In the Pipeline: 4/16/13

Let me explain how this works. Washington Gas agrees to buy wind power in an amount equal to the amount Union Station uses each year. They charge ratepayers more. The generators get a federal subsidy (about 1/4 of the total price) from taxpayers and get to generate power even when no one wants it. States in which the power is generated get to say they are meeting their portfolio mandates. Union Station gets the PR bump. Who pays for all this? You do, sucker. E&ENews (4/12/13) reports: “A central fixture in keeping Congress running is now relying 100 percent on wind energy… Union Station in Washington, D.C., has signed a three-year contract with Herndon, Va.-based Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES) to fulfill all its electricity needs from wind farms based around the region, the company announced this week.”

So when you rob Peter to pay Paul, we are at least going to alert Peter. AEA (4/15/13) reports: “American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle was joined today by eight other free market organizations in a joint letter to governors of 21 U.S. states that do not force their citizens to purchase unaffordable, intermittent electricity from renewable sources. The letter urges these governors to oppose any further extension of the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) that unfairly forces their states to subsidize such mandates in other states. The coalition chose to send the letter on Tax Day, a day when Americans have a heightened awareness of the direct cost that bad government policy imposes on them and their families.”

Heck, we could’ve bought 30 more Solyndras in 2010 with all the money wasted on duplicative and overlapping energy programs! IER (4/15/2013) reports: “The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued its third annual report exposing unnecessary duplication and overlapping programs throughout the federal government.[i] The report outlines more than $95 billion spent per year on duplicative programs and inefficient practices that is more than enough to offset the costs of sequestration. GAO identified 17 areas in which evidence of fragmentation, overlap, or duplication among federal programs or activities exists, covering a broad range of government missions and functions, including international affairs, science and the environment, training, defense, information technology, agriculture, and energy.”

Here we go again… Bloomberg (4/11/13) reports: “It starts with getting into the transportation sector. When I started the Pickens Plan in 2008, there were about 200,000 vehicles on natural gas in the world; now there’s about 16 million. That growth’s coming from everywhere but the U.S. Places like Iran and Argentina. China’s already got 40,000 trucks on LNG [liquefied natural gas], and they import the stuff. And here we are in the U.S., with more natural gas than any other country in the world, and we aren’t doing a thing about it. It’s just amazing to me that these dumb f-‍-‍-s in D.C. don’t see this opportunity and try to capitalize on it.”