Aug. 20, 2018, Fairfax, Va.–Today, Americans for Limited Government Foundation released a study entitled, “Solar Power Harms Taxpayers and Consumers and Endangers the Reliability of the Grid.” The study points out the problems with solar energy from taxpayer-funded subsidies and increased costs for utility customers to grid reliability concerns.

Solar energy receives heavy federal subsidies that are far more generous than the subsidies for natural gas, coal, or even wind. In addition to federal support, states have also enacted policies to prop up solar power. State renewable energy mandates have encouraged the generation of solar energy. In dozens of states, utility companies are forced to compensate solar panel owners for the excess electricity that they supply to the grid. Those programs are funded by other utility customers.

But in the rush to increase solar power generation, some of the disadvantages of solar power are being overlooked. The intermittency of solar power is a particular problem. This intermittency necessitates the availability of ample backup power plants to ramp up when clouds obscure the sun. Solar power’s intermittency also complicates the job of grid operators to keep the grid adequately supplied with electricity.

The money spent on solar subsidies and new solar plants would be better spent on maintaining and upgrading the creaky, aging grid. After all, huge portions of the grid are at or beyond their expected service life.

“The mandates and incentives to build solar plants and install solar panels have to stop. Taxpayers are being fleeced, working class consumers are subsidizing their wealthier neighbors’ solar panels, and the reliability of the grid is being threatened,” said Richard McCarty, Director of Research at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

“The money being spent to build new solar power plants in remote locations, to connect them to the grid, and to maintain backup power plants would be much better spent on upgrading our aging grid,” said Richard Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government.

Attachments:

“Solar Power Harms Taxpayers and Consumers and Endangers the Reliability of the Grid,” By Richard McCarty, August 17, 2018 at http://algresearch.org/2018/08/solar-power-harms-taxpayers-and-consumers-and-endangers-the-reliability-of-the-grid/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0080 ext. 1003.

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Aug. 20, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to former CIA Director John Brennan’s statement that he would appeal his security clearance revocation: “I am going to do whatever I can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future, and if it means going to court, I will do that”:

“Former CIA Director John Brennan violated the basic code of conduct through his public accusations that the President engaging in diplomacy overseas with Russia was ‘nothing short of treasonous.’ It is clear that Brennan is no longer suited to be trusted with the secrets of the United States, and President Trump was well within his constitutional authority to revoke Brennan’s security clearance.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 14, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in opposition to the S. 3158, the Labor-HHS appropriations bill:

“The Labor-HHS appropriations bill offered in the Senate manages to offer the Labor Department $12.1 billion, $2.7 billion greater than $9.4 billion the Trump administration even requested. Yet, it manages to only give the Office of Labor Management Standards, the only agency that actually polices union corruption, $40.2 million when the Trump administration requested $46.6 million.

“Effectively, the Senate would create the 11^th year of the Obama Administration through its Labor Department funding bill, and it should be voted down.

“Americans for Limited Government Foundation research released last month showed that under the Obama Administration, the Labor Department’s Office of Labor Management Standards, the only agency that actually polices union corruption, conducted more than 200 percent fewer compliance audits to protect union members from corruption, generated 40 percent fewer investigations which resulted in 15 percent fewer convictions.

“It is truly stunning that the so-called GOP Senate would produce a Labor Department funding bill that increases spending by $2.7 billion over what the President requested, but would actually cut the spending in the one area which oversees labor union activity.  Based upon this funding bill, you’d think that Chuck Schumer already was in the Majority Leader’s office.”

Attachments:

“Making the Office of Labor-Management Standards Great Again,” By Don Todd and Richard McCarty, July 26, 2018,  http://algresearch.org/2018/07/test-making-the-office-of-labor-management-standards-great-again/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 13, 2018, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson for revisiting the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation, which is now up for revisions:

“We appreciate the efforts by Secretary Carson to revisit the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation. Congress this year prohibited the use of funds by HUD to compel changes to local zoning via the regulation, and we urge that the revised regulation will comply with the law and remove any mention of zoning mandates as a condition of receiving federal funds. Zoning is one of the most important functions of local government and it was always vast overreach by the Obama administration to attempt to regulate it, which is why Congress stepped in. Now it is time for the Trump administration to enforce the law and remove any zoning mandates from the books.”

Attachments:

Division L, Title II of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, Section 234: “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to direct a grantee to undertake specific changes to existing zoning laws as part of carrying out the final rule entitled ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’ … or the notice entitled ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Assessment Tool’ …” http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180319/BILLS-115SAHR1625-RCP115-66.pdf#page=1729

“Congress has acted, now the Trump administration and HUD must act to rescind the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation,” By Robert Romano, Aug. 13, 2018 at http://algresearch.org/2018/08/congress-has-acted-now-the-trump-administration-and-hud-must-act-to-rescind-affirmatively-furthering-fair-housing-regulation/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 10, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to a report from The Pulse showing federal departments and agency’s have not spent as much as 40 percent of their budgets with only 51 days left in the fiscal year

“It is reported that the federal government is looking to go on a spending binge before the end of the fiscal year on September 30^th to use all of the dollars Congress appropriated this fiscal year.  The Office of Management Budget should swiftly notify every agency that end of year spending will be reviewed and failure to engage in legal and fiscally sound contracting policies will not be tolerated.  It is unacceptable for agencies to simply blow money on vanity projects just because Congress appropriated dollars without strings.  It is up to congressional leadership and the White House to do everything in their power to prevent the end of year wasteful spending extravaganza that is predicted.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 10, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest consumer and producer price numbers:

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that seasonally adjusted prices have only increased by 0.8 percent over the past six months.  Electricity prices dropped 1.9 percent during this six month period, while the cost of shelter increased 1.5 percent.  While the headline number of a 2.9 percent unadjusted increase receives the headlines, the six-month tracking demonstrates that the economic growth spurt generated through President Trump’s economic policies have not spurred higher costs to consumers. Just one more piece of welcome news that defies so-called expert predictions.

“The good news of low inflation for the past six months was bolstered by yesterday’s release of Producer Price Index for final demand of goods only inched up .1 percent last month, demonstrating that the economic strength shown in the second quarter of 2018 is not being offset by inflation headwinds at either the producer or consumer level.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2018/08/prices-stable-in-last-six-months-as-trump-economy-roars/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 6, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Attorney General Jeff Sessions on his stand against District Judge John Bates’ ruling attempting to compel President Donald Trump not to enforce U.S. immigration law when it comes to minors arriving illegally:

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions is exactly right. The executive branch cannot repeal law by simply writing a letter stating that U.S. immigration law no longer applies to entire classes of illegal immigrants, in this case minors who enter the country illegally. Yet that is what District Judge John Bates would have the nation believe, upending more than 200 years of constitutional governance and obliterating the separation of powers, saying, in effect, that the President is no longer allowed to enforce the law because the prior President abdicated his responsibility to do so.

“Attorney General Sessions decision to stand for the constitutional rule of law and fight this decision is why he is invaluable as our nation’s Attorney General. Restoring the rule of law while coming out of an age of lawlessness is essential to the fundamental principles of equal justice and law by the consent of the governed which underpin our republic.  The legitimacy of the implied power of judicial review depends greatly on the presumption that basic constitutional structures, like Congress making law, will be followed by judges. But today there is an increasing trend of court decisions that appear to depend entirely on who is in the White House. That is the end of constitutional governance, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should be universally praised for standing in the gap for the rule of law.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 3, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest job numbers:

“July of 2018 marked the second lowest number of unemployed Americans since before 9/11 in May of 2001 dropping to 6.28 million – 284,000 fewer that in the previous month. What makes this low number of unemployed particularly impressive is that the total population in the workplace has increased by almost 19 million since May 2011. Almost 3.9 million new jobs have been created since President Trump took office, owed to the tax cuts, the deregulation and the push for better trade deals.

“President Trump promised that the forgotten men and women would be brought back into the economy. America is working, the July employment numbers confirm that those who have been left behind over the past two decades are beginning to find their places in their search for the American dream.

“While conventionally, the media follows, the U-3 unemployment number which is at an extremely low 3.9 percent, Americans for Limited Government has been consistent in emphasizing the unemployment data which reflects those who had been left behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics offers an unemployment percentage, the U-6 number, which reflects traditional unemployment plus those who have become marginally detached from the workforce and those working part-time for economic reasons.  It is a reflection of the Trump economy that this unemployment rate has dropped to 7.5 percent over the past year, the lowest since 2001, demonstrating that President Trump’s economic plan of less, unnecessary job strangling regulation, lower taxes and fair and reciprocal trade deals are working and Americans are benefitting.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Aug. 2, 2018, Fairfax, VA—Americans For Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement regarding the news that the Portland Police Department refused to answer 911 calls from ICE employees trapped by an Antifa mob:

“The actions of the Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler and the Police Department to ignore 911 calls from the ICE building are reprehensible. When a citizen of the United States calls 911, they expect the police to answer. To not answer because you disagree with the political beliefs of the person on the other end of the line violates every oath the Mayor and member of the police department took.

“The episode underscores the need for the Senate to confirm Eric Dreiband to lead the Civil Rights Division as Assistant Attorney General. One of his first actions should be to investigate the Mayor and Police Department for violations of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause under the 14^th Amendment.

“The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved appointees to fill many of these positions including Dreiband already. No more excuses. These nominees need to be voted on. The Senate needs to prioritize staffing the Justice Department deputies and assistants and clear out the career Obama holdovers who are exercising power. It is time for the Trump administration to begin at the Justice Department and more importantly, for the Obama administration to end. The Senate needs to do its job.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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