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In the Pipeline: 6/7/13

June 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It’s nice to see they don’t think people are as stupid as the EPA does. Washington Post (6/6/13) reports: “As U.C. Berkeley’s Catherine Wolfram explains in an interesting new post, this “MPG illusion” could have huge implications for the auto market. Many people who are set on buying SUVs, say, appear to underrate the fuel savings that come from buying a slightly more efficient SUV. But as the example above shows, those gains are often quite large… It might turn out that one easy way to boost fuel economy doesn’t involve any new regulations or taxes at all — just a small tweak on a sticker.”

You can wave a carrot or a stick, but it’s still government control.Yahoo News (5/30/13) reports: “Pennsylvania environmental officials are offering $10 million worth of incentives to companies, government agencies and nonprofits for the purchase of cars or light trucks that run on natural gas or to convert lighter-weight vehicles that now use gasoline… The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection launched the program Wednesday in a bid to generate demand for natural gas vehicles. A drilling boom in Pennsylvania and other states in recent years has produced enormous quantities of cheap gas… The DEP grant program is open to nonprofit organizations, companies, local governments and local transportation agencies for natural gas vehicles weighing less than 14,000 pounds. The program also covers conversion or purchase of electric, propane or other alternative fuel vehicles of any size.”

Something is awfully wrong in a country when there is a debate about whether or not to use wildly expensive (and dirty) biofuels or affordable and efficient petroleum products. What’s worse is that these are the people who are supposed to be thinking strategically about national defense. PoliticoPro (6/7/13) reports: House lawmakers sparred Wednesday over the DoD’s clean energy initiatives during the debate over the National Defense Authorization Act… Led by Reps. Rob Wittman, Randy Forbes and Mike Conaway, Republicans pushed an amendment that would restrict the ability of the Defense Department to purchase or produce biofuels until sequestration is no longer in effect or when the price of biofuel equals the cost of conventional fuel… The amendment, sponsored by Conaway, revived last year’s fight over the Navy’s use of alternative energy, a charge that was led by Forbes. During last year’s debate, much of the language that would have limited the DoD’s ability to purchase biofuels was scrubbed from the defense bill’s final version.

Couple shy of a baker’s dozen: “11 Shocking Facts about the North Dakota Oil Boom”. The Fiscal Times (6/7/13) reports: “Oil production in North Dakota has increase more than 600 percent, going from 36 million barrels of oil in 2005, to 237 million in 2012. There are now 8,360 active wells in the state, producing 783,000 barrels of oil a day. The state has gone from the No. 8 oil-producing state to No. 2 in just seven years.”

It’s not enough to be willing to take a bullet. You have to be uncomfortable while waiting for it. Department of the Army (2/12/13) reports: “During air conditioning season, keep temperatures in the range of 78 degrees for occupied building and 85 degrees for unoccupied buildings. Air conditioning units that have thermostatic controls must be operated to comply with the authorized cooling temperatures. The DPW will maintain appropriate cooling temperatures for those systems controlled by the Energy Management Control System (EMCS).”

We don’t have a book review for you yet, but this looks like it’ll be an awesome read. PJ Media (5/29/13) reports: “Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle With Environmental Extremists and Why it Matters Today: Reagan deprived these extremists of the aura of inevitability, invincibility and infallibility with which they had been cloaked for almost two decades. Reagan denied them their moral high ground. When they said they spoke for the planet and the needs of all living things not human, he responded that he spoke for the dream of the American people and unborn generations to be free and prosperous… The future of freedom was also in play. And Reagan knew that a nation which develops abundant energy resources is a nation which prospers. Governments which impair energy production and instead use command economy solutions to prop up inefficiencies will suffer from high energy costs and higher unemployment.”

The team is still very much opposed to a carbon tax. Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to join our growing ranks.

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance / Institute for Energy Research
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

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In the Pipeline: 6/6/13

June 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This is like those movies where the parents arrange for their kid to be kidnapped so they can cash in on the ransom. It never ends well. IER(6/5/13) reports: “One of the tactics environmental activists groups use to promote greater regulatory control over the economy is lawsuits. This is an especially effective tactic if environmental groups sue a sympathetic administration with the hopes of settling the lawsuit without the need for the administration to go through the regular regulatory process. This is dubbed ‘Sue and Settle.’ One of the most effective ways for these lawsuits to proceed is for the environmental litigant to sue the EPA, for example, for a missed deadline, and then enter into a settlement that allows the EPA to quickly enact new regulations while claiming that it was forced to do so by the terms of the lawsuit.”

Do as I say, not as I do. Huffington Post (6/5/13) reports: “The chairman of the board of a leading environmental advocacy group is also a hedge fund manager, and his firm is heavily invested in the oil giant BP, according to financial documents… League of Conservation Voters Chairman Scott Nathan is chief risk officer at The Baupost Group, a major hedge fund, and a member of the firm’s management committee, which oversees investments.”

The WaPo refers to it as a “small tweak”. We’d call it an abuse of power. Either way, this article is a good reminder that the brakes have been cut on Obama’s regulatory train and the engineer bailed before that last tunnel. Washington Post (6/5/13) reports: “Sort of. A larger value for the social cost of carbon basically means that any efficiency standard or air-pollution regulation that reduces carbon-dioxide emissions will have higher benefits assigned to it. That could, in theory, make it easier for stricter standards to pass a cost-benefit analysis test, says Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch… We got an early glimpse of this with the Energy Department’s microwave rule. Under the old social cost of carbon, the microwave standards had an estimated $4.2 billion in benefits over the next 30 years. Under the new carbon numbers, the microwave rule has an estimated $4.6 billion in benefits. (The agency has the authority to tighten standards for household appliances, so this could well come up again.)… This might sound like nitpicking. But seeing as how much of the Obama administration’s climate-change agenda will likely be carried out through the Environmental Protection Agency, this small tweak could make a big difference in the years ahead.”

Not everything has to be an either/or in life, but that’s the way the bad guys see it. It will be interesting to see how this vintage turns out.Colorado Public Radio (6/5/13) reports: “It’s Colorado Wine week. Restaurants and bars all over the state are hosting happy hours, tastings and even wine-inspired cocktail contests. Wineries from the North Fork Valley are featuring many of their latest creations. The area in western Colorado has been compared to France’s Provence region. However, vintners in the region worry their future is threatened by the oil and gas boom. Energy companies are trying to lease thousands of acres of land bordering vineyards. Brent Helleckson is the owner of Stone Cottage Cellars in Paonia. He spoke to Colorado Matter’s Lesley McClurg.”

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow at “high noon” if you are in DC. We’ll enjoy food, a lively debate, and the unveiling of IER’s new subsidy database. Register here: 

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Heritage Foundation: Carbon Caps a “Cure Worse Than the Disease”

June 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

In a new study, the Heritage Foundation estimates that recent proposals to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the United States would be a cure worse than the disease. In particular, by the year 2100 the cumulative net damages to the world economy could exceed an astonishing $100 trillion, and in not a single year do the benefits exceed the costs.

The Heritage analysis is based on a new approach to gauging the economic impacts from climate change. As the report explains:

A recent paper by Melissa Dell and her coauthors[1]…analyzed 125 countries over 55 years to estimate the impact of warming on each country’s GDP. By focusing on the impact on overall economic activity, they include all the negative and positive impacts of warming on income. Their statistical technique uses annual changes in temperature and avoids the problems of a simple cross-country comparison.

They found that countries with above-average income for the sample period suffered no impact from warming. On the other hand, countries with below-average income suffered a significant 1.3 percentage point decrease in their growth rate for each degree (Celsius) increase in temperature.

In addition to being based on actual empirical results, the Dell et al. results make sense intuitively: The faster a region’s economic growth, the better its people are equipped to deal with changing conditions. For example, rising temperatures per se don’t lead to increased mortality among the elderly. But in a country with no air conditioning, hotter summers could be deadly. 

Based on the quantitative findings of the Dell et al. study, the Heritage analysis looks at the carbon restraints implicit in proposals such as the Lieberman-Warner and Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bills, as well as the more recent Boxer-Sanders carbon tax plan. Specifically, the Heritage plans shows that an 80 percent reduction in US emissions by 2050 would lead to:

  • An aggregate income loss to the U.S. of $207.8 trillion by 2100;
  • An aggregate income loss worldwide of $109.6 trillion by 2100;
  • A one-year worldwide loss of $3.5 trillion in 2100, equivalent to 4.75 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP); and
  • Adverse impacts, on net, in every year of implementation.

The proponents of massive new federal regulations to restrict carbon-intensive economic activity continually remind Americans that “the science is settled.” By this, they are referring to the majority of natural scientists—people such as climatologists, physicists, and chemists—who agree that humans are at least partially responsible for rising global temperatures since 1850.

However, it is far from “settled” that the proper policy response is a massive penalty applied to carbon dioxide emissions, particularly if that policy is a unilateral action by the U.S. government (as opposed to a coordinated global enforcement). There are many economists who argue that in light of the uncertainties and the problems with government “solutions,” the safest and most robust response to the risks of climate change is robust economic growth, which will give our children and grandchildren greater wealth with which to address their specific problems.

Far from “doing nothing,” a policy of economic freedom is one that works both in theory and practice. Historically, the societies with the fastest increases in the standard of living—even if we include criteria measuring environmental quality—are those embracing free-market capitalism. 


[1] Melissa Dell, Benjamin F. Jones, and Benjamin A. Olken, “Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century,” American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Vol. 4, No. 3 (July 2012), pp. 66–95.

Filed Under: Emissions Standards, News, Products and Power, Threats Tagged With: , , , , ,

In the Pipeline: 6/5/13

June 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It must be so convenient to have an explanation for everything. The Guardian (6/3/13) reports: “Piraino said at least 150,000 people were treated for jellyfish stings around the Mediterranean each summer… Global warming, overfishing and human intervention – especially breakwaters that protect sandy beaches but provide a home for larvae – are all blamed. As predators disappear, population surges are happening with greater frequency.”

The EPA is clearly devoted to the development of a “strong” workforce. After all, these folks are America’s front line of defense against the rising tide of jellyfish. National Journal (6/3/13) reports: “Employees at an Environmental Protection Agency warehouse in Landover, Md., worked out in a makeshift gym while conditions inside the facility ‘were rotting and becoming potentially hazardous,’ according to an EPA inspector general report issuedon Monday… ‘Deplorable conditions existed in the warehouse,’ the report by Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. states. “Door jambs were corroded; dirt, dust and vermin feces were pervasive; and several items were rotting and potentially hazardous.” The report found that the 70,000-square-foot warehouse—one of EPA’s largest—was storing large amounts of expensive, unused equipment, ranging from computers to pianos. It also found numerous security and safety issues… They also created a makeshift gym spanning an area larger than 30 feet by 45 feet. While exercising, employees apparently listened to music and used EPA steno pads to record workouts, according to the report.”

Tom Kiernan makes the sky blue. Of course, he also kills birds for a living. With taxpayer money. Huffington Post (6/4/13) reports: “This latest move reflects a feeling I’ve had since childhood that I want to make the biggest difference I can to preserve the natural environment. I spent a large portion of childhood exploring the woods across the street from my house and then seized the opportunity in high school to take an environmental chemistry class. It was there I learned about acid rain, which inspired me to create a college major in Environmental Computer Modeling… Years later, when I was a deputy of the Air Office in EPA working on the Clean Air Act, my four-year old son asked me what I did. I explained that I helped to get dirt out of the air. My son looked at me and simply replied, ‘You make the sky blue.’”

This administration is so bizarre. They act like we can learn something from Brazil on how to produce energy. WSJ (6/4/13) reports: “Joe Biden: The Americas Ascendant: For Brazil, as for the U.S., one of the most important frontiers is energy. From biofuels to deep-water oil reserves to shale gas to hydroelectric, Brazil is energy-rich, and that has tremendous implications globally. Brazil already is a leading expert in renewables and deep-water extraction, but both of our countries can advance further if we work together. I know from my meeting with President Rousseff that Brazil is equally committed to an energy partnership.”

This is confusing. We’re meant to believe that fossil fuels are part of the “old energy” economy, and you ain’t cool if you like things that are old. But now we learn that the Romans were hip sustainable guys, so is it cool to like things that are old again?Either way, the Romans would probably agree that it is not wise to organize entire industries because something is fashionable. US News (6/4/13) reports: “Monteiro and his colleagues may have found an alternative: “sea” concrete used by Romans for harbor installations in the Mediterranean is made with a different concentration of materials than today’s mix of limestone and clay, which allowed it to be baked at a much lower temperature (about 1,650 degrees, compared to 2,640 degrees for modern “Portland” concrete). The result is a strong concrete that is less harmful to the environment.”

One of the Facebook bazillionaires is getting slammed for his tendentious, albeit indirect support for Keystone XL. But apparently the crazies give Facebook execs a free pass to bulldoze old growth forests for what sounds like an extravagant wedding. And to be clear, it’s the double standard that bothers us, not the rather ostentatious wedding affair. The Atlantic (6/4/13) reports: “Hey, if a billionaire couple wants to spend $10 million on their wedding, it’s neither all that surprising nor interesting, as far as I’m concerned. So, when news and statistics started to trickle out about Sean Parker’s wedding here in California — namely that it’d cost millions of dollars to create Kardashian-level over-the-topness — I was ready to chalk it up to the standard excesses of crazy rich people… But that was before I read the California Coastal Commission’s report on the Parker wedding’s destructive, unpermitted buildout in a redwood grove in Big Sur. Parker and Neraida, the LLC he created to run his wedding, ended up paying $2.5 million in penalties for ignoring regulations. (Move fast. Break things.)”

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In the Pipeline: 6/4/13

June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Let’s talk about energy subsidies (on Friday). Join us with the National Review for lunch and a “High Noon Debate” to talk about the energy subsidy experiment. 
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Greenpeace has given you permission to not feel guilty about climate change. You see, oil companies are using your honorable sense of personal responsibility as a weapon against your consciousness. (Heads up: this is a spoiler alert for the sequel to Inception, starring guilt-free-carbon-guzzler Leo DiCaprio). LA Times (6/2/13) reports: “Maybe it’s time for us to remove the guilt. Yes, I drive a car that runs on gasoline. I fly for work when necessary and occasionally for vacation. But doing these things is not the same as admitting they are inevitable. Five years ago I flew more; now I use Skype. Bike lanes have been newly painted in my neighborhood, so I cycle to the store. In a couple of years, electric cars might come into my price range. In the meantime, I refuse to feel guilty… In the battle against climate change, we should not be waging guilt trips on one another. Rather, we should take the fight to those who use our sense of personal responsibility against us. Climate change is a problem, and we must fix it. But it’s certainly not our fault.”

If you can’t show them the light, make ’em feel the heat. Red State (5/31/13) reports: “At a critical Friday meeting in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will set production policy. For the first time, they will be grappling with the challenges of shale oil, even none of the member states are major shale oil producers… The shale boom began in the U.S. as a ripple in North Dakota and Texas. Some thought its impact would be limited and regional, not global. Now that uptick on our domestic production curve has triggered a tsunami with geopolitical implications.”

Listen up – our man in Houston has an ear to the ground on these things… Forbes (6/3/13) reports: “But if Obama was really attuned to job creation, he should have been shaking hands and pumping his fist at the annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston where hundreds of oil and natural gas firms from around the world were sharing their latest technology—and looking for workers. Attendance of 105,000 was a 30-year high… The buzz at OPC was about ‘subsea factories,’ ‘a global bonanza,’ and ‘thousands of new technologies.’ ‘We have to innovate at a faster pace,’ said technologist Gregory Powers of Halliburton, which has been rushing to keep up with consumer demand since 2010.”

I thought the only thing you needed on your resume to drill for oil was “evil”? Rig Zone (6/3/13) reports: “Everybody’s recruiting,” said James Bradley, permanent hire recruitment manager with NES Global Talent, at the sidelines of AAPG’s annual meeting… Demand is particularly keen for drilling and well completions engineers, subsurface geologists, geophysicists and geochemists, Bradley said, adding that there are not enough specialists with direct experience developing a shale gas play. As a result, operators are wooing candidates with conventional onshore oil and gas experience ‘who can jump right into shale work,’ he noted. He acknowledged this is often easier said than done.”

Despite all the headache and red tape here at home, be thankful that we avoid these in the Federal Register: Rind(Cow) fleisch(meat) etikettierungs(carbon emission label) überwachungs(monitoring) aufgaben(duties) übertragungs(transmission) gesetz(law). The Telegraph (6/3/13) reports: “Germany’s longest word – Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz –  a 63-letter long title of a law regulating the testing of beef, has officially ceased to exist.”

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In the Pipeline: 6/3/13

June 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This is fun. It’s like an 8th grade math question: “If Bob Inglis is running for elected office, is it wise for him to support a carbon tax?”. R Street (5/31/13) reports: “The R Street Institute and the Heartland Institute cordially invite you to a debate among friends on the question: Are there any circumstances under which conservatives should support a tax on carbon emissions?”

Gee, now they admit it. The Hill (6/1/13) reports: “Environmental lobbyists are pressing President Obama to turn more western lands into national monuments to prevent oil-and-gas companies from drilling there… The Sierra Club is leading the charge and is sweetening its message with political sugar, saying Obama could thereby help Democrats win House and Senate seats in midterm elections year.”

Stewart Udall was right. The environmental movement is fundamentally anti-people and mostly racist. But the Sierra Club and the rest of the leadership are now just adjuncts of the Democratic Party. Politico (6/1/13) reports: Environmentalists are getting off the sidelines and backing immigration reform — but it wasn’t easy… During the Senate’s last go round on the issue in 2007, greens stayed silent to avoid airing their dirty laundry — an internal dispute that some in the movement feared would be seen as racist… Their family feud was so rough that it twice nearly ruptured the Sierra Club when a vocal faction — including some of the movement’s leading luminaries — argued too many new immigrants living the American dream could spell doom for the planet.”

While your flight was in a holding pattern due to FAA furloughs, which oh by the way means the plane was burning fuel unnecessarily, the federal government was busy patting itself on the back with “green energy scorecards”. Maybe His Majesty’s jesters wouldn’t have to make embarrassing stunts to justify their bloated budgets if they spent less time handing out participation trophies at frivolous conferences and conventions.PoliticoPro (5/31/13) reports: “As part of the Obama Administration’s initiative to reduce energy use, pollution and waste and save money in Federal operations, Federal agencies today released annual updates that show significant progress toward energy and sustainability goals. Under Executive Order 13514, President Obama directed Federal agencies to reduce their carbon pollution, increase renewable energy use, and meet energy and water efficiency goals. These annual performance scorecards benchmark agencies’ progress and help them to target the best opportunities to improve their energy efficiency and reduce costs and waste in their operations moving forward.”

We took a shot at the ski industry last week, but our friends kick it up a notch and really stomp the point home. POWERLINE (5/31/13) reports: “Skiers use energy to haul mass uphill, only to slide back down hill, over and over again. They fly or drive long distances to get to places that are cold (requiring heated facilities). While there, they consume goods that are hauled long-distances and up hill. The perishable goods have to be refrigerated (think about that for a minute). Virtually everything they wear (and their gear) is made from petroleum. From a thermodynamic perspective, you would have a hard time designing a more greenhouse-gas-intensive activity than skiing. Vanity space flight, perhaps… But the companies involved would like some green-washing courtesy of the government: they want legislation that would let them claim they’re doing good (“We’re paying our carbon tax!”) when in reality, they’ll pass their direct costs onto the skiers (who can afford it), while the majority of the costs of carbon control imposed on the general public

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In the Pipeline: 5/31/13

May 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment

For some of us, this hits close to home. So I have a few suggestions: Quit bragging about the non-stop flights that are offered from Newark to Jackson. Shut down the tram (it runs on coal). Stop selling skis, boots, jackets and goggles because they are made with carbon-based petrochemicals. And those of us who are still (physically) able can hike to the top of Rendezvous and ski on wooden boards like the good ol’ days. Unless that sounds like a good plan, quit begging for the heavy hand of the EPA and Congress to strangle your own industry. Wyoming Business Report(5/29/13) reports: “The past ski season was a banner year for our guests and for our resort, but we can’t gamble on the weather in an uncertain climate. We have to take action,” said Jerry Blann, president of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming. “Resorts have made tremendous efforts to raise awareness on the issue of climate change and to adjust our operations to reduce carbon emissions and manage resources efficiently. We need Washington to take those strategies seriously through stronger policies.”

Like we’ve always said, the science is settled. Phys.org (5/30/13) reports: “Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are to blame for global warming since the 1970s and not carbon dioxide, according to new research from the University of Waterloo published in the International Journal of Modern Physics B this week…  ‘Conventional thinking says that the emission of human-made non-CFC gases such as carbon dioxide has mainly contributed to global warming. But we have observed data going back to the Industrial Revolution that convincingly shows that conventional understanding is wrong,’ said Qing-Bin Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy, biology and chemistry in Waterloo’s Faculty of Science. ‘In fact, the data shows that CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays caused both the polar ozone hole and global warming.’”

Next up in California, a lifeguard is required to hold your hand as you walk out into the waves. It’s a great program that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for new lifeguards while ensuring the safety of the population; it’s not at all creepy and overbearing; and it certainly won’t erode your sense of personal responsibility and good citizenship. NYTimes (5/30/13) reports: “But these days, a blizzard of restrictions — on everything from dogs to playing horseshoes — is being imposed on beach activities up and down the coast, turning beaches into sanitized zones that longtime beachgoers say barely resemble the freewheeling places they once knew… Smoking is banned at many beaches across the state. On San Diego beaches, playing ball or tossing a Frisbee has been outlawed. Alcohol is no longer allowed on the sand in Huntington Beach. Even surfing is restricted to designated areas here, though this is ‘Surf City.’… And the next thing to go could be the fire pits — concrete rings designed to contain bonfires — which for many people are enduring features of a free, outdoor California lifestyle.”

In a nutshell, the EPA is a very dangerous agency. Washington Post(5/30/13) reports: “A Wednesday shootout on the streets of Washington Highlands left a cop injured and a carjacking suspect dead. But before the suspect expired, he went on an unusual ambulance ride that involved moving him from one vehicle to another on the shoulder of Interstate 295. While this might appear to be another story of Fire and Emergency Medical Services dysfunction, the story is rather more complicated. As WUSA-TV explains, newer-model diesel engines are required by federal regulations to have emission-control features that, in some circumstances, require the motor to shut down for “regeneration” — a process in which the exhaust system burns off trapped soot.”

Big talk for a guy with the largest “carbon footprint” on the planet. Maybe he should lead by example (cough cough) and do more of his celebrity fundraisers via Skype or Google hangout. Weekly Standard(5/30/13) reports: “Obama: ‘I Don’t Have Much Patience for People Who Deny Climate Change’… ‘My only interest is making sure that when I look back 20 years from now, I say I accomplished everything that I could while I had this incredible privilege to advance the interests of the broadest number of Americans and to make sure that this country was stronger and more prosperous than it was when I came into office.  That’s my only interest,’ the president said.”

Join us next Friday for a luncheon and panel discussion hosted by National Review and the American Energy Alliance! Get a spot while they’re hot…

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In the Pipeline: 5/30/13

May 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

“First they came for the manufacturers, and I did not speak because I was not a manufacturer. Then they came for the coal miners, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a coal miner. Then they came for the drillers, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a driller. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” CBS Pittsburgh (5/29/13) reports: “Janice Gibbs is a grandmother and was born and raised in Washington County. Although she has no drilling lease on her land, she believes that shale gas drilling is great for the local economy… ‘I just think it’s a good thing for our community,’ Gibbs said… When she started posting her pro-gas views on local websites under the name “Proud American,” she was soon shocked at how nasty things got… First, State Rep. Jesse White allegedly posted Gibbs’ real identity. Then, someone posting under the name “Prouder American” called her an ‘industry troll.’… The internet protocol — or IP — address of those people came up as the same computer as Rep. White’s state e-mail address.”

So when is Congress going to start reining in an Executive branch that is drunk with power? WSJ (5/29/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t known for restraint, and now it has a new reason to let it all hang out. A federal court says it can be judge and jury for every development project in the U.S… That’s the impact of a unanimous late April decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the EPA’s veto of the Arch Coal ACI -2.63% Spruce Mine in West Virginia. The sweeping but little-publicized decision remakes regulation under the Clean Water Act, turning the Army Corps of Engineers into a bystander and elevating EPA to the nation’s water regulator of consequence.”

We are all about self-determination, but can’t help pointing out the irony here. LATimes (5/28/13) reports: “In acting to protect their water supply, the 5,000 residents of poor, conservative Mora County make it the first in the U.S. to ban fracking — hydraulic fracturing for oil… ‘We are one of the poorest counties in the nation, yes, but we are money-poor, we are not asset-poor,’ Olivas said.”

Recall that Van Jones, former Special Assistant to the President for Bankrupting the Coal Industry, had the hubris to rally with the workers against these necessary reductions in benefits. These hundreds of families are the real victims of this senseless ideological war against affordable energy and the blame is squarely on the Van Jones’ of the world. Washington Post (5//13) reports: “Surratt-States ultimately concluded the cost-cutting proposals were legal, perhaps unavoidable, for Patriot, which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last summer to address labor obligations it insisted have grown unsustainable… ‘Unions generally try to bargain for the best deal for their members,” the judge wrote. “However, there is likely some responsibility to be absorbed for demanding benefits that the employer cannot realistically fund in perpetuity, particularly given the availability of sophisticated actuarial analysts and cost trend experts.’”

Maybe a sophisticated guy like Kerry realized it’d be easier to bribe the Iranian government than the Obama administration to issue oil and gas permits. Free Beacon (5/29/13) reports: “Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments last year in a company that allegedly bribed Iranian government officials to obtain oil and gas contracts in the country… The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged French oil and gas company Total S.A. with violations of U.S. law for allegedly paying $60 million in bribes to “intermediaries” who helped the company win lucrative state contracts in Iran.”

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In the Pipeline: 5/29/13

May 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The first rule of Fair-Share Club is you do not talk about Fair-Share club. The second rule of Fair-Share Club is you do NOT talk about Fair-Share Club… NYTimes (5/25/13) reports: “Last week, in a Congressional hearing, Apple got grilled for its low-tax strategy. But not every business can copy that approach. Here is a look at what S.&P. 500 companies paid in corporate income taxes — federal, state, local and foreign — from 2007 to 2012, according to S&P Capital IQ.”

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Guys like Josh Nelson, not Fox, are a reminder that there is still hope for America. This kid packs a lot of punch. Coal Valley News (5/28/13) reports: “After coming out of Allegiance Mine, a mine that Joshua Nelson worked at last year and filing for candidacy for the West Virginia House of Delegates, Delegate Nelson made a decision that he wanted to stand up for West Virginia and its coal miners… During his campaign he stated that he believed that the state of West Virginia could do more to stand up to the federal government’s overregulation… He actually went on the Fox News Channel’s “The Huckabee Show” as well as spoke to the United States Congress on a piece of legislation called the “Stop the War on Coal” act.”

Linguists? Poets? How crazy do you have to be to stand out in California? Sacramento Bee (5/25/13) reports: “The core talent of a successful environmental activist is not science and law,” Suckling said in a 2009 interview with the High Country News. “It’s campaigning instinct.” In the same interview, Suckling even bragged about his staff’s lack of scientific qualifications… “It was a key to our success,” Suckling said. “I’m more interested in hiring philosophers, linguists and poets.”

Solution to save the environment? Do less. Work less. Create less. Improve less. Prosper less. Live, well, less! Carbonated.TV (5//13) reports: “Think about it: there is nothing sacred about the pattern of five days on, two days off. It’s an absolute miracle that we have the entire world on the same seven day week, and we probably shouldn’t mess with that, but what if we made the standard national work week 32 hours instead of 40? Here’s what: 1. The environment would heave a giant sigh of relief. The reduction in commuting time alone is reason enough to consider a four day work week. It would be all the better if not everyone took the same three days off: spreading out the traffic would reduce the overall burden.”

If we had a penny for every problem with this industry, we’d probably be able to afford one of the darn things ourselves. NYTimes (5/28/13) reports: “It was not an isolated incident. Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting similar problems and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis just as solar panels are on the verge of widespread adoption… No one is sure how pervasive the problem is. There are no industrywide figures about defective solar panels. And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult… But at stake are billions of dollars that have financed solar installations, from desert power plants to suburban rooftops, on the premise that solar panels will more than pay for themselves over a quarter century.”

Apparently you can win a boatload of money for fear mongering. Huffington Post (5/28/13) reports: “OSLO, Norway (AP) — American environmentalist Bill McKibben has won the $100,000 Sophie Prize for being a mobilizing force in the fight against global warming… The award committee commended McKibben for ‘building a global, social movement, fighting to preserve a sustainable planet.’”

Filed Under: Blog, In the Pipeline Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tesla Repays Feds, Should Thank Competitors for Success

May 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment


Tesla Motors repayed a $465 million dollar loan from the federal government yesterday, nine years ahead of schedule. While being touted as a major success for the future of renewable energy and Zero Emissions Vehicles in particular, the truth behind Tesla’s façade of success is worrisome. The company’s first profitable quarter demonstrates the difficulty of finding real success in an unproven market.

Critics have raved about Tesla and its offerings. By any standard, their cars would be considered top notch. When added to the fact that their fleet is 100 percent electric, the level of hype is virtually unmatched by media, consumers, and environmentalists alike. Though such innovation comes at a premium (a stock Tesla Model S is priced at $69,900 before a $7500 federal tax break and various state incentives), the real money maker for Tesla and its billionaire CEO Elon Musk comes not from its cars, but capitalizing on government regulations aimed to reward automakers like Tesla whose cars emit zero emissions.

Tesla’s Q1 of 2013 exceeded investor expectations by producing its first ever quarterly profit earning $11.2 million. The stock exploded from $55 per share to $92 over the next few days. Less prominent in the financial discussion is the fact that during the quarter $68 million, or 12% of all revenue, was generated by the sale of carbon credits that Tesla sold to its competition.[1] These credits, which some analysts think can generate $250 million for Tesla this year, are purchased by companies as an insurance policy to help meet the restrictive emissions standards of states like California who require that 15% of all cars sold by 2025 will produce no emissions.[2] Critics are quick to point out that although these cars are emission free on the road, it takes conventional power plant and mining operations to develop and charge their lithium-ion batteries. Regardless, companies buy these Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) credits from companies like Tesla who already exceed the 15% standard and hold onto them until they face fines and penalties for non-compliance.

This jump in stock price, based on industry subsidies and regulatory fees over actual market success, prompted Tesla sell 2.7 million new shares at its inflated price to raise the $450 million needed to repay Uncle Sam. Prominent skeptic of the still-fledgling EV market, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, has said, “Regulators are rushing precipitously toward embracing (electric vehicles) as the only solution. Doing that on a large scale will be masochism in the extreme.” Marchionne says that governments should stay technology neutral and let the free markets work.

While it’s great to see taxpayers not lose money on a loan to an electric car company, Tesla should be wary to claim success based on the exploitation of beneficial government regulation, lucrative taxpayer subsidies, and the continued funding of their competition.

Filed Under: Facts, News, Products and Power Tagged With: , , , , ,
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