In the Pipeline: 4/8/13

It must be stressful for President Obama to empathize with such a backwards way of thinking. WSJ (4/5/13) reports: “At the home of hedge-fund billionaire Thomas Steyer, Mr. Obama was at pains to explain how the proletariat think. “You may be concerned about the temperature of the planet, but it’s probably not rising to your number one concern,” Mr. Obama said. “And if people think, well, that’s shortsighted, that’s what happens when you’re struggling to get by.” In other words, it’s easier to reach a higher state of liberal consciousness when you can afford a home overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.”

Who was it that the President said is shortsighted? Twitchy (4/5/13) reports: “Not even ABC News could overlook the obvious parallels between layoffs today at Fisker Automotive and another spectacular, high-profile failure of the Obama administration’s “green energy” push. Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the government, wasn’t a total loss; someone found a way to salvage the company’s inventory for an art exhibit. Fisker isn’t a museum piece yet, but things aren’t looking good.”

It is not just about natural gas. It is about manufacturing. It is about prosperity. It is about economic growth. Reuters (3/28/13) reports: “Such is the impact of the shale gas revolution in the United States that it’s quite possible that babies born today will no longer play with plastic dolls and cars made in China… It’s almost become a fait accompli that China is the world’s factory, but the early warning signs that this may be changing are starting to show.”

What’s really fun is that the masks worn by these eco-occupy-thugs are made from petrochemicals. We wonder what they’ll shield their cowardly lives with once they’ve rid the world of fossil fuels. National Review (4/4/13) reports: “In all my years of reporting on campus conflicts, this is the most appalling instance of political correctness I can recall. That students would advocate paying an articulate libertarian conservative not to speak on campus signifies the near-collapse of the ethos of classic liberal education. If Epstein’s views were as indefensible as Serio claims, questioning him in person would be precisely the way to expose that. Any way you slice it, students would learn from the talk. Yet Serio would prefer to spend thousands in student funds to prevent the dreaded Epstein from speaking.”

Yes, George, we should consider the impact of energy sources on human health and well-being. Like lifting billions of people out of poverty, lowering infant mortality rates, and increasing life-expectancy, thereby allowing people to advocate for nonsense like the carbon tax well into their 90’s. WSJ (4/7/13) reports: “We think this idea should be applied to energy producers. They all should bear the full costs of the use of the energy they provide. Most of these costs are included in what it takes to produce the energy in the first place, but they vary greatly in the price imposed on society by the pollution they emit and its impact on human health and well-being, the air we breathe and the climate we create. We should identify these costs and see that they are attributed to the form of energy that causes them.”

Here’s what you need to know about Bill Burton. First, he is very good at what he does. Second, he does nothing for free. All Risk No Reward (4/13) reports: “The cost-benefit analysis of this risky venture makes it clear that the pipeline is not in our national interest… The lengthy laundry list of risks—to water1, public health2, and climate3, not to mention the fine print4—is not worth a pipeline that exports oil to foreign countries like China and Venezuela, does nothing to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and creates only 35 permanent jobs.”

Okay, so we know that wind and solar come up short, but how about Piezolectric Energy? ThinkProgress (4/7/13) reports: “People move. All the time. Wouldn’t it be great to harness that movement and help power our cities with the movement of people living in them? The Paris Marathon will happen on Sunday, and the organizers are going to lay down some special tiles across the course. While runners are concerned with charging their internal batteries with carbs and sustaining them with goo, their footsteps will charge other batteries:”