Another New Benefit for SC Small Business Chamber Members and it's Free!

Internships.com

Do you need an intern for your business? Don’t wait any longer! Now is the time to post your internship opportunities.

It’s no secret that internships have become an invaluable way for businesses to recruit top student talent while providing an extended evaluation period for prospective entry-level employees. Now, South Carolina Small Business Chamber members have the advantage of posting internships at no cost through our partnership with Internships.com. 

As a chamber member, you can do the following – all for free:
1.      Easily post your internship opportunities
2.      Manage applicants with an intuitive interface
3.      Proactively recruit students using an extensive resume database
4.      Access exclusive resources to help start a new internship program or optimize your current one

Millions of motivated students have already started searching for their next internship opportunity. Don't miss your chance to find a great intern for this fall!

Did you know that many companies make full-time job offers to their interns? Find your future employees on Internships.com today!

Say goodbye to expensive deductibles and co-pays. Say hello to affordable healthcare.

Even with the Affordable Care Act, which should make health insurance more affordable, you will still have to pay deductibles and co-pays every time you go to a doctor or hospital.

The average American family with insurance will continue every year to pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for these deductibles and co-pays.  Unfortunately, these out-of-pocket costs often keep people from getting medical treatment when they don’t have the money.   And if you are presently uninsured, you probably already are not getting the medical care you need due to cost.

That’s why the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is offering a new benefits to our members called HouseCalls24/7^TM.

HouseCalls24/7^TM allows you to access a physician in South Carolina for affordable medical care any time via your phone or email for only $10 a month for an individual and $13 a month for a family regardless of health conditions, age or smoking status.

For most health problems, you no longer will need to drive to a doctor’s office and wait for hours with other sick patients.  With HouseCalls24/7^TM the doctor is always in and waiting for you, usually with only a 15 minute wait.

No more taking your child to the expensive urgent care or emergency room at night or weekends for most health issues.  With HouseCalls24/7^TM your child can stay comfortably in bed and your late night rides to find a doctor are over.

With HouseCalls24/7^TM you have access to affordable physician care and information when you need it most - NOW!

You still need health insurance for the major health problems and when the need for a visit to the doctor or hospital is obvious.  But adding HouseCalls24/7^TM to your health insurance plan will save you money and time. If you presently don’t have health insurance, HouseCalls24/7^TM is definitely for you.

Click here for more information on this popular service and the best rates anywhere in the state exclusively through the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.

Climate Change Preparedness and the Small Business Sector

American Sustainable Business Council
Small Business Majority

July 25, 2013

U.S. small businesses – widely recognized as the backbone of the U.S. economy – are particularly at risk from extreme weather and climate change and must take steps to adapt, according to a new report from Small Business Majority (SBM) and the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC).

Titled “Climate Change Preparedness and the Small Business Sector,” the report concludes: “Because small businesses are distinctly critical to the U.S. economy, and at the same time uniquely vulnerable to damage from extreme weather events, collective actions by the small business community could have an enormous impact on insulating the U.S. economy from climate risk.”

From page 8 & 9 of the report:

Frank Knapp, Jr., CEO, South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, and Sandra Bridges, Co-Owner, Palmetto Hammock & Resort Shoppe

Charleston, South Carolina

Frank Knapp, Jr., President and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, is leading an initiative throughout coastal South Carolina to educate the public on the vulnerability of the area’s local economy to sea level rise, which is predicted to rise 6 feet by 2100, according to NOAA. Knapp’s initiative, known as South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas (SCBARS), stems from the economic impact that sea level rise could have on this region, and includes grassroots advocacy efforts to garner support from local businesses.  The initiative, of which ASBC is a partner, educates the public by visibly illustrating with signs in local neighborhoods where sea level could reach by 2100. SCBARS encourages tourists to be local advocates for preserving the South Carolina coast.

One local business that Knapp has worked with is Palmetto Hammock & Resort Shoppe, a retail store selling outdoor equipment, apparel and accessories in the historic market district of Charleston, SC.  Palmetto Hammock is jointly owned by Carl Dupree and Sandra Bridges, and was established in 2003. 

Bridges’ small business is located in a favorite shopping area for both residents and tourists, and is housed in a freestanding building with 1,000 square feet of retail display space. According to Knapp, the building Palmetto Hammock is located in is projected to have four feet of sea water at high tide at the end of the century. To raise awareness about this risk for tourists and other businesses in downtown Charleston, Bridges has posted a sign on her store’s front door, and blue tape that indicates the level at which the sea could reach by 2100.

For Bridges, there is little she can do to prepare her business for the potential physical impacts of sea level rise, but participating in Knapp’s SCBARS’ effort is one way to bring attention to the issue and its possible impact on tourism and local business in Charleston.

With more than 190 miles of coastline and 600,000 acres of tidal wetlands, South Carolina is especially susceptible to the effects of sea level rise and storm surge due to hurricanes and tropical storms. The state’s beaches and coastal communities are critical to South Carolina’s economic well-being, providing recreational opportunities, commercial port access, commercial fisheries, and a foundation for the state’s flourishing tourism economy.

In fact, a 2010 report to the Environmental Protection Agency reported that tourism has emerged as South Carolina’s primary growth industry, and state economic officials estimate that one job is created for every 120 visitors. Tourists to the Grand Strand, Hilton Head, and Charleston areas alone account for approximately $5 billion of the $9 billion spent by tourists in the state each year.

Bridges notes that while tourists are not currently bothered by wading through the occasional flood, attitudes may change if this becomes a more frequent or severe occurrence.

Read more….

 

Is Obamacare a job-killer?

MoneyWatch/ July 26, 2013, 7:00 AM

By Alain Sherter

(MoneyWatch) As Republicans in Congress continue trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, perhaps the most serious charge leveled against the health care law is that it is a "job-killer."

Critics say the ACA requirement that companies provide employees with health insurance is deterring employers from hiring and has slowed the recovery. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable, unable to afford the higher costs or the financial penalties for failing to offer health benefits, they contend. In a characteristic attack, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., wrote in an editorial earlier this month that Obamacare "creates incentives to not hire new workers and cut back the hours employees are allowed to work."

But experts and some small business advocates rebut such claims. Economist Dean Baker said there is no evidence that the ACA has noticeably affected hiring. "There's a lot of confusion with regards to the ACA, so you probably do have employers that think it affects them in ways that it really doesn't," said Baker, co-director of the liberal-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington think-tank.

One reason to think Obamacare isn't doing much to stifle job-creation: More than 9 out of 10 businesses subject to the law already offer health coverage, while companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt (About 60 percent of these smaller firms offer health insurance, and under the ACA they also may qualify for a tax credit for offering coverage.) Of the 28 million small businesses in the U.S., 96 percent won't be subject to the rules, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Meanwhile, relatively few of the roughly 4 percent of smaller firms that fall under the ACA are around the 50-employee threshold. Baker notes in a research brief that no more than about 1 percent of job growth this year would come from employers whose headcount puts them near that statutory cutoff.

In short, the health law is a non-issue for the vast majority of small businesses. And while some of these employers may ultimately choose to curb hiring or even shed workers to stay below 50 employees, such firms are too few to make much of an impact on overall hiring or economic growth.

The view that Obamacare threatens smaller companies is "strictly a talking point by those who want to kill off the ACA," said Frank Knapp, head of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. "We're not going to hurt the economy. If we have more people with health insurance, we're going to reduce the cost of health insurance for most people."

The ACA defines a full-time worker as one who works at least 30 hours a week. So what of the claim that many employers are cutting employee hours so they don't qualify for health benefits? In examining U.S. Census data, Baker and economist Helene Jorgensen found that employers haven't rushed to shift workers to shorter schedules this year. In fact, fewer people -- 0.6 percent of the U.S. labor force, or less than 1 million people -- worked just under the 30 hour per week threshold this year than did so in 2012.

If many companies had been slashing employee hours this year in anticipation of ACA penalties taking effect, the number of workers being shifted to shorter schedules should be rising sharply. For now, that doesn't appear to be happening.

"While there may be some employers who make a show of cutting worker hours to just below the 30-hour threshold, this is clearly not a widespread phenomenon affecting large numbers of workers," Baker and Jorgensen wrote in a research brief.

Another reason to question the depiction of Obamacare as a job-killer: Some surveys show hiring by small businesses picking up, a sign companies aren't slimming down ahead of the ACA going into force. Employers with fewer than 50 workers added 84,000 jobs in June, according to payroll processors ADP, the biggest gain among small business since February.

That hiring spurt came before the White House said on July 2 that it was postponing the employer mandate to offer health insurance until 2015. In other words, many smaller firms boosted hiring even before the Obama administration delayed the sanctions for failing to comply with the ACA.

Ken Esch, a partner with management consultant PwC, said small businesses are much less apprehensive about Obamacare than when the president signed it into law in 2010.

"Initially when the Act came out there were expectations that there were going to be significant changes in the types of health benefits," he said. "But once businesses started to analyze those benefits and compare them to their existing plans, they found that they weren't going to have to make that many changes. They have to adapt here and there, but there are no wholesale changes."

As a result, only 3 percent of private businesses plan to drop coverage because of the ACA, while a scant 1 percent expect to trim their payrolls to fewer than 50 workers, according to a recent survey by PwC. Many employers are also holding off in making decisions about their health plans until the law takes effect and its economic implications for companies are clear, Esch said.

If small businesses don't seem to be running scared of the ACA, there remains considerable uncertainty about how the law will work in practice. The economy is slowly improving, but many small businesses are still struggling.

"Small business continues to be in an economic holding pattern," William Dennis Jr., a senior research fellow at the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a Senate hearing Tuesday on the impact of Obamacare on small businesses. "Economic activity remains tepid. Plans to invest and hire remain low by historical standards."

Still, most small business owners are far more focused on the usual rigors of running a company than on Obamacare, said Knapp, who is also co-chair of the ASBC Action Fund, a policy advocacy group. As ever, the top priority remains getting customers in the door.

"The ACA is no different than other laws -- some will try to find their way around it," he said. "But the vast majority of small businesses are going to hire the people they need to serve the customers they have to in order to make money."

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57595475/is-obamacare-a-job-killer/

Blue Tape Marks Climate Change Risks for Coastal Businesses

Bloomberg Businessweek
July 25, 2013

By John Tozzi

 

Sandy Bridges, the owner of Palmetto Hammock in Charleston’s historic market district, is accustomed to flooding in her gift shop, so she keeps the floor clear of the hammocks, clothing, and tourist knick-knacks she sells. The 150-year-old building she occupies is two blocks from Charleston Harbor, and if it rains when the tide is high, the water comes up to her doorstep and sometimes over it. “The wooden flooring is old ship’s decking,” she says. “They understood we were going to get wet.”

The 19^th century South Carolinians who built on the Charleston peninsula didn’t anticipate how wet. Scientists expect sea levels to rise between 8 inches and 6 feet by the end of this century, putting low-lying coastal businesses at risk. To make the threat of climate change clear to her customers, Bridges joined a campaign last week to mark where the high tide in 2100 would be if the worst of those scenarios comes true. A strip of sky-blue tape near the handle of her door indicates the spot. “Where I’m standing right now, the water would be up to my chest,” she says.

About 90 businesses so far have agreed to put tape, decals, or posters in shop windows. The campaign is part of a larger effort to draw attention to the risks that climate change poses to small businesses. “The tourism industry in our state is primarily a small business industry,” says Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, which is recruiting businesses along with the American Sustainable Business Council. “There’s not much greater threat to our tourism industry  

than a destroyed coast.”

Photograph by Kate Thornton for Bloomberg Businessweek

The American Sustainable Business Council and another advocacy group, the Small Business Majority, plan to release a report Thursday showing that “small businesses with fewer locations and limited resources are particularly vulnerable to devastating extreme weather events,” according to a news release from the group.

It’s not hard to imagine Charleston’s low-lying retailers under water, especially after seeing hurricanes flood homes and businesses from New Orleans to New Jersey. When Hurricane Hugo landed in South Carolina in 1989, Bridges says, the property she now occupies had water up to the attic. She knows that businesses near the sea live with the risk of devastating storms, but she’s hoping it’s not too late to keep the coastline from permanently creeping upland. “If the water keeps rising, I feel there’s not going to be much hope to maintain this area,” she says.

Knapp’s group, which has about 5,000 members, hopes that changing tourists’ hearts and minds will prod Washington to act. Visitors to the campaign’s website can send messages to lawmakers urging them to curb carbon emissions and support clean energy sources. There’s little hope of that happening in the current Congress, where Republicans are trying to block White House plans to limit power plant pollution.

Knapp wants at least to show what’s at stake for coastal businesses in the “very red state” of South Carolina. “This is about protecting the South Carolina coastal tourism economy,” he says. The damage from climate change, Knapp says, won’t be felt “in my lifetime. It might be in my daughter’s. It’s definitely in my grandkids’.”

original article

Small Business Chamber negotiates a 75.6 percent lower Duke rate hike for small businesses

The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce (SCSBCC) for the seventh time has chalked up another big win onproposed energy rate increases by power companies. 

Yesterday a settlement in the Duke Energy rate filing was submitted to the S.C. Public Service Commission (PSC).  All parties intervening in the case, including SCSBCC, joined Duke and the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) in signing the settlement.

In March Duke asked the PSC for an overall 15.1 percent electric rate hike for its South Carolina customers—16.3 percent for residential, 14 percent for small businesses and 14.4 percent for industrial.

SCSBCC officially intervened in the case saying that the proposed hike was unjustified in general and was specifically unfair to small businesses.   In my role as SCSBCC president and CEO I gave pre-filed direct testimony outlining our argument that Duke did not deserve the excessive rate hike.

As a result of SCSBCC’s negotiations with Duke, providing that the PSC agrees to the settlement, small businesses will see only a 3.42 percent rate hike spread out over two years—2.29 percent the first year and 1.13 percent the second year.  This is a 75.6 percent decrease from the original small business rate hike filed by Duke.

The overall rate increase called for in the settlement is 8.16 percent.  Residential customers would see a 9.49 percent hike and industrial 7.73 percent increase.

SCSBCC thanks ORS for its hard work in analyzing the Duke filing, a laborious and intricate accounting task, and for its commitment during the negotiations to have a fair outcome for small businesses.  While many like to disparage state workers, small businesses could not have gotten a better return on our tax dollars paying the salaries of the ORS employees.

What I learned on my flight to D.C.

Very seldom do I get to read a hard copy of The Wall Street Journal (and I never read it online because it is hidden behind a paywall). 

But on my 6:15AM flight to D.C. I did read the paper and thought I would share with you some of the interesting news.  Unless you pick up today’s paper, you’ll just have to take my word that this information is accurate since providing links to the stories won’t do you any good.

1.  Asset-based business loans are booming with $620 billion in such loans on the books today, up 25 percent since 2010.  Bank loans to small businesses stand at $584 billion, down from $713 billion in 2008.   But much of these new asset-based loans are coming from hedge funds and the recipient businesses are finding a dark side.  “It’s like financing that never goes away,” says Gary Rabin, chief executive of Advanced Cell Techonolgy.

2. Former SC Senator Jim DeMint is turning the once conservative “think tank” Heritage Foundation into a very conservative “political party” to the chagrin of Republican office holders.  Says the Heritage Action Chief Executive Mike Needham, “There’s a huge swath of the American people who feel totally unrepresented in Washington, and you have two political parties that are equally part of the problem.  We need to have a political party that steps up and says, ‘Look, it’s true, the fix is in in Washington and it might be difficult, but we’re going to be the party for you.”  Republican S.C. Congressman Mick Mulvaney is one of those critics of DeMint’s Heritage organization.  Regarding the recent battle over the farm bill Mulvaney is quoted as saying about Heritage, “We went into battle thinking they were on our side, and we find out they’re shooting at us.”

3. The U.S. economy improvement is being championed by Wall Street Journal columnists in big headlines.
Gerald Seib in his column, “Reasons to Hope Better Economic Times Lie Ahead”, gives “five reasons for long-term optimism”.
David Malpass, who served as assistant Treasury secretary to President Reagan and deputy assistant secretary of state to President George H.W. Bush, shouts in the heading of his column, “The Economy is Showing Signs of Life”.

4. After its successful launch of the small screen iPad mini now wants to explore going bigger with nearly 13 inch iPad screen.  I’ll just stick with my old 9.7 inch screen iPad.  See, I can be conservative and resist change.

Now onto the New York Times for the flight to Detroit.

Nations pulling together to fight multinational corporation freeloaders

Last month in Great Britton the collection of the world’s top eight economic nations (the G8) decided to get tough on multinational corporations evading paying taxes.  Last week the top 20 economic nations (the G-20) endorsed the outline of a plan to do the same thing. 

The full plan by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) will be presented to the G-20 in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September.  In its preliminary report the O.E.C. D made it quite clear that multinational corporations have been gaming the tax codes of countries (mostly in legal ways) to shift tax burdens to small businesses and individuals. 

However, even if the G-20 supports the final report, it will still be up to each individual country to pass the needed legislation to make the plan work.

Two years ago I joined the U.S. Senate’s leading advocate on this issue, Carl Levin, in a D.C. press conference to roll out the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act.  Unfortunately, that effort was unsuccessful but Senator Levin is our leader and is quoted as saying in recognition of the G8 and G-20 news that there is “growing global demand for reining in corporate offshore tax abuses.”  

As Senator Levin approaches his retirement from the Senate, Congress joining the rest of the world’s big economic nations in taking significant steps to make multination corporations pay their global taxes would be a great tribute to his public service.  And I, the South Carolina Small Business Chamber, American Sustainable Business Council and all the other truly small business organizations stand ready to make that recognition a reality.

Businesses supporting SCBARS

Yesterday I told you about the South Carolina Small Business Chamber’s SCBARS (South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas) project. Our press conference at the Battery in Charleston was covered by the Charleston Post & Courier and the Charleston City Paper.  Read the stories here and here.

But I didn’t tell you about the wonderful statements of support for our efforts to educate tourists about the threat of sea level rise and turn them into advocates for protecting our South Carolina coast and our small business tourism industry.

Here is what Dottie Karst, president of Charles Foster Staffing and Executive Search and board member of the Small Business Chamber, said at the press event yesterday.

While my company provides staffing services for businesses across the Southeast, we focus primarily on this beautiful area of South Carolina.  So besides being my home, this is the coastal economy that drives my business.  Well the future economy of this city is seriously threatened by the rising sea level that we know is coming.  We have a responsibility to address the cause of this threat for all the small businesses for generations to come.  That is why we must take on climate change and ask Washington to take actions to reduce carbon pollution.  We simply can’t let this beautiful city fall victim to the sea.  Oh, we could put up sea walls all around the peninsula and be that city in the 1860s under siege from an enemy.  But it is better that we act now to prevent that scenario on the horizon.  That’s why I’m proud to be a part of South Carolina Businesses Acting on Climate Change.

Finally, another Small Business Chamber board member, Roger Martinez of Stasmayer Inc., said the following yesterday.

We are one of those businesses that would be directly impacted by a 6-foot rise in sea level.  We believe the science.  The rising sea is coming.  And while I probably won’t live to the end of this century, my children will and certainly my grandchildren.  A James Island, Folly Beach, much of Charleston under water is not the future I want for my family.  And it’s not the future anyone who lives, works or owns a business along South Carolina’s coast wants.  So let’s do something about it.  I am encouraging every business owner in the Charleston area to join us in our efforts to educate not only ourselves but every tourist who visits our great coast.  We all should be advocates for protecting our coast and our small business tourism economy.  Washington will listen to us if we can get every one of us standing here today, every small business up and down our coast, and every visitor who enjoys our natural resources to demand action to cut carbon pollution and transition this country to a clean energy economy.  SC BARS will move us to that action and I’m proud to be a part of the effort.

Now the hard part--working to turn these wonderful words of support into the promised outcome.  Help us in our effort.  If you are a small business owner along our coast and would like to help by posting a sign, contact me.   And everybody should go to www.SCBARS.org and send a letter to your Congressperson and the President.  Join our army of advocates for our coastal small business tourism economy.

South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas

Today was big day for the South Carolina Small Business Chamber in our efforts to protect our small business tourism industry from the coming impact of rising seas due to climate change.

This morning we rolled out our new sea level rise education project at a press event in Charleston.  The project, called South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas (SCBARS), is a partnership with the American Sustainable Business Council that is providing the funding.

In the last several weeks the SCBARS team has been identifying businesses up and down our coast that NOAA-supplied data indicates are expected to be directly impacted by a 6-foot rise in sea level by 2100.  We’ve been knocking on their doors and educating the owners about the threat.

We ask them to post signs for the tourists to make them aware of the future danger.  Our goal is to turn the tourists into an army of advocates for protecting our coast by asking them to go to SCBARS.org.  From the website people can send letters to their Congressional delegation and President calling on them to take action to reduce carbon pollution and transition the U.S. to a clean energy economy.

The response from these businesses has been very encouraging.  This week we start delivering the signs and hopefully will get permission to place blue tape on the inside or outside of their buildings showing where the high tide will be in 2100 if nothing is done about climate change.

While this was going on in Charleston, I was meeting with the Myrtle Beach Sun News editorial board to tell them about SCBARS.

It was a good day for our small business tourism industry and with the help of our SCBARS project hopefully there will be more good days for future generations of coastal small businesses.

Oppose amnesty for tax-avoiding and tax evading corporations

You pay your taxes.  Your business pays its taxes.  Why do we want to let big corporations that don’t pay their taxes off the hook? 

Small businesses should not be subsidizing government services (ex. courts, infrastructure, defense, education) that multinational corporations use but don’t want to pay for.  But that is exactly the impact of the Partnership to Build America Act (H.R. 2084) now in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The better name would be Tax Amnesty for Multinational Corporations Act.

The bill would grant two big rewards to companies that have invested heavily in lobbyists and accountants to create and exploit lucrative offshore tax loopholes. The first would be tax amnesty on nearly $2 trillion in profits that they’ve squirreled away offshore and the second will be that they will have the ability to control the board of the Infrastructure Bank the bill would create.

We know from past experience that corporate tax holidays don’t restore America’s tax base; they erode it further. 

Equally as important, we need the money our nation spends on infrastructure to be controlled by our elected officials and public servants whom we can hold accountable, not by the very same multinational corporations that have been gaming the tax system and denying our government the funds to adequately invest in infrastructure and many other unmet needs.

Call your House member now and tell them to vote no on H.R. 2084.  Tell them that you don’t support tax amnesty for big corporations.

Call your House member now at (202) 224-3121.



 

Report: S.C. middle of the pack for business competitiveness

GSA Business
July 11, 2013

Staff Report
Published July 10, 2013

CNBC on Tuesday released its 2013 ranking of Top States for Business.

South Carolina ranked No. 23, behind neighboring Georgia, No. 8, and North Carolina, No. 12. That’s up from a ranking of 32 for South Carolina in 2012.

CNBC said it scored states on measures of competitiveness developed with input from business groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and the Council on Competitiveness. States were ranked in 10 categories and were then given an overall ranking.

South Carolina scored well in the categories measuring workforce, No. 9; cost of doing business, No. 8; and infrastructure and transportation, No. 15. But, the Palmetto State scored in the lower half on quality of life, No. 41; education, No. 36; and business friendliness, No. 34.

See the full rankings here.

http://www.gsabusiness.com/news/48236-report-s-c-middle-of-the-pack-for-business-competitiveness

Call Senator Reid TODAY for filibuster reform

This might be a decisive week for the U.S. Senate that will determine if it can carry on the routine business of the body to approve or not approve Presidential nominations to head agencies and to serve on the courts. 

According to a story in The Hill this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will meet with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus today or Thursday to gauge support for reducing the number of votes needed to change the rules of the Senate from 67 to a simple majority of 51.    

Without this rule change important appointments to head major agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board will continue to be stalled by filibusters that prevent even an up or down vote on the nominations.  This is no way to run a railroad let alone the most powerful country in the world.

Earlier efforts this year were made to convince Senator Reid that all the filibuster rules of the Senate needed to be changed, possibly requiring a “talking filibuster” as I argued for in an opinion editorial in The HiIl.  While that effort failed, ending filibusters for nominees to head agencies or serve on the courts is a big step.

Call Senator Reid’s office today and leave him a message to change the filibuster rules.  Call him at 202-224-3542.  You can either ask to talk to a staff person or simply leave a voice message.

Call now.  202-224-3542. 

UN: 2000s brought climate 'extremes'

The Hill
July 3, 2013

The first decade of the 21st century was the warmest on record and “continued an extended period of pronounced global warming,” according to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The group’s new report says the decade ending in 2010 was marked by “dramatic climate and weather extremes,” such as the European heatwave of 2003, 2010 flooding in Pakistan and droughts in several regions.

The findings arrive as President Obama is seeking traction for his wide-ranging second-term climate agenda that includes new regulations on power plant emissions.

The report notes that nine of the 10 years between 2001 and 2010 were among the warmest 10 since “modern measurements” began in 1850.

It also finds that warming has sped up over the past 40 years, noting “the decadal rate of increase in the global temperature accelerated between 1971 and 2010.”

“The global temperature increased at an average estimated rate of 0.17°C per decade during that period, while the trend over the whole period 1880–2010 was only 0.062°C per decade,” the report states.

“Furthermore, the increase of 0.21°C in the average decadal temperature from 1991–2000 to 2001–2010 is larger than the increase from 1981–1990 to 1991–2000 (+0.14°C) and larger than for any other two successive decades since the beginning of instrumental records,” the report adds.

WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud used the decade-scale averages to rebut climate skeptics who are increasingly calling attention to the slowdown in the rate of surface warming over the last 10 to 15 years even as greenhouse gases accumulate.

“The last decade was the warmest, by a significant margin,” he told The Associated Press. “If anything we should not talk about the plateau, we should talk about the acceleration.”

Elsewhere, the report takes stock of the nexus between climate change and extreme weather.

“While climate scientists believe that it is not yet possible to attribute individual extremes to climate change, they increasingly conclude that many recent events would have occurred in a different way — or would not have occurred at all — in the absence of climate change,” it states.

“For example, the likelihood of the 2003 European heatwave occurring was probably substantially increased by rising global temperatures,” it adds.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/309123-un-report-2001-2010-hottest-on-record-dramatic-extremes

 

NFIB's hollow victory

The announcement yesterday that businesses with 50 or more employees would have an extra year to comply with the Obamacare requirement that they either provide health insurance or pay a penalty was greeted with glee by the National Federation of Independent Business.

“This is simply the latest evidence that implementation of this terrible law is going to be difficult if not impossible, and the burden is going to fall on the people who create American jobs,” said Amanda Austin, Director of Federal Public Policy with the NFIB.

But of course the NFIB is wrong as usual.  The delay of this provision will have very little impact on the implementation of Obamacare as I told the media last night.  Most businesses, about 97%, have fewer than 50 workers and thus were under no mandate to offer health insurance.  Of the remaining 3%, only 3% of them do not currently offer health insurance. 

So we’re talking about 3% of 3% of businesses for which this delay is good news.  Most of these are in the hospitality or staffing industries and are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

The employees of these affected businesses will now go into the insurance exchanges to obtain their insurance and receive premium assistance.  The October roll-out of these marketplaces has not been changed and neither has the individual mandate to have health insurance.  Will there be future hiccups in implementation?  Of course. 

But instead of cheering for this reprieve for a very small number of employers, the NFIB should be worrying.  For years this small-business pretender organization has been screaming that the employer mandate should be stopped because it was going to put companies out of business or drive up their costs or cause extensive job loss.

Now that the NFIB has gotten what it wants, if only for one year, the country is going to find out that Obamacare isn’t so bad after all.  For the real job-creators, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, the NFIB can no longer hide behind their lies about mandates.  The exchanges should provide an easier path to being insured for the workers in these small businesses whether their employers do or do not offer health insurance. 

Fear of the unknown has been the ally of the NFIB and they hyped that fear with their untruths about the future under Obamacare.  Now the future is almost here and small businesses are going to find out that, as FDR told the nation in 1933, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

Settlement with Duke Energy close

Yesterday the SC Office of Regulatory Staff filed a proposed settlement between Duke Energy and most of the parties that have intervened in the rate case.  You can read the “stipulation”here.

The settlement is not a done deal and could fall apart.  But it shows the importance of being involved in the regulatory process to advocate for your constituents.  While several business organizations have appeared at the recent public hearings in Spartanburg, Greenville and Anderson to sing the praises of Duke’s philanthropy and providing of energy instead of voicing objection to a 14% rate hike on their members, the Small Business Chamber has been the advocate solely for the small businesses of the state in opposing the rate hike. 

The South Carolina Small Business Chamber is in agreement with the stipulation as long as the details, most of which are not evident in the document, come to fruition as discussed in the negotiations.  The small businesses in Duke’s service area will be very pleased if this comes to fruition.

Opposing Duke Energy’s Rate Hike

On Saturday, the president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce filed his direct testimony in Duke Energy ‘s electric rate case before the state’s Public Service Commission.

Duke is seeking a 15.1% average increase for all customers and 14% for small businesses. 

Mr. Knapp’s testimony argues that the company’s request is unjustified both in its entirety and specifically for small businesses.  You can read the full testimony here.

Here are the key points Mr. Knapp makes in his testimony:

-Duke is requesting a far higher return on equity than is necessary for the company to be profitable.

-Duke is not offering its customers On-Bill financing to help them afford to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes or businesses in order to save money on their utility bills.

-Duke has used its influence to block legislation that would remove the biggest barrier to customers using solar energy by allowing third parties to purchase and install solar panels on buildings and then selling the electricity it to the occupants.

-Duke’s proposed rates forces small businesses to unfairly subsidize all other classes of customers including big businesses.

You can find the full testimony here.