N.H. Republicans Aim to Divert RGGI Funds with Koch-Backed Bill. - Granite Grok

N.H. Republicans Aim to Divert RGGI Funds with Koch-Backed Bill.

MoneyI was poking around the internet when I stumbled across a Feb. 2015 article on ClimateWire about New Hampshire’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is a multi-state coalition that forces power producers to buy credits based on emissions. They then pass that cost on to ratepayers (your employer, your family, you) in the form of more expensive electricity.

The title says it all, at least about ClimateWire, N.H. Republicans aim to divert RGGI funds with Koch-backed bill. 

The professional left uses Koch as an expletive which makes ClimateWire appears to be a card-carrying member of the nutty left.

So, what is so awful about this piece of legislation? It sought to give all the RGGI money the power companies were forced to extract back to its original owners. Us.

New Hampshire lawmakers are considering transferring 100 percent of the state’s auction revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative back to ratepayers, as well as eliminating RGGI funding for energy efficiency programs.

The effort is being led by the Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity, which initially called for an outright withdrawal from the regional program. New Hampshire AFP Director Greg Moore said he suggested using 100 percent of auction proceeds for rebates during a committee hearing on the original, broader bill.

The Koch Brothers do fund AFP, but they give millions to a variety of causes. A circumstance that never produces titles like “Koch-Backed millions seeks treatment and cures for Cancer.” I believe it’s hundreds of millions. Or, “Kochtopus helps PBS present Nova” or the “Koch-backed Philharmonic presents it summer schedule of concerts.”

The Koch’s also donate hundreds of millions to bricks and mortar universities every year while Bill and Hillary make tens of millions from Internet universities they then decry as corrupt.

We don’t expect the old media to investigate these contradictions, not on colleges, not on energy. But the topic of energy in New Hampshire came up Saturday when Greg was in-studio as our guest-host. The mission continues to be, refund 100% of the plunder and work to dismantle a program that adds upward price pressure on what are some of the highest electric rates in the nation.

You do it, not (just) to poke a stick in the eye of the greenies and their muscle but because it perpetuates economic growth that benefits employers, employees, and even government.

You can’t have a discussion about job creation (by bringing businesses to the GraniteState) without also addressing high energy prices.

New Hampshire has an excellent quality of life. It is consistently one of the safest and healthiest places to live in America. But past legislatures and mostly Democrat governors have made both health insurance and energy so expensive that moving a business here makes very little sense. The business tax burden does not help matters (and we’ve taken baby steps to improve our image on that point), but when you add high energy and healthcare costs, it becomes increasingly difficult to compete.

In the left’s green-energy economic race to the bottom, New Hampshire appears to have arrived ahead of its neighbors. Democrat ghettoes like Massachusetts seem to have more fertile soil in which to plant a business because New Hampshire’s political class has embraced or defended energy policy (tax and healthcare policy) that has salted the fields.

You undo that damage by making the state more inviting to companies who would hire, train, and pay wages and benefits out of their pockets instead of ours. Removing these handicaps not only creates new revenue but frees up existing revenue for other more useful purposes.

But the policial class, which includes all Democrats and too many Republicans, are convinced they must answer to the interests of national powers and special interests within their own parties before those of their constituents. RGGI fits that model to a tee. It is a shadow tax on energy-use that diverts revenue through a central nexus which sets the rules for redistribution into the hands of politicians who then decide how best to spend it.

According to ClimateWire (all the Democrats and still too many Republicans) giving it back to those that earned it is a mistake. It’s the wrong priority. It sends the wrong message.

So what’s the right message?

They know better. Mandatory tithing to progressive causes under cover of ‘law’ are the new normal. Questioning either their wisdom or benevolence should not be tolerated.

American’s for Prosperity chose small business owners and citizens as their ‘special interest.’ They sided with the wisdom of free markets and individual liberty. And thanks to the Koch brothers, they make it a priority to encourage legislators to give back what the carbon credit shadow-tax plundered from your pockets and pocketbooks.

The people who oppose that sort of thing are not interested in what you want, they are only interested in what they want and are happiest when they can make you pay for it.

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