News

If he’s not shaking hands and preaching the good word in Small Town, USA, you can probably find Tom on cable news. AEA(9/12/12) reports: “I think they’re right in making the case that it’s time for this production tax credit to end. What has become, really, is just a boondoggle for the wind industry. We’re talking about an industry that has been getting this credit now for twenty years and now what’s happening is they’re literally distorting the markets that they’re in by negative pricing. In other words they’re paying for their energy to come onto the grid because they know they can get the money back through the tax credit.”

This is the sort of thing that happens when you have an energy tax.  API’s tax committee should think about this when they meet next week. Frances Bula (9/12/12) reports: “A carbon tax places a ‘price’ on GHG emissions and should encourage users of fossil fuels to switch to fuels with little or no emissions. To be effective, a carbon tax has to meet two conditions: it must be sufficiently high to send a market signal that emissions have a cost and it has to be sustained to encourage the development and adoption of low emission technologies and transportation systems by businesses and residents.”

Maryam Brown and Cory Hicks just keep the hits coming. Energy & Commerce (9/13/12) reports: “As recently as 2010, President Obama stated in a national address that we are running out of places to drill on land. He also cites the outdated and misleading claim that we possess only two percent of the world’s oil reserves,” said Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY). “This pessimistic view is being blown away by reality. Increased domestic oil production is already cutting into the amount we need to import from unfriendly oil-exporting nations, and many experts believe that this production growth can continue for years to come. When you add the equally impressive growth from our ally Canada, the goal of North American oil independence could be reached in as little as a decade.”

Yesterday, the Pipeline linked to a story that indicated the Heritage Foundation and Congressman Ed Markey agreed with respect to the No More Solyndras Act.  The story was wrong and has been corrected (below). E&ENews (9/12/12) reports: “The original version of this story indicated that all the groups would oppose the legislation today. Only Taxpayers for Common Sense opposes the bill as written.”

The scarcity narrative continues to break down under the pressure of technology, production, and American innovation. Market Watch (9/11/12) reports: “U.S. crude-oil production is expected to grow by 74%, or more than 4.9 million barrels per day to an average of 11.6 million barrels per day within 10 years, according to Platts’s energy data analytics unit Bentek Energy.”

Is EPA serious here?  Are they really defending giving money to China so it can become a more efficient competitor?  Has someone mentioned this to Sherrod Brown? The Hill (9/11/12) reports: “The EPA believes that HR 4255 will cripple the agency’s ability through grants to address harmful air pollutants that affect both the global and domestic environment,” Hooks said in written testimony. “Air pollution from overseas sources represents a growing problem for public health globally and here in the United States.”

Dan Simmons crushes here.  Which is no surprise whatsoever. Energy & Commerce (9/11/12) reports: “Daniel Simmons, Director of Regulatory and State Affairs at the Institute for Energy Research, described EPA’s foreign grants as “symptomatic of out-of-control spending by the federal government.” He explained, “Taxpayer dollars should be spent on projects that have an obvious benefit to the American people and these foreign grants do little, if anything, to benefit the American people. Lastly, if EPA would like to improve environmental quality at home and abroad, a far more productive approach would be to promote environmental improvements through economic growth. Years of research shows that economic growth promotes environmental protection.””

You may have missed this, but Kyoto is dying a pretty slow, ugly, public death.  I’m kind of surprised President Clinton didn’t mention it as one his achievements from the dais in Charlotte. Inter Press Service (9/9/12) reports: “As government negotiators from the world’s poorest countries ended a round of United Nations climate change talks in the Thai capital, they sounded a grave note about what appears imminent when they assemble in November in Doha – the reading of the last rites of the Kyoto Protocol.”

Mary Hutzler has been blogging about the windmills not being hooked up for over two years. Maybe people will start to listen to her before it comes to jumping out of windows. WSJ (9/12/12) reports: “Wind power is seeing similar overcapacity. China’s top wind turbine manufacturers, Goldwind and Sinovel, saw their earnings plummet by 83% and 96% respectively in the first half of 2012, year-on-year. Domestic wind farm operators Huaneng and Datang saw profits plunge 63% and 76%, respectively, due to low capacity utilization. China’s national electricity regulator, SERC, reported that 53% of the wind power generated in Inner Mongolia province in the first half of this year was wasted. One analyst told China Securities Journal that “40-50% of wind power projects are left idle,” with many not even connected to the grid.”