Customer Reviews

Power Grab: How Obama's Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America

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Charlton Heston starred in the 1973 movie "Soylent Green". The year is 2022, and we are all poor and without power, both electrical and political. Christopher Horner's book begins by looking ahead to the year 2015 and painting an eerily similar picture of an impoverished existence. The real irony here is that the sad future is created, not by man's mismanagement of earth's resources, but by one man's presidential withholding of those sources of power from society.

As stated in the book, environmentalism seeks to use the state to create scarcity as a means to exert their will. Indeed, the author contends the policies and people being instituted into our nation's government are about establishing and holding power over our lives, our very future, and that of our children. Mr. Hornor argues that "the Power Grab is to grab your power, your wealth, economic liberties and personal freedoms." A technique to attempt to do this is akin to "yelling eco-crisis in a crowded recession."

The author adds, perhaps a bit hopefully, that "...only the left are panicking as the voters head for the exit."

This book is rather heavy and yes, a bit apocalyptic but worth burning the midnight oil to read. Yet, contrary to Charlton Heston's character trapped in a drab future he cannot alter, "Power Grab" encourages the reader to grab the constitutional power reins and steer your future and that of your children's back on the course of freedom.

By Steve Goreham, author of Climatism! Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century's Hottest Topic.

Power Grab is a powerful book that exposes the depth to which the Obama administration and America's political left are driven by environmentalist ideology. The objective of this ideology is the total elimination the use of hydrocarbon and nuclear energy, resources which have been the foundation of the prosperity of the United States and the developed world over the last 100 years. Author Chris Horner makes it clear that this ideology is devoid of common sense and economics, and ignores the welfare of the American people.

The book opens by painting a picture of U.S. society in 2015, which is plagued by energy shortages and escalating costs, the result of more than 30 years of foolish energy policies. The growing attack on nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas has forced energy rationing, raised gasoline prices to European levels, and increased dependence on foreign suppliers. Many analysts now warn that we are well on the way to this scenario.

Chapter 2, titled "Renewable Fools," thoroughly debunks the idea that wind and solar energy can power our nation. Horner uses the example of Denmark, once praised by President Obama, to show how inadequate wind power is for modern society. He also points out that although environmental groups publicly endorse wind and solar systems, they also oppose construction of both the farms and the transmission lines needed to deliver this electricity.

Chapters 3-7 discuss key members of the Obama administration, critically attacking the background and ideology of Van Jones, Carol Browner, and others. Horner is a master of the pejorative phrase, using chapter titles such as "Picking Your Pockets for Political Payola" and "Green Eggs and Scam: The Wholesale Fraud of `Green Jobs.'" Some readers may be turned off by his direct attacks, but most of his commentary hits the mark.

Chapters 8-10 discuss foolish energy policies that increasingly put coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear--everything that works--off limits. In my opinion, this discussion on the war against hydrocarbon and nuclear energy is the best section of the book. Like other Horner books, these sections are extensively referenced, with a book total of over 800 citations.

Power Grab is well-written and researched, and an excellent book for anyone wanting to understand the environmentalist ideologies that have captured the Obama administration.

As the U.S. Senate prepares to rush through legislation whose champions now hail as an "energy" bill - but from early indications it happens to include the same tired "green jobs" schemes like cap-and-trade, mandates and subsidies for uneconomic technologies - Chris Horner's"Power Grab" could not be more timely.

Horner lays out the truth about the economic costs of "green jobs" schemes, citing what ought to be obvious first principles but which are proving so elusive to politicians claiming we will repeat Europe's glorious successes. Green jobs represent some of the worst ideologically driven misinformation ever. As Horner details with extensive sourcing, Europe's experience is anything but one which we should replicate. It is instead one that contributed greatly to the unfolding European bankruptcy. Greece will certainly not be the only statist trouble spot in the EU and energy policies along with suffocating entitlements are at the top of the failed European experiment that American politicos want to emulate. Horner makes the case against these boondoggles in language the layman will understand.

This is similarly useful to the typical voter, generally unconcerned with these issues but increasingly sensing something wrong with America's new course, specifically this agenda being promoted by a broad array of usual suspects. "Power Grab" provides the research of what this collaboration, if it succeeds, will mean for the average household, and an individual's liberties.

The book similarly strips bare the strange talking point that this agenda benefits America's national security. One example Horner invokes is the supposed peril of China "eating our lunch" in what is apparently a strategic race to perfect the windmill, what President Obama calls a "new technology". That it is per se a strategic good to be the world leader in something, for the sake of being the world leader, is facially absurd yet is invoked by politicians today.

Horner addresses this - developing countries like China will always have a comparative advantage in supplying such gadgets to rich countries that mandate them, one reason being that they don't drag their economy down with such mandates. And China is installing the contraptions because western mandates pay China to do so, to avoid the impossible task of actually reducing emissions on their own shores.

Also important to the debate is the reality behind Obama's praise (in a vacuum) that "some of America's biggest companies support" his green agenda. Indeed they do. Horner answers the question "why?", and what these rent-seekers hope to use the state to take from you in this latest twist on the old model of using the state to create scarcity, imposing the statists' will on you while keeping competitors away from the state's business partners.

For exposing and detailing these realities at this critical moment "Power Grab" is a strong and important read.

Prof. Michael J. Economides
Editor-in-Chief
Energy Tribune

What happens when back-to-nature Luddites and regulate-your-toothbrush liberals come up with a scheme that throttles the economy and creates trillions of dollars of additional tax revenue? You get a feeding frenzy at the government trough and a threat to freedom.

Christopher Horner explains how and why in Power Grab. Horner outlines the overarching problems with carbon restrictions and how powerful special interests have hijacked the environmental movement for nefarious ends. He takes names and kicks butt. Some of the names you may know (e.g., Van Jones, Carol Browner), but others you should know but probably don't (e.g., Cathy Zoi, John Holdren)

Power Grab is an eye-opening account of how inside-the-beltway politicians and lobbyists are working to line their pockets while raising your energy costs, cutting your income and destroying your jobs.

Christopher Horner never shies away from controversy. He knows how big the stakes are in this battle over government control of the international economy and that man-made global warming is the hoax they are using to try and implement this regulatory regime.

In "Power Grab" he shows you how Obama and his administration along with a sympathetic Congressional leadership is working to implement some form of Carbon Cap and a very high tax regime to transfer wealth from the rich Western nations to the poor third world. Along with this goal they want to not only stop the growth of America and Europe, but to dismantle a great deal of the economy and make us a poorer nation while putting real constraints on our lives (not for people like Al Gore or Obama, but for you and me).

Horner introduces us to the agenda, the players in the Obama administration and their radical Leftist roots. He shows how these Leftists couldn't get their agenda through directly, they latched onto environmental extremism as a means to justify massive government controls. People want to be nice and good. They want to "save the planet". So, the Leftists use the myth of dire planet catastrophe and the ridiculous notion that we can change one small component in a hugely complex and poorly understood system as a means of real control.

You will also see how some huge corporations and political organizations are bought off using your money and guarantee themselves massive revenue streams by going along with this insanity. I loved Horner's dismantling of the notion that there are any real "green jobs". Folks, all there are is massively tax subsidized make work that will never ever contribute profits and real net growth to the economy.

Instead, the greens want to lock up all our natural resources, shut down most of our economy, tax to death what remains of the private sector, and use those tax receipts to pay off their sympathizers and punish their opponents.

Read this book and take action to ensure that Obama and his allies cannot seize the Big Green Prize they are grabbing for. Our freedom and prosperity depends on you and me to work more against this agenda than the Left is working for it. Stand up, teach your friends, and demonstrate that it is possible to be pro-life, pro-Earth and against this massive Leftist agenda.

Very useful book.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Saline, MI

Christopher Horner takes a hard look at what Obama's Policies will do to the environment, US and Global Economy, and the size of government. Horner uses great evidence and actual fact to prove that Obama and his leftist buddies' agenda is to take power from you and I. Policies like Cap and Trade is not about the environment. Policies like Cap and Trade will lead to a great exodus of jobs and the United States will become energy poor.

Power Grab is one of the best books I have read. It is, as conservative rockstar Mark Levin calls it,
"A must read". Horner exposes the truth surrounding Global Warming Alarmism. This is a book that should be shared with co-workers, friends, and family. It will change your outlook.

I've ordered the book and will post a full review when I've read it. The need for this book is URGENT. CAP AND TRADE IS NOW BACK IN THE SENATE: the Obama Steamroller is in high gear. As a placeholder, here's an OP ED I wrote last year.

The Economic Suicide Act

These are hard times. Unemployment is high and getting worse, savings and home values have collapsed, and our government is spending money like a drunken sailor. Deficits are at record highs with no end in sight. Businesses are closing, Americans are concerned, but Professor Paul Ehrlich argues we should do more to destroy our economy:

"We've already had too much economic growth in the United States. Economic growth in rich countries like ours is the disease, not the cure."

Paul R. Ehrlich
Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University, 2007

If that's the goal, the best way to destroy a nation is to destroy its energy industries. "Cap and Trade," the Waxman-Markley Climate Change Bill, is a massive energy tax. This 1,427 page "Economic Suicide Act" passed the house in July without anyone even being able to read it.

Economists agree that raising taxes in a recession is a proven job killer. Cutting off energy is a people killer. A nation in recession with a declining population will use less energy. Some say this is good.

Cap and Trade came from the UN, implemented as the Kyoto Treaty of 1997. A long-stated goal at the UN is to reduce world population and increase central control. (See Blue Planet in Green Shackles by Vaclav Klaus, which poses the question: "What is endangered, Climate or Freedom?" Dr. Klaus, a PhD economist, has been President of the European Union as well as of The Czech Republic.)

Radical environmentalism, ecological central planning, surfaced in Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book The Population Bomb. It's the new socialism. Ehrlich's protégé and frequent coauthor (e.g. Ecoscience, 1977) is Obama's current Science Czar, John Holdren. The UN and other "postdemocratic" (not accountable to anyone) organizations embrace this.

The bill's promoters don't talk about prosperity, population control, or freedom. Instead, a massive propaganda campaign has been mounted to make the public fearful of Global Warming. Al Gore's movie of drowning polar bears started it, but biased Global Warming science has been financed with our tax dollars: So far $79 billion, about the cost of the Iraq War up until Saddam's capture. ("Climate Money", Science and Public Policy Institute, July 21, 2009.)

The Cap and Trade tax hits 100% of Americans. Heritage Foundation says $3,000/year per family from 2012-2035. There are provisions that repeat the mistakes of the 2008 financial collapse: Buried in this bill were 150 pages that lower home values. To sell your home, the windows, appliances, heating, air conditioning, and insulation would have to be inspected and approved for compliance with not-yet-defined federal energy standards. Trading carbon credits, a colossal failure in the EU, is a derivative scheme designed by the notorious Enron Corporation. It's an invitation to fraud: Completely intangible, unregulated, and impossible to track.
At to Global Warming: It's not happening. Though CO2 is slowly increasing, there has been no warming for the past ten years. For the past seven it's been getting cooler. Thousands of scientists all over the world are skeptical of Gore's theory.

In summary: Cap and Trade is economic suicide. It will severely damage the economic climate without improving the weather one bit.

Great educational book regarding the "Global Warming Crisis" and the fraud being perpetrated on energy users by Al Gore, the defunct Enron and the US Government.

Excellent. A comprehensive insight to the de-energizing and control of the American public -- all in the name of environmental responsibility. Enlightening!

You only need to read this one book to understand how the current administration's energy policies would dramatically impact the American way of life. It's all right here. The players, the policies, the unholy alliances, the scams, how they work, who wins, who loses and most importantly, how we can stop them. Energy is the lifeblood of our economy. It lights the night, heats our homes, fuels our cars, grows our food, and powers our businesses. Policies that deliberately force energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket" and programs like cap-and-trade that dramatically increase the power of government over our daily lives are destructive to our freedom and our economy. In fact, the government control of energy is no less an affront to our personal freedom than the government takeover of the health care system. Horner understands this all to well and so will you after you read Power Grab.