Liberty
Matters News Service
May 10, 2007
Veto Expected: HB 1892, TTC Moratorium Bill
In spite of overwhelming support for the Trans Texas corridor moratorium bill, HB1892, it is expected that Governor Rick Perry will veto it. Fortunately, the bill passed both the Texas House and Senate with enough votes to override a veto. However, Perry is still intent on thwarting the will of the people and has threatened the Legislature with calling a "Special Session" to resolve transportation issues, if members override his veto on the moratorium bill. With less than three weeks left in this Legislative Session, members are ready to go home, and the threat of having to come back for a special session may cause enough members to reconsider whether they want to take on the Governor over this issue. Perry already has four senators on his side: Kip Averitt, (R- Waco); Robert Duncan, (R- Lubbock); Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D- Brownsville), and Steve Ogden, (R-Bryan). It is critical that Texans everywhere keep the pressure on Governor Perry and members of the Legislature. To all Texan's, please call your Senator and Representative and ask them to hold firm for HB 1892 and override Perry's veto of the bill. At least 21 senators and 100 representatives are necessary to override the veto. Call Governor Perry at: 800-252-9600 or 512-463-2000. Opinion Hotline (out of state callers); 512-463-1782. Texas Legislators can be reached at 512-463-4630.
Trans Texas Corridor Moratorium Bill
Passes Texas Legislature in a Landslide!
Hotel California
A new California Hotel, Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa, will be replacing the cornerstone of that "old time religion," the Gideon Bible, with the gospel of the new environmental religion, Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth." Gore's science fiction tome attempts to heighten the hysteria levels of the gullible with exaggerated claims of floods and unusual weather events caused by Nature's arch enemy, mankind. The new "green" hotel boasts features such as waterless urinals, solar lighting and recycled paper. Does Cheryl Crow come to mind? The Gaia and its sister, The Orchard Garden in San Francisco, want to be the first California hotels to bear the seal of approval of the U. S. Green Building Council. The Council developed a rating system to judge how well buildings use environmentally friendly features. Under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, (LEED) guidelines, buildings are scored on their use of recycled construction materials and efficient energy and water systems, among other considerations. There isn't a rush by major hotel chains to join the trend. "The only thing green investors care about is the green that's on the money, not the green that's in the hotel rooms," said Robert Lafleur, a hotel analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group.
California Hotels Go Green With
Low-Flow Toilets, Solar Lights
Virginia Rejects Land Tax Credits
The Virginia Department of Taxation has sent letters to hundreds of investors telling them their conservation easement tax credits are no good. The investors had bought the tax credits from Silver Cos. Celebrate Virginia for conservation easements on 308 acres in Stafford and 129 acres in Fredericksburg. "The [department] has determined that the value of the conservation easements has been overstated," said a letter informing taxpayers of the problems. It went on the say that credits claimed under each entity were reduced by 100%. Silver Cos. claimed the land preservation tax credits under a Virginia program that allowed it to use up to $100,000 in credits annually for up to six years, and to sell the rest. The company qualified for $28 million in credits, but sold them at 50 cents on the dollar. The Celebrate Virginia credits have been suspect from the beginning when questions were raised about whether the land was overvalued for tax purposes. "We will be taking action to deal with the state's claim," said Jud Honaker, an executive with Silver Cos. "This is clearly far from being over." Because there was no bad faith on the part of the investors, the state will not assess the usual penalties, which include the taxes owed plus interest.
Land Tax Credits Rejected by
State
The World Really is Warming
"All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it's absurd," says 86-year-old Professor Reid A. Bryson, the "father of the science of modern climatology," according to his peers. "Of course it's going up. It has gone up since the 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we're coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we're putting more carbon dioxide into the air." Bryson holds a PhD in Meteorology, among other academic titles. His accomplishments are many, going back to World War II when he and a colleague first identified the jet stream. "Before there were enough people to make any difference at all, two million years ago, nobody was changing the climate, yet the climate was changing," Bryce told his interviewer. "Little Ice Age? That's what chased the Vikings out of Greenland after they'd farmed there for a few hundred years during the Medieval Warm Period. What do they find when the ice sheets retreat in the Alps?" he asks. "A silver mine. The guys had stacked up their tools because they were going to be back the next spring to mine more silver, only the snow never went. It's [the climate] just getting back to normal." When asked about the models global warming alarmists use to predict the climate one hundred years from now, Bryce says the data fed into the computers overemphasizes carbon dioxide and accounts poorly for the effects of clouds water vapor. "Do you believe a five-day forecast?" he asks. Bryson still shows up for work every day at the University of Wisconsin, even though he receives no salary. Why? Because "it's fun," he answered.