Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power. The legendary entrepreneur and philanthropist on Tuesday unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States’ dependency on foreign oil by more than one-third and help shift American energy production toward renewable natural resources. ‘The Pickens Plan’ calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind, and switching from oil to natural gas as a transportation fuel. In a news conference outlining his proposal, Pickens said his impetus for the plan is the country’s dangerous reliance on foreign oil. ‘Our dependence on imported oil is killing our economy. It is the single biggest problem facing America today,’ he said. Video Watch Pickens discuss plan for wind power » ‘Wind power is … clean, it’s renewable. It’s everything you want. And it’s a stable supply of energy,’ Pickens told CNN in May. ‘It’s unbelievable that we have not done more with wind.’ Pickens’ company, Mesa Power, recently announced a $2 billion investment as the first step in a multibillion-dollar plan to build the world’s largest wind farm in Pampa, Texas. Pickens said Tuesday that […]
The only thing preventing the wind power industry from soaring is the lack of state incentives. That’s the view of businesses specializing in wind energy. ‘If consumers could get tax credit or a rebate for wind power, we could sell two or three systems a week,’ said Dan Mattfeld, manager of Residential Wind Power Inc., New York Mills. ‘They would be selling like hot cakes.’ Presently, Minnesota provides a sales tax exemption for wind and solar power installations. But only solar qualifies for a tax credit incentive. Maine and New Jersey, for example, are far ahead of Minnesota in incentives for wind power, noted Mattfeld. If Minnesota had a program similar to Maine’s, a small homeowner unit generating 2 kilowatts of hour with a retail price of $10,500 could be purchased for the equivalent of about $6,500. ‘Ninety-eight percent of the people who we talk to ask specifically about incentives,’ said Mattfeld. ‘A rebate or tax credit program would have a tremendous impact, especially if it was as large as the solar program.’ Mattfeld has helped draft legislation that would create a wind power incentive program in the state. The bill has garnered […]
Scores of web sites do not require a prescription to buy narcotics, stimulants, and other controlled substances — and none of those sites has controls to prevent children from making such purchases, a study shows. A report released today by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reveals that 85% of web sites selling potent prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Valium, and Ritalin do not ask Internet users for a proper prescription from a doctor. Many explicitly state that no prescription is needed. ‘Anyone of any age can obtain dangerous and addictive prescription drugs with the click of a mouse,’ Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and former U.S. secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, says in a news release. ‘This problem is not going away.’ The report, titled ”You’ve Got Drugs!’ V: Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet,’ details the advertising and selling of controlled substances online. It is the fifth annual report on the subject. The report tracks the availability of prescription opioids such as OxyContin and Vicodin, depressants such as Valium and Xanax, and stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall. […]
WASHINGTON — The Senate gave final approval on Wednesday to a major expansion of the government’s surveillance powers, handing President Bush one more victory in a series of hard-fought clashes with Democrats over national security issues. The measure, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, is the biggest revamping of federal surveillance law in 30 years. It includes a divisive element that Mr. Bush had deemed essential: legal immunity for the phone companies that cooperated in the National Security Agency wiretapping program he approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. The vote came two and a half years after public disclosure of the wiretapping program set off a fierce national debate over the balance between protecting the country from another terrorist strike and ensuring civil liberties. The final outcome in Congress, which opponents of the surveillance measure had conceded for weeks, seemed almost anticlimactic in contrast. Mr. Bush, appearing in the Rose Garden just after his return from Japan, called the vote ‘long overdue.’ He promised to sign the measure into law quickly, saying it was critical to national security and showed that ‘even in an election year, we can come together and get important pieces of […]
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category. Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008. The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month. Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month. Just 12% of voters […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
