large coal-fired plants to reduce mercury by 90 percent by the beginning of 2015. Over 437,000 Wisconsinites are exposed to higher-than-safe levels of mercury and six percent of Wisconsin women of childbearing age have elevated levels of mercury.

Health problems caused by mercury include neurological damage for babies and children, as well as hearing and vision loss and impaired coordination and speech for adults. Seniors are at risk from mercury for heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Mercury is most commonly ingested by humans through fish consumption. The state has issued advisories about fish consumption due to mercury contamination for nearly every Wisconsin water body. Still Lasee cheers the status quo and its defenders in the Assembly. Apparently in the wacky world of Frank Lasee, poisoning your neighbors is not only praiseworthy but is the highest act of civic engagement.

We have seen the Bush energy policy at work now for nearly eight years, it seems to be a plan based on not leaving any big oil and gas company behind. The policy appears to be the following simple formula: give a free pass to these massive special interests in any way possible, give them record amounts of handouts from the public and then allow them to “thank” the public by gouging them at every possible turn. This energy free-for-all has most definitely had an impact, unfortunately it has been a hugely negative one for individual citizens and the entire economy.

Consumers are paying record amounts at the pump, while Big Oil pulls in record profits. This has a major impact on the price of things like food and other essentials. In many ways it is responsible for a 17 year record high in inflation. As if working people weren’t hurting enough in this Bush economy, now we are getting early warnings about just how much more it will take to heat our homes this winter. Estimates from the Department of Energy project that heating costs will climb 21 percent in the Midwest this year. There is an expected 26 percent increase for homes that stay warm with heating oil.

Even with all of the bad news, John McCain has decided to follow the Bush economic and energy “plans”. As it has been previously documented, McCain has already learned how to roll over for Big Oil interests by reversing his own positions. Actually, McCain plans to go even further than Bush in many ways when it comes to appeasing Big Oil. He has not only decided to back Bush’s irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy but he also gives away the treasury on even more tax cuts for big corporations. Big Oil would receive some $4 billion in additional handouts. It would be difficult to imagine, but such a McCain economy could make a terribly bad situation much worse.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) has done an analysis of Senator John McCain’s oil industry subsidies plan and it doesn’t look pretty. At a time when Big Oil has all of us over a barrel and is making such obscene profits, John McCain is proposing massive tax giveaways and other hand outs to them. McCain’s proposals would give $39 billion in federal help for oil and gas companies over the next five years. These subsidies and tax breaks could be used in many different ways to help support a serious long-term solution to our energy crisis. The CAPAF analysis outlines how McCain’s $39 billion for Big Oil could be invested in renewable energy and it estimates how many tax dollars from each state will be spent subsidizing Big Oil.

CAPAF estimates that Wisconsin’s share of McCain’s $39 Billion giveaway to Big Oil is $640 million! That is enough to weatherize 230,000 homes, power 98,000 homes with wind, and create 155,000 homes powered by geothermal technology. Doing all of those things would also create an estimated 2,750 new jobs in Wisconsin. Instead of taking such a long-term and forward thinking approach, John McCain is suggesting that Wisconsin keep using the same old model that keeps enriching the same folks that repeatedly gouge us. Apparently Wisconsin is just supposed to thank Big Oil and hand over it’s share of the $39 billion in extra giveaways. Exactly what kind of energy policy is that? The simple answer: it’s McSame as Bush and it won’t yield any different result.  More pain at the pump and more record profits for Big Oil.

John McCain has made energy his primary issue in recent weeks. It seems to be a strange choice for a U.S. Senator that has skipped every major energy vote in the last two years. That means that McCain was AWOL on 15 important votes on things like renewable energies, energy efficiency, biofuels, and even offshore drilling. Over the last two years McCain has shown no interest in our energy crisis or in the many solutions offered by his colleagues in Congress. Now suddenly, when he is in the midst of a presidential campaign, McCain has made energy issue number one. Someone should tell him that his actions speak much louder than his words.

Perhaps it is McCain’s extended lack of interest in energy that has caused him to ridicule his opponent for talking about energy efficiency moves like inflating tires properly and getting regular tune-ups. McCain used only a portion of that commentary to mock his opponent without looking at the actual data about how much the simple acts would save. The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling (McCain’s newfound passion) would meet 1 percent of our demand some two decades from now. Compare that to the instant 3 percent improvement in gas mileage by keeping tires inflated and the 4 percent improvement by doing regular maintenance. Even Republican Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA) and Charlie Crist (FL) have made the same common sense point that McCain and the right wing are now mocking. It looks like the only joke here is McCain’s plan to continue selling out to Big Oil in a losing effort to drill our way out of an energy crisis. Perhaps McCain would do less damage if he just went back to ignoring these important energy issues. 

Update:  Now McCain has decided to sumbit to common knowledge and has said that now he doesn't disagree with Obama on the importance of tire pressure.  McCain reportedly said, "I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it."  Naturally his campaign continues to mock the idea.

Today Senator John McCain is scheduled to stop at the Enrico Fermi 2 nuclear power plant near Monroe, Michigan. He has been a big cheerleader for greatly expanding nuclear power all across the nation. As he has made this a major piece of his energy policy he has also frequently insisted that nuclear power is completely safe. In trying to make this case, it seems strange that McCain will take a tour of a reactor that sits right next to one that suffered a meltdown and was promptly shut down. It will be interesting to hear McCain’s comments about how safe nuclear energy is while standing in such close proximity to a big reminder of its real dangers.

McCain has often commented on the U.S. Navy sailing ships around the world using nuclear power and how they have never had an accident. Actually, the U.S. Navy reported a leak in one of its nuclear-powered submarines just last week. That recent incident created quite a set of problems with our friends in Japan, where some of the leaking likely happened. That still didn’t stop the Arizona senator from using the same line in his stump speech in Racine last week.

All of the big oil companies have been announcing more record profit for the quarter. Exxon Mobile just reported that it brought in nearly $12 billion dollars in the last three months, which is not only a record for them but also a record for any U.S. company. Similarly the other big oil companies have once again made record profits while consumers struggle to pay record prices at the pump. The pain is not only being felt at the pump because the pain has moved its way through nearly every layer of our struggling Bush/McCain economy.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that in the quarter that just ended, Exxon spent $8 billion buying back shares of its own stock and only spent $7 billion in other projects that could helped ease the supply problem. Although conservatives seem to think that Big Oil should get a free pass to drill wherever they want, they fail to notice that they already have access to a large majority of public lands but have done very little with that access. This has understandably led some in Congress to promote a “use it or lose it” strategy.

In the middle of these record breaking profit announcements by Big Oil, John McCain is running around the country serving as their latest key representative in government. He has earned their recent support by reversing his own position on offshore drilling, a change that has brought in over a million dollars into his campaign coffers in only a month. Even in the midst of such record breaking profits, McCain has sought to hand over many more tax giveaways to his new benefactors to the tune of $4 billion. Just what Big Oil needed, another lacky in Congress trying to create ways to give them even more money.

In anticipation of Senator John McCain’s Racine town hall meeting Thursday, several concerned Wisconsinites that will be unable to attend offered five questions that they would like McCain to answer.

John Valko, President of UAW Local 180 in Racine is concerned about the loss of good paying, family supporting jobs. He wants to ask Senator McCain why the country should continue the harmful policies that he supports which have caused our current economic crisis. This crisis includes the loss of some 92,000 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin during the Bush administration. Specifically Valko cites John McCain’s support for disastrous Bush policies including unfair trade deals, and massive tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthiest individuals.

John Valko's question: “The policies you have championed have resulted in an economic nightmare for families across Wisconsin, so my question is: Why would we want to continue your failed policies which have devastated our country?"

Although U.S. Senator John McCain is trying to distance himself from the most unpopular president in recent history, they actually are like two peas in a pod when it comes to being totally out of touch with the average person. 

Who can forget the presidential news conference in February when George W. Bush was asked about the cost of gas reaching $4 a gallon? He responded with "that's interesting, I hadn't heard that." Only weeks ago, while he was raising money in California, John McCain admitted that he didn’t know the price of gas and couldn’t remember the last time that he pumped it for himself. Then he tellingly said that he doesn’t “see how it matters” if he knows the current price of gas.

This is more evidence of just how out of touch Bush and McCain are on most issues. Perhaps that is why McCain would have the audacity to propose $4 billion in tax giveaways to Big Oil at the same time that they are gouging consumers and reaping record profits. Perhaps it is why George Bush and John McCain would sell off every single public asset to Big Oil even if it wouldn’t significantly affect the cost of gas or solve our long term energy crisis.

Bush and McCain have not only shown themselves to be out of touch on the issue of energy but also on the economy in general. How many times have we heard them both say that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong” even as average people increasingly struggle with meeting their most basic needs? It seems like every week we get a new example from Bush and McCain of just how out of touch they actually are with the rest of us.

Last Thursday I found myself at a press conference held by local McCain supporters. The topic was generally about the economy and “small business” and was hosted at a company that had just moved to Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward. When I arrived at the location I was given a packet of information and led to the waiting area for the press. While waiting, I shared an OWN press release with the media on how McCain votes have been a disaster for women and the economy in general.

First Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker spoke and then handed it off to the host CEO. The last scheduled speaker at the press conference was former State Senator Cathy Stepp. She largely focused on her business and how the out of control gas prices are hurting it. Frankly, I was surprised that she would make energy policy her central theme at this press conference given John McCain’s awful record in both the U.S. Senate and in recent policy statements.

At the same time that ads started running in Wisconsin trying to paint U.S. Senator John McCain as an environmentalist, he was busy demonstrating that nothing could be further from the truth. The ad attempts to distinguish him from Bush on environmental issues. Actually he undermined that argument himself while on a fundraising tour through oil country. He announced that he was suddenly in favor of giving big oil a free pass to start drilling all along our coast. Right around the same time perpetual candidate for Congress, John Gard, started spouting all of the same talking points including promoting some that flatly inaccurate.

In a recent column, the Sierra Club educates John McCain not only on trying to drill our way out of our oil addiction, but they also remind him of his previous statements on the subject. John Gard would do well to take the same schooling on the issue and make the relevant facts a part of his often advertised “town hall” events.

The column shows that although John McCain advocated for opening the rest of the country’s coasts to oil drilling, only two weeks before he was singing a different tune. At that time he repeated his opposition to such a plan saying that it would take “years to develop” and that “it would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels.” Perhaps McCain was hoping that no one was paying attention to the fact that he just dramatically and suddenly changed his position at a time that he was also raising campaign cash from big oil execs.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the prospect of $200 a barrel price for oil by the end of the year. The price has shot up over the last 7 years but that increase has been much more rapid in the last six months. During that time we have seen it go up from $100 to $150 a barrel. If the price actually hits the $200 prediction, that will translate to well over $6 a gallon for gasoline at the pump.

The pain at the pump is only the beginning of the budget crunch for the average working family. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today that natural gas is also at a high for this time of year. Experts in that industry are predicting major sticker shock for energy customers, especially when we try to heat our homes in winter. Natural gas futures have jumped 82 percent since just the start of the year. The story reports that increases in the price of natural gas have already driven up electricity bills twice since March.

All of these costs are overburdening working families and impacting our already fragile economy. This is where the failed Bush policies of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, coddling Big Oil, and lacking a forward thinking energy policy has brought us. U.S. Senator John McCain has been a rubber stamp for those polices in the Senate. He supported Bush as much as 100 percent in 2008 and 95 percent in 2007. In addition, McCain now says that he will make Bush’s tax cuts for the rich permanent. Actually he will go even further by offering unprecedented tax giveaways to some of the biggest corporations in the country. Under this economic scheme, Big Oil would get some $3.8 billion in tax giveaways. To the average person, such a massive giveaway to the very industry that has us over a barrel makes no sense at all. To John McCain it’s just business as usual.

Former Assembly Speaker John Gard has scheduled several town-hall meetings that he says will focus on gas prices. Unfortunately his positions on our addiction to oil is no different than the failed policies of the most unpopular president in history, George W. Bush. More specifically Gard is talking about giving Big Oil a free pass to dig up and take over wherever they think that they can find oil. Whether it is endangering pristine areas of wildlife or erecting Big Oil monuments right off our coasts, Gard’s folly is trying to drill our way out of this energy crisis. Even some of his fellow Republicans do not agree with this shortsighted gamble for what is sure to be a very limited gain.

While Gard is busy promoting Big Oil’s self serving agenda, I wonder if he will take a moment to correct himself on a recent related claim. Talking Points memo reported recently that Gard parroted a conservative talking point that had been completely debunked. The conservative claim that China and other nations were drilling off the coast of Florida was repeated in a Gard flyer even after Dick Cheney had to admit that it was not factual. When reporters for Talking Points Memo called the Gard operation to ask them about the misinformation, they were given several different false and conflicting answers. Perhaps it would be good for John Gard to take a moment during the town hall meetings to explain why he put out such inaccurate information for public consumption. Like his energy policy in general, the flyer demonstrates the length that he will go to in order to protect Big Oil and their narrow interests.

John McCain’s record in the U.S. Senate has repeatedly demonstrated that he is totally out of touch with the average working person in this country. His recent and constantly shifting policy statements have totally reinforced this fact. Just the other day, while he was fundraising in California, a reporter asked him a very easy question that any regular person could have answered instantly. “When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?” What was McCain’s answer? Well, it was a mixture of “I don’t know,” and “I don’t recall.”

It is no surprise that John McCain is so far out of touch with the daily lives of average Americans. He is one of the richest members of Congress after all. He did marry into a very wealthy family and doesn’t really have to deal with any of the struggles that the rest of us face everyday. Being as rich as John McCain isn’t the problem by itself, but it is that combined with loser policy positions that don’t help real people that need it most.

Fresh off a fundraising tour through oil country, John McCain has changed his mind on trying to drill our way out of our energy crisis. It seems that he is totally in touch with the needs of that powerful interest. The best that average people have been able to get from John McCain is the “gas tax holiday” which has been totally debunked by economists as a total gimmick. When it comes to the economy and the everyday challenges faced by average Americans, John McCain is showing himself to be out of touch and deficient of solutions.

Anyone that is watching television in the state of Wisconsin has probably seen the new John McCain ad on the environment. The ad over-reaches trying to put a happy face on John McCain’s record in the Senate. Although the ad tries to paint McCain as a “maverick” on the environment, reality shows that his departures from the Bush party line are rare at best. Conveniently, just after starting the current ad buy, McCain provided us with the latest example of why he is McSame as Bush on the environment.

This week both Bush and McCain pushed an oil industry plan to end the federal ban on offshore drilling. The oil industry is hardly known for its protective policies over the environment. Actually in many ways the most serious environmental issues of our day can, in some way, be laid at their feet. Yet this same oil industry appears to be the policy guide for both Bush and McCain on offshore drilling.

"China, with the permission of the Cuban government, is actually drilling for natural gas and oil on the Outer Continental Shelf within view of the Florida coast," said Gard. "So, while Steve Kagen's votes are blocking Americans from accessing this abundant source of oil, the Chinese are tapping a resource that could literally be putting money back into the wallets of hard working families."

Yesterday, the John McCain camp issued a press release in conjunction with a new ad touting Sen. McCain’s record on the environment. See the ad for yourself on the YouTube(s).

“Five years ago,” says the ad, “John McCain stood up to the President and sounded the alarm on global warming.” As proof of his maverickiness, the creators of the ad were able to scrape together just a single UPI article titled, “McCain climate views clash with GOP.” The article is actually less than a month old. The political director for the Sierra Club said Sen. McCain "is using the environment as a way to portray himself as being different from George Bush. But the reality is that he isn't."

U.S. Senator John McCain has proposed a gas tax “holiday.” This is a concept that has been universally panned by economists. The average consumer would see almost no savings. It seems clear that it is little more than a pander to people that are struggling with record gas prices. While John McCain offers only smoke and mirrors to the average American, all indications show that his feet are firmly planted on the side of Big Oil and their record profits.

Although he has said in past town halls (Rindge, NH, 11/18/07) that he would “oppose any tax breaks or good deals for the gas and oil industry…” his current tax plan does the exact opposite of what he promised last year. McCain’s plan would actually give the top five oil companies $3.8 billion a year in tax breaks. Further, McCain has consistently voted against windfall profits taxes for Big Oil and has voted against taxing them in order to provide rebates to severely strapped consumers.

Millionaires Paul Ryan and John McCain have a prescription for $4-a-gallon gas prices for working families: Nearly $4 billion in tax cuts for Big Oil.

Ryan reiterated his support for the disatrous McCain Big Oil tax cut on a conference call today in which he praised McCain for "economic discipline."

Ryan and McCain already provide $5 billion to Big Oil in just the last two years, so it's not surprising they're in lockstep on this one, too.

OWN has called for Ryan to distance himself on this ridiculous $4 billion Big Oil bonanza. If you haven't had the chance yet, click here to sign our petition telling Paul Ryan enough with big tax cuts for Big Oil.

The more than 100 percent hike in gas prices under the Bush administration continues to take a devastating toll on Wisconsin families -- the latest casualties are 2,600 family-supporting jobs at Janesville's General Motors plant.

According to the Capital Times, "The unprecedented rise in gasoline prices helped put 2,600 General Motors employees out of work in Janesville." The Janesville plant was first opened in 1919 and will close as early as the end of 2009.

No word yet John McCain, who visited Wisconsin last week, if he will end his support to give another $3.8 billion in tax breaks for big oil. This is on top of $5 billion in tax breaks for big oil he already supported while serving as a rubber stamp for the failed economic policies of the Bush administration.

Perhaps Janesville's Paul Ryan, the McCain-Bush cheerleader featured so prominently last week, will hear from his constituents about just how effective those tax cuts for big oil have been. But considering the message from all these Washington insiders is "stay the course," none of the workers, nor their families who are being shown the door because of $4-gallon gas prices should hold their breath.