In the Pipeline: 1/9/13

This dude is the rock for our roll. Energy Guardian (1/9/13) reports: “The effort by conservative Republican lawmakers and anti-tax groups to end tax breaks for renewable energy didn’t go anywhere in Congress last year, but that’s not stopping Rep. Mike Pompeo from trying again… The bill has the backing of key conservative groups that oppose renewable energy tax breaks, according to a letter Pompeo is circulating to colleagues.”

With the right energy policy, this could be America. Bloomberg(1/7/13) reports: “Legislators in Texas, the biggest energy producer among U.S. states, will begin deliberating its next two-year budget with a surplus forecast today to match an $8.8 billion record set in 2007… The Texas economy has topped budget projections over the past 15 months, as booming energy output fueled job growth and an 11 percent fiscal first-quarter gain in sales-tax receipts, the biggest source of general-fund revenue. Even after paying off $7 billion in health and school bills, Comptroller Susan Combs said today that the state will be flush heading into 2014.”

I guess now that they can’t lobby for cap and trade, or for an environmentally and economically destructive ethanol program, or against access to our natural resources, or screw up wetlands policy, these retreads from the catastrophic Bush “Administration” figured it was time to work the other side of the street.  And just in case we missed the point, the whole thing is being funded by the collectivists over at the Environmental Defense Fund. E&ENews (1/8/13) reports: “The CLC has spent plenty of time in recent months thinking about the costs associated with the country’s many environmental challenges and has sought to provide solutions that conservatives can embrace… Formed last year and featuring several former George W. Bush administration officials, CLC hopes to be a new voice for free-market, limited-government conservation efforts that can garner support and reignite environmental debate in conservative and libertarian circles.”

Seriously dude, the science is settled.  Shut up and stop asking questions about the data. The Telegraph (1/8/13) reports: “Although the first decade of the 21st century was the warmest on record, warming has not been as rapid since 2000 as over the longer period since the 1970s,” he said. “This variability in global temperatures is not unusual, with several periods lasting a decade or more with little or no warming since the instrumental record began.”

Wait, really?  That’s all the debate boils down to?  It has nothing to do with millions of people trying to improve their lives with access to affordable and reliable energy?  Nothing to do with silly things like science, markets, technology and BTUs? Forbes(1/2/13) reports: “The clean energy subsidy debate is one of the most contested, but unsophisticated policy debates in Washington today. It largely boils down to a specific energy industry fighting to extend its preferred subsidy and anti-clean energy advocates fighting to eliminate said subsidy. As a result, little attention is paid to how these policy incentives impact clean energy innovation and whether energy technologies need different types of support or better deployment support all together.”

In all fairness, he left out that the royal house of Qatar also bankrolled Matt Damon’s propaganda flop. Forbes (1/8/13) reports: “Al-Jazeera, the anti-Israeli network funded by Qatar, closed a deal with the struggling left-wing cable station Current TV founded by Al Gore which gives the them access to 40 million U.S. homes. Unfortunately for Mr. Gore, the purchase wasn’t consummated until January 2nd, depriving him of success in his efforts to beat the clock on an estimated $100 million payback before higher tax rates kicked in on January 1.”

What do you get when you live in a society where the predators start to outweigh the producers? Monkey-Wrenching America (1/7/13) reports: “The industry has ebbed and flowed a bit as various direct subsidies have waxed and waned. But wind’s most sustained growth spurt coincided with the renewable energy portfolio fad that swept the states, mandating markets where little or no natural market existed… Dr. David Dismukes, of Louisiana State University, examined the role various government interventions have played in the growth of the industry in a recent report, ”Removing Big Wind’s Training Wheels: The Case for Ending the Federal Production Tax Credit.” Here’s part of what the report had to say about renewable energy production mandates.”

Bonner does solid work.  This is no exception. National Center for Public Policy Research (1/8/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to bypass normal regulatory procedures to stop a mining project in a remote part of Alaska could have profound implications for domestic mining across the U.S., according to Dr. Bonner Cohen in a scathing new report, “The EPA’s Pebble Mine Assessment Puts Politics Above Sound Science.”… The report, available athttp://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA646.html, has been submitted to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for use in an investigation of the EPA related to the proposed Pebble Mine project.”