News

In a sea of chaos, an island of reason. AEA (August 29, 2012) hosts: “Stephen Moore, editorial board member and senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, will lead a panel discussion in a lively debate on America’s energy future.
With vast energy resources and advances in technology to unlock them, America has the potential to lead the world in energy production and spark a revitalization of the manufacturing industry.”
 
You know what is really going to lead to societal collapse?  Terrible anti-energy votes by Congressmen. Bangor Daily News(8/20/12) reports: “There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability,” Bartlett predicts in “Urban Danger,” a documentary that features the cabin tour. “And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing, to move their families.”
 
Shale gas will cut U.S. wind, solar energy demand, Barclays report says (and that’s why the Sierra Club is now anti-gas because nat gas is now inexpensive, and unlike wind and solar, reliable). E&ENews (8/21/12) reports: “Barclays analysts lowered their forecast for wind demand in the United States by 12 percent for 2014 and 9 percent for 2015 because of a greater share of shale gas in the U.S. energy mix.”
 
Energy and Commerce is very solid.  Now on to the Utility MACT.Energy & Commerce (8/21/12) reports: “Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee welcomed today’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to block implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, one of several stringent new EPA rules affecting power plants that are expected to drive electricity prices higher and put jobs at risk.”
 
A regulatory swap?  No one is talking about that.  And none of the bad guys would offer automobile mandates, the RFS, all efficiency standards, and the GHG regs in exchange for a tax that some nominal Republicans are already planning for without even considering such a trade. Greenwire (8/21/12) reports: “The R-Street Institute is allegedly free-market and limited government, but you have to wonder then their founder says about a carbon tax, “If it’s a true tax and regulatory swap, I don’t see any reason why conservatives wouldn’t support it.” Does Lehrer really believe that the federal government will remove CAFE standards, all energy efficiency standards, the ethanol mandate, the cellulosic ethanol mandate, AND not increase taxes with a carbon tax. They must be smoking some fun stuff up on R-Street.”
 
Is anyone missing here?  Other than coal guys (40% of electricity), natural gas guys (Boone most definitely does not count; he is just a plutocrat), or actual Republicans? Politico (August 2012) reports: “Guests: Alliance to Save Energy’s Kateri Callahan; American Petroleum Institute’s Martin Durbin; Nuclear Energy Institute’s Alex Flint; energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens; and Solar Energy Industries Association’s Rhone Resch.”
 
Yikes, Here is Boone again.  I wonder if he is going to pimp the NAT GAS Act.  I really wonder who puts these things together for the Republican convention.  Are they aware that the caucus rejected Boone’s plan pretty much en masse? Business Wire (8/17/12) reports: “Guest speakers and moderators will include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, oil and gas executive, financier and billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens and former Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Cass Sunstein.”
 
I wonder if Heathcliff and Cathy preferred bird-killing, expensive, unreliable energy? Daily Mail (8/19/12) reports: “And now campaigners opposing plans for a wind farm near Haworth, West Yorkshire, are facing a war on two fronts, as another energy firm attempts to place turbines on the landscape at the heart of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.”

Preach on, Brother Bradley. Forbes (8/20/12) reports: “Ethanol as government energy policy has been an economic and environmental bust. There’s little debate: it inflates motor fuel prices, while compromising the environment. And that was before this summer’s drought reduced corn and wheat supply. President Obama is under pressure from all sides to waive the ethanol requirement for less expensive fuel and food.”

When the government takes away your beer and hands you a shot, the end of the story is pretty predictable. Apply that same logic here. WSJ (8/20/12) reports: “Mandated increases in energy efficiency—popular almost everywhere on the ideological spectrum—have been implemented around the world. Laws like the European Union’s new requirement for 15% energy savings, or the U.S. Senate’s proposed Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012, appear like clear winners for almost everyone. If the costs of new technologies are within reason, they promise consumers lower energy bills and producers more profit while mitigating the environmental costs of energy development and consumption… There is just one problem: Basic economics says that the best way to promote some activity is to reduce its price. That often means efficiency requirements end up having the opposite effect than the one intended.”

 
Hey!  Somebody at AEI must read the Pipeline; for that we are truly grateful.  Now if we could get some kind of public commitment to stop playing footsie with those who favor a carbon tax. AEI (8/18/12) reports: “The hardest hit sectors of the U.S. economy from a carbon tax would be energy-intensive industries, particularly chemicals, automobile manufacturing, iron and steel, aluminum, cement, and mining and oil refining… These large industries would be at a serious disadvantage in the world marketplace, and many companies would move production to countries without such a tax.”

 
“We want to make it safe for Republicans to debate climate change.”  That is almost exactly what Bob Inglis said when he launched his effort.  I wonder who is paying for these efforts.  I’m betting it is somebody like Bob Grady or Boyden Gray or Jim Connaughton.  I also wonder whether Senator Graham really wants to talk much about climate change.  I bet he doesn’t. National Journal (8/20/12) reports: “In a campaign season where energy and climate change have become partisan lightning rods, a small but growing group of Republicans are pushing back against their party’s orthodoxy on both issues.”

 
Do you think Salazar cares that his Department is consciously trying to impoverish Native Americans, rural Americans, and just generally all Americans?  I bet he is more worried about how legit he looks in that cowboy hat and bolo. Alaska Business Monthly(August 2012) reports: “As of yet, oil and gas has not been commercially produced from the NPR-A. This lack of production can be attributed to an onerous and sometimes convoluted federal process, where interactions within the Department of Interior and between other federal agencies is often confusing, leading to actions of one agency being cancelled by the actions of another. This bureaucracy often leads to a stalemate within agencies that can take years to sort out, leaving outside parties with no means of moving projects forward.”

 
This is a bit old (3 days now), but the message is too solid not to share.  The only scarce resource is wisdom; we have plenty of everything else. Washington Post (8/17/12) reports: “Sometimes the news is that something was not newsworthy. The United Nations’ Rio+20 conference — 50,000 participants from 188 nations — occurred in June without consequences. A generation has passed since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, which begat other conferences and protocols (e.g., Kyoto). And, by now, apocalypse fatigue — boredom from being repeatedly told the end is nigh.”

Nobody’s perfect, but we doubt the Sierra Club will be starting up a “Beyond Wind” campaign anytime soon. Hawaii News Now (8/3/12) reports: “This was the third fire related incident at the Kahuku wind farm since it opened in March 2011.  The battery energy storage system was hailed as breakthrough technology but clearly there are flaws.”

Heather Wilson in New Mexico.  Jon Tester in Montana.  Union folks, farmers, ranchers, salon owners, even children.  Pretty much everyone understands the importance of energy and refineries to manufacturing jobs and economic growth.  We welcome them all. Billings Gazette (8/16/12) reports: “Throughout the day, fairgoers, including Sen. Jon Tester, autographed a giant over-the-road bus parked outside the Heritage Building. The bus was driven by representatives of the American Energy Alliance, a nonprofit group that is advocating for a diverse energy policy.”

And if you didn’t see the bus while we were in Montana, you probably heard about it on the radio. Voices of Montana (8/16/12) reports: “[Today’s] show was live from Energy Day at Montana Fair. Various guests were on [today’s] show including Senator John McCain.”

Let me save you the read.  Electricity prices are going to go up, reliability is going to go down.  EPA and FERC don’t seem to care about either.  That is all. GAO (July 2012) reports: “Available information suggests these actions would likely increase electricity prices in some regions. Furthermore, while these actions may not cause widespread reliability concerns, they may contribute to reliability challenges in some regions.”

No better way to put it . . . Environment and Public Works (8/17/12) reports: “”The federal court’s decision to uphold EPA’s plan to permit higher-level blends of ethanol is a huge loss for Oklahomans and consumers nationwide,” Senator Inhofe said. “My constituents in Oklahoma want to be able to use fuel compatible with their vehicles, without having to worry about what kind of damage higher blends of ethanol will do to their engines. This ruling just enables EPA to continue pushing too much corn ethanol too fast through the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a program that has had negative impacts on the safety of those operating vehicles and other equipment as well as food prices.”

Natural gas is the great destroyer.  Fortunately, the Farm Bill spends a lot of your money on biodiesel. Seeking Alpha (8/17/12) reports: The fact that even European producers have begun to cancel plans for the commercial-scale production of biofuels via biomass gasification could result in shareholder pressure on the few remaining employers of the pathway in the U.S. to do the same, or at least to consider feedstock diversification.

Again, either the Canadians are getting smarter (challenging to believe) or we seem more stupid. Canada Free Press (8/13/12) reports: “The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today submitted its recommendation to kill the B.C. carbon tax with the provincial government panel reviewing the tax.”

Just a little more on the carbon tax from our friends in Australia. 4-Traders.com (8/18/12) reports: “No one is immune. Charities, councils, schools, hospitals, small businesses, community groups, public transport operators, have all seen their costs go up, during a time of increased economic uncertainty.”

Ken Green from AEI has requested from us a formal apology for tying him to our concerns about AEI’s involvement in planning a carbon tax campaign.  We apologize, Ken, and will not make that mistake again.

In his request, Mr. Green notes that Arthur Brooks has told “dozens of people” that he opposes a carbon tax. Not one of the dozens has been someone at AEA or (as far as we know) a reporter on the record. What Arthur Brooks has done is allow the use of AEI resources to contribute towards a campaign in support of a federal carbon tax. We are also sorry about that.

Furthermore, AEI’s fellow travelers on this effort (we know at least five meetings have been held) include some of the most questionable elements of the American environmental movement.  In the South, there is a saying about dogs, and fleas, and laying down with one and rising with the other.  That, too, is regrettable, but inevitable

Basically, Dan Simmons ran the show, even though it’s not actually named after him. The Diane Rehm Show (8/16/12) reports: “The role of subsidies for wind energy has become a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign. Governor Romney opposes extending tax credits for the wind industry. President Obama has re-doubled his commitment to them. In a rare show of bipartisanship last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted to extend the credits for another year. The debate over their fate will likely surface again in the fall. Supporters of the extension argue all major sources of energy have received federal help. Opponents say it’s time to let the free market take over. Diane her guests discuss the politics the future of wind energy in the U.S.”

One job in the coal industry supports six downstream jobs? That’s probably an understatement. Affordable energy makes literally every job (not propped up by government) possible.

This I don’t get at all.  I thought renewables were supposed to be cheaper.  At least that is what that lunkhead in Hobbs, New Mexico told me last week.  I wonder if he was wrong. CBS (8/15/12) reports: “New Mexico regulators have approved a request by the state’s largest electric provider to add a charge to customers’ bills to pay for renewable energy.”

Do you know how the President is always talking about how we built the Hoover Dam together?  Can anyone even imagine that anymore?  Nowadays our government celebrates tearing dams down and lying about it.  When are the Westerners going to wake up? Redding.com (2/28/12) reports: “A federal agency’s former scientific integrity adviser has filed a whistle-blower complaint saying he was fired from his job after he began questioning top officials about “spinning” evidence to tout the removal of Klamath River dams.”

We don’t make the news here, we just report it. ACCCE (8/16/12) reports: “Robert M. “Mike” Duncan has been named president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, effective Sept. 10… Duncan brings wide experience in energy policy and business to ACCCE. Working with elected officials at every level and in all political parties, he has served as board member and chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority; assistant director of the Office of Public Liaison in The White House; chairman of the American Crossroads 527 committee; and chairman of the Republican National Committee.”

Jon Haubert wanted to know why we keep bringing up the carbon tax.  It is because it is incredibly destructive policy.  And the crew at AEI, led by Arthur Brooks, doesn’t seem to care about that. Sydney Morning Herald (8/17/12) reports: “A TASKFORCE comprising trade unions and manufacturers has cited the carbon price as adding to the pressures on the struggling industry sector in a report to government containing more than 40 recommendations, sources say.”

If some is good, more is better. The Australian (8/15/12) reports: “The carbon tax is doing exactly what it was intended to do and hurting Australia’s economy,” he said.”