Obama administration squanders taxpayer dollars in anti-jobs raid on Gibson Guitar

Gibson Guitar sent an update to media about US government hits on factories in Nashville and Memphis. Armed agents burst in on Aug. 24, looking for ebony and rosewood imported from India.

Production halted; workers were sent home.

Click to read more ...

Tax on US oil, gas producers will hit small biz, consumers and kill jobs

‘Big Oil’ is a convenient target for some politicians and allied groups, but what most Americans don’t realize is that the oil and gas industry includes far more companies than huge corporations.

In the U.S. there are 18,000 domestic independent oil and natural gas producers—on average they employ 12 workers.

Washington is abuzz with talk of raising taxes on producers, and those taxes won’t hit the biggest corporations. Instead, according to Barry Russell, president and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the tax would negatively impact those small producers. What’s worse: it will kill jobs.

Click to read more ...

Oil, gas producers to Obama: Encourage energy in US, not other countries

Updated on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 8:00PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

A driller rides on a traveling block on an oil well derrick at a well owned by Continental Oil Company in Kansas. In the last century, the United States was willing to utilize domestic energy sources and that willingness was key in establishing a robust middle class. [Photo from US Farm Security Admin., US Govnmt.]President Barack Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University where he described a general plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil. There were few specifics—the text of the speech published at the Council on Foreign Relations suggests content closer to campaign remarks rather than a solid plan.

Obama did say the U.S. Navy has set a goal of using 50-percent alternative fuels in all planes, vehicles, and ships in the next 10 years.  The president also pointed to a large amount of money designated to reduce consumption:  [T]he Defense Department has invested $2.7 billion this year alone to improve energy efficiency.” No specifics were provided.

Obama has emphasized producers are sitting on leases—the use it or lose it claim.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America, however, takes issue with some of the president’s claims.

Click to read more ...

Gibson Guitar raid penalizes American company for foreign forestry practices

Commentary by Kay B. Day

The SG Standard, said Gibson, is the best-selling Gibson of all time.[Photo from Gibson website.]The Gibson brand needs no introduction to anyone who’s ever played a guitar, and the factory in Nashville is a valuable employer providing jobs to approximately 2,800 Americans. But armed with an expansion of the Lacey Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided the plant on Tuesday.

At stake: “wood procurement,” said a statement from Gibson. The Tennessean (Nashville) theorized about the raid’s link to exotic hardwoods: “But some exotic hardwoods traditionally used in making premium guitars, such as rosewood from the rain forests of Madagascar and Brazil, have been banned from commercial trade because of environmental concerns under a recently revised federal law.”

In 2008 Congress expanded the Lacey Act. Here’s an example of the depth of that expansion. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 'Facts about the Amended Lacey Act,' “As of May 22, 2008, if a tree is illegally harvested, made into wood products, and then exported to the United States, anyone who imported, exported, transported, sold, received, acquired, or purchased the wood products made from that illegal timber, who knew or should have known that the wood was illegal, may be prosecuted for violation of the Lacey Act.”

Few would dispute the value of wise forestry practices. But few would agree the language is sound in the provision cited. The very phrase “who knew or SHOULD have known…” permits subjectivity in the application of federal law. In addition the law as applied in the Gibson raid appears to target American companies rather than the source of the product or the wholesale distributor of the product.

Click to read more ...