Senator Allen with her husdand, Rick, and some of their children and grandchildren.

The Legislature is hard at work. Yes, the budget is still the Number One issue, but legislation is also starting to move through committees. We have some great legislators down here who all want to downsize the burden of government on the backs of our citizens. They want government to run more efficiently and be more streamlined. Many are aware of the overreaching of the federal government and want to protect our state. So, this is going to be a great session.

Two of the most important Referenda on the ballot in 2010 will be (1) the Healthcare Freedom Act, which will protect Arizona citizens from being forced into a national healthcare program and (2) The Freedom-to-Breath Act (I am the sponsor), which will protect our businesses and citizens from the Cap-and-Trade Tax/EPA/CO2 (Carbon Monoxide) regulations.

I was co-chairman of the 2009 Ad Hoc Committee on Mining Regulations. We held meetings over the last two months with state agencies and stakeholders. We are introducing an Omnibus Mining Bill that will streamline the permitting process, stop duplication of permits between state agencies, enact legislation designed to give Arizona relief from lawsuits (including those on federal lands), and prevent the state from adopting requirements more stringent than those at the federal level.

There are three bills that are state sovereignty bills, and House Speaker Kirk Adams is sponsoring the “Arizona Job Recovery Act” (HB2250) which will reform Arizona’s tax structure in 2012 and offer other help to businesses. The referral to the ballot of a sales tax increase will be offered again this session, and I expect it to pass. It would be phased out by 2013, and the economic package will help the economy to strengthen.

The deadline for introducing Senate bills is February 1st (Feb. 8 for the House). Once bills are introduced, you can find them easily at the following link:

www.azleg.gov

– Click on “Digest” in the left-hand column.

– Click on any digest and scan the bill titles to pick out the ones you think you’ll be interested in.

– Write down the bill number.

– Click on the tab at the top of the page that says “Bills.”

– Locate the bill and track it through this page.

Dan Adams, a friend from Payson, and one of the most effective and dedicated grassroots activists in the world, encouraged me for several months to host Maurice McTigue from the Mercatus Center of George Mason University here at the Legislature. Mr. McTigue has had an illustrious career; he was a New Zealand Member of Parliament, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, Minister of Railways, and Chairman of the Cabinet’s powerful Expenditure Control Committee.

In the late eighties, New Zealand had had 26 straight years of deficits and struggled with national debt. Their new leadership felt it was time to throw off the socialist economic principles they had been governing under and open up New Zealand to a true free market. They turned things upside down and for the last 22 years their country has had surpluses. When the current worldwide recession hit, they were in a better position to handle it, and he said they should be back in the black by next year.

I invited the entire legislature and staff to hear Mr. McTigue and his ideas on how the state of Arizona could get through this budget crisis. We met on Wednesday of last week (January 20th) and had a very interesting discussion. Mr. McTigue had many good ideas, including the following:

o To control spending, the controls must be put into statute.

o Elimate all things that hurt investment o Simplify the revenue-gathering system

o Transparency – put all government agency checkbooks on the internet

o Only do what government has to do and privatize the rest o Remember that “the longer you leave problems, the bigger they get!” (his best quote)

CLIMATEGATE DOES MATTER

Recently a whistleblower released emails, computer code, and other documents from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. This release has been dubbed ClimateGate. The emails and computer code have revealed a conspiracy to artificially enhance the case for man-made global warming, and suppress research that does not support man-made global warming. This release is very important because the research done at the CRU was primarily used to support the conclusion in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report. The papers produced at the CRU were used by academia around the world.

Some advocates of man-made global warming have said that the scientists behind the emails and computer code may have acted badly, but that does not change the science.

1. Science is a process, not a conclusion. Saying, “The science is settled” or “It does not change the science” does not make any sense. The science in this case was very bad. The ClimateGate emails reveal:

• a. The researchers at the CRU lost the original temperature data, leaving only the ‘corrected’ data. So no other scientists can fully verify their work. This is bad science.
• b. The researchers at the CRU colluded to prevent any opposing research from being published in peer reviewed journals. This is bad science.
• c. The researchers at the CRU colluded to prevent their data or computer models from being shared with other scientist, even after a Freedom of Information Act request. This is bad science.
• d. The researchers at the CRU chose to stop using tree-ring data to approximate temperatures after 1960. They concluded this data was not accurate since it did not agree with temperatures measured by satellites and ground stations. However, they never questioned the tree ring data before 1960. If the data does not match after 1960, then using the tree ring data before 1960 to approximate temperatures is probably not accurate either. This is the ‘trick’ that was used to ‘hide the decline.’ This is bad science.

2. The computer models revealed in ClimateGate are poorly written and contain numerous errors. The comments in the code, left by the programmers, reveal that the code has errors and the data is artificially manipulated in many locations. See http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/25/climategate-hide-the-decline-codified/ for many examples.

There has not been “scientific consensus” all these years. Many renowned scientists have tried to speak out. I have a report that lists 32,000 of them.

I recently held ad hoc committee meetings on climate initiatives that featured many prominent speakers and nationally renowned scientist Dr. Craig Idso. His presentation was taken from the report signed on by 32,000 scientists entitled , “Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change.” This report clearly showed the flawed science behind claims of man-caused climate change and counters those claims made by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

IMPORTANT QUESTION: if the CRU was tweaking their data, how can we trust other institutions? This is why a full investigation must take place. All raw data and the computer code must be put up for scrutiny.

All public policy based upon the control of CO2 through a Cap-and-Trade Tax must be put on hold until we can – in the light of day and through peer review – know just what the temperature readings have been the last 30 years.

Below are two links that will give you more information on Climategate.

Thirty year time line of the Global Warming history with email content of the Whiistleblower: http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/climategate-30-year-timeline/

Article from the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342404574576683216723794.html

Senator Sylvia Allen