If there is one word that describes Rick Perry’s record it is this: jobs:

http://www.rickperry.org/issues/economic-development

Here are the facts:

“Since July 2003, Texas has created more than 1 million net new jobs. In 2008, more than half of the jobs created in the entire nation were created in Texas. In October and November of 2009, Texas gained 70,000 jobs while the nation as a whole lost 122,000 jobs. The Texas Enterprise Fund, the largest job creation fund of its kind in the nation, began under Perry in 2003 and is generating more than 55,000 new jobs and $15 billion in capital investment for Texas.”

So while the rest of the nation has struggled mightily with the recession, Texas is holding its own.  That should count for something when voters go to the polls in November to select a governor.

Today we continue our series on Texas Governor Rick Perry with a look at his
record in office:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=3D351603975156&topic=3D10905

Governor Perry’s record has been largely based on economic development:

“Since July 2003, Texas has created more than 1 million net new jobs. In 2008, more than half of the jobs created in the entire nation were created in Texas.”

This is largely due to the small government, low taxes agenda that Perry has pursued. If elections are about pocketbook issues, and they often are, then Governor Perry has a strong record on which to run. At a time of national economic collapse, Perry is fighting hard to keep Texas’ economy growing. And that’s exactly what it’s doing.

This week we continue our series on the Texas governor’s race by looking at Republican Rick Perry:

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/about/

Perry was born and raised in the small West Texas town of Paint Creek and went onto Texas A&M University. While he was there he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, a junior and senior yell leader and an animal science major. He later served in the United States Air Force before joining the family farming business. Eventually, he ran for and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives…as a Democrat. Then in 1990, he changed parties and challenged popular incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. Perry won and he was soon on his way to becoming Lt. Governor and then Governor.

It’s an impressive electoral record. But as I said last week, more important than who the person is, is what does he believe. We’ll focus on that tomorrow.

Not long after the primary ended in March, Governor Perry let it be known that Bill White’s agenda would be fair game:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=6557

In this email that was sent out to supporters, Perry accused White of the following:

“Bill White as Mayor of Houston: supported gun control; opposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage; made Houston a sanctuary city; left Houston with twice as much debt per capita as California; supports ObamaCare.”

To me, the biggest problem in this list is Obama. By supporting Obamacare, Bill White has left himself open to charges that he is too liberal for Texas. If the race this fall comes down to a referendum on Obama, Bill White will not be the next governor.

Perhaps no issue is more important in an election than taxes. This is where most of us have our greatest interaction with the government. The taxes we pay fund necessary programs. But they also can sometimes fund unnecessary ones.

That’s why it’s important to hear more from Bill White on taxes:

http://www.rickperry.org/release/higher-taxes-texans-hidden-taxes-bill-white

Sadly, Mayor White has yet to do two important things on taxes. First, he has not yet released his own income tax returns (as most candidates for public office do). And second, he has not ruled out the need to raise taxes.

I hope that Mayor White will reconsider his position on these two important issues. Being Texas governor is a privilege that must be earned. And being honest about his taxes and reasonable on our taxes is what Mayor White needs to do.

So who is the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor?

Bill White has an impressive resume. A graduate of Harvard and the University of Texas Law School, he later became a successful trial lawyer. In 1993, he was asked by President Clinton to serve as Deputy Secretary of Energy. In 1995, he returned home to Texas to serve as chairman of the Texas Democratic Party as it tried to opposed the initiatives of Governor George W. Bush.

In 2003, he was elected Mayor of Houston. Perhaps his most important act during his time in office was his skillful handling of the aftermath to Hurricane Rita, for which he was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

Based on his background and experience, White will be a formidable candidate. But more important than who he is what he believes. We’ll discuss that tomorrow.

The campaign for Texas governor is heating up. New polls are out suggested a tight race. And the stakes are high.

For the next two weeks, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the election, the candidates and the issues. We’ll start this week with a look at Democratic nominee Bill White, the former mayor of Houston. Then next week, we’ll look at Rick Perry, the current governor of Texas.

Ronald Reagan said elections are about differences. So we’ll look at these two men, how they are different and what that means for the future of our state.

Logon each day for the next weeks. The race is on!

Another unintended consequence of the new health care law? Paperwork. Lots of more paperwork:

http://www.redstate.com/brianfaughnan/2010/07/11/irs-new-health-care-law-imposes-significant-new-burdens/

To help pay for this massive new bill, the administration is trying to increase the amount of money collected through taxes. And that means you and I better get ready to start filling out lots of new paperwork:

“The new regulations, which kick in at the start of 2012, require any taxpayer with business income to issue 1099 forms to all vendors from whom they purchased more than $600 of goods and services that year. That promises to launch a fusillade of new paperwork: An estimated 40 million taxpayers will be subject to the requirement, including 26 million who run sole proprietorships, according to a report released this week by National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson…”

So health care reform turns out to mean more regulations and more paperwork for the little guy. Another unintended consequence.

Here is another unintended consequence of the new health care law:

http://lifenews.com/nat6531.html

It seems that despite the assurances of the administration, the new law will indeed fund abortions. Here is how:

“The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new “high-risk” insurance program under a provision of the federal health care legislation enacted in March.”

As part of this new Pennsylvania plan, language was written that says “‘elective abortions are not covered,’ though it does not define elective….”

In other words, there will semantic ways of saying that some abortions are not elective and therefore can be paid for.

This is a sad unintended consequence of the new health care law. Although in this case, I’m not sure how unintended it was.

This week our blog will be focusing on the unreported part of the new care law: the law of unintended consequences.

One of the major health care expenses in the federal budget is Medicaid, which is the federal assistance program from the needy. Unfortunately, while Washington was busy passing a health care law that will raise premiums for everyone else, little attention was paid to a cut in the Medicaid reiumbursement rate.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Doctors-Threaten-to-Pull-Out-of-Texas-Medicaid-98202569.html

This is the fee the government pays to doctors who treat the poor. It’s scheduled to take place in September. And doctors in my state aren’t very happy about it:

“A survey by the Texas Medical Association, the state’s largest physicians interest group, showed that 45 percent of its members who responded said they would limit how many Medicaid patients they would treat if the Medicaid fees were cut by 1 or 2 percent, while another 24 percent said they would stop accepting any Medicaid patients.”

It may well be a good idea to reduce the Medicaid fees. But this is a discussion that should have had in public, deliberative process. And that’s not what what we’ve had in Washington lately.

Here is another company that is offering wood chips to help the clean up in the Gulf:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Patriot-Energy-Services-LLC-Offers-Help-in-Gulf-of-Mexico-Clean-Up-1163816.htm

As the president of the company says:

“We have a by-product that comes from our unique process that produces a very small wood chip. These Chips are 1 inch minus in size and very buoyant. My team did some testing and realized when mixed with water and oil, the oil attaches to the surface and is absorbed into the chips themselves therefore diverting hazardous material from plant and marine life.”

While this is good news, it’s only part of the solution. We still need a vehicle that can dry the chips and make them as effective as possible when they go into the water. That’s exactly what the Advanced Trailer does. So what are we waiting on? Lets get started!

Sometimes in life the only option is also the best option. And so it is with the idea of using woodchips to cleanup the oil in the Gulf of Mexico:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/93959229.html

The problem in the Gulf is that nothing else is working. There is simply not a way to get inside the oil booms and sweep up the oil. But woodchips can do that. As the article notes:

“Green Energy said its wood chips would be placed inside the oil booms to absorb and collect oil. The chips would then be skimmed off the surface, delivered to power plants and burned to generate energy.”

What are we waiting on? Let’s use the woodchips to clean up the oil. And let’s use the Advanced Trailer to dry and prepare the chips so that they are the most efficient way to absorb the oil.

So how exactly would wood chips clean up the oil spill in the Gulf?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/woodchip-plan-for-gulf-oil-spill-clean-up-under-technical-review-green-energy-resources-grgr-receives-loi-for-340-million-15-year-woodchip-contract-to-the-uk-2010-05-17

The concept is simple: just like you use a towel to wipe and collect a spill in the kitchen, we could use wood chips to wipe and collect oil in the Gulf:

“…woodchips for the BP gulf oil spill is under ‘technical review’ both in Florida, where Green Energy has been activated to deploy, and in Louisiana at the BP command center overseeing operations….the plan entails utilizing woodchips inside the booms to absorb and collect oil, skim them off the top and deliver them to power plants to be burned as energy.”

Of course, the only problem with wood chips is how to deliver them to the power plants. That’s where the Advanced Trailer enters the picture. Collecting  and transporting large amounts of it is what the Advanced Trailer is all about.

Last week Advanced Trailer announced that it had been asked by BP to submit a proposal for how the trailer might help in the Gulf. Here is how it all started:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/energy/woodchips-bps-gulf-oil-spill-clean-green-energy-resources-grgr-ready-deploy-/

According to this Fox Businss story, BP has been considering using wood chips for some time:

“Woodchips for oil containment is a proven technology listed with the Federal EPA. The woodchips are put inside the containment booms and through their honeycomb cell structure absorb the oil as well as collect it through adhesion. Unlike other technologies, woodchips don’t sink to the bottom (like peat moss) but rather can be collected and skimmed off by idled fishermen that can be employed using their nets to collect the floating woodchips at the surface. The woodchips can then be delivered to some power stations to generate electricity cleanly and efficiently, disposing of the contaminated woodchips without negative environmental impact on land or in landfills.”

And what better vehicle to deliver the chips to powerstations than the Advanced Trailer? We’re ready to go to work right now to help clean up the spill in the Gulf.

Randy Hill, President and CEO of Advanced Trailer, announced today that he has submitted an application to use trailer drying technology to help with the cleanup of the BP oil spill in the Gulf.  The Advanced Trailer would be used to procure (dry) the wood chips in preparation to be used to absorb oil along beaches and shoreline in the Gulf Region. Advanced Trailers could also be a very valuable tool in transporting large amounts of wood chips to various locations in the Gulf region affected by the BP oil disaster. Randy Hill has offered BP free consulting and use of an Advanced Biomass Trailer to test how it can help in the clean up.

“The environment has been one of our primary areas of research and development over the past three years,” Hill said in making the announcement. “This is not something we originally had in mind for drying wood chips in an Advanced Trailer. But I believe I speak for all of our staff, employees and shareholders:  we are happy and willing to do our part helping with cleaning up this horrible mess. Were not just selling a product, were solving problems.”

Earlier this week, BP requested that Advanced Trailer submit an application to help with the clean up process. A number of new technologies are being tried including Kevin Costner’s water separation machine. On Tuesday the ABC affiliate in Dallas, WFAA, reported that BP had ordered mulch wood products from a local company to be bagged and used to absorb oil on beaches and marshes. Advanced Trailer has received national attention for its recent work to remove moisture from woody biomass which is used in steam power plants worldwide. The use of an Advanced Trailer could potentially help lower moisture levels in the wood chips which would prepare them and increase the efficiency and amount of oil the wood will take in.

During the past year, Advanced Trailer has provided funding and equipment to a number of U.S. universities and research centers for the drying of woody biomass products. Research at the University of Idaho using the Advanced Trailer successfully reduced moisture levels from over 80% down to near zero. The dryer the wood the greater its ability to hold more oil.