High Energy Costs Lead to Higher Wholesale Prices ... for Everything

Our fearless leader called Wednesday for "wealthy" Americans to "give a bit more back" as he seeks to further redistribute income. Well, in this miserable economy, it appears everyone is giving more than a bit back.

More expensive gas pushed wholesale prices higher last month, although pricier cars and furniture also contributed to increase.

The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, rose 0.7 percent in March, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's down from 1.6 percent in February. The index has increased 5.8 percent in the past year.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, prices rose 0.3 percent — the second-highest increase in the past year. The price of new cars rose by the most in nearly two years, while the cost of some types of furniture jumped 6.5 percent. Still, core prices are only up 1.9 percent over the past year, a relatively tame rate of inflation.

In Obama own home town, everyone's giving more than a bit back since gas prices are now at their highest in nearly three years.

Gas prices across Illinois and Indiana continued to climb in April from continuing unrest in the Middle East and the annual switchover to a more expensive summer blend of gasoline, according to AAA Chicago. It marked the first time the monthly average has been above $4 a gallon since July 2008.

Monthly average prices in Illinois and northern Indiana reached $4.02 and $3.90 respectively, AAA said this morning in its Fuel Gauge Report. In Illinois, regular unleaded gasoline has increased 39 cents during the past month and per-gallon prices are $1.02 higher than last year.

Of course Obama would just say "hey, why don't you just trade in your vehicle" for something more fuel-efficient. That would be all well and good except now the prices of fuel-efficient cars is rapidly rising.

"Gas prices are definitely starting to ripple in the used car market right now," says Bill Visnic, analyst and senior editor at Edmunds' autoobserver.com. Visnic notes that in addition to the gas situation, the shortage of parts in Japan because of the earthquake and tsunami have added to pressure on car prices. In addition, the fact that the economy is improving is sending all used car prices higher, not just for small cars.

The economy is improving? Really?

But smaller cars are taking the biggest hit. According to Edmunds' proprietary measure of car prices, a three-year-old Honda Accord has soared in value by 24% since last September. A similarly aged Hyundai Sonata is up 22%, the Honda Civic is up 13% and the Nissan Sentra has risen 12%.

No Energy Plant For You, Georgia

Yup, the enviro wackos win another one.

The construction of a coal-fired power plant in Georgia was halted Monday when a judge ruled that the plant's builders must first obtain a permit from state regulators that limits the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

Fulton County Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore 's decision overturned a ruling that allowed the construction of the $2 billion Longleaf Energy Plant, which would become Georgia's first new coal-fired plant in more than two decades.
Environmentalists said the decision marks the first time that a judge has applied a U.S. Supreme Court finding that carbon dioxide is a pollutant to emissions from an industrial source.

Just add this one to the growing list of why you pay so much at the pump. All this week, we have brought you stories of one sort of energy or another being squelched by the enviro-Nazis, whether because of prairie chickens or some other environmental concern. Do you get the hint that the oh so compassionate tree huggers are trying to kill you with their kind of kindness? They seem hell bent on making humans become a member of the endangered species list.
It wasn't enough that last summer while Georgia was going through a drought in the Atlanta area that we were being forced to send water downstream to Florida to ensure the survival of mussels, a program that is still ongoing, but now they have any sort of energy production for this country squarely in their crosshairs. Liberals and Dems are working hard to cause you pain, only so that they can then tell you "they feeeel your pain" while retreating to their multimillion dollar, energy-hogging, Countrywide "sweet deal"-financed mansions to eat arugula salad while scheming to take oil company profits or, worse yet, make them a part of the government so that they will have even more money to spend on their grand, doomed-to-failure, social experiments.

The plant is expected to create more than 100 full-time jobs and give millions of dollars in tax revenues to Early County, where almost a quarter of the 12,000 residents live in poverty. It would power more than a half-million homes through utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Of course, this cottage industry in America, environmentalists supported by zealous lawyers and activist judges, is becoming the perfect storm for the destruction of America's economy. What communism and Al Queda terrorists couldn't do now seems to be at the mercy of these activists.

Nilles said he and other environmental attorneys are preparing similar challenges to delay about 30 coal plants now in active litigation. "The issue is now teed up from Nevada to North and South Carolina," he said.

And of course the big boogie man is Al Gore's make-believe best friend and partner in crime, global warming.

"It's a scandal that energy companies are still trying to build coal plants even though they cause global warming," she said. "I can't be more thrilled. It's a huge ruling. This is a new day in the United States, and I'm thrilled."

View Of The Leftisphere

3 wood provides an excellent analysis.

Europeans Pay For China To Cut 'Greenhouse Gases'

The sun shines on the Goracle's Ponzi scheme.

Power generators and other polluting firms are buying "carbon credits" from countries such as China to offset their own emissions.

But where the Chinese gain by cleaning up their factories and selling the resulting credits, European consumers lose as the costs are often passed on in the form of higher energy bills.

Last year alone, European companies spent around $2.5bn (£1.25bn) on carbon credits from China.

Although action to tackle global warming is generally welcomed, consumer groups worry that poor people are finding it increasingly difficult to pay this energy "tax".

Jonathan Smith, a spokesman for the international power company E.ON, admitted the purchase of carbon credits had contributed to a rise in utility bills in Europe, and warned that the cost of buying carbon credits was likely to rise over the coming years.

Newly-minted environmental expert Jean-Pierre Kerry was unavailable for comment; and Nancy Pelosi was out shopping for trees.

How To Attract Foreign Investment

The Soviets Russians are busy re-writing the rules regarding foreign investment in that model republic.

The Russian government is pressing a bold strategy this spring to secure for Gazprom, the state natural gas company, a monopoly on exports of the fuel to Asia.

In the latest onslaught, Moscow is threatening one of the crown jewels of BP's global investments: the Kovykta gas field. And it is using methods similar to those deployed last fall to force Royal Dutch Shell to sell a controlling stake in another Far Eastern Russian energy development, the Sakhalin-2 project. In that case, too, Gazprom was the beneficiary.

On Monday, BP, which operates through a Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, moved closer to losing its license to the Kovykta field when a Siberian court declined to hear the company's arguments.

Kovykta is BP's largest natural gas project in Russia and valuable because it is within pipeline range of industrial cities in northeastern China.

At play, energy analysts say, is a Russian strategy to form a government monopoly on natural gas exports through Gazprom to Asia similar to what exists in Europe, with the scope and range to dictate prices and eliminate competition.

President Vladimir Putin has discussed playing the two markets off against each other in a grand form of haggling - though one that would depend on government control of the export routes.

That did not bode well for private energy companies operating in the country's Far East, like TNK-BP. Shell's ill-fated development, too, was aimed at the Asian market.

And some consider Putie a reformed communist.

Heresy on the Continent

During the past two weeks, tax reform became the centerpiece of government reorganization in the now-heretic countries of the Czech Republic and . . . France.

In the Czech Republic,

The Finance Ministry has been asked to draft by next year a new law on income tax that should be part of the second stage of the public finance reform and enter into force in 2010 at the latest, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said after the cabinet meeting today.

Within the reform, the government plans a flat income tax at 15 percent that would be calculated from a "super gross wage" that includes social and health insurance.

But it gets even better.

Lower VAT is to be raised from 5 to 9 percent. Corporate tax is to be decreased from the 24 to 19 percent by 2010.

The government accepted the Greens' demand that households using gas for heating should be exempt from the environmental tax.

The tax will also not apply to the combined production of electricity and heat for household heating.

The tax changes are expected to simplify the business environment and reduce the tax burden on small businesses.

The minimum tax introduced in 2004 is to be cancelled and so are the monitored cash registers which businesses were to start using since January 2008.

Not surprisingly, such reform measures are vehemently opposed by the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM).

In France, the government of newly elected President Nikolas Sarkozy has wasted no time in acting on the president's agenda of reforming . . . France.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Wednesday his government aimed to boost French growth to 3.0 percent using tax reforms to "shock" the economy into a faster track.

"We are going to propose a set of fiscal and financial measures designed to bring about a shock that will create growth," he told French radio Europe 1.

One of the more significant reforms will be to

. . . put a 50-percent cap on overall individual taxation.

Sarkozy's electoral triumph has been described by French historian Max Gallo, as a Victory of Reality over Utopia.

The ideology of the left, which has influenced, if not dominated, public and intellectual life in France since World War II, is in a deep crisis. Marxism ended long ago, and yet the French socialists haven't discovered any new answers.

Meanwhile, our Cousins across the Pond are also engaged in tax reform.

The government will push ahead with its much-maligned road pricing policy this week when it publishes proposals for pay-as-you-drive trials.

A draft version of the road transport bill will give local authorities the power to introduce road pricing in towns and cities. Ten areas in England considering schemes include Manchester and Birmingham, although ministers say a national scheme is at least a decade away.

And here's the jaw-dropper:

The local schemes are seen as a precursor to a UK-wide network that would track the movement of cars by satellite or roadside gantries, charging about £1.30 a mile on the busiest roads.

At current exchange rates, £1 equals two bucks.

The potentially radical reforms were attacked by motoring groups and the voluntary sector and even alarmed the Church of England.

Details emerged as the Government prepares to introduce a Bill allowing for road pricing pilot schemes in several parts of the country.

At present, anyone who is reimbursed for using their own car is entitled to claim 40p a mile for the first 10,000 miles without facing tax. After that anything paid over 25p a mile is subject to both tax and national insurance.

Revenue and Customs confirmed that the tax penalty would apply to those using their own cars for work.

And that would be on top of UK gasoline prices, currently about $7.44 per gallon (£3.75).