Today we focus on the impact the BP oil spill is having on wildlife. In a word, the impact is huge:

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-facts

Here are some shocking facts:

“400: Number of wildlife species threatened by the spill. Threatened species include sea life such as whales, tuna and shrimp; dozens of species of birds; land animals such as the gray fox and white-tailed deer; and amphibians such as the alligator and the snapping turtle. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune)

At least 30: Species of birds the Audubon Society says are potentially threatened by the oil spill. These include marsh birds, ocean-dwelling birds and migratory songbirds. All reside in “Important Bird Areas,” according to Audubon, designated because of their “essential habitat value.” Among the most vulnerable species is the brown pelican — the state bird of Louisiana — which was only recently removed from the endangered species list. The spill is especially devastating for bird populations because it coincides with the beginning of breeding season. (Source: Audubon Society)”

Sadly, I fear this is just the beginning of the damage to wildlife. With no end in sight to the oil spill, there is no end in sight to the disaster animals will experience.

Big news in the alternative energy world: Texas Tech is establishing a wind energy institute:

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2010/may/24/tech-announces-wind-energy-institute/

“Texas Tech University has announced it will become the research hub for the newly formed National Institute for Renewable Energy, a wind energy consortium started with financial help from West Texas organizations such as the Development Corporation of Abilene.”

This is a great next step in the development of alternative energy research. We also need to research renewable sources other than wind, like biomass. That’s why I’m here this week at the University of Idaho looking into the research that the university is doing with my Advanced Trailer for Biomass.

I’m excited about what biomass is and what it could mean to our future.

This week I’ll be live blogging from the 2010 Biomass Conference and Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This is the annual event where all the major players in the biomass industry get together and discuss the future. Exhibits will be set up showing all kinds of new applications for biomass. And speakers will discuss the latest developments in energy policy.

Check in each day this week as I live blog from this important conference.

So let me get this straight: the Obama administration is pushing for new regulations on Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and the Securities and Exchange Commission just so happened to file a lawsuit against…Goldman Sachs!

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/obama-denies-link-to-timing-of-s-e-c-case/?hp

Of course, the president assures us there is no reason to be worried:

“The S.E.C. is an entirely independent agency that we have no day-to-day control over. And they never discussed with us anything with respect to the charge that will be brought. So this notion that somehow there would be any attempt to interfere in an independent agency is completely false.”

An entirely independent agency?  Not entirely.  The agency’s leadership is appointed by the president.

Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

This week we’ll be looking at the same issue the president is: financial services regulation. But we’ll be reaching some different conclusions than he has.

Would you believe that the very regulations the president will pitch this week in New York will actually weaken the financial services industry and make bailouts more likely?

Check the blog this week to find out why.

Today we end the week of blogs about health care by talking about one of the biggest tragedies of all in this new law: abortion.

Democrats say the new health care law will not create taxpayer funded abortion. But it will. Here is how: now that everyone will be required to purchase insurance, people will be buying all kinds of plans, including some that cover abortion services. But since many people will not be buying insurance plans with federal subsidies, in effect, the taxpayers are covering their expenses should they ever need an abortion.

The “fix” that Democrats proposed for this was for President Obama to issue an executive order saying that abortions can not be paid for with taxdollars. But executive orders can be changed by any president. A law is a law and can only be changed by an act of Congress.

That’s why I think it’s likely we will see taxpayer funded abortion. And what a shame that is.

16,000.

That’s a number that should scare all Americans. Why? Because that’s the number of new IRS agents that will be hired by the government to enforce the new tax provisions in the Obama health care law. The new law requires every American to purchase health insurance; and any American not purchasing it will be required to pay a fine to the government. To make sure these fines are paid, 16,000 new IRS agents will be on the patrol to collect the money.

This doesn’t make any sense. At a time of economic recession, we should be helping families and small businesses, not taxing them and then punishing them.

Today we continue our series on taxes. More specifically, we continue our conversation about the bad tax policies the Obama administration is pursuing to pay for its health care plan:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35844649/ns/health-health_care/

We’ve talked about this before on the blog, but it’s worth repeating since it’s such an important part of the president’s health care plan. As the article notes, the President:

“is proposing that high-income Americans pay Medicare taxes on the money they make on their investments. Historically, only earned income has been subject to that tax.”

So not only is the President raising taxes to pay for health care, but he’s creating an entirely new tax in that Americans will now pay payroll taxes on investment, something that has never happened before.

Mr. President, let’s stop raising taxes, let’s start over and let’s find a health care plan that works.

One of the reasons that gas prices are going up is that oil is a depleting resource. For decades, we’ve been drilling for oil here in the United States. As a result, we have less of it and more need to rely on foreign oil.

That’s why it’s more important than ever that we look to sources of energy that are here in the US and that are renewable. My favorite example is biomass. Biomass is essentially fueled by burning wood products. And we have plenty of wood products in America. In fact, we will always have plenty of wood products in America.

So why would we import oil from the Middle East when we could generate energy from biomass here in the United States?

This week USA Today ran a front page story about rising gas prices:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2010-03-08-gasoline-prices_N.htm

As the article notes:

“The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is up 9 cents in a month and will likely crack $3 in coming weeks, given a typical spring rally before the summer driving season, oil and gas analysts say.”

This still makes no sense to me. With the economy in a recession, people are driving less and therefore demand is less. So why are prices going up? The reason is because the gas market operates differently than other markets. A foreign oil cartel controls prices.

Isn’t it time we did something about that?

This week, we continue our series on what’s next for President Obama. And the timing couldn’t be better.

President Obama will soon unveil his new budget. I’ve got some ideas on what should and shouldn’t be in there. After all, politics is about money. So the budget is the place to look to see how a president wants to lead and where he wants to go.

Check back in each day this week for more on what President Obama should do next.

What can we expect this year in the world of business? Continued growth in the stock market.

After surpassing 13,000 in 2007, the Dow collapsed in 2008 and is only now making its comeback. But comeback it will continue to do. Yet we should not equate the resurgence of the stock market with successful policies in Washington. We can’t tax our way and spend our way to growth.

Instead, the stock market’s comeback shows that American capitalism is alive and well and can endure any policies from Washington.

Just think how much more the markets would be growing if we would cut taxes and spending.

Remember when the Obama stimulus was going to turn the economy around?  These days, the White House doesn’t even pretend to believe that anymore:

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/1209/stimulus_big_enough_d73b7ad9-b743-4181-92fa-bfb2bcadbe6f.html

As the article notes, the White House now sheepishly says that “we got what we could get” with the stimulus package and that it was the “political load that could be carried.”

What?  So we passed a $787 billion spending bill not because it would work but because it was politically feasible?  No wonder the stimulus hasn’t worked.  It wasn’t designed to work.  Instead it was designed to show the government busy doing something.  But as a great writer once put it, there is a difference between motion and action.  The Obama White House has given us lots of motion and little action.

But here’s the sad part: the White House is talking about doing even more to “stimulate” the economy.  I say “no thanks” to that.  Let’s let entrepeneurs and business leaders lead this economy.  We don’t need anymore of Washington’s “political load.”

Remember when the Obama stimulus was going to turn the economy around?  These days, the White House doesn’t even pretend to believe that anymore:

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/1209/stimulus_big_enough_d73b7ad9-b743-4181-92fa-bfb2bcadbe6f.html

As the article notes, the White House now sheepishly says that “we got what we could get” with the stimulus package and that it was the “political load that could be carried.”

What?  So we passed a $787 billion spending bill not because it would work but because it was politically feasible?  No wonder the stimulus hasn’t worked.  It wasn’t designed to work.  Instead it was designed to show the government busy doing something.  But as a great writer once put it, there is a difference between motion and action.  The Obama White House has given us lots of motion and little action.

But here’s the sad part: the White House is talking about doing even more to “stimulate” the economy.  I say “no thanks” to that.  Let’s let entrepeneurs and business leaders lead this economy.  We don’t need anymore of Washington’s “political load.”

This week we continue our series on what’s in the news.  A few days ago, I blogged about the federal government giving pay raises to its employees while the economy is in a recession.  Well, the story just got even more bizarre:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=428&sid=1838232

Evidently, the federal government can’t get these same employees to pay taxes!  As the article notes:

“Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.”

Incredible.  While the rest of the country is suffering, civil servants are getting a pay raise and yet still can’t pay their taxes!

Today we get into our new blog series on why the economic “recovery” is not as great as the Obama administration is telling us. One example of this is the much heralded news about the Ford Motor Co.:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ford-econ3-2009nov03,0,2381115.story

Here’s what’s interesting about the Ford story: yes, the company reported earnings and even has plans to build more cars. However, notice one key fact:

“But Ford’s strengthening financials underscore the major weakness plaguing the nascent economic recovery. Ford is gearing up to build more vehicles in the U.S. but has no plans to hire more workers to do it.”

That last line should give everyone pause. The GDP may be increasing; but new jobs are not being created. And as long as the unemployment rate remains near 10%, it’s ridiculous for people to declare the recession over. Economic growth means jobs. And until we have jobs, we don’t have economic growth.

Last week we heard the Obama administration essentially announce the recession is over. This week, I’m going to show you why it’s not. And unlike the folks in Washington, I’m going to use facts.

Each day this week, I’ll point to an interesting fact that you probably haven’t read about it that shows that certain key indicators suggest we aren’t out of the woods yet.

So check in each day this week. And prepare yourselves because we’ve got a ways to go before the economy recovers.

So President Obama went to Europe and got some bad news about the Olympics. Now he will return home to get some bad news about the economy:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-Sept-nonfarm-payrolls-rb-589941939.html?x=0&.v=1

Looks like the economy is not only not getting better, it’s getting worse:

“U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the weak labor market could undermine economic recovery. The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since June 1983 and payrolls had now dropped for 21 consecutive months.”

This is an ominous sign.  After hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent and new government programs have been created, we are losing jobs and have the highest unemployment rate in 26 years.

As readers of this blog will remember, I have long predicted this.  This is all part of the business cycle.  We need companies to fail to make room for other companies to succeed.  I think that process is still going on.

So fasten your seatbelts.  We have a bumpy road ahead of us as we try to navigate through these difficult economic times.  Just like the Olympics, an economic recovery won’t be coming to America for a while.