Case study on RangeFuels: Americantaxpayers invested $162 million in a biofuel company and all they have to showfor it is 4 million gallons of bio fuel, a closed plant and 4 employees WallStreet Journal (2/9/11) reports: Vinod Khosla stepped in with his hand out.The political venture capitalist founded Range Fuels and in March 2007 itreceived a $76 million grant from the Department of Energy—one of sixcellulosic projects the Bush Administration selected for $385 million ingrants. Range said...

AsCape Wind searches for buyers of its expensive energy, the Obama Administrationfast tracks more wind projects USAToday (2/7/11) reports: The Obama administration announced plans Monday tospend $50 million to speed the development of offshore wind farms, aiming tolease wind farms off four Mid-Atlantic states by the end of this year…TheInterior Department said it will expedite environmental reviews for four windprojects off the coasts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey....

You can’tsqueeze blood out of a turnip or energy from woodchips, but you can squeezemoney out of a taxpayer WashingtonExaminer (2/6/11) reports: To turn wood chipsinto ethanol fuel, George W. Bush's Department of Energy in February 2007announced a $76 million grant to Range Fuels for a cutting-edge refinery. A fewmonths later, the refinery opened in the piney woods of Treutlen County, Ga.,as the taxpayers of Georgia piled on another $6 million. In 2008, the ethanolplant was the first...

Permitorium: Shell is the latest casualty fromthe war on affordable and reliable energy; EPA and DOE carry out Obama'smyopic  energy views while the consumer suffers high energy prices New York Times (2/3/11) reports: Shell CEO Peter Voser in anearnings call with reporters said the company would need to spend as much as$150 million without knowing whether it would receive needed permits from U.S.EPA and the Interior Department..."Despite our investment in acreage andtechnology and our work...

Themarket has spoken: wind installations were down 50% in 2010. The reason? AWEAsays uncertainty about long-term federal support of wind industry. AWEA(1/24/11) reports: New wind powered generating capacity installed in 2010 inthe US was roughly half that installed in 2009, but there is a fairly robustpipeline of new capacity currently under construction, the American Wind EnergyAssociation said Monday… AWEA attributed the falloffto uncertainty about long term federal policies in support...

Republicans appear to be growing some backbone, which as you mightexpect, bothers the Murkowski crew. Politico . Withthe backing of GOP caucus leaders, aides for House Energy and Commerce ChairmanFred Upton (R-Mich.) and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee rankingmember Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) are seeking unwavering support from a host ofindustries for an all-out push to block federal and state climate rules. Sen.Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) – who last year offered a Senate...

One last, excellent wordabout the Frances Beinecke Commission before it fades into obscurity.Washington Examiner. It wasn'thard to predict the sort of recommendations to expect from the seven-memberNational Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drillingwhen President Obama appointed Natural Resources Defense Council PresidentFrances Beinecke, Union of Concerned Scientists board member Fran Ulmer andfive other Democratic donors to the panel. All seven oppose offshore...

A gripping storyfeaturing the world’s oldest profession (AWEA, natch), some amateurrent-seeking (NEI), and one stand-up performance by Dan Whitten at ANGA.E&E News . Thewind industry's largest trade group a few months ago rejected the idea of a"clean power" mandate on utilities that included nuclear, some coaland natural gas as options. But American Wind Energy has a new opinion today.We’re open to talking about anything at this point," said Rob Gramlich,AWEA's senior vice president of...