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In the Pipeline: 7/11/13

July 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It is sad that the Administration has been reduced to hiding behind Senator Boxer’s skirts. Sad and repulsive. Environment and Public Works Committee (7/9/13) reports: “U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), today was joined by fellow EPW Republicans in sending a letter to Chairman Barbara Boxer (R-Calif.) asking her to reconsider her decision to exclude government witnesses in the upcoming hearing Climate Change: It’s Happening Now. ‘The American people should not be kept in the dark regarding the scope of the actions this Administration is taking under the guise of controlling our climate – actions that have the potential to negatively impact employment, job creation, and our national debt.’”

Margaret, Anna, Bryan, Zac, and Luke are true warriors. Politico (7/11/13) reports: “Louisiana Sen. David Vitter declared victory this week in his battle with the Environmental Protection Agency, and in return removed a major obstacle for Gina McCarthy’s quest to head the agency. What did he get in return? Quite a lot. Vitter didn’t score across-the-board wins on all his requests for changes in the agency’s behavior, but he negotiated smaller wins that could have long-term implications for how it manages lawsuits, releases data and gauges the economic impact of regulations.”

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. North East Windmills (7/10/13) reports: “Nordex, one of the major wind turbine manufacturers in the world, is going to close its manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas and return production to Germany. ‘The plant, lured to Arkansas with millions of dollars in state incentives, will cease production after it fills current orders. When Nordex officials and the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce announced plans to build the $100 million facility in the Craighead Technology Park in 2008, they said the wind turbine manufacturer would employ at least 700 workers with average wages of $17 an hour.’”

At least she flat out admits that these massive wind farms in England are in no way economical without “very high subsidies.”


Beating up on Josh is just getting too easy. The Center for Industrial Progress(7/9/13) reports: “In this episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein talks with Thomas Pyle, President of the Institute for Energy Research, about Gasland 2, the new anti-fracking documentary by Josh Fox. Thomas has been debating Fox in the past few weeks.”

We fight for Jimmy Rose. For the little girl holding the sign up at the parade in Lovington, New Mexico. For the struggling business owner in Colorado. For everyone who depends on affordable, reliable energy to make a living or just make a life.

 

 

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In the Pipeline:7/10/13

July 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This is a fun read…if you’re a Communist. Fox News (7/9/13) reports: “The Obama administration should dramatically reorganize the relationships between America’s federal departments and agencies, and overcome legal barriers to help install the nebulous principle of “sustainability” across government, the economy and society at large, according to a new National Research Council study sponsored by many of the federal departments that would be most affected.”

Don’t tell Harry Reid. Atlas Obscura reports: “Two billion years ago, the uranium-rich mineral deposits became flooded with groundwater, setting off a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. The energy that was subsequently released then raised temperatures enough to begin boiling away the water, but when the mineral deposits eventually cooled down the nuclear reactions would start back up again. By examining the levels of certain isotopes of xenon gas (a byproduct of the uranium fission process) in the surrounding rock, scientists have determined the natural reactor proceeded in this start-stop fashion at intervals of about two and a half hours.”

There is no doubt that this guy did not get the memo about the science being settled and the President having no time to debate it (right before jetting off to his vacation in Africa). There is also no doubt that he will get a bad tent in the reeducation camp. Leavenworth St.(6/24/13) reports: “A very strange thing has been happening on the way to the global meltdown. The temperature has stopped going up. For the last 15 years. Yes, that’s quite a long time, but only recently have the mainstream media, and parts of the climate science community, felt compelled to recognize it.”

Like the young man at the end says: the carbon tax is ‘basically a gun to your head.’ E&E News (7/9/13) reports: “In a suburban city hall three weeks ago, about a dozen Republicans in their 20s practiced their plans to make climate change a central issue for conservatives. The Wisconsin students participated in a five-hour meeting with former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) to establish the groundwork for a campaign designed to recruit young conservatives who want to wrestle the climate issue away from Democrats.”

It’s refreshing to find a few intellectually honest folks on the other side. They are few and far between. The Daily Kos (7/7/13) reports: “My colleagues in the environmental movement are fond of showing the Gasland video products to citizens and claiming to use the movies as an ‘educational’ tool. The problem with Gasland is that it is entertainment that actually is ‘science denial’ and thus not fitting as an educational documentary or journalism.”

Senator Blutarsky reviews Gasland II.

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In the Pipeline: 7/9/13

July 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Let us save you three hours of avant garde, pouty whisper-narration: this is Gasland 1 retold with every inaccuracy, hoax, and outright lie. Don’t watch this movie, not because it’s so terribly presented and lacks any kind tie of reality, but because time is precious and there are so many better ways to spend those three long hours. Washington Free Beacon (7/8/13) reports: “Environmentalist filmmaker Josh Fox presents a hoax perpetrated by a Texas activist designed to malign an innovative oil and gas extraction technique as sensational evidence of its catastrophic environmental impact. Fox’s new film, Gasland Part II, features a powerful scene showing a Texas landowner lighting the contents of a garden hose on fire. The incident is presented as evidence of water contamination from a nearby hydraulic fracturing operation. According to a Texas court, the scene was actually a hoax devised by a Texas environmental activist engaged in a prolonged battle with a local gas company to falsely inflate the supposed dangers of the oil and gas extraction technique, also known as fracking.”

I wonder if anyone should sue wind turbines for, you, know, actually killing birds. E&E News (7/8/13) reports: “Owners and operators of a planned California power plant would pay $2 million to mitigate pollution on two low-income communities and an endangered butterfly under a settlement agreement announced today by an environmental group. The Oakley Generating Station will be one of a handful of power plants approved or already operating near the low-income communities of Antioch and Oakley. Also near the station: the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge, home to the Lange’s metalmark butterfly, which has been on the endangered species list since 1976. Emissions from power plants increase the amount of nitrogen in the refuge’s soil, which has enabled invasive weeds to take over natural vegetation that the butterfly depends on for survival, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Center for Biological Diversity partnered with environmental justice groups Wild Equity Institute and Communities for a Better Environment to challenge construction of the power plant. The groups settled with the developers, Contra Costa Generating Station LLC and Radback Energy Inc., which agreed to pay $2 million, split evenly, for mitigation of human health and environmental impacts.”

In case you missed this, Treasury concluded that all the tax credits and grants and what not for wind and solar haven’t really amounted to much. Platts (6/20/13) reports: “Current federal energy-tax provisions are doing almost nothing to reduce US greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a US Treasury Department-sponsored study released Thursday. The study, conducted by the National Research Council, found that roughly $48 billion in energy-sector tax expenditures — including oil and gas depletion allowances, production tax credits for wind and other renewable energy sources and biofuels provisions — have had minimal impact. These tax expenditures and subsidies ‘are a poor tool for reducing greenhouse gases and achieving climate-change objectives,’ the study claims.”

This is a terrible tragedy, and our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones. Let’s hope that Tom Steyer and Bill McKibbon think long and hard about this tragedy before staging their next political stunt. Bloomberg (7/9/13) reports: “A growing number of North American communities are exposed to risks of derailments and spills from trains carrying crude oil as rising production increases rail shipments across the continent and pipelines such as TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL are delayed. More than 70 runaway tank cars filled with thousands of barrels of crude derailed and exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, July 6, killing at least 13 people and incinerating 30 buildings in the town. About 35 additional people remain missing. The disaster intensified the debate over the safety of transporting oil by train compared to pipelines, which have their own record of spills.”

You think the CEO would be able to zip up the man suit enough to do his own caving. But sending Melissa out to do it is probably more corporate. The White House (6/27/13) reports: “The President appears to be taking a balanced approach to addressing the issue. The focus on resilience, clean coal technologies, electric vehicles, energy efficiency and transmission investment demonstrates that the Administration is looking at a full portfolio of actions to address the issue – not just cutting emissions from power plants. We look forward to working with the Administration to support those efforts.” American Electric Power | Melissa McHenry, Spokeswoman

The Department of Interior hates affordable, reliable energy, economic growth, and people. Other than that.. The Federal Register (7/5/13): “This order withdraws 303,900 acres of public lands from location and entry under the United States mining laws, subject to valid existing rights, for a period of 20 years to protect 17 Solar Energy Zones (SEZ) for future solar energy development. The lands have been and will remain open to mineral and geothermal leasing, and mineral material sales.”

Gov. Cuomo and his attorney general have yet to indict Mother Nature. Gizmodo (7/8/13) reports: “This is a light that never goes out: an eternal flame, hidden behind a waterfall in Erie county, New York, which is a result of natural gas seeping out from underground rocks. While gas seeps are extremely common, if the flow concentrates into a “macroseep”—a strong concentrated stream of gas—it can ignite and perhaps never go out. This one burns two pounds of gas, most of which is methane, every day, and the flame reaches eight inches in height. The gas comes from a shale formation about 400 meters below the surface—a result of “natural fracking”, where tectonic events have shifted underlying rocks and caused the gas to escape.”

 

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In the Pipeline: 7/8/13

July 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A fitting and ironic end. Unfortunately, the damage done by the peak oil disciples will not be unwound quite so abruptly. The Oil Drum (7/3/13) reports: “A few weeks ago the ISEOF board (The Institute for Energy and Our Future that facilitates The Oil Drum), Euan, Super G, JoulesBurn, and Myself, met to discuss the future of The Oil Drum. A discussion we have had several times in the last year, due to scarcity of new content caused by a dwindling number of contributors. Despite our best efforts to fill this gap we have not been able to significantly improve the flow of high quality articles. Because of this and the high expense of running the site, the board has unanimously decided that the best course of action is to convert the site to a static archive of previously published material as of 31st July 2013.”

I mean, what could go wrong? Investors Business Daily (7/5/13) reports: “In a seemingly innocuous revision of its Energy Star efficiency requirements announced June 27, the Environmental Protection Agency included an ‘optional’ requirement for a ‘smart-grid’ connection for customers to electronically connect their refrigerators or freezers with a utility provider. The feature lets the utility provider regulate the appliances’ power consumption, ‘including curtailing operations during more expensive peak-demand times.’ So far, manufacturers are not required to include the feature, only ‘encouraged,’ and consumers must still give permission to turn it on. But with the Obama administration’s renewed focus on fighting mythical climate change, we expect it to become mandatory to save the planet from the perils of keeping your beer too cold.”

We knew the folks across the pond had issues 237 years ago, but they still haven’t figured things out yet. Bloomberg (6/27/13) reports: “The U.K. will pay offshore wind developers triple the market price for electricity they generate under a subsidy program to boost renewable energy that by 2020 will cost consumers 7.6 billion pounds ($11.6 billion) a year. The Department of Energy also detailed rates paid for solar, hydropower, biomass conversion and onshore wind farms as well as boosting to 3.8 billion pounds the capitalization of its Green Investment Bank. The Treasury will guarantee debts for building a new nuclear station. The measures are part of an effort by Prime Minister David Cameron to lure 110 billion pounds for new power plants by the end of the decade. Offshore wind and nuclear reactors are at the heart of the plan to replace aging power plants and cut pollution from fossil fuels. The nation’s biggest utilities have yet to pledge enough funding to reduce the risk of blackouts.”

The $2.3 million grant from taxpayers couldn’t save them from them from the realities of the market. The Missoulian (7/4/13) reports: “Hoku Corp., the parent company of a polysilicon manufacturing plant in eastern Idaho, has filed for bankruptcy in Pocatello federal court, reporting debt at nearly $1 billion. Hoku, which owns Hoku Materials, made the Chapter 7 filing Tuesday, the Idaho State Journal reported. Hoku Materials started building the $700 million plant five years ago as interest in solar energy grew and polysilicon prices rose. The company said it would to bring hundreds of higher paying jobs to Pocatello. But then polysilicon prices began to plummet. The company’s financial woes came to light about a year ago, when it announced $14.4 million in cash and assets, and $278.8 million in liabilities, and it laid off 100 employees. Honolulu-based Hoku announced it was delisting its stock from Nasdaq last year.”

We’re no opponents of wealth but with a $7 million yacht, a $4 million estate in Pennsylvania, a $7 million Beacon Hill townhome, a $9 million beachside Nantucket home, a $5 million ski house in Idaho, and a $5 million home in Georgetown, Sec. Kerry should see to the log in his eye before telling us to “undergo mandatory lifestyle cutbacks to prevent CO2-induced bad weather” US News (7/5/13) reports: “Secretary of State John Kerry was aboard his 76-foot yacht for the 4th of July amid the on-going political tumult in Egypt, a spokeswoman for the State Department confirmed Friday, reversing a previous statement she had made. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the state department, had saidWednesday ‘any report or tweet that [Kerry] was on a boat is completely inaccurate,’ in response to a claim by a CBS News producer that Kerry was in Nantucket on his boat ‘Isabel.’ Kerry, a long-time Massachusetts senator and husband to billionairess Teresa Heinz Kerry, received criticism during his 2004 presidential campaign for living a seemingly out-of-touch lifestyle.”

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In the Pipeline: 7/5/13

July 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

You read that right. China burns five times more coal than the United States. Now that we’ve learned about the scope of our government surveillance of us, what, exactly, is our selling point over the Chinese? The Daily Caller (7/2/13) reports: “The climate change policy that President Barack Obama proposed last week panders to environmentalists’ visions of a pollution-free, energy-efficient world, but is so out of touch with the economic and energy realities of today, it’s sure to remain just a dream. Through presidential decree, Obama aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are said to cause global warming, by nearly one-fifth by 2020. His proposal accomplishes this by giving the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate and cap carbon emissions from existing power plants, all without any congressional input. The president’s plan is dependent on the notion that the U.S. will lessen its reliance on coal, which now powers about 40 percent of U.S. electricity.”

McKitrick proposes that we base climate change policy on science, and that people put their money down instead of just babbling. My guess is that he will not get a good tent in the reeducation camp. The Global Warming Policy Foundation (PDF) reports: “The basic mechanism involves building a tax per tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the price of all forms of fossil energy (oil, coal and natural gas). CO2 is uniquely suitable for taxing in this way because in almost all cases there are no abatement options: once burned, the entire carbon content of the fuel ends up as CO2 in the air. So if we know how much fuel is used, we know how much tax should be paid. Users of the fuels will then economize by reducing the most carbon-intensive forms of energy consumption. Since purchasers in the market are motivated to save money, any emission reduction option that costs less than the tax that would otherwise be paid will be adopted. The result is that the market will discover all the least-costly ways of reducing CO2 emissions, in the process making use of far more information than would ever have been available to government planners and rule-makers.”

We like Quin Shea a lot. But the court did not compel EPA to do what they are doing. He needs to stop saying that, because it is wrong. The Associated Press (7/1/13) reports: “After several years of taking a beating from the poor economy, new pollution rules and a flood of cheap natural gas, the coal industry was on the rebound this year as mining projects moved forward in the Western U.S. and demand for the fuel began to rise, especially in Asia. But almost overnight, coal is back on the defensive, scrambling to stave off a dark future amid President Barack Obama’s renewed push to rein in climate change. The proposal, with its emphasis on cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants, would put facilities like the 2,100 megawatt Colstrip electricity plant in eastern Montana in regulators’ cross hairs. That has profound spin-off implications for the massive strip mines that dot the surrounding arid landscape of the Powder River Basin and provide the bulk of the nation’s coal.”

Flying planes at buildings? Wonder where they picked up that strategy. Charlotte Business Journal (7/1/13) reports: “Lynn Good, the new chief executive of Duke Energy Corp., got a special greeting from Greenpeace on her first day as CEO Monday. The environmental activist group flew a banner around the Charlotte energy giant’s headquarters in uptown Charlotte with a message for Good. It was a to-do list that read: ‘Duke Energy CEO’s 1st Day: Key to the executive restroom, Quit coal & nukes, Go solar.’ Only the first item on the list had a check mark next to it.”

About the only thing the good doctor forgot to mention is that the entire states that will be impoverished under this global warming plan are currently red and therefore inconsequential to His Majesty. The Washington Post (7/4/13) reports: “But it is something that the very complex global warming models that Obama naively claims represent settled science have trouble explaining. It therefore highlights the president’s presumption in dismissing skeptics as flat-earth know-nothings. On the contrary. It’s flat-earthers like Obama who refuse to acknowledge the problematic nature of contradictory data. It’s flat-earthers like Obama who cite a recent Alaskan heat wave — a freak event in one place at one time — as presumptive evidence of planetary climate change. It’s flat-earthers like Obama who cite perennial phenomena such as droughts as cosmic retribution for environmental sinfulness.”

The New Republic. Chris Matthews. The New York Times. Now onto R Street to no doubt help us understand the wisdom of a carbon tax. Sore losers like Inglis, Leftists like this dude; at what point does this become embarrassing for the other side? R Street Institute (7/2/13) reports: “The R Street Institute today announced that author, columnist and policy expert Reihan Salam has joined its team as a senior fellow. In his new role, Salam will undertake a number of research projects for R Street, including forthcoming studies on carbon taxes, nuclear power and congestion pricing and road usage. He also will represent R Street in a variety of media appearances and op-ed writings.”

We know Helen Bentley. We know Frank O’Donnell. We think she could take him in a fight. National Legal and Policy Center (7/3/13) reports: “The latest corporate example of “I’ve had enough” is Carnival Cruise Lines, which announced last week it would end service from the harbors of Baltimore and Norfolk, Va., due to government requirements that its ships burn low-sulfur fuel within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. coast (with even stricter standards coming in 2015). According to reports in the Baltimore Sun and the Virginian-Pilot, Carnival has been trying to gain approval for a plan to install emissions-reducing “scrubbers” on its ships, and also get a waiver from compliance with the standards until its plan could be fully implemented. The cost for the added technology would have been $200 million, but that still hasn’t been a strong enough offer to budge EPA.”

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In the Pipeline: 7/4/13

July 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 

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In the Pipeline: 7/3/13

July 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

At least he’s stopped beating around the bush and is outright telling us that our lives will be worse off with his policies. CNS News (7/1/13) reports: “President Barack Obama said at a town hall event in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday that unless we find new way of producing energy ‘the planet will boil over’ if people in Africa are allowed to attain air conditioning, automobiles and big houses. ‘Ultimately, if you think about all the youth that everybody has mentioned here in Africa, if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, well, the planet will boil over — unless we find new ways of producing energy.’”

Alternative lyrics: I believe the children are our future. Teach them cronyism and let them lead the way. Show them how the government wastes taxpayer money. Give them a false sense of pride in green utopia. Renewable Energy World (7/1/13) reports: “The majority of public schools in Campbell County, Tenn. are going solar in a bid to make $960,000 over 20 years, without raising any additional taxes. That’s under a new partnership with residential and commercial solar installer Efficient Energy of Tennessee (EETN), which is installing solar at 12 of the county’s 21 schools. The 12 schools in the program are installing 50-kilowatt solar systems, which will sell the power generated to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) through its local power distributor.”

Of course, we can’t drill our way out of this. Investors Business Daily(7/2/13) reports: “As of February, the most recent month for which international oil production data are available, Texas would be the 12th largest oil producer in the world if it were a separate country, only slightly behind Kuwait and Venezuela. This is due to an oil boom that’s added the equivalent of the Bakken formation in North Dakota to the state’s output in just the past 16 months. At the current pace of output gains, Texas’ production will likely surpass 3 million bpd by year-end, pulling it ahead of Venezuela, Kuwait, Mexico and Iraq to become the equivalent of the ninth largest oil-production “nation” in the world.”

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. The New York Times (7/1/13) reports: “Elected officials and political analysts said the president’s crackdown on coal, the leading source of industrial greenhouse gases, could have consequences for Senate seats being vacated by retiring Democrats in West Virginia and South Dakota, for shaky Democratic incumbents like Mary L. Landrieu of energy-rich Louisiana, and for the Democratic challenger of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. In ordering limits for the first time on carbon dioxide emissions from up-and-running power plants, Mr. Obama jabbed that opponents belonged to ‘the Flat Earth Society.’ But in coal country, it was Mr. Obama who was called out of touch, with predictions of job losses and spiking energy bills.”

A natural move really. Reason 24/7 (7/2/13) reports: “A Mongolian neo-Nazi group has rebranded itself as an environmentalist organisation fighting pollution by foreign-owned mines, seeking legitimacy as it sends swastika-wearing members to check mining permits. Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, has only 100 or so members but it is one of several groups – others have names including Dayar Mongol (Whole Mongolia), Gal Undesten (Fire Nation) and Khukh Mongol (Blue Mongolia) – that are linking nationalism and resources as foreign firms seek to exploit the mineral wealth of the vast country, landlocked between Russia and China. Based in an office behind a lingerie store in the Mongolian capital, the shaven-headed, jackbooted Tsagaan Khass stormtroopers launch raids on mining projects, demanding paperwork or soil samples to be studied for contaminants.”

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In the Pipeline: 7/2/13

July 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

An entire continent full of largely undernourished people plagued by disease, corrupt government, and some of the worst living conditions in the world, and our President sees it as a great opportunity to keep peddling snake oil and other fairy tales, rather than affordable, reliable energy that Africans need. Breitbart (6/30/13) reports: “President Barack Obama unveiled his “Power Africa” program on Sunday that will spent $7 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to fund a sub-Saharan Africa electricity program that will also develop geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar power. The International Energy Agency says achieving universal electricity access to sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 would require $300 billion.”

Next proposed rule, we are going to give away a gun. Washington Free Beacon (7/1/13) reports: “A top Republican senator accused an environmental group of “bribing” supporters into commenting on a federal environmental study by offering them a chance to win a free fishing trip. The group, Trout Unlimited, encouraged visitors to its website to comment on a proposed Environmental Protection Agency draft environmental assessment of the impacts of a proposed Alaska copper and gold mine on a nearby watershed. Commenters who also told a friend to comment on the draft were automatically entered into a drawing to win a free fishing trip at the Bristol Bay, a nearby salmon fishery.”

They wanted to make sure he was ‘looking environmentally friendly’. So they bought him a car with some of your money that uses a bunch of rare earth minerals that is powered by coal. IEEE Spectrum (6/30/13) reports: “Last summer, California highway police pulled over pop star Justin Bieber as he sped through Los Angeles in an attempt to shake the paparazzi. He was driving a hybrid electric car—not just any hybrid, mind you, but a chrome-plated Fisker Karma, a US $100 000 plug-in hybrid sports sedan he’d received as an 18th-birthday gift from his manager, Scooter Braun, and fellow singer Usher. During an on-camera surprise presentation, Braun remarked, ‘We wanted to make sure, since you love cars, that when you are on the road you are always looking environmentally friendly, and we decided to get you a car that would make you stand out a little bit.’ Mission accomplished. Bieber joins a growing list of celebrities, environmentalists, and politicians who are leveraging electric cars into green credentials.”

How unusual is this really? I mean, he has appointed people to the Department of Energy who are opposed to energy, people to the Department of Labor who don’t work, people to the Department of Health and Human Services who oppose both health and humans. Why should the Native Americans be any different? Censored News(6/26/13) reports: “President Obama created a council of non-Indian bureaucrats and deceptively named it the ‘White House Council on Native American Affairs’ on Wednesday, fooling many into believing that it was actually a council of Native Americans In an act of typical US paternalism and inappropriate irony, the US Secretary of Interior was placed as the chair of the new council to honor Native American treaties, resources and rights. The non-Indian, British born Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell worked previously for Mobil oil in Oklahoma and the banking industry.”

Blocking our largest energy reserves? Not if Dan Kish can stop it.  

 

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In the Pipeline: 7/1/13

July 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

We offer this without comment. The Telegraph (6/27/13) reports: “There has not been a sighting of the species in Britain since 1991 when a single bird was seen four times – in Kent, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and finally Shetland. Now 22 years later another White-throated Needletail turned up in the UK, but after more than 80 twitchers flocked to Harris – with scores more on their way – the bird flew into a wind turbine at Tarbert, witnessed by around 40 people. Josh Jones of Bird Guides said: ‘It was seen by birders fly straight into the turbine. It is ironic that after waiting so long for this bird to turn up in the UK, it was killed by a wind turbine and not a natural predator.’”

See, pretty much everyone wants a market-based approach to climate change. So do we. Except our preferred “market-based approach” is economic growth. The Wall Street Journal (6/27/13) reports: “President Obama unveiled his vast new anticarbon-energy agenda this week, which he plans to impose by executive fiat. Crucial to pulling off this exercise is a decision the federal bureaucracy made last month to change the way it accounts for carbon emissions—a decision that received almost no media attention. In late May the Administration slipped this mickey into a new rule about efficiency standards for microwaves, significantly raising what it calls the “social cost of carbon.” Team Obama made no public notice and invited no comment on this change that will further tilt rule-making against products and industries that use carbon energy.”

You knew this already, but everything is not as the President would say it seems. The Institute for Energy Research (6/27/13) reports: “The newly released ‘President’s Climate Action Plan’ is aptly named, for ‘planning’ is the traditional term that socialists used when trying to centrally run the economy. Indeed, the president’s plan dabbles in: emissions of hydrofluorocarbons and methane; forest growth; promotion of so-called clean energy; task forces at the state, local and tribal levels; building integrity; resilience in health care; conserving land and water resources; insurance leadership; launching a ‘climate data initiative’; mobilizing ‘climate finance’; and a host of other items. Beyond the audacity and hubris of such a plan, is the fact that it relies on dubious economics. Even taking the peer-reviewed mainstream literature at face value, much of the action plan document is unjustifiable.”

It turns out the President supports a market-based approach to climate change. Still not quite sure what that means. National Public Radio(6/28/13) reports: “Climate change seems like this complicated problem with a million pieces. But Henry Jacoby, an economist at MIT’s business school, says there’s really just one thing you need to do to solve the problem: Tax carbon emissions. ‘If you let the economists write the legislation,’ Jacoby says, ‘it could be quite simple.’ He says he could fit the whole bill on one page. Basically, Jacoby would tax fossil fuels in proportion to the amount of carbon they release. That would make coal, oil and natural gas more expensive. That’s it; that’s the whole plan.”

Love boat, soon we”ll be making another run (just not from Baltimore, thanks to the EPA)… The Baltimore Sun (6/27/13) reports: “Carnival Cruise Lines announced plans Thursday to leave the port of Baltimore, a move that could cost the region scores of jobs and millions in economic activity generated by big-spending passengers and businesses servicing the ships. The Miami-based company said that without federal approval of its plan for curbing air pollution, it would cut back on the number of cruises and move the Pride to a dock in Tampa, Fla., in November 2014. The Pride, a 2,124-passenger ship, sails weekly from Baltimore to the Bahamas and Caribbean. The move would leave the city with one other large cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas, still sailing regularly from the South Locust Point terminal. It also left state officials, who had been lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency on Carnival’s behalf, scrambling to prevent such a blow to the cruise industry here. ”

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Misleading on American Manufacturing

June 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Those of us involved in policy debates over the energy sector know that it is hardly a fair fight. The people advocating greater government intervention routinely use phrases such as “clean energy,” “green energy,” “greenhouse gas pollution,” and other such loaded terms. It’s difficult to have a rational discussion about carbon taxes or chemical plant regulation when the debate is cast between those who are for and against “clean energy,” for example.

As yet another example of loading the deck in favor of more government intervention, consider the interactive map established by the Center for Effective Government, following a Louisiana chemical plant explosion in June. When you go to the map, here is the default view of facilities with flammables that have reported at least one accident:

Wow, looks like the US is being overrun by chemical plant accidents, doesn’t it? Yet if you click on the tab to show facilities with zero accidents, here is the new picture:

Quite a different view isn’t it? And there are other problems, too. For one thing, according to the legend in the top left of the map, a facility merely handling propane would count. Yes, propane is flammable and needs to be handled properly, but the phrase “chemical plant explosion” conjures up a different mental picture, than what might be a minor fire involving propane.

Another problem is that it’s not obvious from the map what the time frame is. If those numerous red dots referred to accidents within the last 12 months, that would be one thing. If it refers to the number of accidents over the entire history of reporting for each facility—which it seems to be—then that’s something else entirely.

Nobody denies that certain chemicals can be dangerous, and that proper procedures should be taken to safeguard the public. However, the mere fact that accidents do occasionally happen, is not proof that government must “do something.” The one truly effective safety measure would be to stop using chemicals altogether, but that would (of course) be a cure worse than the disease.

In any event, the interactive map put out by the Center for Effective Government is designed to give the default view of a very dangerous status quo, when the actual situation is much calmer. By the same token, someone could create a map of drownings in public swimming pools, with a default view that would make it seem as if swimming needed to be tightly regulated by the federal government. Swimming and chemicals both carry risks, but they also confer substantial benefits for the modern American way of life. Any discussion of further regulation should be balanced and based on a sober assessment of the facts.

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