mark obenshain

Mark Obenshain: Standing up for coal

AFP

A week ago, I met 2,000 people who would like nothing more than to give President Obama a lump of coal on Election Day. But what they really want to do is keep giving the entire nation coal-the coal we need for our coal-fired power plants, for our domestic steel production, and to reduce our reliance on foreign energy sources

State approves construction of Bay wind turbine

AFP

Gov. McDonnell announced Tuesday that the Virginia Marine Resources Commission has voted unanimously to approve proposed construction of a 479-foot-tall, five-megawatt wind turbine generator prototype in the lower Chesapeake Bay, three miles off the Eastern Shore town of Cape Charles. The construction of the prototype turbine is scheduled to be completed in late 2013, which…

Suffolk U.: Obama leads Romney by double digits

Chris Graham

President Barack Obama (47 percent) leads Republican Mitt Romney (37 percent) in a national general election match-up, with 7 percent saying they would vote for a third-party candidate and 7 percent undecided, according to a Suffolk University survey of likely general election voters of all parties. Obama led all GOP candidates: Romney by 10 points,…

Scott Klinger: Corporations pay less in taxes than Buffett and Romney

AFP

Corporations pay a lower effective tax rate than Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney, but you wouldn’t know it from all the complaints that our corporate tax rate puts our country at a competitive disadvantage. Last year, U.S. corporations paid just 12.1 percent of their earnings in federal corporate income taxes. Buffett’s tax rate is 17.4…

Kaine: ‘All of the above’ on energy

AFP

The black-white debate on energy production between Republicans and Democrats generally speaking comes down to the merits of oil production vs. clean energy. It doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition, though. “We need to use every domestic source that we have. But I think we ought to be preparing for a long-term shift toward…

Karen Kwiatkowski: What does Bob Goodlatte have against the Internet?

AFP

While we don’t believe 10-term congressman Goodlatte speaks Mandarin, he has a lot in common with the Communists in Beijing, at least when it comes to regulating and controlling the Internet. Goodlatte is the author of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, a costly regulatory attack on the Internet.  It is supposed to…

McDonnell outlines energy agenda

AFP

Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled today a series of recommendations for the 2012 General Assembly session that will advance Virginia’s role as the energy capital of the East Coast. “Virginia is blessed with a bounty of natural resources that can aid in our nation’s growing need for affordable and reliable energy sources,” McDonnell said. “From the…

Frank Knapp Jr.: The Corporate Attorneys Full Employment Act

AFP

Congress is considering a proposal that portends to offer commonsense rules to affect how federal agencies analyze costs and benefits. Instead it will be disastrous to taxpayers, small and mid-sized businesses and the country as a whole. The Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011 (RAA), which passed in the U.S. House, provides extensively detailed procedures for…