While globalists, heads of large corporations, and officials in international organizations may consider democracy more of a spectator sport than a representative political system embraced by countries around the world, at least they were willing to allow some competition into the ring this year. In addition to its usual list of drastically tired global elites such as John Kerry, Bill Gates, and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, The World Economic Forum decided to invite a handful of conservative leaders to its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland this past week. The opposition offered a reality check to those in desperate need of one, even if it wasn’t welcome. A couple of unabashed speakers even drew a little blood.
Read the full storyTag: Texas Public Policy Foundation
Study: Cost of ‘Fueling’ an Electric Vehicle Is Equivalent to $17.33 per Gallon
The complete costs of “fueling” an electric vehicle for 10 years are $17.33 per equivalent gallon of gasoline, a new analysis from the Texas Public Policy Foundation says.
The study authors say the $1.21 cost-per-gallon equivalent of charging a car cited by EV advocates excludes the real costs born by taxpayers for subsidies, utility ratepayers for energy investments, and non-electric vehicle owners for mandate-and-environmental-credit-driven higher vehicle costs, which they say total $48,698 per EV. Those costs must be included when comparing fueling costs of EVs and traditional gas-powered vehicles, TPPF maintains.
Read the full storyCorporation Headquarters Are Moving to Florida, Texas, and Arizona
Approximately 9% of America’s corporations moved headquarters since the beginning of 2022, the highest rate since 2017, with most corporations moving to Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
The states that corporations were most likely to abandon were Washington, New York, and California.
Read the full storyTexas Governor Aims to Eliminate Property Taxes
Gov. Greg Abbott says his goal is to eliminate homeowners’ property taxes in the state of Texas. He says it’s possible to achieve over time because of the significant economic growth of the state.
All three Republican leaders, Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan, have pledged to reduce property taxes and made it a legislative priority.
Read the full storyTexas Group Sues Biden Administration over Climate Agenda
The Texas Public Policy Foundation filed lawsuits against three federal agencies accusing them of failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests about their involvement with implementing the Biden administration’s climate policies in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden accepted the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement on behalf of the United States. He later announced his administration would set a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) number, pledging an “economywide target of reducing America’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent.”
Read the full storyPublic Policy Foundation Sues Biden Administration for Going After Gun Sellers
The Biden administration is abusing the 1968 Gun Control Act to take away gun dealers’ licenses over paperwork mistakes, according to a Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) lawsuit filed Wednesday.
In 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) started revoking dealer licenses for firearm transaction paperwork errors violating the Act, despite the legislation only permitting that penalty for “willful” violations, the federal lawsuit says. The plaintiffs, Michael Cargill and his company Central Texas Gun Works (CTGW), are arguing for their customers as well.
Read the full storyTexas Mask Mandate Lawsuit Attorney Welcomes Florida Judge Striking Mandate in Separate Suit, but Says: ‘Our Case Will Continue’
The executive director and general counsel of the Texas Public Policy Foundation told The Star News Network he welcomed Monday’s ruling in Florida by federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, that overturned the Centers for Disease Control’s mask mandate for public transportation and air travel.
“The arguments that are pending in our ongoing lawsuit in Texas are the same arguments that prevailed in the case in Florida with a judge in Florida agreeing that the Centers for Disease Control did not have the statutory authority that it claimed to impose a face-covering requirement for all Americans engaging in transportation,” said Robert Henneke, who represents both the foundation and Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne in an independent lawsuit challenging both the CDC’s mask mandate and the Transportation Safety Administration’s derivative mandate that relies on the CDC’s now-overturned authority.
Read the full storyLawsuit Demands Court Ends Biden’s ‘Unlawful’ and ‘Unconstitutional’ COVID-19 Airplane, Public Transit Mask Mandates
The general counsel of the Texas Public Policy Foundation told The Star News Network the legal theory behind the federal lawsuit filed by the foundation Wednesday on behalf of Representative Elizabeth Ann “Beth” Van Duyne and Texas Attorney General W. Kenneth Paxton petitions the court to strike down the Centers of Disease Control mask mandate on airplanes and public transit as unlawful and unconstitutional mitigation for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Well, the basis is twofold,” said Robert Henneke, who is also the foundation’s executive director.
“First of all, there is no statutory authority for the Centers for Disease Control to command that all Americans have to wear a face mask covering when they travel,” Henneke said.
Read the full storyLawyer in Historic Vaccine Mandate Challenge Warns Larger Constitutional Issues Remain Unresolved
One of the lawyers in the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on private business is warning it is only a preliminary victory and the larger constitutional issues about government-compelled inoculations must still be litigated.
“In some ways, yesterday was a win of a major battle, but still leaves the war to be fought,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which filed one of the original challenges in Texas against the vaccine mandate that was eventually consolidated before the Supreme Court.
“While it got to the right outcome for declaring the private employer vax mandate unlawful, it kind of misses the forest for the trees because it leaves these broader questions of federal power unresolved,” he told the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Read the full storyNew Fellow at Texas Public Policy Institute, Carol Swain Says ‘Everything We See Taking Place in Washington is About Control’
Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Dr. Carol Swain, newly appointed fellow at the Texas Public Policy Institute to the newsmakers line to discuss her new position and stopping the divisive narrative in America.
Read the full storyCarol Swain Joins the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies
Dr. Carol Swain, a former professor at Vanderbilt University and Princeton University, will join the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies, according to a press release from the group on Friday.
In her position, Swain will assist the foundation in initiatives that examine Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the importance of civics education.
Read the full storyOhio Group Lends Support to End Eviction Ban
An Ohio think tank believes an eviction moratorium put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic causes more harm than good and should be ended.
The Buckeye Institute joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Southeastern Legal Foundation’s lawsuit on behalf of a Texas landlord that is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Read the full storyDysfunctional Immigration Courts Cited for Growing Asylum Crisis
Blame for a rising backlog of immigration asylum claims at the southern border belongs with a dysfunctional system in which immigration judges don’t have the power to toss out meritless and fraudulent claims, a panel of experts said this week.
Read the full storyTexas City Featured in Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Sequel’ Lost Millions in its Green Energy Gamble
by Michael Bastasch Former Vice President Al Gore hailed the city of Georgetown, Texas, for powering itself with only solar and wind energy, but now the city is losing millions on its green energy gamble. Georgetown’s bet against fossil fuel prices cost the city-owned utility nearly $7 million this year, and prompted officials to look for a way out of their long-term contracts for solar and wind energy. “It’s costing them big time,” vice president of research at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), Bill Peacock, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “This doesn’t appear to be the first time they’ve lost money, just the first time it was big enough to have to go public with it.” Georgetown made national news after being featured in Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Sequel,” which was released in 2017. The film followed-up on Gore’s inaccurate 2006 film”An Inconvenient Truth.” “I think Georgetown is already a trailblazer,” Gore said during his 2016 visit to learn about Georgetown’s plan to get 100 percent of their energy from wind and solar power. “And one thing that Georgetown demonstrates to other places that are just beginning to think about it is that the power supply is…
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