In the Pipeline: 4/8/11

President Obama is a man of his word when it comes to increasing the cost of energy Washington Times (4/7/11) reports: President Obama held a town hall meeting Wednesday at a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fairless Hills, Pa., to promote his Big Green energy agenda. Not everyone in the audience was receptive to his message…When one man failed to clap as Obama talked about government forcing higher fuel efficiency standards (which, contrary to the president, did not reduce U.S. oil imports a single drop), Obama teased him: “If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting eight miles a gallon — (laughter) — you may have a big family, … How many you have? Ten kids, you say? (Laughter.) Well, you definitely need a hybrid van then.”…In fact, there are no family-sized hybrid minivans on sale now, and any that come online in the near future will likely cost somewhere north of $30,000. We doubt that a family of 12, or even an average family of four, has that much money just lying around to invest in Obama’s Big Green dreams. But we’ve seen this Obama many times before. Instead of understanding the challenges facing his fellow Americans, and working to lower their energy costs, Obama lectures them about the alleged errors of their ways and tells them how they should spend their hard-earned money. The Fairless Hills exchange was an illustration of the professional politician who thinks he’s the boss, when in fact he is supposed to be the elected servant.

Great, now we can get rid of subsidies for wind E&E News (4/7/11) subscription required reports: Though the U.S. wind industry installed half as much capacity last year as it did in 2009, production streamlining and efficiency improvements mean wind can compete evenly with cheap natural gas, wind industry executives said today…There was 5,116 megawatts of new capacity installed across the nation in 2010, down sharply from nearly 10,000 MW the year before. But the industry grew by about 15 percent as new equipment manufacturing facilities sprouted in almost every state….And heated competition has driven prices down much more quickly than anticipated, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) told investors at a wind finance workshop now under way….As a result, wind power generators say they can now offer utilities long-term purchase power agreements (PPAs) at the same price as natural gas-fired power plants…”Wind is mainstream and affordable,” said Randolph Mann, vice president of wind development at Edison Mission Energy. “Wind has demonstrated its competitiveness.”

I guess hanging around the yacht all day in the sun lowers your IQ E&E News (4/7/11) subscription required reports: A House Republican this week joined the ranks of Democrats calling to eliminate the liability cap for oil companies involved in a spill…Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) yesterday floated a measure that would, among other things, eliminate the current $75 million liability cap for oil companies involved in an oil spill…Scores of Democrats since last summer have been calling for an elimination of the liability limit for economic damages in the wake of the BP PLC oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Most Republicans agree that the cap should be raised, but they are generally opposed to eliminating it outright. Buchanan, whose Sarasota-based district is along the Gulf Coast, is a notable exception…”Oil companies that are responsible for catastrophic oil spills must be held financially accountable for the damage they cause to the environment, and to businesses and communities whose livelihood depends on a clean ocean,” a fact sheet detailing Buchanan’s new bill says…Oil companies are legally on the hook for the full cost of containing and cleaning up an oil spill. But they are currently required to pay $75 million toward economic damages — people put out of work by the spill, fishermen who cannot fish and empty hotel rooms on the beach at high season.

Friend of the cause, David Kreutzer crunches the energy numbers of Obama’s vision for a clean energy standard and it looks like your cat is about to be skinned Heritage Foundation (4/7/11) reports: Eighty-five percent of the energy that fuels the American economy is from coal, petroleum, and natural gas. An unavoidable by-product of burning these fuels is carbon dioxide (CO2). Analyses of the Waxman–Markey cap-and-trade bill make clear that CO2-reduction targets will not be met through increases in renewable energy production. So, cutting CO2 means cutting energy use; and cutting energy use means throttling economic growth. The President’s recently proposed clean-energy standard (CES) seeks cuts that are just as severe as those under Waxman–Markey… When cap-and-trade legislation died last year, President Barack Obama famously said, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” This may well be true, but the cat gets the same bad deal either way. So it is with global-warming legislation and the economy. Government-forced cuts in energy use, whether by cap and trade or by a clean-energy standard, would cut incomes and destroy jobs.