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In the Pipeline: 5/6/13

May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Relax, Michelle. Your husband has already dug plenty of other holes for the country. 

You_Should_Really_Help

The Marshall crew is as cool as the other side of the pillow. George C. Marshall Institute (5/3/13) reports: “The year 2013 will see a major political debate over proposals for a carbon tax—a tax on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). The justifications for the proposals include: (1) a desire to reduce emissions to prevent a rise in global temperatures; and (2) the hope that a carbon tax could substitute for other taxes and improve economic efficiency, while raising enormous sums for the government. The carbon tax finds theoretical justification in economic theory, but it is a deeply flawed idea. Five sets of consideration militate against it—the five circles of Carbon Tax Hell:” [Emphasis added]

It’s bad enough to be someone who hates progress and people and prosperity, but it is much worse to be a coward: “She declined to be interviewed for this story.” National Journal (5/5/13) reports: “One notably high-profile former Obama adviser whose position differs from the several people interviewed both on and off the record for this article is Carol Browner. Browner was Obama’s top energy and climate adviser until she left in January 2011.’Until we do have a climate policy, the idea that we should be supportive of a pipeline that will increase greenhouse-gas emissions is deeply troubling,’ Browner said at an energy forum in November 2011, according to a Reuters article.”

Another one bites the dust… Renewable Energy World (5/2/13) reports: “After selling just 100 units of its product, electric car manufacturer Coda Holdings has filed for Chapter 11 in a Delaware bankruptcy court… Coda Automotive’s only vehicle was its Coda Car, an all-electric sedan with four doors and a battery pack. The company has its headquarters in Los Angeles. Coda Cars have an EPA-rated battery range of about 88 miles to a charge — less than electric vehicles made by competitor Tesla Motors.”

Progressives should invest all of their money in “green energy” companies, like the Obama Administration does with our tax money.The Nation (5/1/13) reports: “Now it turns out that some green groups are literally part owners of the industry causing the crisis they are purportedly trying to solve. And the money the green groups have to play with is serious. The Nature Conservancy, for instance, has $1.4 billion in publicly traded securities, and boasts that its piggybank is ‘among the 100 largest endowments in the country.’ The Wildlife Conservation Society has a $377 million endowment, while the endowment of the World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF-US) is worth $195 million.”

You might think we were a bunch of tech geeks if you could see our excitement for new toys that actually work. AP (5/3/13) reports: “Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier, dirtier age… But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning… Oil companies big and small have used technology to find a bounty of oil and natural gas so large that worries about running out have melted away.”

Seriously, it has been a tough year for the bad guys. Real Science (5/5/13) reports: 2013 is having the coldest spring on record, the fewest tornadoes on record, and also the fewest forest fires on record.

If some is good, more is better. Chron (5/3/13) reports: “Earlier today, in response to Brooks’ post, former New York Times environmental report Andrew Revkin, who now can be found at Dot Earth, wondered whether scientists and reporters who jumped on the climate angle in 2011 would do so again now, tweeting:”

Andy_Revkin

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

Ethanol Mandates Distort Corn Market

May 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment


A recent Bloomberg article underscores the government distortions in the fuel and food sectors. The piece discusses the rising price of ethanol because of expected supply problems:

Ethanol’s discount to gasoline narrowed to a four-month low on speculation that the slowest pace of corn planting since 1986 will make it difficult to replenish supplies.

The price difference, or spread, shrank 3.75 cents to 21.9 cents a gallon. The Agriculture Department said in a report yesterday that 5 percent of the crop was planted as of April 28, compared with a five-year average of 31 percent. Ethanol stockpiles are at the lowest for this time of year in records dating to June 2010…

“With the strong corn market, and we don’t have a huge inventory of product anyway, it just freaks people out,” said Jim Damask, a manager at StarFuels Inc., a Jupiter, Florida- based brokerage.

Here, the article is somewhat misleading, since it doesn’t explain that ethanol’s “discount to gasoline” goes hand in hand with lower energy content (ethanol contains 1/3 less energy per gallon than gasoline). In other words, a gallon of ethanol is indeed cheaper than a gallon of conventional gasoline, but that doesn’t mean it’s a better buy for motorists—you still get more miles-per-dollar using gasoline than ethanol.

The article goes on to explain the woes of the refiners:

Ethanol-blended gasoline made up 93 percent of the total U.S. gasoline pool in the week ended April 19, the lowest level since March 29….Ethanol is mixed with the motor fuel to stretch supply and meet federal mandates.

The tightening spread may discourage refiners from blending beyond government obligations, Damask said.

“There’s money, but not as much,” he said. “When you factor in delivery, storage, rail, that starts to whittle that down more than we think.” [Bold added.]

Here too the article is somewhat misleading. It makes it sound as if the ethanol mixture in the nation’s gasoline stock is a market outcome, with profit-maximizing decisions leading refiners to meet and surpass the mandatory floors. (The Renewable Fuel Standard requires the use of 16.55 billion gallons of ethanol this year.) Yet a closer analysis shows that this isn’t right.

In the past, refiners received a 45-cent-per-gallon ethanol tax credit until the end of 2011. This gave a definite advantage to ethanol, making it appear more profitable (after-tax) to refiners than it really was. In conjunction with federal mandates for ethanol, these policies spurred the growth of ethanol refining capacity and retarded the growth in conventional refining capacity compared to what it otherwise would have been. Thus, the current market landscape is still carrying the distorted infrastructure from years of the explicit tax advantage given to ethanol.

In addition, there are still some policies in place giving federal tax advantages to corn ethanol refiners, with the hope of future support. Listen to how its advocates describe the situation:

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, that was approved by both the Senate and House, included extension of three key ethanol related tax credits, Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, said.

…

“In addition, and equally significant, is the extension of the alternative fuel infrastructure tax credit which will accelerate E15’s entry into the marketplace this coming year. The extension of these important provisions demonstrates the Obama Administration’s stalwart support of biofuels and Congress’s belief in the promise of energy independence and job creation through domestic renewable energy resources,” claims Dinneen. [Bold added.]

Thus, even setting aside the explicit federal mandates, there are still tax advantages not only for cellulosic biofuel but also corn ethanol, and it would not be surprising if more explicit “stalwart support” from the federal government returned, once the dire fiscal situation has subsided.

Especially in a time of tight corn supplies, federal mandates on ethanol distort the fuel and food markets. The apparent “discount” on ethanol overlooks the fact that it has lower energy content by volume than conventional gasoline, and the existing market landscape for refiners has been distorted by years of massive government intervention. If ethanol is really such a wise and farsighted investment for America, we can rely on private capital markets to make these decisions, rather than supposed experts in Washington.

 

Filed Under: Facts, News, Products and Power, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

In the Pipeline: 5/3/13

May 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

These are the people on the other side. Watts Up With That (5/2/13) reports: “From the Fahrenheit 451 department comes this indictment of California’s higher education’s “tolerance” for opposing views. When I first got the tip on this, I thought to myself “nobody can be this stupid to photograph themselves doing this” but, here they are, right from the San Jose State University Meteorology Department web page:”

 
Fahrenheit_451

 
So, if someone lies to you, and they know they lied, that would make them a . . . Washington Post (5/2/13) reports: “Readers should always be skeptical when political ads attach a particular meaning to a congressional vote. In this case, the Obama group has twisted the meaning of a relatively minor amendment — which was clearly intended to become fodder for future campaign ads… There’s little evidence that a vote against this amendment meant that a lawmaker was affirming that climate change was a “hoax.” There are clearly lawmakers who voted against the amendment who believe that human activity contributes in some way to climate change — and the underlying bill actually states that there is “established scientific concern” that climate change exists.”

We worry that the Republic is doomed when “profits” are confused with “legalized theft”. E&ENews (5/2/13) reports: “The nation’s largest biodiesel company posted its strongest first quarter ever on the heels of the retroactive reinstatement of a key tax credit and the incentives provided by the renewable fuel standard.”

Murkowski strikes again. Huffington Post (4/25/13) reports: “Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the ranking Republican on the Senate energy committee, has acknowledged climate change is ‘real’ and ‘we need to fight it.’… Following her keynote speech at the Bloomberg New Energy conference in New York City, Murkowski discussed her views on climate change with Fortune’s Brian Dumaine. ‘It doesn’t make sense to argue about how much global warming is caused by man — whether it’s 5 percent or 50 percent. The best approach is to have a no-regrets policy,’ she said Tuesday.”

We’ll throw AEA’s hat in the ring for this horse at the Derby. Fuel Fix(4/26/13) reports: “‘Ken and I kind of consider this horse, named Frac Daddy with all the fracking going on, as a tribute to the oilfield workers of America,’ Stewart said told the paper… The men talk about their history with horse racing, energy and this horse in the story.”

The following think tank chiefs are opposed to a carbon tax. Please contact us at nocarbontax@energydc.org 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

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

In the Pipeline: 5/1/13

May 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Apparently Al Gore has forgotten about his own invention. Hollywood Reporter (4/30/13) reports: “Al Gore, one of Hollywood’s favorite sons because of his commitment to the environment, rocked a large crowd in Beverly Hills on Tuesday with an impassioned plea to solve the ‘climate change crisis,’ part of which is getting media right… Gore lamented that a modern-day Thomas Paine would not be able to get his ‘Common Sense’ message to the masses today because he couldn’t afford TV airtime, and he criticized the ‘rise of television at the expense of the printing press.’”

There is no honor among thieves. Politico (5/1/13) reports: “An effort by ethanol backers to get the Environmental Protection Agency to scale back the amount of advanced biofuels required in the U.S. gasoline supply this year has opened a rift in a decades-old friendship within the biofuels industry… The Renewable Fuels Association made the request to EPA in an attempt to limit imports of Brazilian-based sugar cane ethanol.”

Is it just me, or is Colorado starting to look like California? I wonder where its refugees will go. Denver Post (4/30/13) reports: “A Democratic bill doubling the renewable-energy standard for rural electric co-ops has turned into one of the more contentious measures of the 2013 session… Lawmakers say no other bill — even gun legislation — has been debated as long as Senate Bill 252, which increases the renewable-energy standard for the state’s second-largest utility and rural electric co-ops with more than 100,000 customers to 20 percent from 10 percent by 2020.”

It has been tough for these guys. The whole scarcity narrative has blown up. President Rig Count keeps talking about oil and gas production. Now they are going to lose Keystone. Politico (4/30/13) reports: “The Obama administration may be just months away from green-lighting the 1,700-mile oil pipeline despite an all-out opposition campaign that has seen anti-Keystone activists staging massive sit-ins and arrests outside the White House and dogging the president’s speeches and fundraisers with rallies.”

Do you think maybe the “lack of data” also had something to do with lack of production? Wind Power (4/30/13) reports: “The decision follows a warning in March by interim energy minister Asen Vasilev that around 40% of wind and solar plants could potentially be curtailed… Vasilev claimed their failure to provide real-time data on production was threatening the stability of the system and made them non-compliant with the law.”

It’s no fun if the guys who write rules play by the rules. Daily Caller(4/29/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency’s revised draft assessment of an Alaska mine project cites research from environmental consultants who admitted falsifying a report in an environmental lawsuit.”

Team IER will be in Houston next week. They said we could invite you to their party. 

Houston_Eventbd5e57

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

In the Pipeline: 4/30/13

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Van Jones, previously Deputy Assistant to the President for Destroying Coal Miners’ Jobs, deflects responsibility by pretending to care about the very people whose lives he and his former boss have worked so diligently to destroy. Twitchy (4/29/13) reports: “Jones is in St. Louis today to show his solidarity with the United Mine Workers of America and protest the ‘corporate greed’ of ‘Big Coal’:”

 

Why just women? Maybe it would drive some of the House Democrats to transactional sex. And who says ‘transactional sex’ when they mean ‘prostitution’? The Hill (4/29/13) reports: “The resolution, from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and a dozen other Democrats, says the results of climate change include drought and reduced agricultural output. It says these changes can be particularly harmful for women… ‘[F]ood insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health,’ it says.”

 
Maybe someone should give Rep. Barbara Lee the heads up. The Breakthrough (Winter 2013) reports: “Huge swaths of the world have been developing over the last three decades at an unprecedented pace and scale. That remarkable transformation has come not from the forced redistribution of global wealth or renewable energy but instead from the rapid growth of the global economy fueled by cheap fossil energy. China, India, and Brazil have become the manufacturers, farmers, and phone centers to the world, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the process.”

 
As we have discussed before, the science is settled. So please ignore all facts that are contrary to the prevailing narrative. USA Today (4/29/13) reports: “Record cold and snow has been reported in dozens of cities, with the worst of the chill in the Rockies, upper Midwest and northern Plains. Several baseball games have been snowed out in both Denver and Minneapolis.”

 
Try saying ‘post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy’ ten times fast.Washington Examiner (4/29/13) reports: “No wonder Institute for Energy Research President Thomas J. Pyle contends that ‘Obama has kept keep billions of acres of federal lands and waters behind the most onerous regulatory blockade in American history. Yet that hasn’t stopped him for taking credit for the increases in production on private and state lands.’”

 
Let’s think about this for a moment. Why would EPA do something like this? Could it be because they are setting the table to slide natural gas in as a substitute for the cellulosic ethanol (that doesn’t exist) in the RFS, and they want to make sure that life cycle assessments can be offered with a straight face? Stay tuned. AP (4/28/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?”

 
This is kind of fun to watch. Although you have to wonder about a guy that announces they are going to drive support for one issue by focusing on another. And you have to wonder about people who take his money. You also have to wonder about the idiots who are upset with Zuckerberg but are still buying Facebook ads. Politico (4//13) reports: “Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is taking fire from the left in his quest to reform the country’s immigration system… Progressives and environmental activists are fuming over recent television ads from the subsidiaries of Zuckerberg’s FWD.us umbrella group that tout lawmakers’ pro-Keystone XL pipeline and oil drilling positions.”

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

In the Pipeline: 4/29/13

April 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Remember this? Well, the situation in Colorado is about to go from bad to worse. Fierce Energy (4//13) reports: “Colorado is closing in on new legislation that would more than double the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for the state’s rural electric co-ops, setting a goal of 25 percent of generation by 2020.”

 
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There are two important takeaways here:  John Shively is far too nice for this job; and Mark Begich has just been introduced to the albatross that will be wrapping itself around his neck. Anchorage Daily News reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency says the proposed Pebble mine in Alaska could wipe out nearly 100 miles of streams and 4,800 acres of wetlands in one of the last places remaining in the world to support huge runs of wild salmon….The EPA asserts that it has the power under the federal Clean Water Act to shut down the possibility of the massive copper and gold mine.”


We’re pretty sure this is a legit story. It is… insane. DailyMail (3/8/13) reports: “The reason for this hugely costly decision is that Drax has become a key component in the so-called ‘green revolution’ which is now at the heart of the Government’s energy policy… Because it burns so much coal, Drax is the biggest single emitter in Britain of carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas supposedly responsible for global warming. The theory is that, by gradually switching to wood — or ‘biomass’ as it is officially known — Drax will eventually save millions of tons of CO2 from going every year into the atmosphere, thereby helping to prevent climate change and save the planet.”

I suppose we can thank Japan, too. At the very least, be thankful that there are still people out there who haven’t completely lost their minds. Sydney Morning Herald (4/26/13) reports: “The Japanese government is moving to speed up the environmental assessment process for new coal-fired power plants as its power sector struggles with a surging energy bill in the wake of the forced idling of much of the country’s nuclear power plants following the Fukushima power plant meltdown in 2011.”

So, after all that, it turns out that the science might not be settled.  Which would certainly suggest that we might have been victims of a . . . what is the word when someone lies to you repeatedly about a specific thing? The Daily Caller reports: “Despite the heated rhetoric from the Obama administration and environmental groups about the urgency of global warming, climate scientists have begun to come to terms with the lack of evidence of catastrophic global warming over the last decade.”

The priesthood of limits, those who hate humans and want them to be fewer, poorer, and less free, have had a very bad time over the last several decades. Food. Energy. Innovation. Prosperity. Freedom. We are limited only by our imagination. And our willingness to ignore the elites. Washington Times (4/25/13) reports: “Malthusians can breathe a sigh of relief: If current trends hold, human beings won’t fulfill doomsday predictions by making like rabbits after all. Thanks to the success of incessant fear-mongering, the world’s population is expected to peak soon and then begin a long slide downward. That’s fewer of us “defacing” the planet.”

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

In the Pipeline: 4/26/13

April 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I guess we have to give the Virginia Economic Development Partnership some props for “[having] grave doubts about the business model”. It doesn’t sound like things are working too well in Mississippi. NYTimes (4/25/13) reports: “When Terry McAuliffe appeared with his good friend Bill Clinton at the ribbon-cutting for Mr. McAuliffe’s electric car company in July 2012, the campaign-style event, complete with “Born in the U.S.A.” blaring, was meant to supply the top line of his résumé as he positioned himself to run for governor of Virginia… But less than a year later, the company, GreenTech Automotive, has become a potential embarrassment as Mr. McAuliffe campaigns on the slogan “Putting Jobs First” and seeks to keep the spotlight on the conservative social views of his Republican opponent, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the state attorney general.”

Well now . . . who could have seen this coming? The Hill (4/25/13) reports: “A Senate Finance Committee white paper on possible federal tax code changes for energy suggested establishing a carbon tax in place of most or all energy tax incentives… The paper offered the carbon tax with a range of other policy options to help chip away at a Congressional Budget Office-estimated $16 billion of foregone energy-related tax expenditures in fiscal 2013… The paper, released Thursday, came with the disclaimer that the policy suggestions “do not necessarily have the endorsement” of committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) or ranking member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).”

Were there any non-communists in the George Bush (41) Administration? The Hill (4/25/13) reports: “The wind industry’s main trade association has snagged Tom Kiernan, the longtime president of the National Parks Conservation Association, to be the energy group’s next CEO… The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is bringing him on board as the growing industry faces major political battles, including the looming expiration of a key tax credit that received a short-term extension in January’s fiscal cliff agreement.”

Here’s what the bad guys don’t seem to understand: the science can either be settled or it can be subject to discussion. By talking about the science all the time, they encourage the idea that it is a subject still open for discussion.  Which, of course, it is. But they really have no choice, because no one – and we mean no one – wants their solutions. The Guardian (4/25/13) reports: “The campaign group formed to support Barack Obama’s political agenda has launched an initiative to shame members of Congress who deny the science behind climate change… In an email to supporters on Thursday, Organizing for Action said it was time to call out members of Congress who deny the existence of climate change, saying they had blocked efforts to avoid its most catastrophic consequences.”

In one way or another, this probably bothers just about everyone in the country. The Globe and Mail (4/25/13) reports:  “The problem is that no politician gets elected by being an expert in infrastructure. And politicians, you can’t educate them. I’m not suggesting that they’re dumb. President Obama is smart, and so is Bill Clinton. But let’s remember that Bill Clinton didn’t do shit when he was president. He talks a good game now, but he didn’t lead. Al Gore could have led when he was vice-president. He didn’t lead… The people who did lead were George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and they don’t get enough credit for it. They actually wrote a plan in 2001 that included solar and wind, and then in 2005 they passed the tax credit act that actually spurred wind and solar. Last year, the U.S. did 13,400 megawatts of wind, which is more than China did.”

The following think tank chiefs are opposed to a carbon tax. Please contact us at nocarbontax@energydc.org 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

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

In the Pipeline: 4/25/13

April 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

No need to panic! The Obama Administration plays the market long. We’ll recoup these “investments” during His Majesty’s fourth term. Yahoo (4/24/13) reports: “The Obama administration was warned as early as 2010 that electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. was not meeting milestones set up for a half-billion dollar government loan, nearly a year before U.S. officials froze the financing after questions were raised about the company’s statements, newly released documents show.”

So are the green weenies pro-renewable or anti-carbon? It’d be interesting to see what their climate models look like when we start burning wood to stay alive during the winter. IER (4/24/13) reports: “Americans are led to believe that Europe is awash in wind and solar power, but the renewable most consumed is wood, says the Economist. According to the Economist, wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, represents about half of all renewables consumed in the European Union in some form or another—sticks, pellets, sawdust. The European Union has a target of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. To get that much renewable energy, it cannot rely solely on wind and solar power. Unfortunately for its carbon reduction goals, the reliance on wood is not helping for it emits more carbon dioxide than coal.”

Let’s review. Oil from Canada, no. People from Mexico, yes. Politico(4/24/13) reports: “The backing from the nation’s oldest environmental group is a major shift that could help immigration reform supporters gain momentum as they try to push the measure through the Senate. It is another sign that some of the historical opponents to overhauling the country’s immigration laws, like evangelicals, are switching sides in this controversial debate… The powerful grass-roots group’s decision is expected to have an emphasis on keeping families together and frames the debate from the standpoint that undocumented workers are the most adversely affected by pollution, a source familiar with the Sierra Club plans confirmed.”

Don’t they realize that Mother Earth has already done the work for us? These scientists should have figured out by now that the Earth is just a massive solar panel that has been storing energy from the sun for millions of years. And we happen to live during the most peaceful and prosperous era in human history thanks to our ability to tap into this massive battery. NPR (4/10/13) reports: “It’s easy to feel dispirited about climate change because the challenge of dealing with it seems so overwhelming. But Miguel Modestino is actually excited about the challenge. He’s part of a large team hoping to make an artificial leaf — a device that would make motor fuel from sunlight and carbon dioxide rather than from fossil fuels.”

With the exception of John Broder, the New York Times runs an entire section on energy and says nothing of any interest. No mention of the trillion barrels of oil that the federal government won’t let its citizens recover. Nothing on the less than 3% of taxpayer land being available for production. Are we really sure they are the “paper of record”? NYTimes (4/24/13) reports: “After a flurry of environmental rule-making in Mr. Obama’s first term, including doubling vehicle fuel efficiency by 2025 and a stricter regime for policing drilling on public lands and waters, the engine of the regulatory state appears to have stalled… So what is Mr. Obama’s second-term energy and environmental agenda, and why is it proceeding so slowly?”

I’m glad someone other than the Chinese can still manage to build powerplants. Watts Up With That? (4/23/13) reports: “Germany’s dash for coal continues apace. Following on the opening of two new coal power stations in 2012, six more are due to open this year, with a combined capacity of 5800MW, enough to provide 7% of Germany’s electricity needs… Including the plants coming on stream this year, there are 12 coal fired stations due to open by 2020. Along with the two opened last year in Neurath and Boxberg, they will be capable of supplying 19% of the country’s power… In addition, 27 gas fired stations are due on line, which should contribute a further 17% of Germany’s total electricity generation. (Based on 2011 statistics, total generation was 575 TwH).”

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

In the Pipeline: 4/24/13

April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Don’t let your children out of sight: “The more we learn about a gas-drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing—or ‘fracking’—the more we see it as a zenith of violence and disconnect…”Weekly Standard (4/29/13) reports: “Recognizing the significant environmental benefits of natural gas as a source of electric power, some prominent national environmental groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and NRDC, have mostly supported the increase in domestic gas production—and at least by implication the use of fracking to obtain the gas. For most in the environmental movement, however, opposition to fracking has become a virtually sacred cause…”

Fracked_

ANTI-FRACKING PROTESTERS IN NEW YORK, AUGUST 2012, NEWSCOM

Thank you, TransCanada, for politely calling EPA out on this one. While it doesn’t change the fact that this thing will never get built while this guy is in charge, this latest stunt is simply a bridge too far. The WH might be winning the battle, but they will surely lose the war. Politico (4/23/13) reports: “TransCanada said EPA’s concerns about the State Department’s environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline were surprising given how closely the agency has been involved in the review… ‘The scope and tone of the EPA’s comments are somewhat surprising because EPA has been a cooperating agency throughout the four-plus year NEPA review of the project,” TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard wrote in a response. He added: “There are no ‘new issues’ identified in their letter.’”

Leo DiCaprio also threw money away on Fisker, but that’s okay because he’s a private citizen. And if he was willing to invest, our argument is that much stronger that the government has no business in this business. WSJ (4/24/13) reports: “Barring a last-minute rescue, Fisker is poised to become another DeLorean Motor Co. or Tucker Corp., a symbol of the difficulties of creating entirely new car companies. Unlike those others, it also represents one of the most prominent failures of the government’s use of public funds to wean American industry from fossil fuels—and of how that government interest pushed Fisker to reach too far… Originally, Fisker wanted to start small. But, says investor David Anderson, the U.S. asked it to think big. ‘”We can’t loan you money to make a low volume car [in Finland],'” he said the U.S. argued. ‘”But if you wanted to bring forward in time your idea of the small car to be produced here in the U.S.,’ then, they’d say ‘OK,'” Mr. Anderson said.”

Was this planted by Jim Connaughton? Have we been Punk’d? Politico (4/23/13) reports: “As Bush begins to position himself for a presidential run in 2016, former aides and even some greens admit he could be positioned to achieve global warming’s equivalent of a ‘Nixon to China’ moment, especially if he had to work with a Democrat-led Congress… ‘I can see him coming around to some combination of a cap-and-trade program as the best alternative to regulate and at the same time not completely abandoning his principles on something by going to a place where we’re scientifically uncertain,’ said David Struhs, who served six years as the Bush-appointed head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.”

This is pretty good. I bet he is on the board of some really solid organizations. Weekly Standard (4/29/13) reports: “If you had told environmentalists on Election Day 2008 that four years later there’d be no successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, that a Democratic Congress would not have enacted any meaningful climate legislation, that domestic oil production would be soaring even after a catastrophic offshore oil spill, and that the environmental community would be having a lively internal debate about whether it should support reviving nuclear power, most might have marched into the ocean to drown themselves. Yet that’s the state of play four months into President Obama’s second term.”

We are going to go way out on a limb and say “no”. Energy & Commerce (4/23/13) reports: “‘This deal has been plagued with problems and the question remains: should Fisker have received the half billion dollar loan in the first place?’ House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) expressed concern today over news that the Department of Energy has seized $21 million from Fisker Automotive.”

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

In the Pipeline: 4/23/13

April 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The EPA is completely unhinged. The Hill (4/22/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) objected Monday to the State Department’s draft review of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline route, saying it included “insufficient information” on environmental issues.”

The negative consequences of government mandates are very real. Rural Coloradans are about to get slapped in the face if the bozos in Denver have their way. Heartland (4/12/13) reports: “A 2011 joint report by the American Tradition Institute and Beacon Hill Institute found the mandate would increase Colorado’s electricity prices by an average of 3.75 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a 40 percent rise. By 2015 this will lead to the loss of 6,000 to 29,000 jobs, according to the Beacon Hill Institute estimates… Rolling back the Colorado renewable portfolio standard, instead of increasing it, would help keep energy more affordable for consumers, attract more business investment, and increase job creation.”

This comes as a shock to precisely no one. SF Examiner (4/23/13) reports: “The Obama administration has seized $21 million from troubled automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. just weeks after the company laid off three-fourths of its workers amid continuing financial and production problems… Fisker had received $192 million in federal loans before a series of problems led U.S. officials to freeze the loan in 2011.”

Abundance. Prosperity. Manufacturing. The Speaker gets it. Maryam Brown is a star. Speaker Boehner (4/18/13) reports: “At his weekly press briefing today, Speaker Boehner discussed House Republicans’ plans to move forward on legislation that will unlock more American energy to help families and small businesses struggling with high gas prices and foster long-term economic growth and job creation.”

These people are either confused, dishonest, or both. If you want to turn, you also need to burn. But words like intermittent, expensive, grid-reliability, cycling costs, etc. don’t fit snugly into a slogan. The Buffalo News (4/17/13) reports: “The spinning windmills at the old Bethlehem Steel site in Hamburg and Lackawanna were a fitting backdrop as local environmentalists and community leaders made a plea to Albany to focus more on renewable energy… ‘Let’s Turn, Not Burn’ was the campaign slogan the groups used Tuesday to launch the Sierra Club’s Renewable Energy Week in Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton and Auburn.”

If Mother Earth didn’t want us to use organic fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal, why does she provide such plentiful reserves? Forbes (4/22/13) reports: “All the vitriol thrown at these fossil fuels by the environmental community notwithstanding, it is a simple fact that our prosperous, modern, energy-hungry society was made possible by the existence of these fuels.  Without the discovery of and ability to produce fossil fuels, it is likely that mankind would still be mired in a Medieval form of existence, reliant on burning wood for heat, horses for transportation, and still living largely in the dark after nightfall.”

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