E!!

Um…  It is 6:07 a.m. and I am still on my first cup of coffee so I had to read parts of this KansasCity.com story twice before I would accept what Red State pointed out in a post in their morning brief.

The state of Missouri is on the verge of charging consumers a hefty fee for the energy they don’t use. Missouri governor Jay Nixon explains, “To save power is the equivalent of making power.”

(Hm.  Where have I heard this “saved” equals  “created” claim before?  Oh yes!  President Obama has repeatedly claimed that the actions of his administration have “saved or created” hundreds of thousands of American jobs.  Got it.)

Anyhoo, here’s the AP reporter’s sum-up of the MO policy in a nutshell:

Though it might seem illogical, the new energy efficiency charge has support from utilities, most lawmakers, the governor, environmentalists and even the state’s official utility consumer advocate. The charge covers the cost of utilities’ efforts to promote energy efficiency and cut power use.

The assumption is that charging consumers for those initiatives ultimately will cost less than charging them to build the new power plants that will be needed if electricity use isn’t curtailed.

May seem illogical?  How about inherently unfair?  Anti-free market?  How about downright criminal?

How about:  if a new power plant is needed based on consumer demand, then you build it and charge for energy accordingly, and if it ain’t, you don’t?  And how about:  if people find ways to use less electricity, you let them keep and enjoy their savings?  Or is that all way too simple and sensible for the MO governor and his pals?

Missouri’s state motto is “Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto,” which means, “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.” If this energy policy passes, they ought to change the word “people” to “energy companies and their bureaucrat friends.”

(And don’t miss the part of the story where one of Missouri’s “popular” energy initiatives was for KCP&L to give consumers “free” thermostats – that can be remotely controlled:

One of the company’s more popular energy-saving initiatives has provided free programmable thermostats to about 34,000 residential customers in Missouri and Kansas. KCP&L can remotely control the devices to reduce the frequency at which air conditioners run during peak demand times. The power company overrode customers’ air conditioners four times last year and twice so far this summer, Caisley said.

Yup.)

We can file this one under Astronomically Expensive and Unnecessary Crap.  And cross file it under New World Order Advocates On Crack.

On June 9, farmers, ranchers, and consumers from more than a dozen organizations will gather in Jefferson City, Missouri to protest NAIS – National Animal Identification System – during a “listening session” organized by the USDA.  Apparently the USDA does not want to take “no” for an answer and is looking for ways to make this program more “palatable” to citizens.  And their cows.

If you are not familiar, NAIS is a three-phase program designed by the USDA and the National Institute for Animal Agriculture to “advance” guidelines for international trade through an agency of the World Trade Organization called the OIE.

NAIS will tag and track movements of 33+ species of animals worldwide. Phase 1 would require all livestock owners to obtain a GPS-linked “Premise ID number” for their property (farm, ranch, homestead, etc.). Phase 2 would require all animals be tagged with an international ID device. Phase 3 would require electronic reporting of all livestock movements on or off a “premises” to enable a trace-back to that premises.

Doreen Hannes, a researcher, author and public speaker, whose family has a small farm and raises much of their own food states, “The design of NAIS is effectively a license to farm. This program would cost us at least $4,000.00 the first year. There is no method for growers to recoup the cost of the program, and the implementation of NAIS will be the destruction of the family farm and rural America. The cost to freedom is simply immeasurable.”

Paul Hamby, NW Missouri coordinator for Campaign for Liberty, states “NAIS will put an undue burden on non-electric Amish farmers, small hobby farmers, 4-H and FFA members while providing no benefit to them. NAIS will not make our food supply safer. I am against this international livestock ID program run by the same federal government who just bought General Motors.”

I don’t think it’s necessary to invoke the “little guy” to object to this program.  No one should be forced to pay to electronically tag their animals so bureaucrats at another slow-moving, over-funded WTO agency can run reports on worldwide livestock movement every time a sheep sneezes in Bangkok.

Besides, in Australia and Canada, where a similar high-tech tracking program has been tried just on cattle, error rates are reported to be high.  Sounds like a database nightmare that could bog down the entire food system.  In addition, the requirements and costs of infrastructure are clearly prejudicial against small producers and local food systems and favor well-funded industrial and global producers and processors.

For more on this and the group Missourians Against NAIS, from whence most of this information came, see here.