In the Pipeline: 6/14/13

After all, we’re just on a big hamster wheel at the Obama administration’s service. Daily Caller (6/13/13) report: “The White House raised its estimates of the social cost of carbon dioxide emissions from $21 per metric ton to $35 per metric ton, but critics say that there is ‘little ‘science’ behind the whopping numbers.’… ‘The ‘social cost of carbon’ is a very malleable concept that can be inflated or deflated by turning certain wheels,’ Institute for Energy Research senior fellow Robert Murphy told The Daily Caller News Foundation.”

Congressman Cramer gets right to the point: this cost of carbon effort is about making energy more expensive. Congressman Cramer(6/12/13) reports: “Virtually overnight, every motor vehicle, coal-fired power plant, kitchen appliance, and any other activity or object which produces carbon has become 60% more undesirable in the eyes of the Obama Administration. This secretive change could open the floodgates for more EPA regulations, the costs of which will be passed onto working taxpayers in the form of higher costs for gasoline, electricity, and everything we produce, grow, and manufacture. North Dakotans currently enjoy the lowest price for both natural gas and electricity of any state. Instead of asking us how we do it, the Obama Administration is trying to dismantle it,” Cramer said.

You know someone is a complete bore when all they talk about is the weather, particularly when that person starts to become a weather expert. I think it’s safe to say the greenies are your worst cocktail-party-small-talk nightmare. Townhall (6/6/13) reports: “Another symptom of green obstructionism: widespread bark beetle infestations. The U.S. Forest Service itself reported last year: ‘During the last part of the 20th century, widespread treatments in lodgepole pine stands that would have created age class diversity, enhanced the vigor of remaining trees, and improved stand resiliency to drought or insect attack — such as timber harvest and thinning — lacked public acceptance. Proposals for such practices were routinely appealed and litigated, constraining the ability of the Forest Service to manage what had become large expanses of even-aged stands susceptible to a bark beetle outbreak.’”

It’d still be a scam even if they built an actual wind farm. Denver Post(6/13/13) reports: “A federal judge has sentenced a California man to two years in prison for his role in defrauding investors by promoting non-existent wind farm projects in Wyoming and South Dakota… U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl on Thursday also ordered that 55-year-old Joseph Richard Adams of Los Angeles share responsibility for restitution estimated at $4.5 million… Adams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud last August, the first of the five defendants to plead guilty. The other four defendants are set for sentencing this summer before Skavdahl.”

The Europeans have finally realized that you don’t run faster by shooting yourself in the foot. Let’s see if His Majesty is able to gaze longingly into the Old World and pick this lesson up. USA Today (6/13/13) reports: “As the Department of Energy considers a loan guarantee for the Cape Wind Project in Massachusetts, it should learn from Europe’s failed wind energy experiments – and from its own troubled experiences with renewable energy projects… Germany and Spain are waking up to the inevitable truth about renewable energy, especially offshore wind. They are now realizing the projects cannot survive without subsidies and that they make energy much more expensive to households and businesses. In an age of austerity, they are a luxury even Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, cannot fully afford any more.”

On Wednesday, a large crew sent a letter to Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor calling for a Floor vote on Chairman Scalise’s resolution expressing the sense of the United States Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the economy. View the letter here, and if you or an organization that you know of would like to join our growing ranks for these effort contact us at[email protected]. 

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance
Myron Ebell, Freedom Action
Phil Kerpen, American Commitment
William O’Keefe, George C. Marshall Institute
Lawson Bader, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
Joe Bast, Heartland Institute
David Ridenour, National Center for Public Policy Research
Michael Needham, Heritage Action for America
Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Sabrina Schaeffer, Independent Women’s Forum
Barrett E. Kidner, Caesar Rodney Institute
George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom
Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government
Wayne Brough, FreedomWorks
Rich Collins, Positive Growth Alliance
Craig Richardson, American Tradition Institute
The Honorable George Allen, American Energy Freedom Center

Finally, we thank one of our own, Johnny Russell. Johnny is leaving the AEA/IER family to find greener pastures, teaching history to high schoolers in Colorado. Thanks for your service Johnny, you will be missed.