In the Pipeline: 8/22/12

In a sea of chaos, an island of reason. AEA (August 29, 2012) hosts: “Stephen Moore, editorial board member and senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, will lead a panel discussion in a lively debate on America’s energy future.
With vast energy resources and advances in technology to unlock them, America has the potential to lead the world in energy production and spark a revitalization of the manufacturing industry.”
 
You know what is really going to lead to societal collapse?  Terrible anti-energy votes by Congressmen. Bangor Daily News(8/20/12) reports: “There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability,” Bartlett predicts in “Urban Danger,” a documentary that features the cabin tour. “And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing, to move their families.”
 
Shale gas will cut U.S. wind, solar energy demand, Barclays report says (and that’s why the Sierra Club is now anti-gas because nat gas is now inexpensive, and unlike wind and solar, reliable). E&ENews (8/21/12) reports: “Barclays analysts lowered their forecast for wind demand in the United States by 12 percent for 2014 and 9 percent for 2015 because of a greater share of shale gas in the U.S. energy mix.”
 
Energy and Commerce is very solid.  Now on to the Utility MACT.Energy & Commerce (8/21/12) reports: “Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee welcomed today’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to block implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, one of several stringent new EPA rules affecting power plants that are expected to drive electricity prices higher and put jobs at risk.”
 
A regulatory swap?  No one is talking about that.  And none of the bad guys would offer automobile mandates, the RFS, all efficiency standards, and the GHG regs in exchange for a tax that some nominal Republicans are already planning for without even considering such a trade. Greenwire (8/21/12) reports: “The R-Street Institute is allegedly free-market and limited government, but you have to wonder then their founder says about a carbon tax, “If it’s a true tax and regulatory swap, I don’t see any reason why conservatives wouldn’t support it.” Does Lehrer really believe that the federal government will remove CAFE standards, all energy efficiency standards, the ethanol mandate, the cellulosic ethanol mandate, AND not increase taxes with a carbon tax. They must be smoking some fun stuff up on R-Street.”
 
Is anyone missing here?  Other than coal guys (40% of electricity), natural gas guys (Boone most definitely does not count; he is just a plutocrat), or actual Republicans? Politico (August 2012) reports: “Guests: Alliance to Save Energy’s Kateri Callahan; American Petroleum Institute’s Martin Durbin; Nuclear Energy Institute’s Alex Flint; energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens; and Solar Energy Industries Association’s Rhone Resch.”
 
Yikes, Here is Boone again.  I wonder if he is going to pimp the NAT GAS Act.  I really wonder who puts these things together for the Republican convention.  Are they aware that the caucus rejected Boone’s plan pretty much en masse? Business Wire (8/17/12) reports: “Guest speakers and moderators will include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, oil and gas executive, financier and billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens and former Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Cass Sunstein.”
 
I wonder if Heathcliff and Cathy preferred bird-killing, expensive, unreliable energy? Daily Mail (8/19/12) reports: “And now campaigners opposing plans for a wind farm near Haworth, West Yorkshire, are facing a war on two fronts, as another energy firm attempts to place turbines on the landscape at the heart of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.”