Ed Martin For Congress » Global Warming

Going Green? Try Greedy for Green

Webmaster — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:06:16 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Theresa Petry, (314) 807-7077

Call to Release All Documents Surrounding $90 Million Stimulus Dollars Allocated for Tom Carnahan’s Wind Farm

(ST. LOUIS, MO.) March 5, 2010 – The National Environmental Scorecard just gave Rep. Russ Carnahan a top score but didn’t delve into his incentive for going green. The public deserves to know and today 3rd district Congressional candidate Ed Martin sent Carnahan a letter requesting he release all documents regarding the $90 million stimulus dollars allocated for his brother’s windmill farm in DeKalb County, Missouri.

“In what reads like a fictional account of nepotism and corruption, Congressman Russ Carnahan voted for a so-called “stimulus” bill that not only did not create jobs in his district but allowed his brother to receive $90 million in taxpayer money for his company to then purchase foreign parts,” said Ed Martin.

Tom Carnahan’s $300 million wind farm “was on hold” Vice President Joe Biden told reporters while visiting a mid-Missouri factory last spring. But Biden went on say thanks to the Federal Economic Recovery Act, “We’re going to get companies like this windmill company to be able to move forward.” Interesting how it all magically changed, after his brother Russ cast his vote for the Federal Stimulus bill.”We never really liked to say it out loud,” said Tom Carnahan, president/founder of Wind Capital Group. “A few months ago, the banks were closed. Banks now have confidence to move forward … The stimulus changed everything.” (St. Joseph News, Alyson E. Raletz, April 17, 2009)

Boy did it! The stimulus funneled $90 million taxpayer’s dollars into Tom Carnahan’s project. The Democratic Policy Committee acknowledged and even touted the earmark stating, “Missouri’s largest wind energy development, funded by the Recovery Act…” (DPC, website Nov. 5, 2009)

So let’s get this straight – A proposed $300 million wind farm couldn’t even get banks to call them back for two years, but then Rep. Russ Carnahan votes to approve the Stimulus bill, and out of the blue his brother’s company is notified it will get $90 million in stimulus funds and now banks are lining up. Hmmm…pardon us for saying so but something seems a bit fishy. Should we conclude that if you need money all it takes is a family member in power?

Constituents of the 3rd district sure aren’t getting any of the windfall. The wind farm isn’t anywhere near them. And now they’re hearing part of their hard earned money given to Tom Carnahan might be going out of the country. There is a lot of controversy clouding windmill projects recently. Several Democrats in the U.S. Senate have voiced concern that the money being doled out to wind farms is in fact not creating American jobs. Senator Charles Schumer put the brakes on several wind farm deals claiming the money received from the stimulus plan for building wind turbines should stay in the US. (Global Association of Risk Professional,Thursday, December 31, 2009)

While Tom Carnahan’s company likes to claim their project “Lost Creek” will use “most” components produced in the United States. Just how much is “most?” Tom himself said in a St. Louis Post Dispatch interview the turbines he has were built in India. “…They build the turbines in India, and now they’re building the blades in Minnesota,” said Tom Carnahan. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 7, 2008)

Maybe Rep. Carnahan will use the excuse he didn’t read the bill and didn’t know his brother would benefit so grandly from it. Are we expected to buy that? Well at least that is a product of the U.S.

Letter RE: Wind Projects (Acrobat)

For more information about Martin’s background and the campaign, visit EdMartinforCongress.com, or follow him on Facebook and Twitter @ed4congress.

Paid for by “Ed Martin for Congress”
Randy McArthur, Treasurer

Theresa Petry
Press Secretary
“Ed Martin for Congress”
(314) 807-7077 (cell)

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www.edmartinforcongress.com

MO Wind Farm Floating on Taxpayer Breeze

Webmaster — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:16:01 +0000

I sincerely hope that the wind farm being built in DeKalb County, Mo., works out. The $300 million project slated to begin next year is supposed to bring 2,500 jobs to that area and generate enough power for 50,000 homes.

From a conservationist’s viewpoint, generating electricity with minimal environmental consequences is a good thing – a very good thing. However, every alternative source of power generation has to stand on its own two feet economically. The fact that this project is seeking a $90 million aid package from the federal Stimulus bill is sufficient reason to make you wonder. Requiring nearly one-third of the project’s budget from taxpayers already groaning under mountains of debt and evaporating jobs is a very bad sign.

Many people will understandably justify the government’s involvement based on concerns about global warming. But how valid are those concerns? Climategate demonstrates that the scientists giving politicians like Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi and Russ Carnahan a thin veneer of legitimacy were in reality cooking the books, torturing data until it confessed to what they wanted to hear. With global warming skeptics vindicated, how do we justify shoveling nearly $100 million of taxpayer money into a wind farm?

According the Business Journal, Tom Carnahan’s company has secured $240 million in loans for a $300 million project. For whatever reason, these lenders and investors do not believe in the project enough to cover the entire note. Why not? What do the guys putting up their own money – or the money of investors – know about the project that says “we are only in for 80 percent” ?

That sounds suspiciously like they expect a 20-percent down payment from Tom Carnahan’s company. Is this what the $90 million in our taxes is for? By my math, $90 million from the stimulus bill Missouri Representative Russ Carnahan voted for will cost each Missouri 3^rd district citizen (man woman and child) about $3. Twelve bucks for a family of four may not seem like much, but multiply that by thousands of other projects like this all over the United States. It adds up.

You probably don’t have relatives in Washington who can vote for Cap and Trade legislation to create the need for alternative energy your company hopes to fill. Few of us have a brother who can vote for stimulus bills to cover the costs of filling that need. If we have a bright idea, we have to secure our own money and put it at risk. If we succeed, we reap the benefits. If we fail, we lose our investment.

This looks like a classic example of a politically connected business hoping to reap all the benefits without taking any of the risks, instead putting taxpayers on the hook. Tom Carnahan and his fellow investors are welcome to build wind farms to their hearts content — I sincerely hope they succeed. But I am weary of private sector businesses going to Uncle Sam with their hand out, and I am sick of politicians accommodating them. If a wind farm in DeKalb County is a good investment, it’s a good investment without a fat wad of taxpayer cash.

Climategate – Global Warming Hucksters Revealed

Webmaster — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:53:42 +0000

I have been reviewing the details of “Climategate,” a story that broke in the last several days. So far, the mainstream media has not been all that interested in the story. I am very interested, however, since anthropomorphic global warming (AGW) is a theory that has led to some of the most ridiculous, bloated, job-killing, taxpayer-robbing legislation in our nation’s history.

At the center of the scandal is the Climate Research Unit (CRU), a government-funded group of “scientists” in the United Kingdom whose “research” informs such climate change luminaries as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. These and a lengthy list of celebrities, politicians and various environmental groups have been agitating for drastic measures to be taken to reduce greenhouse gasses.

I have been skeptical of these apocalyptic claims for some time. Global warming alarmists fly around the world in private jets and drive to meetings in limousines to warn us that we have to reduce our carbon footprint. They encourage us to buy carbon credits from companies they coincidentally own. They create cap and trade legislation that will coincidentally benefit companies from whom they get campaign contributions. To my eyes, they have more in common with a 1970s televangelist than someone who really believes in this gospel of environmental salvation.

Now it turns out that emails published from the CRU validate what I have long suspected – the foundational texts of the Church of Global Warming are based on nothing more than scientific fraud. But unlike a real church, this church has been getting billions in government grant money, and its efforts have led to legislation that has and will cost untold billions more, not to mention a bureaucratic stranglehold on jobs in the United States.

There is so much to say about this, and I plan to say it. Stay tuned as I continue to monitor the fallout from these revelations.

We have to hold people accountable for this fraud. Given the enormous investment in time, money and prestige behind climate alarmism, it will take a lot of effort to unpry their fingers from our pockets.