Indiana Becomes First State To Implement Interstate Tolling. Are These Backdoor Green Taxes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP0_gmvTb1o
Indiana Governor Mike Braun recently signed into law that makes the state the first in the country to implement interstate tolling, as the state seeks to phase out the gas tax in order to increase revenues to repair the state’s eroding roads. This is a first in the country.
The concept has been under discussion for years, going back to former Governor Eric Holcomb.
One study suggests tolling state interstates could bring in $40 billion in revenue over two decades.
But is this an indirect way to quietly usher in green taxes as things become increasingly more expensive?
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Indiana may vote Republican but they are more RINO in their politicians. This legislation may be unconstitutional. Definitely creates a state versus federal conflict.
Bloomberg-Backed Green Group Places Officials in State Agencies Tasked With Regulating Utilities, Permitting Pipeline
Excerpt:
A Michael Bloomberg-backed fellowship program known for placing attorneys in state attorney general offices to spearhead climate litigation has quietly broadened its scope, sending staffers to work in state agencies that regulate the energy sector, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The New York University State Energy & Environmental Impact Center’s fellowship—which Bloomberg’s eponymous philanthropic nonprofit provided two seed grants worth $5.6 million in 2017—has long placed and paid the salaries of officials in at least 10 state attorney general offices nationwide. Over the past two years, internal emails obtained by the Free Beacon show, the program has expanded to state-level public service commissions, often-overlooked agencies that regulate utility companies and permit energy infrastructure like pipelines and power plants. The commissions also implement state renewable energy standards that force power providers to generate electricity through pricier green sources.
The center’s work in attorney general offices, where Bloomberg-funded fellows have participated in litigation accusing the fossil fuel industry of causing global warming, has prompted conflict-of-interest concerns over the use of private funding to drive public lawsuits. Its work in state regulatory agencies, on the other hand, is a new development—one that suggests the center and its funders seek to play a more active role pushing green energy development at the local level.
One other key function of the commissions that has emerged in recent years is their oversight and implementation of state renewable energy standards, which are mandates that force power companies to ensure green energy sources produce a set share of local electric generation. Climate activists have lobbied for such mandates, but in places like Delaware those policies have caused dramatic consumer price hikes.
.....While it remains unclear if the NYU impact center ultimately placed a fellow in the Massachusetts, New York, or Michigan agencies, the center has managed to install at least two fellows in the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Those fellows were hired to work for Louisiana public service commissioner Davante Lewis (D.).
The Louisiana commission, like other public service commissions, has wide powers to develop a renewable portfolio standard, which would implement a green energy transition. The Bayou State is one of a few states that do not yet have such a standard, the Grist previously reported.
Lewis—who unseated a longtime incumbent on the commission in 2022 with the help of a powerful left-wing climate PAC, according to state campaign finance disclosures—promised to promote the adoption of rooftop solar and home batteries, and boost wind power. And he ran on a platform centered on forcing a 100 percent green energy transition in the state.
Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill (R.) told the Free Beacon that she has serious concerns with the arrangement and Lewis’s participation in the program considering its outside funding. She suggested that the arrangement may violate existing state ethics laws.
“This arrangement, if in fact it is happening, certainly causes me to be concerned,” Murrill said in a written statement. “Ethics laws prohibit state employees from receiving payment from sources other than the state for their official duties. Narrow exceptions apply for things like reimbursement for attendance at conferences, but that still requires approval and disclosure.”
“My office does not have jurisdiction over ethics violations, but I would have issues with what is essentially a Bloomberg employee and agent having such influence and access to state regulatory offices and matters,” she continued......
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Bloomberg isn’t concerned with ethics, he has none. He will push the envelope until he is slapped down. Infiltrating state regulatory boards to push green agendas, a page from the Sortos AG playbook.
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If they start general interstate tolling how much will they kick back to the FEDs? The FEDs pay for a significant, if not majority, portion of it...