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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
844 - Economies and elections around Rocky Mountain region
“With the stock market in turmoil, I now refer to my retirement account as my 201 (k) since it is half what it once was.” – a retiree’s complaint.
Although the politics encountered during a recent road trip around the region was very interesting, taking the temperature of the local economies was perhaps even more fascinating.
Awhile back, I wrote that Wyoming’s economy seems to be counter-intuitive to the rest of the country. It seems that when Wyoming’s economy is good, the USA economy goes down and when the rest of the USA is up, then Wyoming goes down.
With what is happening across our great country we can only hope that this counter-cyclical theory is true.
Since Wyoming is such a commodities-based economy, it can only be hoped that prices stay somewhat stable to protect our jobs and our severance tax basis.
Who would have guessed that a barrel of oil would be cut in half in just four months? After paying over $4 per gallon for gas in July, we would pay $2.29 per gallon this week?
Oil, of course, is an energy commodity and the bottom has fallen out of its price strucure. Coal, natural gas and uranium prices are also dropping, but not quite so severe.
For one, speculators had artificially inflated the oil price – the same crowd that wrecked Wall Street.
As I traveled around, it was easy to gauge what was happening in our region.
As a member of a regional board from Wyoming, Montana and Alaska, it was good news to hear at a meeting in Helena, MT, that folks from all three states see their economies as doing well.
Montana has a $1 billion surplus and Alaska has been piling up the money for years. Wyoming is anticipating a $1.5 billion surplus for the upcoming biennium.
Down south in Denver, my brother who is in the window contracting business drove me by six spec homes priced at over a million bucks apiece, where the contractors are being wiped out because of interest payments.
In Montrose, CO, the local newspaper publisher Steve Woody, said overall, his town is doing well.
One month ago we were in Iowa and, frankly, have never seen that economy so robust. The farmers are all millionaires and local manufacturing is booming.
Two weeks ago I attended a Seasonality Summit in Cody, organized by the Yellowstone Business Partnership. Big topic was coordinating tourism, road construction projects and mass transit involving Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
The conference was a great first start but the collapse of the national economy was not mentioned because it was hours away from happening.
Now looking back at that meeting, someone probably needed to mention that Americans have driven 50 billion miles less than just one year ago. Drivers traveled 15 billion miles less just in the month of August this year compared to August 2007.
This is an amazing trend that will have huge effects of tourism, fuel taxes for road repairs and how fast our infrastructure will be declining.
Enough on the economy.
This column is scheduled for print a few days before the election. Two things caught my eye recently.
• First was Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s endorsement of Democrat Gary Trauner for the U. S. House, which included quite a rebuke to Republican Cynthia Lummis.
He chided her for claiming she had anything to do with increases in Wyoming’s investments while State Treasurer. He said:
“It`s the same thing in another of the ads that talks about during her tenure, she developed $5 billion in state money. The truth is, anyone can take credit for that. I can take credit for that and the Legislature can take credit.
“Real reason that money exists is the way that this economy has been over the last six years. I (could) make a persuasive argument that it all happened because I was elected Governor.
“We need to be realistic about what we say. As politicians, we shouldn`t believe our own press releases. The reason this state is prosperous and the reason we have the money that`s available, is not by virtue of somebody who was in office, whether they were Governor or Treasurer, but by virtue of the fortuitous circumstances of this state`s economy.”
• My second thought is of the amazing crowds Barack Obama turned out in Colorado a week ago – 100,000 in Denver and 45,000 in Fort Collins.
Most said they wanted to see “our next president” in action. Hard to argue with that logic.
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
WBR03 - The most imortant power in the future is will power
In any discussion about power, it appears the most important type of power in the near future could be “will power.”
While the people of America are embracing the concepts of global warming, do they have the will to change their lifestyles, as part of a way to deal with it?
What does this mean to Wyoming?
The widespread concern over the environment means we will see many situations like that in Texas where buyers of a huge utility company cancelled the construction of eight coal fired power plants in the face of intense environmental opposition.
This decision will negatively affect upwards of 7 percent of the coal produced in Wyoming in the next 10 years. That coal had been destined for these new TXU plants.
Out west, the state of California has gained world wide positive publicity because they say they will not buy electricity that is generated by coal fired plants in places like Wyoming.
On the surface, you would think both of these headline-grabbing events would bode bad news for Wyoming’s energy-driven economy.
This comes under the question of the “ideal” versus the “real.”
We all want a cleaner environment. It is easy to support efforts to develop clean coal technology. Wyoming has a 300-year supply of low sulphur coal. We are the Saudi Arabia of the world when it comes to coal.
But is Wyoming’s coal business threatened by these big national decisions concerning a turn away from conventional coal-fired power plants?
Oddly, the reason there have been so many new plants on the drawing board is the public’s insatiable thirst for more energy for their computers, air conditioners and other devices. Yet the public outcry against pollution has caused the construction of some 75 coal fired plants to be stopped or suspended in our country.
When you look at the projections for power demands in the USA, the line on the graph keeps going up. There is no anticipated decline in the demand for power anywhere in the country.
Both California and Texas are among the fastest-growing and largest economies in the USA. Both states have economies that are the size of other medium sized countries around the world.
Even with the current economic slowdown, the demand for electricity continues to rise.
My question is one of will.
Do the people of American (including Texas and California) have the will to change their lifestyles so that global warming, which is apparently caused by pollution, is curtailed?
Politicians, business leaders and concerned citizens are all happy to see the headlines from places like California and Texas. But it all begs the question:
How will they feel when the power goes off?
What happens when blackouts and brownouts occur in these states? What will happen when the computers go off because there is no power? This will happen in Wyoming, too.
Unfortunately, most American citizens just think that electricity comes from the socket in the wall. They do not realize that there is a coal-fired power plant somewhere in the intermountain west that is churning out megawatts, which are then transported a thousand miles and then funneled to each home.
So what happens when there are shortages?
Much of our power grid is getting outdated. What happens if there is a failure on the power lines?
Here in our state, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Sierra Club filed suit against the Jim Bridger Plant in Rock Springs for coal pollutants. What happens if that plant’s capacity is curtailed as a result of dealing with the pollution?
Out in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can stand before his minions and brag about how his state is changing the country with their “green” initiatives.
On the other side is Texas Gov. Rick Perry who tried to get those new coal-fired power plants in his state fast tracked. He wanted all of them approved in just six months, which was incredible. If he was prescient, his state will endure brownouts sooner rather than later.
` Interesting, both Perry and Schwarzenegger are Republicans.
And as citizens of this country struggle with pollution, both in the ideal and the real, perhaps the real culprit is farther west. Way farther west.
China is building a new coal fired power plant every 14 days big enough to power a city the size of San Diego. That country has vast amounts of coal and intends to build 2,000 new plants in the next 23 years.
All that smoke and pollution from China heads west into the atmosphere. Is that what is polluting our skies in this country and causing global warming?
As the world’s fastest-growing economy, its citizens are even more demanding than Americans in wanting and needing a secure source of electricity.
So when we ask if Americans have the will to turn down the power, can we also ask, what about citizens of other countries, too?
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Saturday, October 25, 2008
WCR03 - Loneliness can be a difficult burden for clergy
Back in the early-1970s, my wife Nancy and I were a team couple in the Marriage Encounter movement here in Wyoming. It was a great experience for us.
It was so long ago that Ed and Pat McCarthy of Casper were our training couple. We were all just kids back then.
As part of our training, it was emphasized that our priests can get lonely and it was important to reach out to them. We did then and we do now. And it has been rewarding.
Our priests operate within the larger family of the parish and the church, itself, but they often are lonely and alone.
Not all priests are naturally outgoing. Probably a third are. Another third do okay and that other third, well, they can often lead pretty lonely lives.
Over the years, we reached out to all kinds of clergy. And we found that although it was always nice to invite them to our home or take them out to dinner somewhere, often they would enjoy other things, too.
Maybe a trip to the mountains? Or Yellowstone? Or swimming. Or a community event? One of our priest friends had a bad back and some times would show up and want to soak in our hot tub.
Another priest noticed the photos of relatives on our refrigerator. He asked if we could put a photo of him up there, too? We were glad to do that little gesture which gave him a sense of belonging to our family.
My friend Jennifer Knight (formerly of Sheridan and Laramie) recently joined a sisterhood where she works in Catholic organizations. She offered this important information:
“The clergy are a bit like movie stars. Everyone hesitates to ask them to do stuff because they erroneously believe that EVERYONE is asking them out. This is especially hard when the clergy has no family within driving distance.
"Most religious love to eat. They love to be asked to dinner, either at home or at a restaurant. There is an issue with perception and the opposite sex thing (or even same sex) - so groups of three or more (like couples and the priest) are considered safest.
“Nearly every religious I know plays golf and they love to get the chance to play. The nuns can`t afford golf memberships so they`re especially grateful. In Wyoming, a few are more athletic but most not so much. That limits the amount of time they spend hiking, or kayaking but the invitations are always appreciated.
“The most important thing to do for our priests and religious is to remind them they are appreciated.
"We may not always or even frequently agree with how they do things but most priests spend an awful lot of time defending themselves against naysayers. Homilies are slept through and visits to hospitals, nursing homes and the jail are forgotten.
"Couples get married and forget to invite the celebrant to the reception. Couples get annulled and never send the sister or the priest who helped them even a thank you, much less $25 or flowers or a gift certificate.
"Holidays come and go and people always assume the sisters and the priests have somewhere to go. I can`t tell you how lonely these times are for the folks out in the mission field.
"People remember their pastors at Christmas with cards but the rest of the year they are not only forgotten but they spend too much time dodging personal bullets from the parish cliques who think their pastor is an idiot or the antichrist.
"Of the sisters, most people are quite kind to them at Mass and on the street but they are otherwise simply forgotten.
"As I re-read this, I don`t think it was necessarily helpful, but I just know so many lonely priests and nuns.”
Thank you, Jen, and I hope readers will make a renewed effort to reach out to our clergy here in Wyoming.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
843 - End nears for the longest political season ever
As we head in the final stretch of the longest political season in our nation’s history it is hard to find anyone who isn’t ready for the final tally.
Can you imagine what these presidential candidates are thinking after what they have gone through in the recent years?
Barack Obama and John McCain have both been running hard for at least four years. In Sen. McCain’s case, since 2000.
And although I have not read much about it, can you imagine how each of these candidates is pondering the country they want to lead, compared to what they thought they would govern when they started down this road?
Especially in Sen. Obama’s case, here is an idealist who truly has grand ideas for our country. This young man wants universal health insurance, innovative new education possibilities for our youth and extensive retraining for laid off workers.
But now, where is the money to do these projects? President Bush and the current Congress have spent more money for financial bailouts than any country in history in such a short period of time. It may take a decade to pay off the bills that have been committed.
We have been traveling this past week and found unique mindsets in the three western states that were interesting.
In Colorado, there is quite a groundswell for Sen. Obama and the Denver Post endorsed the young senator last Sunday. But out west in Montrose where we were visiting our daughter and family, the feelings seemed different. There, we were in McCain-Palin land.
The day I left, 10,000 people gathered in neighboring Grand Junction to hear Veep candidate Gov. Sarah Palin.
In Montana, the board meeting I was at was mainly a McCain crowd including an Alaskan who is a huge booster of Sarah. A crusty sort, Bruce Pozzi of Anchorage says she has true leadership skills and in his words, “is the real deal.”
A big campaign issue that developed in Montana was the accusation that the GOP governor challenger Roy Brown was a vegetarian. He angrily denied it but it has been dogging him in a state that has almost more cattle than people.
Here in Wyoming, an outspoken oilfield worker in Natrona County told USA Today that he “would not want to see a black man as president.” Sure gives the Equality State a bad image.
My guess is that Montana will go for McCain-Palin and Colorado will favor Obama-Biden. Wyoming, of course, will support McCain-Palin more than any other state.
Also here in Wyoming, Democrat Gary Trauner will probably come up short in his race for the U. S. House against former State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis. Mr. Trauner reflects Wyoming values much more than his detractors would like you to think. As stated here before, he would have way more influence in D. C. than his competitor if he could just get elected.
Mr. Trauner may get a boost if Sen. Obama can galvanize enough Wyoming voters, perhaps there may be some coattails.
A bigger factor would be if Mr. Trauner emulated our Democrat Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who has managed to get elected twice. If Mr. Trauner had followed the governor’s example better (more newspaper ads and less TV, for example), the chance that he would win would be better.
In some ways, Cynthia is Wyoming’s Hillary Clinton, speaking only in gender terms and in reference to long-time political ambitions.
If elected to Congress this time, I would fully expect her to be a serious candidate for governor in two years. Way back when, she was one of the youngest legislators ever elected, heading to the Cheyenne sessions when she was just 24 years old.
She has been a fixture in our state government almost constantly ever since and has made a lot of friends and a few enemies, too.
My favorites going into the election are McCain-Palin for president and I am hoping that Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso get reelected. Gary Trauner deserves a chance for U. S. House and the two statewide ballot measures should be approved.
Here in Fremont County voters are pondering over $60 million in new sales tax projects for building college buildings, a recreation center in Riverton, a huge county fair project in Riverton and improvements like streets and water projects in towns across this vast county. The results will be interesting to see if voters will favor these projects despite the current national economic trials and tribulations.
Most importantly, please vote on Nov. 4.
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
842 - How would an Obama presidency affect Wyoming?
With the 2008 presidential election just over two weeks away, Wyoming citizens need to confront the reality of what the election of Barack Obama could mean to our state.
A majority of voters here will support the Republican John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket. But on a national level, it looks like the Democrat ticket of Senators Obama and Joe Biden will prevail on Nov. 4.
After eight Republican years that arguably benefited Wyoming’s economy (and really benefited the international energy companies that work here), the potential for difficult times is real.
As the flagging national economy pushes America toward a more top-heavy central government model, states that covet personal independence will themselves dealing with regulations that are not very palatable.
Whoever the next president is, he will have to deal with a minimum of three gigantic crises:
• First will be the economy. Nobody knows what will happen in the next four years except that inflation will be rampant and government will stick its nose into everything involved with money. Wyoming’s robust economy could see a downturn as commodity prices plunge during an Obama presidency.
• Second will be the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Candidate Obama says he can end them but will be under terrific pressure to do it right. It is oh, so obvious that a real source of money for rebuilding the economy can come from cutting our defense budget, which is half that of all the other countries in the world combined.
• Third will be upcoming energy shortage crisis. And that will strike close to home. National Democrat leaders have embraced Al Gore’s global warming scare, which will cause this crisis. It will bring the next president to his knees.
This disaster will be the blackouts and brownouts in the national electricity power grid.
Next summer, it is predicted the power will go out in cities like Dallas and New York City, as generating plants will not be able to keep up with the electrical demand to provide air conditioning.
People will feel like they are melting. And their tempers will be short. Although the recently resolved financial crisis is a far bigger deal, these power outages will affect millions of citizens directly. A lack of power to run air conditioners will drive everyone crazy. And the results will not be pretty.
The Obama-Biden team will promote conservation and renewable energy like wind and solar. Nobody can argue with that, but it will take decades to catch up to the loss of the proposed coal plants that were on the drawing boards but never built.
The plans for wind and solar will benefit Wyoming. All this will take longer to affect the state in a positive financial way than coal development.
People will react decisively to the loss of their electrical power. The new president will take that heat.
So as the power goes off and the air conditioners quit working, well, if President Obama does not deal with that, he will be a one-term wonder.
And there are other big issues.
GOP candidate McCain claims that Democrat Obama has one trillion dollars in projects to implement, especially in health care and education.
It is easy to agree with Democrat Obama on health insurance. It is nuts that this country does not provide universal insurance.
But after the $800 billion bailout and more bailouts on the horizon, President Obama will not find the money he needs to fund these projects.
He will hopefully stop the wars in a prudent way but the money saved will not come until late 2010, halfway through his presidency.
A Democratic controlled Congress and White House may not bode well for a small rich state with few people, most of whom are Republicans.
Our Senators and Representative will need to learn to work with Democrats. Senior Sen. Mike Enzi is a master at this and maybe he can teach this style to his fellow GOPer Sen. John Barrasso and the expected winner of the House race, Cynthia Lummis.
As partisan as she is, it is doubtful Ms. Lummis could be very effective in such a Democrat world. Wyoming voters should take a serious look at sending Gary Trauner back to D. C.
With a President Obama, Mr. Trauner could be our most influential representative because of his party affiliation.
On a grand scale, the country (and even Wyoming) will no doubt survive the programs of a President Obama. No matter who is elected, though, it could be anticipated that our lives be different.
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
841 - Welcome to the "new" 24/7 work week
This column is being written in September in the cabin of our boat. We are on Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which is half in Wyoming and Utah. It is 300 feet deep, 91 miles long and offers up incredible scenery and fishing.
If this lake is so great, why am I working right now?
Because in today’s world, most successful business people are on call 24/7 because of the Internet, laptop computers, virtual offices, cell phones and, most of all, the speed of modern business.
Today, the boss who works his or her 35 to 50 hours a week in the office and then goes home Friday afternoon and never thinks about business again is rare, indeed.
Seems like I have always worked 24/7, but it was a lot different back in the 20th century.
As a 24-year old newspaper publisher in Lander in the 1970s with three young kids, I was already working this 24/7 system, albeit without a laptop or a cell phone.
Because I was in the news business, we often packed up the brood and off we would go on assignment. We tried to make a family adventure out of whatever event our newspaper was trying to cover.
My wife Nancy, who has mercifully put up with me for 42 years, usually enjoyed these trips. She saw so little of me (well, at least enough to ultimately produce four kids!), she really appreciated the chance to speak to an adult once in awhile.
I still feel guilty about not spending enough time with our kids, especially the three oldest during their formative years.
They have all consoled me by claiming they really enjoyed all these oddball trips and jaunts.
So, how has all this evolved to today?
In my case, I still operate a couple of businesses and serve on a number of boards and am involved in several church, civic and charity projects.
The people who deal with me know that I am pretty much available any time. Only thing off-limits is the direct phone call after hours.
I have also learned that email and text messaging seem to work best in today’s “connected” world.
Technology is constantly evolving. As my friend’s 16-year old daughter said to her dad: “Email is so 2006!” Today, the cell phone is the tool for everything and texting is the rage, even for execs.
We went to the lake in July with 14 members of our brood. Our son-in-law from Dallas set up his laptop on the roof of a floating motel room called a boatel and worked on a $400 million project for his French cell phone company employer.
We snapped a photo of him sitting there, with the lake and the boats in the background. He had a big towel over his head and laptop so he could get the work done out there in the sun.
From where my boat sits in its slip, we can look across the way at a boat with the name Home Office on it. My boat is named Yachta Relax, which describes our primary intent with it.
My friends over there use their laptops, cell phones and the Internet to conduct their business interests from the lake. To quote them: “Our customers and colleagues don’t know we are on a boat or dressed in swimsuits. And we get a lot done.”
Our daughter, Shelli Johnson, created yellowstonepark.com, a company that got 40 million Internet hits last year and twice has been presented the Webby for being the world’s best tourism web site. She has three kids, including a one-year old, but I get text messages and emails from her at all hours every day. This is the world of the modern business exec.
She also says the term 24/7 is old news. She says her generation is used to this kind of life and it just takes baby boomers a little longer to catch up. And here I am trying to show off how techno-savvy I am. Ouch.
So, is this 24/7 work plan something we should celebrate? Or complain about?
My vote is that these modern tools allow us to be places we want to be (the lake) and with people we want to be with (our families). And still be able to respond to situations and get work done.
Oh, did I mention that while I am writing this, it is pouring rain? Could not go boating or fishing, anyway, so, what the heck. Might as well be working.
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WCR02 - That old twisted tree . . . and me
There was a twisted, ugly bushy tree in our back yard. It was next to Big Dickinson Creek and had all kinds of limbs that had shot out in all directions.
In a word, it was a tangle.
I found some real lessons of life as exemplified in that ratty old tree. Especially during October, which is breast cancer awareness month.
We hired some guys to help clear out that brushy area one fall and one of them attacked that messy tree with a relish. He came to me with a big smile on his face to tell me that he had trimmed it up but had not eliminated it entirely.
Instead, he demonstrated how he had found two strong limbs pushing upwards. He had trimmed away all the rest and there standing proudly were two vertical limbs of this tree.
As I touched the limbs it became obvious they had twisted together and seemed to almost be holding each other up. I thanked the guy for his good work and watched that tree bloom over the next year as it really grew over the following summer.
By fall, the two trees were standing tall. Then we got one of Lander’s rare windstorms. This one wasn’t a real cyclone but maybe 40 miles per hour. When I next looked at that tree, it looked remarkably different.
Now, just one limb stood tall.
The other was drooping. It was leaning over so much, perhaps it was broken? I got out my small chain saw and decided that this would be best for the lone standing tree if we got rid of this other weak tree and left it alone.
Then another thought struck me. Perhaps the wind had just untangled the trees? All along they needed each other to stand tall like that.
I pushed the weak tree back up beside its mate and took the belt out of my jeans and wrapped it around the two trees so they were, once again, bound together.
After stepping back and looking at my handiwork, it again looked splendid. The two parts together made a much more handsome tree than the one lonely limb could have looked.
We watched that tree over the next few months and it just grew stronger and stronger. The limbs became fully entangled with each other again.
As I looked at that tree, was there some symbolism that people can use in their own lives?
In this case, out of all the different branches, two emerged on that one day. They were already relying on each other to stand up strong.
Perhaps this is how a man and a woman can come together and become one from their varied roots. But sometimes things can go wrong with one partner or the other. It can be a physical or mental ailment or any of many different things.
Perhaps this is how married couples can live a long life together. When one is weak and falling down, the other holds it up as long as it can. And when it finally can’t hold on any longer, maybe an outside force in our case, the Good Lord and his blessings comes along to help them stay together. And in the end, they are standing tall together for a long, long time.
These tangled limbs are standing just outside my home office window. I look out there a lot and see a strong tree.
And when I think of how strong my wife Nancy always was in our marriage – there is no doubt she held me up all these years. And in the fall of 1999, when she was struck hard with breast cancer, I was at her side, holding her up during her difficult time.
Now she is fine and we are standing together stronger than ever.
There is a lesson in that old twisted tree. I think I understand.
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
840 - Coal has replaced nuclear as energy`s bad boy
When it comes to natural resources to provide electricity, two of the major sources have seen a real flip-flop in the past eight years.
Nuclear power was considered dangerous and impossible to safely monitor last century. It was considered so dangerous, the USA has not had a new nuclear plant for 30 years.
Coal, meanwhile, has become the dominant source of energy for generating electricity. It is cheap and plentiful. There are hundreds of coal-fired plants.
But that was then. This is now.
My, how things have changed.
During and in the aftermath of the first presidential debate, both candidates touted nuclear as the power for the future. Republican John McCain promoted it and Democrat Barack Obama agreed.
Sen. Obama, who comes from coal-producing Illinois, has often pushed for clean coal. No mention of that during this exchange, though.
Wyoming has abundant coal and uranium. It is the leading producer of coal in the country. Our state also has vast amounts of uranium, the principle ingredient for generating electricity in a nuclear plant.
Coal-fired plants provide over 50 percent of the electricity generated in America. This will not change in the near future, although the canceling of more than 75 such plants in the last 18 months certainly does not bode well for growth in the coal mining industry. And it will mean that most parts of the country, including here in Wyoming, could soon be seeing power outages, as demand rises and supply dwindles.
As an aside to the discussion of nuclear versus coal for power, Green Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader made an interesting comment earlier this summer.
To his credit, Mr. Nader made this claim in Cheyenne when he contended that in the future, people would look back at our coal-fired plants and all the evil emissions they emit, as crimes against humanity.
This comment drew the ire of State Legislator Dave Miller (R-Riverton), who offered up a contrasting point of view:
“I have to comment on Mr. Antinuclear and his statement about burning coal as crimes against humanity. It is more than ironic than he now blames coal.
“Mr. Nader was a founder of the original anti-nuclear movement. His movement resulted in not completing nearly 150 nuclear power plants. Some 250 were ordered in the 1970s of which 109 were completed and 104 operate now producing 20 percent of our electricity.
“I believe Mr. Nader should be the first war criminal we bring up for trial.
“Why? In 1970 the USA burned some 500 million tons of coal per year. Now we burn 1,100 million tons of coal per year. The 600-million ton increase is exactly the amount of coal necessary to replace the 150 nuclear power plants he and his disciples managed to get cancelled.”
Rep. Miller has some other ideas he likes to talk about.
It appears that Rep. Miller and this writer are the only two people in Wyoming touting a financial rebate to our citizens. Both plans look similar to Gov. Sarah Palin’s efforts in Alaska to tap into some of a state’s energy severance tax revenues as a way to help reimburse its citizens for high individual energy bills.
Rep. Miller says: “I will introduce my energy share the wealth bill yet again. However by the time we are down there I am not sure we will have a surplus. What goes up does come down.
“I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone talking about our new energy paradigm with strong high energy prices for the next 10 years and longer. It’s not going to happen.”
When the stock market went into freefall last Monday with the biggest drop ever, the price of a barrel of oil went down $10. This adds credibility to Rep. Miller’s opinion. He concludes:
“I do hope our leaders in Washington reconsider all the bailouts and tax increases. As I recall, it started a revolution a few hundred years ago based on taxation. Those that pay and produce will not produce for long with high taxes.”
Could we possibly live in more interesting times?
Try to imagine how hard it would be for a presidential campaign to stay on top of all of this? It has been fascinating to watch Senators Obama and McCain wrestle with this ever-changing target.
Perhaps Sen. McCain did not realize just how prophetic he was in his acceptance speech when he warned the “big money, big spenders on Wall Street” when he said “change is coming.”
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