Constitution, Shmonstitution

Recently, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission signed a deal with Chesapeake Energy Corp. to drill on 11,500 acres of land. The five year deal provides the Commission $29.5 million with the option to renegotiate when the lease ends. The Commission, about as independent as an agency can get from the state government, has already been generous enough to share that money with the Oil and Gas Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality.

I may not be to fond of the Game & Fish Commission but they are entitled to spend the money as they will to improve the "Natural State."

However, Governor Beebe has demanded that the money be turned over to the state and be dolled out to many agencies that may not spend this money on wildlife/environmental protection.

In the article, Beebe even stated that he was willing to change the constitution amendments to get his way.

The big article can be found in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette for Wednesday July 30th and to smaller articles can be found here and here.

WTF?

So, if I were to ask you what you thought the letters NGR meant what would you say? Had this article not been pointed out to me, I would have thought it was an abbreviation of the Country Niger, or even worse, absolutely nothing. Abbreviations can mean anything our imaginations want them to mean.

I guess we can say goodbye to WTF (as South Carolina just did) MLF, GFD, FTW (5th definition), BLK, WHT, RED, YLW, etc. See, even I can make some normal letters to mean something wrong.

At least people support causes of such great importance. Especially these people

Power to the States

Texas approved a multi-billion dollar energy project to upgrade their power grid. This will help get electricity from the wind turbines to all corners of the state. This will be the main problem in the years to come and Texas has stepped up to the plate to get the ball moving.

Also, Even if T. Boone Pickens' plan doesn't work like he plans, he is pushing this country in the right direction.

Texas has been the Oil state for decades, now they will become the Wind state.

ManBearPig?

I may give Al Gore a lot of crap and I may not agree with his global warming theories, but I cannot disagree with him on switching to renewable sources of energy. I don't see us becoming 100% renewable in 10 years, but every bit counts. He also brings up a good point about state of the U.S. power grid,which I'm sure articles will be popping up about that in a few days. Check out his Generational Challenge to Repower America.

Maybe this guy should just lobby congress for help.

As expected, here is the response to Boone Pickens' plan for reducing oil imports (see below). I still support this plan, and I don't see how you can knock it unless you've got a better idea. Even if wind power doesn't fully replace natural gas, its still frees up resources at home to replace imports.

Begging from the tarmac.

So, over a dozen airline companies signed a letter sent to frequent fliers asking them to contact Washington and tell them that something must be done to curb oil speculation. I'm not sure which is worse, the airlines begging for help, or the fact that they are asking us to beg those folks on Capitol Hill

And even worse, Southwest Airlines is one of the signers. Its disappointing considering how much I've talked them up in a couple papers a few years back.

Funding the Wind Belt

We should never expect the U.S. Government to solve all our problems. Boone Pickens feels the same way. Although his idea may not be perfect, he is on the right track. I don't expect the U.S. to change overnight. I know me and my Tahoe can't, but every step we take is in the right direction.

I caught the tail end of his interview this morning on CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Then, this evening, I found an article he wrote for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday morning talking about his plan.

Although he won't admit to the money he is investing, he's spending at least $10 million on ad campaigns that began airing Tuesday. I'd bet he's putting up over $250 million.

"Hold on a second Jared..."

Larry Kudlow is a brilliant man that I don't always agree with, and his "Drill, Drill, Drill" message, no matter how right he is, is starting to get annoying (anyone who watched CNBC this morning will know what I'm talking about). But I digress. He posted a nice little piece on his blog today that sums up McCain's latest two speeches. I'm glad McCain is finally figuring out this whole economic voodoo/witchcraft thing.

Speculation

Since it is an election year, Congress will do anything short of declaring all out war on any issue in hopes of gaining more votes. Most recently, their target has been oil speculation. Even the economically challenged candidates, Obama and McCain, have thrown their dunce hats into the mix. This "scapegoat" mentality needs to end.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143786

A former teacher of mine, Jeffery Collins, now in the private sector, wrote a nice little bit about economics and the real world in the latest Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. Go take a look and see if you're part of the guilty crew.

Business sense for McCain?

Over at Politico.com there's an article mentioning the new buzz around McCain's VP choice. We can only hope that this decision will help him tune in his economic policy

Go check it out here