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“American Products. American Power.” Bus Tour Brings Message to Washington

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON D.C. — The American Energy Alliance will conclude its three-month “American Products. American Power.” bus tour today by delivering 14,444 petitions to lawmakers and regulators in Washington. The 18,000 mile, 17 state bus tour connected with thousands of Americans at over 50 events. The message of these concerned citizens is clear: this country needs policies that treat our reliable and affordable energy resources as assets, not liabilities. In a letter sent to the leaders in Washington, AEA President Thomas Pyle had the following to say:

“America is the most energy-rich nation in the world yet for far too long Washington has prohibited the use of our domestic energy resources. Moreover, the American people have been misled about our domestic energy and manufacturing potential thanks to lawmakers and regulators perpetuating the myth of energy scarcity.

Today, energy prices are on the rise and American families are struggling to pay their bills. Our economy is growing at an anemic 2% and job creators are handcuffed by harmful regulations.  More than ever, America needs to unlock its vast domestic energy resources to create jobs, to secure the future, and to lead the world…”

The “American Products. American Power.” petition calls for the following policies:

  • We need to unlock our vast domestic energy resources – and provide Americans with more affordable, more secure, and more reliable energy.
  • We can create manufacturing jobs and prosperity at home – by demanding that Congress, the EPA and other bureaucracies do not burden industries and consumers with unnecessary costs and regulations.
  • We should ensure that government rules have measurable benefits – and do not prevent vital American industries from accelerating economic growth and providing U.S.-based jobs.

 

The letter and petition signatures will be sent to:
President Barack Obama
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Speaker of the House John Boehner
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
 
To read the full letter, click here.

Filed Under: Press Releases Tagged With: , , , ,

Products and Power Bus Tour Brings Message to Washington

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

The American Energy Alliance will conclude its three-month “American Products. American Power” bus tour today by delivering 14,444 petitions to the regulators and lawmakers in Washington. The 18,000-mile, 17 state bus tour connected with thousands of Americans at over 50 events. The message of these concerned citizens is clear – this country needs policies that treat our reliable and affordable energy resources as assets, not liabilities. In a letter sent to the leaders in Washington, AEA President Thomas Pyle had the following to say:

(Click here to view the full list of petition signatures and letter sent to the administration and Congress)

Dear Administrator Jackson,

America is the most energy-rich nation in the world yet for far too long Washington has prohibited the use of our domestic energy resources. Moreover, the American people have been misled about our domestic energy and manufacturing potential thanks to lawmakers and regulators perpetuating the myth of energy scarcity.

Today, energy prices are on the rise and American families are struggling to pay their bills. Our economy is growing at an anemic 2% and job creators are handcuffed by harmful regulations.  More than ever, America needs to unlock its vast domestic energy resources to create jobs, to secure the future, and to lead the world.

For the last three months, the American Energy Alliance (AEA) traveled across the country to give Americans the facts, to listen to their concerns, and to bring their voices back to Washington.  At more than 50 events in 17 states around the country, the American Products. American Power. bus tour connected with concerned citizens, enlisting their support to end Washington’s war on affordable and reliable energy.  By the thousands, the American people have joined the fight for a brighter economic and energy future by signing a nationwide petition and by adding their names to our 45-foot, 25-ton mobile petition.

The Americans we met on the road told us to carry a clear message back to Washington: our nation needs policies that treat our manufacturing potential and energy resources as assets, not liabilities. America’s domestic refining and chemical industries employ nearly 2 million people and make modern life possible by providing transportation fuels and creating the building blocks for thousands of consumer products such as plastics, medicines, high-tech medical devices, appliances, and safety equipment. Moreover, America is blessed with the largest coal reserves in the world – a 500-year supply that creates jobs and affordable, reliable energy that powers the modern economy. Yet the current administration is waging a war on coal, destroying jobs and driving up consumer prices.

The American Energy Alliance is committed to ensuring that the American people’s voices are not lost in the energy debate. These are the principles that the American people believe our energy policies should follow, and attached are the names of over 14,400 Americans who stand with AEA in this fight:

Tell Congress and the Administration that America needs policies that unlock American energy and unleash economic growth.

  • We need to unlock our vast domestic energy resources – and provide Americans with more affordable, more secure, and more reliable energy.
  • We can create manufacturing jobs and prosperity at home – by demanding that Congress, the EPA and other bureaucracies do not burden industries and consumers with unnecessary costs and regulations.
  • We should ensure that government rules have measurable benefits – and do not prevent vital American industries from accelerating economic growth and providing U.S.-based jobs.

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Pyle

President, American Energy Alliance

Click here to view the full list of petition signatures and letter sent to the administration and Congress .

Filed Under: News, Products and Power

More Scare Tactics on Climate Regulations

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

Bjorn Lomborg has a great article in Foreign Policy walking through the problems with a major new study warning of the need for government action on climate change in order to avoid millions (!) of deaths. Lomborg’s critique shows how the climate change debate, especially as it’s reported in the major media, is full of exaggerations and non sequiturs. Even though the advocates of massive new government regulations like to use the phrase “climate denier,” this has nothing to do with the physical science itself. Rather, the loudest cries for aggressive regulations ignore what the physical and economic studies show, as Lomborg points out so elegantly in his piece.

The study in question is put out by a group called DARA and is titled, “Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2nd Edition. A Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet.”  Upon the study’s release in late September, major media around the world breathlessly repeated its shocking findings. For example, the Huffington Post ran an article with the headline, “”Climate Change Deaths Could Total 100 Million By 2030 If World Fails To Act.”

The only problem is that this claim is completely bogus, for several different reason. First of all, Lomborg shows that the actual study doesn’t back up this claim:

[T]he report is seen to claim that “climate change deaths could total 100 million by 2030.” This is actually not what the report says. It carefully outlines how “the present carbon-intensive economy” is causing 4.975 million deaths per year as of 2010, and how by 2030 the “carbon economy — and climate change-related” impacts will kill 6 million people every year.

Why the cumbersome language of a “combined climate-carbon” economy? Drilling into the composition of the 4.975 million deaths in 2010, one finds these deaths are not predominantly caused by climate …

Indeed, 1.4 million deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution, which is almost entirely unrelated to global warming.

Thus we see the clever bait-and-switch used by the study’s authors. They wanted a really big number for the headlines, and so they discussed deaths due to the “combined climate-carbon” economy, knowing that in the big policy debates, the average reader would assume these were deaths associated with global warming. Digging into the actual study, Lomborg finds that the actual number of deaths even possibly attributable to global warming / climate change is 400,000—and this number too is likely exaggerated, Lomborg claims, but he is relying on the study itself just to make the point. Yet even if this were the correct number, Lomborg says that the study’s summary statements show “the impression clearly intended for the media was almost 5 million deaths, or a more than twelve-fold exaggeration.”

Another major problem: The study’s estimates of the economic cost of climate change in the next few decades completely disagrees with the actual peer-reviewed studies on the subject. This isn’t something that the average person knows, because the alarmists repeatedly chant the mantra of how climate change is already wreaking havoc on the world. But here is a quotation from the DARA study itself:

The findings of this report differ from previous studies that largely understand climate change as a net benefit or minimal cost to society today (or prior to mid-century), and which inform current economic decision-making on climate change, making it easier for governments to avoid serious action.

After quoting from this bit of refreshing candor, Lomborg wryly comments: “Such admission, of course, should make us wary of suddenly accepting a phenomenally larger estimate (with a different sign) from a study that has not been published in the peer-reviewed literature.”

Yet it gets even worse. Let’s put aside the fact that the study used a very misleading summary of its findings, to inflate the perceived death toll of climate change by a factor of 12, and that its own non-peer-reviewed analysis is at complete odds with the received economic studies of the impact of climate change through mid-century. Even so, nobody thinks that aggressive actions by governments today, can appreciably alter the climate’s trajectory by the year 2030. Even the most alarmist advocates of massive intervention are only claiming that we need to act immediately, in order to start turning the ship, as it were. Here’s Lomborg’s description of the problem:

By constantly talking about action and inaction throughout the report, DARA managed to get almost all newspapers to emphasize that all of the bad outcomes described by 2030 would only happen if we didn’t take climate action. The truth is, that nothing we realistically could do about climate emissions would make any change by 2030.

Lomborg’s purpose wasn’t to be a “denier”; he personally believes the type of climate models endorsed by major scientific organizations and the IPCC. Rather, Lomborg is simply showing another example of academics using deliberately misleading statistics, in order to get the major media to sway public opinion in favor of government regulations in the name of climate change—even though the actual science doesn’t validate the narrative in question.

When it comes to looking at government interventions in the energy or transportation sectors, it’s not enough to ask, “Is global warming real?” We must go further and look at the actual economic impacts, and see the costs and benefits of the proposals. Very often the very analyses used to justify the proposals, do not back up what their advocates claim.

Filed Under: Emissions Standards, News, Products and Power, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats, Tier 3 Standards Tagged With: , , , ,

In the Pipeline: 11/5/12

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

18th in the Economic Freedom of the World Report? If this ship were still sailing, we would be going in the wrong direction. But apparently we’re just sinking now. Washington Times (11/4/12) reports: “In a new policy study for the Institute for Energy Research, we warn policymakers about this new form of regulatory analysis, which is driven by both ideology and a flawed behavioral approach to economics. America, which recently slipped to 18th in the Economic Freedom of the World Report, previously enjoyed high economic freedom scores due to keeping regulation at a somewhat sensible level. Some environmental regulations make sense and have obvious direct benefits which economists can quantify, but most EPA regulations today impede economic progress and are justified by dubious spillover benefits.”

 

The EPA is burning the midnight oil to kill coal. Washington Examiner(11/4/12) reports: “President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has devoted an unprecedented number of bureaucrats to finalizing new anti-coal regulations that are set to be released at the end of November, according to a source inside the EPA.”

 

Well now . . . Chicago Tribune (11/1/12) reports: “The United States needs to reconsider its rules on exporting natural gas – even to countries with which it has free trade agreements – now that a surge in drilling has made the nation one of the world’s fastest-growing producers, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said on Thursday.”

 

We missed this last week.  But fortunately, enforcement at FERC this week is still misguided and colored by political agendas.NYTimes (11/1/12) reports: “Wall Street finds itself in a bare-knuckle brawl with a government agency… Yet the fight is not with the Federal Reserve or another banking regulator, but a less-known agency more accustomed to patrolling the nation’s energy pipeline than a trading floor… The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the government watchdog overseeing the oil, natural gas and electricity business, has lately taken aim at three major banks suspected of manipulating energy prices.”

 

Do you remember all the way back to last week when we suggested that people aren’t willing to pay for Bolshevik schemes to “address” climate change? Apparently, the crew at the Huffington Post does, and it turns out that not even their readers are willing to pay. Huffington Post (11/2/12) reports: “Only one in five Americans would be willing to pay significantly more for gas or electricity, even if they were assured that it meant solving the climate change crisis, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted this week.”

 

We ran a related article last week, but discovered over the weekend that many otherwise bright people have limited anxiety about a carbon tax or any cognate (like this).  That’s not good because Treasury, environmentalists, and likely Romney appointees like Greg Mankiw and Glenn Hubbard are in favor of this sort of thing.  It is very bad mojo. Fox News (11/1/12) reports: “A major tax study currently being sponsored by the U.S. Treasury will give environmental activists a powerful new weapon in their campaign to alter the entire American economic and social landscape in the name of halting “climate change”—including the possible levying of new carbon taxes.”

 

New York City was unprepared for a weather event that its own staff had foreseen.  Maybe if El Bloombito had spent more time worrying about that, and less time worrying about the size of soda or when to endorse Obama, fewer of his fellow New Yorkers would be dead. PowerLine (11/4/12) reports: “What is [Bloomberg] going to do about the fact that his city was less prepared than it should have been for a disaster that was expected and one of a sort will certainly recur, climate change or not?”

 

Some more fun facts on Sandy, hurricanes, and the usual persiflage. GlobalWarming.org (11/2/12) reports: “With respect to hurricane damages, the chief and as yet only discernible difference between recent and earlier decades is that ”There are more people and more wealth in harm’s way.” So there is an ‘anthropogenic’ component, but not the sort about which warmists complain. “Partly this [increase in damages] is due to local land-use policies, partly to incentives such as government-subsidized insurance, but mostly to the simple fact that people like being on the coast and near rivers,” Pielke, Jr. explains.”

 

Alas, the unintended consequences of bad government policy rear its ugly head. American Bird Conservancy (10/17/12) reports: “A coalition of eight conservation organizations has called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to make changes at a wind energy facility in Western Maryland to reduce bird and bat mortality.”

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

In the Pipeline: 11/2/12

November 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We missed this earlier in the week.  But the hypocrisy is so excruciatingly brilliant that we had to share it.  For those who have not been watching, these two Senators are leading the charge to extend the wind production tax credit. Washington Times(10/31/12) reports: “Each job created with federal stimulus cash through the Obama administration’s advanced battery manufacturing program cost more than $158,000 and many of them likely were temporary, according to an analysis released Wednesday by two senior Republicans… Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Thune of South Dakota, members of the Senate Finance Committee, cited figures they obtained after pressing for verification of administration claims of the economic benefits of the $2 billion program funded under the stimulus bill.”

 

Todd Wynn is a stone cold killer.  And his hair is awesome. Master Resource (11/1/12) reports: “These mandates are all regressive. When the cost of electricity rises, low income households shoulder a greater burden than higher income households as the energy costs make up a larger portion of their budget. This is especially true for low income households that are on fixed income such as social security or retirement since their income most likely does not keep pace with higher costs of living.”

 

Another dog bites man story. American Clean Skies Foundation (October 2012) reports: “This new ACSF report shows that shale gas and tight oil production will add $167 billion to $245 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product by 2017, and that will deliver 835,000 to 1.6 million new jobs. This is only one of the many ways technological innovations in natural gas and tight oil production are transforming the U.S. economy.”

 

The Great Oz has spoken! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. The Hill (11/1/12) reports: “The scientific enterprise at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is broken, contrary to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s assertions that “science is the backbone of everything we do at EPA,” or that major regulations are based on the recommendations of EPA’s “independent” science advisors. As Americans face a fragile economy and skyrocketing energy prices fueled by President Obama’s agenda, it is important to pull back the curtain on the ideologically-driven processes EPA is using to justify an avalanche of costly rules.”

 

To remain green, we obviously need more lead-acid batteries all around.  Or maybe more nickel-cadmium batteries. Bloomberg(10/31/12) reports: “Some of the roughly 6 million power customers in the Northeast without electricity in Hurricane Sandy’s wake may be glancing around at a handful of homes with solar panels on their rooftops, thinking their clean-powered neighbors might have juice. Most of the time, that’s not the case.”

 

Shouldn’t they have asked for more wind turbines or charging stations or cellulosic ethanol?  I mean, I’m pretty sure these people keep telling us that gasoline is the fuel of the past or some such nonsense. Senators Lautenberg and Mendez (11/1/12) report: “We are learning from our county offices of emergency management (OEMs) that there are critical shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel. They have told us they are running out of these resources to run their emergency vehicles and critical infrastructure, such as sewage waste water treatment, and drinking water and sanitation facilities.”

 

Fewer droughts, fewer hurricanes.  Good news for the rest of us, but bad news for the climate vultures. WSJ (10/31/12) reports: “Sandy was terrible, but we’re currently in a relative hurricane ‘drought.’ Connecting energy policy and disasters makes little scientific sense but that doesn’t stop the nation’s top scientists, Waxman-Markey-Bloomberg from doing it.”

 

So, apparently, they aren’t any better as boats than they are as cars. Jalopnik (10/30/12) reports: “Approximately 16 of the $100,000+ Fisker Karma extended-range luxury hybrids were parked in Port Newark, New Jersey last night when water from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge apparently breached the port and submerged the vehicles. As Jalopnik has exclusively learned, the cars then caught fire and burned to the ground.”

 

We are informally keeping track of which think tank chiefs are opposed to a carbon tax.  The list to date follows.  If your guy is not on the list, it is because he either favors a carbon tax, wants to retain the option of favoring a carbon tax at some point in the future, or has yet to contact us. 

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance / Institute for Energy Research
Myron Ebell, Freedom Action
Phil Kerpen, American Committment
Fred Smith, 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

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LABOR REPORT: U.S. LOSES MORE MINING JOBS

November 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

WASHINGTON D.C. — American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle released the following statement concerning today’s jobs report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Today’s employment report underscores the need for new, pro-growth policies for the energy and manufacturing sectors.  Mining lost 9,000 jobs in October, and this vital industry has shed 17,000 jobs since May. Manufacturing jobs were flat again this month, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that this sector has shown little change since April. Average earnings fell again, yet energy prices continue to climb. The American people have endured more than four years of economic hardship, yet Washington regulators have continued their assault on affordable energy and the jobs that developing our domestic resources could provide, particularly on federal lands. We cannot experience lasting economic recovery or create the jobs that will drive our energy future with the status quo.”

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

AEA Study: Removing Big Wind’s ‘Training Wheels’

October 31, 2012 by 6 Comments

New Study Finds Federal Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) No Longer Needed to Drive Wind Generation Development
Mature Wind Industry Can Compete On Its Own; Taxpayer-funded Welfare-For-Wind Must End

WASHINGTON D.C. – A new report released today by the American Energy Alliance (AEA) concludes that wind energy is a mature industry whose growth has rendered the federal wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) an obsolete government hand-out that should be allowed to expire.

The AEA-commissioned study, “Removing Big Wind’s Training Wheels: The Case for Ending the Federal Production Tax Credit,” documents the explosive growth of wind generation as well as the favorable outlook for future wind generation development as a result of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) – not the PTC. Conducted by David Dismukes, associate director and professor at the Louisiana State University Center for Energy Studies, the study finds that wind generation now comprises 50,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity capacity in the United States — a five-fold increase since 2006 — and will continue to grow even without the renewal of the PTC.  The PTC therefore only serves to tip the scale in favor of a well-established industry, giving wind an politically-determined advantage over other types of generation.

Background

The PTC was first enacted in 1992 and currently provides wind producers a subsidy of $22 per megawatt-hour (MWh) of energy generated.  It has been extended seven times and is scheduled to expire under current law on December 31, 2012.  Congress is now debating another extension of the credit.  The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that a one-year extension would cost taxpayers $12.1 billion.

“When you strip away all the rhetoric, the real issue is that wind is a mature industry whose growth is being fueled by aggressive RPS standards and is no longer in need of training wheels,” said Dr. Dismukes. “The PTC is a costly and inefficient subsidy that is clearly no longer necessary.”

“The government needs to stop caving to powerful wind lobbyists and establishing policies that pick winners and losers in the energy marketplace. The wind PTC has run its course, and taxpayers must no longer be forced to subsidize a well-established wind industry that offers no substantive proposal for a phase-out of decades-old energy welfare,” said AEA President Thomas Pyle.

Findings

The Dismukes study finds that widespread adoption of state RPS mandates established a substantial guaranteed market for wind; one that did not exist when the PTC was enacted in 1992.  Although a few states adopted RPS policies as early as the mid to late 1990s, most states enacted them between 2004 and 2007, which is when a substantial increase in wind energy capacity development occurred, as documented in the report. To date, wind generation accounts for 90% of all new renewable resources developed under these non-federal programs.

Additionally, RPS requirements are expected to grow from about 50,000 MW in 2010 to almost 200,000 MW by 2030, according to the report.  If wind maintains the same 90% market share it holds in today’s renewable energy generation mix, merely fulfilling future RPS requirements guarantees wind producers a market for almost 130 GW of additional capacity through 2030.  As such, even post-federal PTC expiration, the outlook for future wind generation development continues to be exceptionally favorable.

The report also highlights forecasts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration which find that even if the PTC and other incentives are eliminated, renewable generation will still be on track to rise from 500 billion kilowatt hours in 2011 to approximately 750 billion kilowatt hours by 2035, amounting to a 50% increase in wind generation.

Additional key findings include:

  • Standards & Poor’s recently estimated as much as $150 billion in new renewable energy investment opportunities over the next 10 years even if the PTC is not renewed, driven in large part by opportunities in wind energy development.  Thus, offering billions of dollars in federal tax subsidies to wind generation, in addition to mandated state renewable subsidies, allows wind generators to “double dip,” and reflects a gross waste of limited fiscal resources.
  • Over 50% of wind capacity is located in only five states; over 75% is located in just 11 states. The federal PTC, however, unfairly shifts wind energy development costs from taxpayers in the RPS states to those with little or no wind development, forcing taxpayers across the country to support an industry concentrated in only a few states.  In fact, under the PTC, taxpayers in the states without RPS mandates pay approximately 24% of the PTC funding, even though they receive no direct benefit.
  • The “one-size-fits-all” PTC is an inefficient and expensive means of supporting wind generation that fails to recognize the industry’s heterogeneity and operational differences, and grossly wastes limited fiscal resources by over-subsidizing many projects and driving over-development.

To download a copy of the full report, click here.

About The American Energy Alliance

Founded in May, 2008, The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is a not-for-profit organization that engages in grassroots public policy advocacy and debate concerning energy and environmental policies. AEA believes that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society. AEA believes that government policies should be predictable, simple and technology neutral.

Filed Under: Press Releases Tagged With: , , , , , ,

In the Pipeline: 10/31/12

October 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

You know what?  The AEA Nation thinks Heather Wilson gets it, too.  Folks, you must read this letter.  And if you are lucky enough to live in New Mexico, you get to choose between two very distinct visions for the direction of our nation.  That’s kind of cool. New Mexico Watch Dog (10/29/12) reports: “The Navajo Nation Council has declared its support for Heather Wilson for U.S. Senate.  An October 17, 2012, letter signed by Johnny Naize, the Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, while not explicitly calling upon tribal members to vote for Wilson, sends a clear message that the leaders of the largest Native American tribe in the country support her over Democratic opponent, Rep. Martin Heinrich.  They left nothing to guess when they wrote to Wilson, “Our Nation and our Navajo people are in dire need of leaders such as you who can advocate for sensible solutions and sustainable economic development.””

 

 

You had to figure it was not going to take long for the vultures to descend and try to turn human tragedy into political gain. Politico(10/30/12) reports: “Environmental activist Bill McKibben says Sandy should be a “wake-up call” to elected officials about the effects of climate change… “This is an absolutely unprecedented storm,” he said Monday evening. And it comes during the warmest year in recorded history in the United States — dating back to the late 19th century — and one in which many areas were affected by a serious drought.”

 

We kind of dig this. GlobalWarming.org (10/29/12) reports: “In Wind Intermittency and the Production Tax Credit: A High Cost Subsidy for Low Value Power, economist Jonathan Lesser finds that “the vast majority of the Nation’s wind resources fail to produce any electricity when our customers need it most.””

 

We are moving to Denmark. Renewable Energy World (10/29/12) reports: “The Danish government won’t provide direct support to Vestas Wind Systems A/S should the world’s biggest maker of wind turbines need a bailout to stay afloat… Aarhus, Denmark-based Vestas, which has been hurt by higher-than-budgeted costs to develop its V112 turbine and cuts in green energy subsidies, said in July it agreed with its banks to defer a so-called test of financial covenants, delaying loan payments after losses eroded its cash flow. The government is now saying it won’t step in to bridge any periods of financial distress at the company to prevent it going bankrupt.”

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In the Pipeline: 10/30/12

October 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Before you got out of bed this morning, these men stuck their heads between two rocks, 500 feet beneath the surface, to deliver the abundant, affordable, and reliable energy that powers our way of life.  So thank a coal miner when you plunk down five bucks for your grande, skinny, half-caf, soy Frappuccino on your way to the office.

 

 

Last week we commented about this meeting. We intended to let it speak for itself, but AEI went and tried to have it both ways – yet again.  If this is really “an academic meeting” and “not evidence that AEI supports a carbon tax,” then why are there no opponents of a carbon tax on the agenda?  While it is increasingly clear that AEI has jumped the shark, we will not give up.  We are holding a place for Arthur Brooks on our list of think tank heads who are opposed to a carbon tax.  Come home, Arthur, come home. The Hill (10/26/12) reports: “A conservative think tank will host a forum next month on carbon tax proposals — and this time it’s on the record… The American Enterprise Institute is the venue for the Nov. 13 event on the economics of carbon taxes, which AEI is hosting with two other think tanks, the Brookings Institution and Resources for the Future, and the International Monetary Fund.”

 

We told you this would happen back in 1997 when Enron was celebrating the Kyoto Accord. Reuters (10/25/12) reports: “EU talks to agree tactics ahead of an international climate summit in Doha next month ended in disarray on Thursday, after coal-dependent Poland led opposition to more ambitious attempts to curb atmospheric pollution.”

 

Here’s what this article tells us:  neither Glenn Hubbard nor Greg Mankiw should be allowed anywhere near public policy.  And yet, they are going to be two of the most important people in a Romney Administration. Financial Times (10/29/12) reports: “Discussing the size of a carbon tax, rather than alternatives to it, would be a big step forward compared to where the public discussion is right now,” Hubbard wrote. “As judged on purely political terms, higher Pigovian taxes are a wacky idea. I have yet to see a major candidate for President endorse the concept….We can hope that in future elections the gap between the advice of the economic advisers and the advice of the political consultants will become a lot smaller.”

 

Of course the White House exerted pressure on DOE to sign off on these deals.  This whole mania for expensive, unreliable energy was their creation. National Legal and Policy Center (10/29/12) reports: “The claim that the many beneficiaries (like Solyndra and Fisker Automotive) of President Obama’s green energy stimulus program received their millions of taxpayer dollars based on measurable metrics rather than political favoritism has always been undermined by the circumstantial evidence, but documents obtained by Complete Colorado indicate the White House applied direct pressure to its own Department of Energy to reward (another) one of its allies.”

 

We have discussed this before, but it is worth another visit.  The long and short is that the State Department could not find resources or time to save American lives in Libya, but did manage to find time and resources to install charging stations for electric vehicles in Austria.  So at least the parents of the dead can take solace in the idea that diplomats in Vienna can drive around in expensive, unreliable cars. Washington Times (10/10/12) reports: “In a May 3, 2012, email, the State Department denied a request by a group of Special Forces assigned to protect the U.S. embassy in Libya to continue their use of a DC- 3 airplane for security operations throughout the country… The subject line of the email, on which slain Ambassador Chris Stevens was copied, read: “Termination of Tripoli DC-3 Support.”… Four days later, on May 7, the State Department authorized the U.S. embassy in Vienna to purchase a $108,000 electric vehicle charging station for the embassy motor pool’s new Chevrolet Volts.”

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In the Pipeline: 10/29/12

October 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

What’s holding electric cars back is that they are inferior, expensive products.  How many superior, affordable products need government support? National Journal (10/25/12) reports: “Consider auto sales. Instead of looking at the sales of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles as a percentage of the total auto sales, the focus should be on the incredible growth in sales this year in this sector.”

 

$16 trillion in debt, and the government claims the private sector is recklessly abusing resources.  How do these people sleep at night? IER (10/26/12) reports: “Markey, who is Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, argues that the “Use it or Lose It” report shows that new energy-rich areas like Alaska should not be opened for drilling, because oil and gas companies already have enough idle leases that are not being utilized.  The report, however, fails to make a key distinction: that some leases are more valuable than others, and that the most valuable areas of the federal land estate all aren’t being offered for lease.  An analysis of the report’s central claims is below.”

 

All these people want to do is control our lives.  Once they have that control, it’s both amusing and frightening to realize they have nothing else on the to-do list. NY Post (10/26/12) reports: “Nationally, environmental activists push the expansion of renewable energy — solar, wind, etc. But when industries work to implement those initiatives at the community level, local greens scream at the impact on their community; they’d rather keep the land as it is.

 

This man should be President. Environment and Public Works (10/26/12) reports: “I am truly honored that yet another radical environmental group has given me an award for my efforts to put a stop to President Obama’s far-left global warming agenda,” Senator Inhofe said.  “The Center for Biological Diversity should be pleased to know that my award will have a prominent place in my office, along with all the others I have been proud to receive over the years.  As the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, I have worked every day to expose the radical left’s extremist agenda aimed at ending American production of oil, gas, and coal because of the devastating consequences it will have on the American people.

 

Hmmmm. E&ENews (10/26/12) reports: “But Vitter said in an interview yesterday that, while he’s not trying to get ahead of Election Day, he’s also not comfortable with the idea of Connaughton playing any major environmental or energy role in a Romney administration… “I would have very serious concerns with Jim Connaughton being named to any significant position,” Vitter said. “And if it were a Senate-confirmed position, I would expect to have to oppose his nomination.””

 

But apparently the wind production tax credit is still a really good idea. Energy & Commerce (10/26/12) reports: “Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) appeared on Fox News today to discuss the ongoing investigations into Colorado solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar – the now-bankrupt company that was awarded a $400 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. Abound Solar, which is located in Gardner’s congressional district, is now under investigation by the Weld County district attorney for financial misrepresentation and consumer fraud. Whistleblowers have come forward and exposed that the company was falsifying documents and failing to disclose product flaws to investors and customers. Describing the problems with Abound’s panels, Gardner quoted a whistleblower employee who stated, “The solar panels worked fine as long as you didn’t put them in the sun.””

 

Actually, Governor Romney was repeating what he has been saying for a while.  Tax credits for mature industries (like wind that has been around for more than 100 years) should be phased out. Energy Guardian (10/16/12) reports: “In what was billed by his campaign as a major economic speech delivered in Ames, Iowa, Romney appeared to back away from his previous stance against tax incentives for the wind industry, which is lobbying to extend the Production Tax Credit. “We will support nuclear and renewables, but phase out subsidies once an industry is on its feet,” Romney said.”

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