News

At the end of the day, it comes to down to whether you want the Canadians as allies, or would you rather have them snuggle up to the Chinese.  Even for the most hopeless Administration since James Earl Carter, that’s an easy decisionNew York Times (8/29/11) reports: The State Department gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast…The project, which would be the longest oil pipeline outside of Russia and China, has become a potent symbol in a growing fight that pits energy security against environmental risk, a struggle highlighted by last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…By concluding that the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline would have minimal effect on the environment, President Obama would risk alienating environmental activists, who gave him important support in the 2008 election and were already upset by his recent decisions to expand domestic oil drilling and delay clean air rules. Pipeline opponents have protested in front of the White House for a week, resulting in nearly 400 arrests…At the same time, rising concerns about the weak economy and high gas prices have made it difficult for the administration to oppose a project that would greatly expand the nation’s access to oil from a friendly neighbor and create tens of thousands of jobs…The project still must clear several hurdles, including endorsement by other federal agencies, additional studies, public hearings and consultation with the states through which the pipeline will pass. But all signs point to the Obama administration approving the project by the end of the year, perhaps with modifications.

Japan PM doubles as Kamikaze Pilot — blows up economy on way out the door with renewable feed-in tariff.  Sayonara affordable energy Bloomberg (8/28/11) reports: Japan approved a bill today to subsidize electricity from renewable sources, joining European nations in shifting away from nuclear power after the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in March…The renewable-energy bill was passed by the upper house following approval by the lower chamber on Aug. 23 and was one of the last acts of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose support sagged over his handling of Japan’s worst postwar disaster. He said today he’s resigning after parliament passed the legislation…The bill allows for incentives that guarantee above-market rates for wind, solar and geothermal energy. The so-called feed- in tariff created a race to install solar panels when implemented in Germany and Spain. In Japan, it may help Chinese companies such as Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Canadian Solar Inc. to gain a foothold…Japan gets about 9 percent of its electricity from low- carbon sources. Kan has called for that level to increase and for the country to phase out atomic energy after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima nuclear complex. Before the crisis, atomic plants supplied about 30 percent of the country’s electricity…Solar panels had capacity to produce about 3.68 gigawatts of power at the end of last year in Japan, and the government is targeting 28 gigawatts by 2020. Installations may total 1.4 gigawatts to 1.6 gigawatts this year, according to London-based researcher Bloomberg New Energy Finance. A new nuclear plant can typically generate more than 1 gigawatt.

Better yet, make all agencies write regulations with nontoxic invisible ink Wall Street Journal (8/28/11) reports: Since everyone has a suggestion or three about what President Obama can do to get the economy cooking again, here’s one of ours: Immediately suspend the Environmental Protection Agency’s bid to reorganize the U.S. electricity industry, and impose a moratorium on EPA rules at least until hiring and investment rebound for an extended period…The EPA is currently pushing an unprecedented rewrite of air-pollution rules in an attempt to shut down a large portion of the coal-fired power fleet. Though these regulations are among the most expensive in the agency’s history, none were demanded by the late Pelosi Congress. They’re all the result of purely bureaucratic discretion under the Clean Air Act, last revised in 1990…As it happens, those 1990 amendments contain an overlooked proviso that would let Mr. Obama overrule EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s agenda. With an executive order, he could exempt all power plants “from compliance with any standard or limitation” for two years, or even longer using rolling two-year periods. All he has to declare is “that the technology to implement such standard is not available and that it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so.”…Both criteria are easily met. Most important, the EPA’s regulatory cascade is a clear and present danger to the reliability and stability of the U.S. power system and grid. The spree affects plants that provide 40% of U.S. baseload capacity in the U.S., and almost half of U.S. net generation. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which is charged with ensuring the integrity of the power supply, reported this month in a letter to the Senate that 81 gigawatts of generating capacity is “very likely” or “likely” to be subtracted by 2018 amid coal plant retirements and downgrades…That’s about 8% of all U.S. generating capacity. Merely losing 56 gigawatts—a midrange scenario in line with FERC and industry estimates—is the equivalent of wiping out all power generation for Florida and Mississippi.

Krupp-tion of the facts: EDF gets its comeuppance. (but we told you that) Wall Street Journal(8/29/11) reports: Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp’s “The Smart Path for the Shale Gas Revolution” (op-ed, Aug. 18) makes a vague reference to studies that raise questions about whether natural gas emits, on a life-cycle basis, less heat-trapping pollution or carbon than does coal. When making this point, Mr. Krupp may have been thinking of a controversial study authored by Robert W. Howarth and others that has been heavily criticize…A recent peer-reviewed study from Carnegie Mellon University that was financed in part by the Sierra Club concluded that Marcellus Shale gas is 20% to 50% cleaner than coal when greenhouse-gas pollution is used to compare the environmental impact of gas and coal. The study specifically analyzed the carbon footprint of Marcellus gas and not other shale reservoirs. The National Energy Technology Laboratory has also issued a study that arrives at the conclusion that gas is about 50% cleaner than coal on a life cycle carbon basis. The Aug. 5 CMU study further found that there was no statistical difference between the carbon emissions from a Marcellus Shale well and a conventional gas well…Finally, gas power plants emit no toxic air pollution—mercury, arsenic, lead—and already meet the EPA’s proposed Air Toxic Rule, while 90% of the toxic air pollution that comes from power plants is emitted by coal-burning plants.

Does this mean KP is giving up on drilling taxpayers for their green energy pay-off? Wall Street Journal (8/29/11) reports: Venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the late-1990s dot-com frenzy with investments in Netscape Communications Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and, later, Google Inc…But after spreading its bets to clean technology—and missing out on early-stage investments in some of the hottest new Internet companies—the firm is scrambling to grab a leadership role in the latest Web boom…That was evident at a June event in San Francisco, where the firm hosted a packed room of entrepreneurs. At the front of the room, Kleiner venture capitalist Bing Gordon spent an hour onstage espousing his theory of “gamification”—that is, how start-ups can benefit from using online gaming techniques—to the gathering…”We used to do these events internally,” said Mr. Gordon, as he mingled with the crowd near an open bar. But our marketing people “said we should do a public event this time.”…That a firm with Kleiner’s track record sees it necessary to market itself is a testament to the fever sweeping Silicon Valley. It is also an indication of how eager the firm is to rev up its profile in Internet investing…Last year, the firm created an “sFund” to invest in social Web start-ups and hired famed Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker. Kleiner also raised a Digital Growth Fund of about $1 billion to invest in “late stage” Web companies and has since snagged stakes in Twitter Inc., Groupon Inc. and others.

They don’t call them bird blenders for nothing…Washington Post (8/29/11) reports: Six birds found dead recently in Southern California’s Tehachapi Mountains were majestic golden eagles. But some bird watchers say that in an area where dozens of wind turbines slice the air they were also sitting ducks…The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating to determine what killed the big raptors, and declined to divulge the conditions of the remains. But the likely cause of death is no mystery to wildlife biologists who say they were probably clipped by the blades of some of the 80 wind turbines at the three-year-old Pine Tree Wind Farm Project, operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

You should probably be aware of this effort because it argues that economic growth is the right answer.  Which is a completely revolutionary (and accurate) thought Open the Gulf (8/26/11) reports: In June 2010, the federal government instituted a moratorium on all deepwater drilling and nearly halted shallow-water drilling following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.   As the region recovered from the oil spill, it became increasingly obvious another tragedy was unfolding… At first, we heard stories of laid-off roughnecks and idled service operators.  With every rig in the Gulf shutdown, rigs either moved abroad or sat idled, leaving thousands of hard-working Americans without a source of income.  As the months passed and the industry was prohibited from resuming operations, the tumult started to spread…Vendors throughout the country lost orders for equipment.  Manufacturers from Illinois, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and even California – areas thousands of miles from the Gulf but clearly dependent on the region – lost orders and were forced to cut back…When the Administration announced that it was lifting the moratorium, we all felt a sense of relief – until Interior Secretary Salazar also announced that he would continue to deny permits in both the deep water and shallow water while he developed a new regulatory regime. This permit freeze has led to a 250% increase in pending exploration and production plans and an 80% drop in the number of permits issued in the Gulf.

About the whole James Richard Perry thing…you might want to think about what his federal energy policy will look like; we might have a George W. Bush big government type masquerading around as a fiscal hawk Texas Tribune (8/26/11) reports: The cost of building thousands of miles of transmission lines to carry wind power across Texas is now estimated at $6.79 billion, a 38 percent increase from the initial projection three years ago…The new number, which amounts to roughly $270 for every Texan, comes from the latest update on the project prepared for the Public Utility Commission (see page six). Ratepayers will ultimately be on the hook for the cost, but no one has begun to see the charges appear on their electric bills yet because the transmission companies building the lines must first get approval from the commission before passing on the costs to customers…A commission spokesman, Terry Hadley, says that the first of these “rate recovery” applications may be filed before the end of the year. Ultimately, the commission says, the charges could amount to $4 to $5 per month on Texas electric bills, for years…In 2008, when the Public Utility Commission approved the project, it was estimated at $4.93 billion. Gov. Rick Perry, who appoints the three Public Utility Commissioners, has strongly backed the build-out, which will result in several thousand miles of new transmission lines carrying wind power from West Texas to large cities hundreds of miles across the state. This is expected to spark a further boom in wind farm development, particularly in the Panhandle. Texas already leads the nation, by far, in wind power production. Electricity generated by other sources, like natural gas, coal or solar, can also use the lines.

Another milepost in California’s sad, depressing decline into the Third World Los Angeles Times (8/25/11) reports: In a major effort to create more high-tech jobs, Gov. Jerry Brown is sponsoring legislation to extend a state program that collects about $400 million a year from utility customers and invests it in renewable energy and efficiency programs…The surcharge, added to monthly electric bills since 1997, is set to expire at the end of the year, and the Legislature has only two weeks to reauthorize the levy…But because the surcharge is a tax, the bill has to be passed by a two-thirds majority of the Legislature. That would require rare bipartisan approval, yet some Republicans have shown support for the idea…A draft of the bill — which the Brown administration calls the Clean Energy, Jobs and Investment Act of 2011 — was presented at a private meeting late last week in the governor’s office with utility executives, legislative staffers, environmentalists and power plant developers, The Times has learned…The measure is a “priority for Gov. Brown because of its proven job-creation potential and role in galvanizing California’s innovative clean-tech economy,” Nancy McFadden, Brown’s top legislative aide, said in an email.

Who is more valuable to Obama, the greens or the unions? The Keystone XL Pipeline hangs in the balance while Americans suffer from higher energy costs The Hill (8/26/11) reports: Environmental groups are ratcheting up political pressure on President Obama to reject a massive proposed oil pipeline, warning that approval of the project could make the president vulnerable going into the 2012 elections…“It will be increasingly difficult to mobilize the environmental base and in particular to mobilize young people” if Obama approves the pipeline, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said Thursday… Environmental groups have mounted an increasingly aggressive opposition campaign to TransCanada’s 1,700-mile proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry Canadian oil sands from Alberta to refineries in Texas…In recent weeks, the groups have sought to shine a spotlight on the White House, stressing that the final decision to approve the controversial pipeline lies with the president.

The truth is almost always difficult to face.  Fortunately, Congresswoman Lummis is one tough customer Wyoming Tribune (8/25/11) reports: U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., on Wednesday called out three prominent conservation groups that she said “are giving responsible environmental organizations a black eye.”…Speaking at the Petroleum Association of Wyoming’s annual meeting in Casper, Lummis singled out WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds Project…”These are three organizations that are filing constant litigation, that have cottage industries built up to fund their lawyers and their lawsuits against federal agencies and the federal government to stop certain activities,” she said…Lummis and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., have introduced legislation that would cap attorneys’ fees and block groups whose net worth exceeds $7 million from filing for payment under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which reimburses attorney’s fees and costs associated with suing the federal government…Lummis and others have alleged that environmental groups have abused the act, using taxpayer dollars to block government actions that they oppose…How much money environmental groups have received under the EAJA is disputed…According to the Missoulian newspaper, Lummis claimed earlier this year that 14 environmental groups have recovered $37 million in judgements and legal fees from 1,200 lawsuits under settlements with the federal government.

Leaving no doubt that the only paper read in the White House is the formerly great New York Times, the Obama Administration unleashed another attack against the last remaining bright spot in the American economy….the miracle of hydraulic fracturing Wall Street Journal (8/25/11) reports: The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking oil and gas companies to provide it with detailed information—including chemicals used and efforts to minimize environmental impact—about their use of a controversial drilling process used to crack open natural gas trapped in rocks… The federal government’s investor-and-markets watchdog is stepping into the heated environmental debate surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” according to government and industry officials, even as state and federal environmental officials have begun to bring greater pressure on the industry. The process, which involves pumping water, chemicals and sand underground to free difficult-to-reach natural gas in shale basins, has come under criticism from environmental groups ad some lawmakers over concerns toxins in the mix may contaminate air and water…The SEC move shows the broad interest among Washington regulators in taking a closer look at fracking and suggests companies that are betting billions of dollars on the technology will increasingly need to weigh disclosing techniques they often consider proprietary. Battles over disclosure have already broken out at the state level, including in states such as New York and Pennsylvania that sit on the giant Marcellus Shale, an underground formation that has become a fracking hotbed because of the large quantities of natural gas there. Just last week, Noble Energy Inc. paid $3.4 billion for a stake in developing 663,350 acres there… Regulators in several states have identified cases in which drilling—although not necessarily the fracturing process in particular—has allowed natural gas to seep into residential water wells, and at least one scientific study has linked drilling and gas contamination more broadly. But there have been few if any documented cases of contamination by the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. The industry acknowledges that improperly constructed wells can allow gas to escape, but says such cases are rare and aren’t directly tied to fracturing itself.

This is a convoluted way of saying there’s a general consensus to be made that we can save a lot of money by cutting all energy subsidies and letting energy companies compete in the open market U.S. News (8/24/11) reports: With the task of slashing federal spending levels by as much as $1.5 trillion over the next decade, the congressional bipartisan, bicameral debt “super committee” has its work cut out for it. But a new report called Green Scissors 2011 may offer a starting place toward finding a passable solution…The report offers a kind of give and take between the right and left: Tackle wasteful federal subsidies, while protecting the environment. Its sponsors, which include a range of political groups from Friends of the Earth, a progressive environmental organization, to conservative free-market advocate the Heartland Institute, represent a genuine bipartisan consensus—one that they can only hope transfers to the halls of Congress later this year…Subsidies, as the contributors to Green Scissors have realized, are a good place to find common ground. For one, while conservatives and fiscal hawks are mostly against revenue increases to the federal government, genuine subsidies—generally defined by those on the right as narrow carve-outs that disrupt the free market and favor certain industries and special interests over others—are often an exception. So, with the mentality that the fewer subsidies the better, they’ve met progressives and green advocates halfway to at least start with repealing subsidies that negatively affect the environment…Energy subsidies make up a huge bulk of the $380 billion worth of cuts on the Green Scissors list. It’s no surprise that subsidies to fossil fuel industries—like royalty relief and manufacturing tax deductions for the oil and gas industry—made it, but the report also targets incentives for the presumably cleaner nuclear industry and alternative energy sources like biofuels.

I don’t think these greenies thought through their protest…they are being arrested and driven away in gas powered vehicles and being detained in a coal powered jail. Meanwhile, President Obama needs the union jobs to build the Keystone XL Pipeline The Hill (8/24/11) reports: Top officials with several prominent environmental groups are voicing support for demonstrations at the White House that call for President Obama to block a pipeline that would greatly expand imports from Canada’s oil sands…Their joint letter Wednesday adds to the political pressure on the White House over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, signifying that it’s emerging as a priority for a key part of Obama’s liberal base. Signers include the heads of the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, which have the environmental movement’s largest political operations, as well as the Environmental Defense Fund, a group more often known for playing a less confrontational, inside game (although that may be changing)…“It’s perhaps the biggest climate test you face between now and the election. If you block it, you will trigger a surge of enthusiasm from the green base that supported you so strongly in the last election. We expect nothing less,” states the letter from top officials with groups that also include the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment America, Greenpeace, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, and the Rainforest Action Network…More than 275 people have now been arrested near the White House in civil disobedience protests that began Saturday, organizers say.

China has become the gate keeper of key ingredients for renewable energy, but only because our government will not let us mine rare earth minerals New York Times (8/25/11) reports: China has long used access to its giant customer base and cheap labor as bargaining chips to persuade foreign companies to open factories within its borders… Now, corporate executives say, it is using its near monopoly on certain minerals — in particular, scarce metals vital to products like hybrid cars, cellphones and energy-efficient light bulbs — to make it difficult for foreign manufacturers of high-tech materials to build or expand factories anywhere except China. Companies that continue making their products outside the country must contend with tighter supplies and much higher prices for the materials because of steep taxes and other export controls imposed by China over the last two years…Companies like Showa Denko and Santoku of Japan and Intematix of the United States are adding factory capacity in China this year instead of elsewhere because they need access to the scarce metals, known as rare earths…“We saw the writing on the wall — we simply bought the equipment and ramped up in China to begin with,” said Mike Pugh, director of worldwide operations for Intematix, who said the company would have preferred to build its new factory near its Fremont, Calif., headquarters.

What if the government called a shortage but no one cared? Marcellus holds 41 times more gas and 339 times more petroleum than the Bush Administration estimated in 2002 Tri Today (8/23/11) reports: A recent U.S. Geological Survey study determined that the Marcellus shale contains about 84 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas and 3.4 billion barrels of recoverable natural gas liquids, much more than initial estimates indicated…Before this study released Tuesday, USGS Marcellus shale estimates compiled in 2002 projected about 2 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas to exist in the region. The new study indicates a more than 4,000 percent increase in anticipated production…”The increase in technically recoverable resource is due to new geological information and engineering data,” the study states. “As technological developments in producing unconventional resources have been significant in the last decade.”…The study was conducted in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia…Locally, the shale’s location that includes being beneath the Mahoning Valley has been credited with urging V&M Star to build a $650 million expansion and Ultra Premium Oilfield Services to open a new factory in Brookfield. Those two projects are expected to add more than 500 local jobs, according to the companies.

Just come out and say it NYT, you hate poor people and want them to pay more for energy New York Times (8/24/11) reports: Hold a vial of pumped and processed oil to the light here, just before it enters the pipeline that one executive jokingly calls “the cash register,” and you can see a layer of watery sediment settled at the bottom…The vial contains diluted bitumen. What happens to it inside pipelines, 0.5 percent sediment content and all, is powering a controversy that spans the continent…Environmental and safety groups warn that diluted bitumen poses a greater risk of pipeline corrosion and spills than conventional fuel or the synthetic crude also produced from the Canadian oil sands. The oil and gas industry, bolstered by Canadian regulators and policymakers, blasts this claim as hyperbolic fearmongering…”The challenge we have is combating emotion with facts,” Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said during an interview this month when asked about the safety charges leveled by critics of oil sands development, particularly the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline…Liepert readily acknowledged, however, that few if any targeted studies of diluted bitumen’s corrosion risks are available to help him make the case for more oil sands development…”I guess we could” gather specific facts to help beat back conservationist attacks, he added. “It wouldn’t seem to me like a difficult thing to do.”…Yet at the Calgary headquarters of the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the independent regulator of Alberta’s vast and lucrative oil sands resources, the very notion of studying how diluted bitumen affects pipeline safety struck senior officials as unnecessary.

If it’s not the BLM, it’s someone else — greenies are creating green jobs, but only particular kind: lawyers Wyoming Tribune (8/23/11) reports: Three environmental groups are suing the Bureau of Land Management in federal court over the recent leasing of two tracts of coal in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming…WildEarth Guardians, Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit Aug. 16 against the agency in federal court in Washington, D.C., over the environmental effects of the 350 million tons of coal contained in the tracts…The groups contend the BLM didn’t properly conduct its assessment of the environmental impacts of mining, transporting and burning the coal…The Belle Ayr North tract, which contains 221.7 million tons of coal, sold to a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Peabody Energy July 13. The Caballo West tract, which contains 130.1 million tons of coal, sold to a subsidiary of Abingdon, Va.-based Alpha Natural Resources Aug. 17…“Alpha and Peabody are coal companies, and we can’t expect them to look out for anything other than their bottom line,” said Adam Kron, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, in a news release. “But BLM is a federal agency and a steward of our public lands and has no excuse for approving this reckless and short-sighted deal.”…The BLM didn’t return a request for comment Monday…The companies bid against each other for the two leases. Alpha’s $143.4 million bid for the Caballo West tract — at $1.10 a ton — set a record for the highest amount offered per ton in the basin. The tracts are between Alpha’s Belle Ayr mine and Peabody’s Caballo mine.

Steven Chu says we all win when we are more energy efficient, but what he fails to consider or understand is the efficient use of capital. For example, does the small business owner weatherize her plant because of a mandate or does she hire a new employee? Maybe she saves her money because she has no idea what the Obama Administration is going to do next Times and Democrat (8/23/11) reports: U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says the entire community wins when people make their homes and businesses more energy efficient.
“You have more money in your pocket. You created jobs in your local community in making those retrofits and you created investments for the long-term future for yourself, your home and the United States,” Chu said Tuesday…Chu, co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for physics, stopped by Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College for a summit designed to educate entrepreneurs on how the DOE supports small businesses…He noted the Department of Energy’s support for energy efficiency through loans and partnerships with states and organizations…”The Department of Energy is doing everything it can to partner with states,” Chu said. “We want to give you the tools so you will know exactly what you should be doing for the most efficient energy methods possible.”

All colleges need to do in order to reduce their carbon footprint is recycle the beer cans. That didn’t work? How about these hippy professors teach outside instead of air-conditioned classrooms? New York Times (8/23/11) reports: Colleges and universities across the country have quickly taken to measuring their environmental footprint: energy efficiency, consumption levels, renewable energy targets, number of green buildings, recycling rates, water use and even the prevalence of sustainability curriculums. But in this rush to go green, two of the three sustainability pillars have remained largely in shadow…“In the U.S., unlike much of the world, the organizing paradigm of sustainability [began] with an environmental orientation and then added on environmental justice and ecological economics,” said Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), in a recent e-mail exchange. “This is a historical root that has been difficulty to shake.”…The recent profusion of university sustainability offices is perhaps best reflected in the rise in membership to AASHE, which has grown by more than 2,200 percent in the past five years, with more than three-quarters of campus sustainability positions created since 2007…David Orr, a self-described “loving critic of higher education” and professor and special assistant to the president at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, takes a more critical view of the situation. “Colleges and universities haven’t rigorously and energetically challenged their role in planetary deterioration,” said Dr. Orr. “They have been under-performers relative to the challenges humans are going to face and are already facing.”

I guess it’s smaller than I expected reading the article — 5 years, for a total of $2 billion per year; however, the regulatory tax per year is $1.75 trillion according…to an SBA commissioned study Wall Street Journal (8/23/11) reports: The Obama administration will release final plans Tuesday for ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations, an effort to reduce the burden on business and counter criticism that the White House is tone-deaf to business concerns…Certain railroad cars won’t have to install expensive technology, hospitals will be able to skip a round of federal paperwork and low-risk travelers to the U.S. will enjoy expedited entry, officials said. Some businesses will be allowed to file federal forms electronically…The administration estimates that about a dozen of the changes will save businesses some $10 billion over five years, with other smaller initiatives adding to the total…But the changes don’t affect the broad thrust of major administration initiatives that have drawn criticism from businesses, such as proposed rules to reduce carbon emissions and laws passed last year that aim to protect consumers from financial and health-insurance abuses…The White House said it sought to eliminate “dumb” rules without undermining the underlying goals. “We are going to implement statutes that have been enacted in the last few years, but we’re trying to do it in a way that is as careful with respect to cost and as attuned with the economic situation as possible,” said Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, who oversaw the regulatory review…The changes are welcome, but don’t appear to go far enough, said Bill Kovacs, a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Each of the proposals seems to be efficient, technical changes, but it doesn’t make any impact on the overall regulatory burdens that exist on the business community,” he said.

Apparently, these guys have not yet gotten the message that the science is settled Reuters (8/23/11) reports: A newly discovered deep, cold current flowing off Iceland’s coast may reveal that the North Atlantic is less sensitive to climate change than previously thought, researchers reported Sunday…The new current, the North Icelandic Jet, feeds the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a giant pattern known as the “great ocean conveyor belt,” or by the disconcerting acronym AMOC…Because this pattern is critically important for regulating Earth’s climate, including European and North American climates, any strong influences on it, and their response to a warming Earth, are of keen scientific and practical interest…The “conveyor belt” current, introduced to movie-goers in the Al Gore environmental film “An Inconvenient Truth,” carries warm surface water from the tropical Atlantic toward the Arctic. In the process, the water warms the air in high latitudes, then cools, sinks and returns toward the equator, flowing as a deep stream at lower ocean depths…Climate specialists reckoned that most of the cold water that made up that deep south-flowing stream came from off the Greenland coast and was made up of fresh glacier-melt water, produced by new warmth in glacier-covered Greenland.

This poor bastard doesn’t get the joke or he’s doing the best George Costanza impression I’ve ever seen, “Remember Jerry…it’s not a lie…if you believe it..” Forbes (8/23/11) reports: In many ways, solar energy has become the poster child for the entire clean-energy industry. Solar panels are a lot sexier than industrial engines and turbines no matter how environmentally advantageous the latter might be. Not surprisingly, people who are skeptical of the economics of clean energy are often especially skeptical of the economics of solar energy. To get to the bottom of this business, Clean Beta asked a stalwart supporter of solar energy, Andrew Beebe, to make the case for solar photovoltaics.,,Andrew Beebe is the Chief Commercial Officer and Interim President of Suntech America. Mr. Beebe joined Suntech Power in 2008, following the company’s acquisition of EI Solutions, a California-based regional solar installer. Previously, he was the founder of Energy Innovations, a solar technology development company; a partner at Clean Edge, a clean-tech consulting firm; and co-founder and CEO of Bigstep, one of the world’s first small business e-commerce solutions providers…Here is what he had to say on the subject of solar energy.,,Clean Beta: Solar is perceived like all renewable energy as having piss poor economics. Convince us otherwise…Beebe: Solar electricity is cheap and getting cheaper. Today, we’re seeing 25-year power purchase agreements trending below $0.10 per kWh for utility-scale solar projects in the Southwest U.S. That’s already competitive with retail electricity rates and a lot of traditional generation assets like nuclear and gas-peaker plants. And we’re just getting started. The price of solar electricity has on average declined by about 15% per year for 20 years now. By 2015, we’re going to hit retail grid parity in 50% of world markets, meaning the cost of generating solar electricity will be lower than the cost to purchase electricity from the grid…Clean Beta: Aren’t many of the solar deals out there vanity projects?..Beebe: The notion that solar is green window-dressing for liberal yuppies is as outdated as the idea that Pluto is a planet. With long-term economic, environmental and social advantages, solar technology is transforming energy markets in the most developed economies as well as the world’s poorest regions. Today, 1.5 billion people still live without electricity – I’d wager half of those will become electrified with photovoltaics. Suntech panels have already provided one million people in the poorest regions with access to basic electricity, and those numbers are increasing exponentially with technology improvements and cost declines.

The Chamber finally grows a backbone and stands up for the Keystone Pipeline XL The Hill (8/23/11) reports: A New York Times editorial opposing a major proposed oil sands pipeline from Canada isn’t sitting well with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is pressing the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL project…The powerful business group, on its blog Monday, accuses the Times of casting its lot with “anti-growth” green activists that are pushing the White House to block TransCanada’s planned 1,700-mile line from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries…The blog post by the Chamber’s Sean Hackbarth states:..Do they not want the ten of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly created from the pipeline? Would they rather have the U.S. be less energy secure? Do they want to be on the side of anti-growth, anti-energy protesters?..It sure looks that way to me…The State Department is weighing the proposed $7 billion project that could greatly expand U.S. imports from Alberta’s oil sands projects…The new Times editorial calls for State Department rejection of the project, citing the greenhouse gas emissions from energy-intensive oil sands production and tearing up Canadian boreal forests that are carbon sinks…“It should acknowledge the environmental risk of the pipeline and the larger damage caused by tar sands production and block the Keystone XL,” the Times stated…The editorial creates a split over the pipeline among the country’s most prominent daily newspapers. The Wall Street Journal backs the project, and The Washington Post’s editorial board does too.

Bachmann is our kind of crazy — renews pledge to drive down the price of gasoline to $2 a gallon The Hill (8/23/11) reports: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is doubling down on her vow to drive gasoline prices to less than $2 per gallon if she’s elected president, a pledge that 2012 GOP rival Jon Huntsman said isn’t rooted in the “real world.”…Bachmann drew attention last week when she pledged at a Tuesday campaign stop that “Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 per gallon again.”… On Friday, The Washington Times reported, Bachmann stood by her comments in an interview with the paper’s radio affiliate…“The price of gasoline the day that Barack Obama took office was $1.79 a gallon,” she said in the Times account.“…If the price of gasoline was $1.79 a gallon just two and three years ago, certainly we can get it back down to that level again. Why wouldn’t we be able to do that? We’re a ‘can-do’ America.”

It’s so sad when families squabble Washington Examiner (8/22/11) reports: Some top Congressional Democrats are losing faith in President Obama’s signature employment initiative, the promotion of so-called “green jobs.”  They’ve lost so much faith that on Thursday one liberal Democratic member of Congress called the president’s green jobs program “a lot of talk.”..”Of course, we want to be a part of the new innovation and the green jobs,” Rep. Maxine Waters said on MSNBC Thursday.  “But you know, the green jobs have been about a lot of talk and not a lot has been happening on that.” A few hours later, also on MSNBC, Waters said flatly: “All of this talk about the green jobs never materialized.”…Waters is a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus.  Last month, the chairman of that group, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, told the Huffington Post that green jobs had little meaning for his constituents.  “African-Americans out there were saying, ‘What do we have in common with this new, green technology?'” Cleaver told the website…The skepticism from Waters and Cleaver comes after a Washington Post-ABC poll, published July 26, found serious erosion in liberal Democratic support for Obama’s jobs policies.  “The number of liberal Democrats who strongly support Obama’s record on jobs plunged 22 points from 53 percent last year to 31 percent,” the Post reported.

Notice the tone of this article — the author tries to shame Japan for providing affordable and reliable energy for their people while they rebuild after the tsunami New York Times (8/22/11) reports: The half-century-old, oil-fueled power generators here had been idle for more than a year when, a day after the nuclear accident in March, orders came from Tokyo Electric Power headquarters to fire them up… “They asked me how long it would take,” said Masatake Koseki, head of the Yokosuka plant, which is 40 miles south of Tokyo and run by Tokyo Electric. “The facilities are old, so I told them six months. But they said, ‘No, you must ready them by summer to prepare for an energy shortage.’ ”…Now, at summer’s peak, Yokosuka’s two fuel-oil and two gas turbines are cranking out a total of 900,000 kilowatts of electricity — and an abundance of fumes…The generators are helping to replace the 400 million kilowatt-hours of daily electricity production lost this summer because of the shutdown of all but 15 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Across the country, dozens of other fossil-fuel plants have been fired up, and Japan is importing billions of dollars worth of liquefied natural gas, coal and oil to keep them running…Japan, the world’s third-largest user of electricity behind China and the United States, had counted on an expansion of nuclear power to contain energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, its nuclear program is in retreat, as the public and government officials urge a sharp reduction in the nation’s reliance on nuclear power and perhaps an end to it altogether…As its nuclear program implodes, Japan is grappling with a jump in fuel costs, making an economic recovery from the March earthquake and tsunami all the more difficult. Annual fuel expenses could rise by more than 3 trillion yen, or about $39 billion, the government says…The country, until recently a vocal proponent of measures to curb climate change, is also leaving a bigger carbon footprint. According to government calculations, Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions could rise by as much as 210 million metric tons, or 16 percent, by 2013 from 1990 levels if its nuclear reactors were shut permanently. Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, Japan promised to reduce its emissions by 6 percent over that period.

Why replace a great title, “Feeding The Masses On Unicorn Ribs” — Walter Mead, you sir have a beer coming your way The American Interest (8/21/11) reports: Besides healing the planet and returning the rising seas to their natural beds, then-Senator Obama promised that his administration would create beautiful green jobs: well paid, stable, abundant jobs, unionized, with full benefits and making the earth healthier and the American people richer. As President, he stayed on message: even after the truther-enabling “green jobs czar” Van Jones left the administration, green jobs have been one of the President’s signature policies for putting the American people back to work…Obama promised to create 5 million green jobs within ten years. Investors’ Business Daily has a list of that plan’s successes so far…- On his recent jobs tour Obama stopped at a Johnson Controls plant in southern Michigan, which received $300 million in green grants and plans to create a whopping total of 150 jobs, at a cost of $2 million per position…- Evergreen Solar Inc., which received unknown amounts of green stimulus funds on the hope that it would create “between 90 and 100 jobs” two years ago, filed for bankruptcy this week, $485.6 million in debt. Their Massachusetts plant once employed 800 people; in March it was replaced with a factory in Wuhan, China…- Green Vehicles, an electric car “maker” in Salinas, California, took $500,000 from the city and almost $200,000 from the state but has failed to produce even one car…- And as reported earlier on this site, Seattle was one of a handful of cities that received $20 million in federal grants as part of Retrofit Ramp-Up, a program designed to refit houses with more energy efficient materials. Unfortunately, as KOMO4 of Seattle reports, after more than a year “only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program.”…The belief that green jobs would drive a new era of American prosperity was — like the large majority of green policy chat — intellectually incoherent.  The goods that drive renewable energy industries, like so much else in this world, are far cheaper to construct in Asia. As the NYT piece describes, SolFocus, a widely-celebrated solar power company based, only has 90 employees at their San Jose headquarters. The solar panels are assembled in China.  Whether a product is an ordinary t-shirt or an admirable piece of world saving green technology like a wind turbine has zilch, zero, nada influence on the mind of the manufacturer trying to decide where it should be made.

Don’t pop the champagne just yet, there’s still a lot of time between now and December for greenies to mobilize and stop the progress The Hill (8/22/11) reports: In December, the Interior Department will hold the first oil and natural-gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico since last year’s massive oil spill that devastated the region…Republicans and drill-state Democrats have long pressed the Obama administration to hold lease sales in the region, arguing that new domestic drilling will be a boon to the economy…The Dec. 14 lease sale in the western Gulf represents a first step toward new drilling in the region under a series of beefed-up safety and environmental standards imposed by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in recent months…“This sale is an important step toward a secure energy future that includes safe, environmentally sound development of our domestic energy resources,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement…The lease sale, which will be held in New Orleans, will offer up all unleased areas in a 20.6 million-acre block off the coast of Texas. The water depth in the lease sale area is between 16 and almost 11,000 feet…Sales in the region could produce up to 423 million barrels of oil and as much as 2.65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to BOEMRE…BOEMRE said Friday it would increase the minimum bid in those areas deeper than 1,312 feet from $37.50 per acre to $100 per acre in order to “discourage companies from purchasing leases they are unlikely to explore in the near term.“

Like I said, December is a long time to wait for a lease sale Washington Post (8/22/11) reports: Sixty-five people were arrested Saturday outside the White House in a protest that organizers said was to pressure President Obama to deny a permit for a new oil pipeline…The protesters were charged with failing to obey an order governing protests on the White House sidewalk, said Sgt. David Schlosser, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police… The president left Thursday for a 10-day vacation, but protesters said they expected two weeks of demonstrations…The incident Saturday appeared to involve the largest number of arrests near the White House since more than 100 people were taken into custody during a war protest in March…A statement on a Web site connected with the demonstration said protesters expected most of those arrested to be held for a court appearance Monday…In a statement, protesters said the proposed pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast would pose environmental risks.

This is exactly the sort of thing one would expect out of Pennsylvania State University or the cranks on the left. The Guardian (8/20/11) reports: It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim…Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain…This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future…Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity “prepare for actual contact”…In their report, Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis, the researchers divide alien contacts into three broad categories: beneficial, neutral or harmful…Beneficial encounters ranged from the mere detection of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), for example through the interception of alien broadcasts, to contact with cooperative organisms that help us advance our knowledge and solve global problems such as hunger, poverty and disease.

Even Jeff Immelt, welfare queen, says that Obama’s regulations are a problem Empty Wheel (8/22/11) reports: I wanted to return to Jeff Immelt’s Dartmouth talk to focus on what he means by regulatory reform. It’s newsworthy not just for the way Immelt creates straw men to try to claim the energy industry is overregulated. But given that he’s such a key Obama advisor, and given that Obama is also claiming that regulatory reform will create jobs, Immelt’s worrisome claims–such as that regulatory agencies should approve applications in a week–deserve some attention and publicity…In response to a question posed indirectly by Hank Paulson about what he would do to create jobs (after 35:00), Immelt put regulatory reform as the first thing on his list (the others are infrastructure investment, retraining, and small business financing). (All transcriptions and errors therein in this post are my own.)…You’d look at regulation permitting cycles; you’d look at some regulatory schemes that are retarding growth. And as important, you’d just look at cycle time. Cycle time. You’d say, okay instead of three years, I’m gonna give you a week…Later (after 46:30), an audience member asks him how to make us more efficient while still being environmentally safe. Rather than answering that question, he returns to the idea of regulatory reform…I think that there are permitting cycle times that just are purely bureaucratic. The fact is, if you’re doing a cross-state line gas it takes four years, if you’re doing electricity grid it takes seven years. That seems a bit tardy, to me…And then, I think, let’s pick three. Let’s pick drilling off the Gulf of Mexico, let’s take the Trans-Canada pipeline that goes from the oil sands in Canada down to the United States, and let’s pick shale gas…Now, I think there should be rules for all of those. I don’t think people should be able to just do whatever they want to do. There should be rules for all of those. But we should be doing them all…In other words, the role of a regulator, be it the FDA or the EPA or anybody else is how to make it safe. It’s not to switch an on or an off switch.

Have a problem? Call up your local bureaucrat for an answer… Politico (8/18/11) reports: At Wednesday’s town hall in Atkinson, Ill., a local farmer who said he grows corn and soybeans expressed his concerns to President Barack Obama about “more rules and regulations” — including those concerning dust, noise and water runoff — that he heard would negatively affect his business…The president, on day three of his Midwest bus tour, replied: “If you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe what you hear.”…When the room broke into soft laughter, the president added, “No — and I’m serious about that.”…Saying that “folks in Washington” like to get “all ginned up” about things that aren’t necessarily happening (“Look what’s comin’ down the pipe!”), Obama’s advice was simple: “Contact USDA.”…“Talk to them directly. Find out what it is that you’re concerned about,” Obama told the man. “My suspicion is, a lot of times, they’re going to be able to answer your questions and it will turn out that some of your fears are unfounded.”…Call Uncle Sam. Sensible advice, but perhaps the president has forgotten just how difficult it can be for ordinary citizens to get answers from the government.

This I don’t understand.  We’ve sold something like 2700 out of about 10 million vehicles sold in the U.S. New York Times (8/20/11) reports: Costco, the membership warehouse-club chain, was an early leader in offering electric-vehicle charging to its customers, setting an example followed by other retailers, including Best Buy and Walgreen. By 2006, Costco had installed 90 chargers at 64 stores, mostly in California but also some in Arizona, New York and Georgia. Even after General Motors crushed its EV1 battery cars, the Costco chargers stayed in place…Yet just as plug-in cars like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt enter the market, Costco is reversing course and pulling its chargers out of the ground, explaining that customers do not use them… “We were early supporters of electric cars, going back as far as 15 years. But nobody ever uses them,” said Dennis Hoover, the general manager for Costco in northern California, in a telephone interview. “At our Folsom store, the manager said he hadn’t seen anybody using the E.V. charging in a full year. At our store in Vacaville, where we had six chargers, one person plugged in once a week.”…Mr. Hoover said that E.V. charging was “very inefficient and not productive” for the retailer. “The bottom line is that there are a lot of other ways to be green,” he said. “We have five million members in the region, and just a handful of people are using these devices.”…Plug In America, the California-based E.V. advocacy group, contends that the stations do get used, and is conducting a rigorous grassroots campaign to save them. The group asserts that some of the units have been delivering free electricity to loyal E.V. owners for a decade or more, and that people regularly plug in.

Let the great experiment begin! Super Committee received over $64 million in special interest money Fox News (8/18/11) reports: Let the gridlock begin where it always does, with political donations…The bipartisan “super committee” created under the debt ceiling deal that is supposed to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings by the end of November got $64.6 million from special interests groups over the past decade, according to a new analysis by MapLight, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks the nexus of money and politics…Political action committees funded by the legal profession ($31.5 million), Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase ($11.2 million), and “Democratic/Liberal” groups ($9.6 million) topped the list here…PACs and employees in the health-care industry gave heavily, too — $9.3 million over the last decade…Who on the super committee got the most cash? The Democrats, with twice as much as the Republican members — $42.7 million in donations over the last decade, according to the analysis by MapLight…Topping the list is Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) — he received roughly $15.8 million in political donations from special interest PACs, largely due to his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2004, says MapLight. Following close behind is Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont) with $8.3 million. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) received $5.9 million and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), got $5.7 million, says MapLight.

Obama must’ve read that book Hugo Chavez gave him. And, is this what Maxine Waters was talking about when she famously admitted she might “nationalize” oil companies? Wall Street Journal (8/18/11) reports: Exxon Mobil Corp. is fighting with the U.S. government to keep control of one of its biggest oil discoveries ever, in a showdown where billions of dollars hang in the balance for both sides…The massive Gulf of Mexico discovery contains an estimated one billion barrels of recoverable oil, the company says. The Interior Department, which regulates offshore drilling, says Exxon’s leases have expired and the company hasn’t met the requirements for an extension. Exxon has sued to retain the leases…The court battle is playing out at a time in which the Obama administration has made an issue of unused leases, which deprive the Treasury of valuable taxes. It also comes as regulators are being careful not to be seen as lax in their dealings with large energy companies in the wake of last year’s BP PLC spill…The stakes are high: Under federal law, the leases—and all the oil underneath—could revert to the government if Exxon doesn’t win in court…The loss of the leases would be an enormous black eye for Exxon. The company hadn’t previously disclosed the size of the discovery in what is called the Julia field until it was mentioned in the suit Exxon filed against the Interior Department last week in federal court in Lake Charles, La…The Texas behemoth faces the sobering prospect that it may have made the largest discovery ever in the Gulf of Mexico only to lose it. Tens of billions of dollars of oil could slip through its hands because it failed to follow federal rules for getting a lease extension while it moved forward with plans to get the oil out of the ground.

We don’t get this at all.  If the rule has positive consequences with respect to costs and benefits (as EPA has argued and will no doubt continue to argue), why would there be any need to “blunt the impact”?  I mean, who tries to blunt the impact of something good? Politico (8/17/11) reports: The Obama administration is promising to blunt the impact of its pending ozone standards by ensuring flexibility for industries, but it likely won’t have enough wiggle room to win over its fiercest critics…In an effort to refute industry’s claims that a tighter smog standard will put a damper on economic recovery, the White House and the EPA have repeatedly vowed to use flexibility allowed under the Clean Air Act when the rules are implemented. That would allow the administration to install a standard in line with the between 60 and 70 parts per billion that agency scientists have recommended — and appease environmental and public health groups — while giving officials the ability to point to the implementation plan as proof that it has maximized flexibility for industry…EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan has said in several recent statements that “in implementing this new standard, EPA will use the long-standing flexibility in the Clean Air Act to consider costs, jobs and the economy.” And a White House official said last month that President Barack Obama “is committed to using the full flexibility in the law to ensure that the implementation of a new standard does not impede our economic recovery.”…EPA’s ozone rule and a draft implementation plan have been under review by the White House since July 11, and some observers speculate that the final standard has been delayed in part while the implementation plan is fine-tuned.

Seriously, what could go wrong? The Gazette (8/17/11) reports: For the first time ever, more of the corn crop may go into gas tanks than into the stomachs of cattle and poultry destined for kitchen tables…The prediction drew little response last week when it was released by the USDA in its Crop Production and Supply/Demand Report for the 2011 crop season. The USDA kept its prediction for ethanol production demand for corn at 5.05 billion, but lowered demand projections for livestock feed by 100 million bushels to 5 billion bushels…That fuel now tops livestock as the primary user of corn struck at least one observer as noteworthy…“That’s a first-time-ever type of change,”  University of Missouri Extension economist Ron Plain said in a statement released by the university…“For forever,” Plain said, “ feed was the largest single use of corn.”…The news comes as criticism that pro-ethanol subsidies and policies are raising food prices globally seems to be reaching a crescendo.  Critics didn’t seem to latch onto the USDA’s market prediction, however…A spokesman for Iowa’s ethanol industry termed the USDA’s market prediction “a footnote.”…“Every credible study has clearly found the effects of ethanol policies is negligible on the price of corn,” remarked Monte Shaw, president of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association…The USDA Thursday lowered its soybean and corn harvest estimates for the 2011 crop significantly and said ethanol plans will consume more corn than livestock.

What? EDF supports energy? Nah…you’re watching a Washington parlor game. Fred Krupp continues to pretend he likes shale gas production in his “good cop/ bad cop” hunt for cash for his organization (letting nrdc be the bad cop this time). All he wants in his quest to federalize energy production is a little regulation Wall Street Journal (8/18/11) reports: If there’s one thing America doesn’t need right now, it’s more acrimony and gridlock. That’s where the debate over natural gas development in the U.S. has been heading—but it’s not too late to change direction…To be blunt, the natural gas industry has a credibility problem. Natural gas is a growing and increasingly significant part of our nation’s energy economy, but many Americans don’t believe that this resource can be tapped safely…In the past two years, one state and several municipalities have effectively banned (some permanently, others temporarily) the development of unconventional natural gas. Restoring trust will take time, strong oversight by government, and transparency and hard work by the industry. It won’t be easy, but it can be done. A new report by a Department of Energy advisory panel points to some crucial first steps that can help jump-start the process…The natural gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has opened up vast deposits of gas trapped in shale rock formations—deposits that were previously too difficult or expensive to reach. One example is the Marcellus Shale, which covers a good portion of New York and Pennsylvania, states not previously known for their natural gas reserves…In 2000, shale gas accounted for 1% of America’s natural gas supply. Today, that figure is around 25% and climbing. From an environmental perspective, that should be good news, since natural gas burns cleaner than coal, emitting less greenhouse gas pollution during combustion and avoiding mercury, sulfur dioxide and other dangerous air pollutants that come from coal.

Do Iowans see the writing on the wall? Ethanol might be on the way out, but with the top republicans signing a wind blade at the Ames Straw Poll, it looks like they’ve found a new subsidy New York Times (8/18/11) reports:  In The New York Times on Thursday, John M. Broder writes about a blood sport that has become quite popular among the field of Republican presidential candidates: attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet the candidates recently found time to rally behind clean wind energy, a topic some voters identify with a somewhat more liberal agenda…At the Saturday straw poll in Iowa, the G.O.P. contenders Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Thaddeus McCotter autographed a giant 130-foot wind turbine blade to show their support for Iowa’s burgeoning wind industry as a source of home-grown job creation…TPI Composites, based in Newton, Iowa, manufactured the blade and currently employs 700 workers at a former Maytag plant, according to its chief executive, Steve Lockard. The American Wind Energy Association, a trade association and lobbying group, sponsored the event on Saturday…It was one of about 30 such displays set up by organizations and political action committees on the Iowa State University campus…Michele Bachman, the top vote-getter in the straw poll, was not present at the signing, although according to Peter Kelley, the wind energy association’s vice president for public affairs, her staff members had conveyed her interest in attending…Texas is the leading state in installed wind capacity with 10,085 megawatts, while Iowa is second with 3,675 megawatts, accounting for almost 20 percent of the state’s electricity generation in the first quarter of 2011.

She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me…three new flowers are on the endangered species list, adding one more layer of green tape for Western energy states Fox News (8/18/11) reports: The recent placing of three Colorado wildflowers on the federal endangered and threatened species lists will make it harder to exploit untapped fuel resources in the Rocky Mountain State, a group representing the energy industry tells Fox News, an assertion the government denies…“What we’re seeing here is the federal government coming in and adding another layer of regulation,” says Kathleen Sgamma, director of government and public affairs at Western Energy Alliance. Regulators are “saying we don’t care about … what the states are doing and what industry and nonprofit groups are doing to protect those species.”… The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Pagosa skyrocket as endangered. The other two flowers, the Parachute beardtongue and the DeBeque phacelia, are listed as threatened. The latter two grow only in northwestern Colorado, which is also home to the 200-square-mile Roan Plateau atop massive reserves of natural gas, as well as oil in the form of oil shale…“The listing of these plants won’t stop any oil and gas drilling,” maintains Gina Glenne, a Fish and Wildlife botanist. “When you have a project on federal lands where it may impact the plant, what we do is work to mitigate those impacts. That can involve moving a project some small distance but it doesn’t ever really stop a project, especially an oil and gas project where we know that those resources are needed.”

More news from the peak oil front…San Francisco Chronicle (8/16/11) reports: Norway’s Statoil has received a huge boost to its reserves with the announcement that two previous North Sea oil discoveries are connected which may represent the biggest find in the Norwegian continental shelf in 30 years…Statoil said in a statement Tuesday that the Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries together contain between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil — significantly more than previously thought…Statoil owns a 40 percent stake in both discoveries and is the operator of Aldous…Tim Dodson, the company’s vice president for exploration, called the combined discovery “giant,” adding that “Norway has not seen a similar oil discovery since the mid-80’s.”…The discoveries show the Norwegian continental shelf remains an attractive source for crude, he said…Trond Frode Omdal, an oil analyst at Oslo-based Arctic Securities ASA, said the size of the discovery was surprising…”I think the companies had almost given up making such a huge discovery in the North Sea,” he said, adding that the gross value of the discoveries could be as much as $40 billion.

I’m not a math major but 14 green jobs for $20 million seems wrong — they must’ve had the same tutor as Geithner growing up Komo News (8/16/11) reports: Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy – able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint – and the announcement came with great fanfare…McGinn had joined Vice President Joe Biden in the White House to make it. It came on the eve of Earth Day. It had heady goals: creating 2,000 living-wage jobs in Seattle and retrofitting 2,000 homes in poorer neighborhoods…But more than a year later, Seattle’s numbers are lackluster. As of last week, only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program. Many of the jobs are administrative, and not the entry-level pathways once dreamed of for low-income workers. Some people wonder if the original goals are now achievable…”The jobs haven’t surfaced yet,” said Michael Woo, director of Got Green, a Seattle community organizing group focused on the environment and social justice…”It’s been a very slow and tedious process. It’s almost painful, the number of meetings people have gone to. Those are the people who got jobs. There’s been no real investment for the broader public.”…Organizers and policy experts blame the economy, bureaucracy and bad timing for the program’s mediocre results. Called Community Power Works, the program funds low-interest loans and incentives for buildings to do energy-efficient upgrades. They include hospitals, municipal buildings, big commercial structures and homes.

As president talks up green jobs in a diesel bus, green jobs are leaving the building Tucson News (8/17/11) reports: Solar module manufacturer Solon Corp. will lay off 60 local workers as it shuts down its production facility in Tucson, the company said Monday…The company will maintain its U.S. headquarters here after the production line shuts down, with some 70 employees in sales, engineeering and research. The layoffs will take place by October, the company said…Solon, part of German-based Solon SE, said it will seek lower-cost sources of solar modules for utility and commercial photovoltaic systems in Asia. The company currently has manufacturing facilities in Germany and Italy…The company’s North American CEO, Dan Alcombright, said Solon regrets the impact of ending production on its workers and the community…”We will continue to aggressively expand in Tucson and our other U.S. offices to support our efforts on commercial and large-scale project development, supply chain excellence, and new product development,” Alcombright said in a press release…Last month, the company announced that it would restructure operations to reduce its debt load…The company’s German parent said in an Aug. 10 release that revenues were down: “Against the backdrop of the nuclear energy debate, many customers appear to have deferred the purchase of solar systems or speculated on a further erosion of system prices.”

The first solar energy company to practice truth-in-advertising — actually naming itself Solon to apparently reflect its dependence on government for its sustenance — is closing its Tucson factory AZ Central (8/17/11) reports: Solon Corp. will close its Tucson solar-panel factory in October, laying off about 65 workers, but the company plans to maintain a development company in Arizona…Solon is a subsidiary of Solon SE of Germany, which has additional manufacturing plants in Europe and Asia…The company will maintain about 70 Tucson employees to continue the more-profitable work of developing power plants, said Dan Alcombright, president and CEO of Solon North America…The North American subsidiary was founded in 2007, using a small production facility at first. The 105,000-square-foot factory opened in 2008…Solon also has about 10 people working in a Phoenix office and five in San Francisco…The company is building power plants for Arizona Public Service Co., Tucson Electric Power Co. and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and those projects will not be affected by the factory closure…Alcombright said the Tucson facility can’t compete with low-cost factories overseas and that solar panels have essentially become a commodity where the minor differences among manufacturers are not major considerations for utilities buying solar panels…”The Solon product we manufacture here in Tucson may have a better fit and finish than some others, but the market doesn’t really value that,” he said. “The market values a low price. We are going to stop beating our heads against the wall and say, ‘How can we be smart strategically?’ ”

Whatever… National Journal (8/16/11) reports: Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas led an unprecedented attack on the ethanol industry in 2008 that could stymie his fledging presidential campaign in the politically critical, corn-rich state of Iowa…The governor urged the Bush administration at the time to roll back the so-called “ethanol mandate,’’ which requires the federal government to annually boost biofuel production, mainly through corn-based ethanol. The Environmental Protection Agency turned down Perry’s request in a decision that elicited relief among Iowa’s corn growers and political establishment and disappointment from his home state’s cattle industry…Perry has yet to address the ethanol mandate since he launched his campaign on Saturday, but he is certain to face questions about it in Iowa, where his path to the nomination begins…“This is a very serious conversation we’re going to have with him,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. “We respect the fact that before, he was acting in the best interests of Texas, which has a lot of oil and quite a few cattle operations…. I’m interested to see if he’s now running for president of the United States, not governor of Texas.’’…“As far as his position in 2008, we didn’t think it was warranted,” said Amanda Taylor, senior policy advisor for the Iowa Corn Growers Association. “We’ll have to wait and see what he says regarding the [mandate] now as he comes to court Iowa voters over the next six months.”

Only the doomed tangle with Chris Horner Washington Post (8/16/11) reports: Four groups say they are worried the University of Virginia may unnecessarily disclose private correspondence from scientists in the case involving the work of former professor Michael Mann…The state’s flagship university has fought requests to release documents under Virginia’s freedom of information laws to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), but the groups say they are now concerned about a May 24 agreement U.Va. made to provide some documents to the American Tradition Institute.Environmental Law Center…The four groups — the Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Association of University Professors, the American Geophysical Union and Climate Science Watch — sent U.Va. a letter late Tuesday…“We believe the agreement is in conflict with the university’s previous statements and actions on this issue and it threatens the principles of academic freedom protecting scholarly research,’’ they say in the letter…U.Va. is slated to respond to the American Tradition Institute around Aug. 20. Carol Wood, a university spokeswoman, did not immediately respond to a message for comment…In January. the American Tradition Institute asked the university to turn over documents, including e-mails Mann exchanged with other scientists while employed at the university, on behalf of Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) and two other state residents.

Obamanomics: destroy demand by eviscerating all value created over the past decade and you’ll have cheaper gas at the pump Wall Street Journal (8/15/11) reports: The tumbling price of crude oil this month and signs of falling fuel demand point to lower U.S. gasoline prices ahead, though consumers will have to wait for savings to trickle down to the pump…After reaching an almost three-year high of $3.97 a gallon in early May, U.S. retail gasoline prices have fallen nearly 30 cents on a combination of lower oil prices and flagging sales in the important summer-driving season…The latest step down in oil futures suggests more relief is on the way. Crude futures settled 34 cents lower at $85.38 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil is down 10% in August, at one point last week falling as low as $75.71 a barrel, the lowest price in almost a year… The cost of oil is the biggest driver of gasoline prices, but it can take several weeks for a decline in oil prices to work its way through the system and become reflected in retail sales. After oil prices tumbled 15% in the first week of May, it took nearly two weeks for retail prices to drop by 10 cents a gallon…Over the next month, as oil futures held near $100 a barrel, pump prices per gallon continued to drop by another 25 cents. In early July, prices briefly rose before again turning lower.

How about an energy partnership with American companies, Mr. President? The Hill (8/15/11) reports: A top Energy Department official will travel to Brazil next week to launch a high-level partnership aimed at developing the South American country’s oil-and-gas resources…The administration could be wading into politically thorny territory with the partnership. Republicans have pounced on President Obama’s plans to work with Brazil on energy issues, arguing that the administration should be spending more time developing U.S. oil resources…Obama announced his intentions to launch the partnership in May while visiting Brazil. He said at the time that he hopes to invest in Brazil’s oil-and-gas resources because the country is more stable than the Middle East and has vast fossil fuel reserves…“We want to work with you. We want to help with technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and when you’re ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers,” Obama told a group of Brazilian business leaders in May…“At a time when we’ve been reminded how easily instability in other parts of the world can affect the price of oil, the United States could not be happier with the potential for a new, stable source of energy.”

One more Malthusian trying to cash in with tax payer money on the peak oil scare New York Times (8/15/11) reports: Sitting in a Panera in Boston’s financial district in early July with Jeremy Grantham, I suddenly found myself considering how I might safeguard my children’s and notional grandchildren’s future by somehow engineering the U.S. annexation of Morocco. Grantham, the founder and chief strategist of the asset-management firm GMO, was reading aloud from a rough draft of his next quarterly letter to investors, in which he ranks some long-term crises of resource limitation along a scale from “merely serious” to “dangerous.”… Energy “will give us serious and sustained problems” over the next 50 years as we make the transition from hydrocarbons — oil, coal, gas — to solar, wind, nuclear and other sources, but we’ll muddle through to a solution to Peak Oil and related challenges. Peak Everything Else will prove more intractable for humanity. Metals, for instance, “are entropy at work . . . from wonderful metal ores to scattered waste,” and scarcity and higher prices “will slowly increase forever,” but if we scrimp and recycle, we can make do for another century before tight constraint kicks in…Agriculture is more worrisome. Local water shortages will cause “persistent irritation” — wars, famines. Of the three essential macro nutrient fertilizers, nitrogen is relatively plentiful and recoverable, but we’re running out of potassium and phosphorus, finite mined resources that are “necessary for all life.” Canada has large reserves of potash (the source of potassium), which is good news for Americans, but 50 to 75 percent of the known reserves of phosphate (the source of phosphorus) are located in Morocco and the western Sahara. Assuming a 2 percent annual increase in phosphorus consumption, Grantham believes the rest of the world’s reserves won’t last more than 50 years, so he expects “gamesmanship” from the phosphate-rich.

You know it is bad when the National Journal starts calling your bluff National Journal (8/12/11) reports: President Obama says his new automobile fuel economy standards will create jobs…Not so fast…What he doesn’t say is that those standards will lead to sustained job creation only if Americans choose to buy more fuel-efficient cars in the coming years. And if recent history is true, the driving decision behind that will be the price of gas…Over the past two weeks, Obama has repeatedly touted his ambitious new fuel-economy standards as good for the environment and good for the economy. While the first part of that statement may be self-evident, the second is open to debate…On Thursday, Obama again claimed a nexus between higher mileage vehicles and jobs, this time while touring the Holland, Mich., plant of Johnson Controls, which builds advanced batteries for hybrid and electric cars…“I brought together the world’s largest auto companies who agreed, for the first time, to nearly double the distance their cars can go on a gallon of gas,” Obama said. “That’s going to save consumers thousands of dollars at the pump. It’s going to cut our dependence on foreign oil. It’s going to promote innovation and jobs, and it’s going to mean more groundbreakings and more job postings for companies like Johnson Controls.”…The new fuel-economy standards apply to cars and light trucks through 2025 and – for the first time – to heavy trucks through 2018. Cars and light trucks must reach an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 (up from the current 28 mpg). The truck standards require cuts of 7 to 20 percent in fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions for trucks between 2014 and 2018.

So… I guess even the Messiah has to follow…the law Seattle Times (8/12/11) reports: A judge on Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land…U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar…The ruling reinstates Bush-era expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said…The government argued that oil and gas companies had no case because they didn’t show how the new rules, implemented by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service last year, had created delays and added to the cost of drilling…Freudenthal rejected that argument…”Western Energy has demonstrated through its members recognizable injury,” she said. “Those injuries are supported by the administrative record.”..An attorney for the government declined to comment but Kathleen Sgamma, director of government and public affairs for the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, praised the ruling.

Good News! Texas Wind Power breaks new records for showing up to work fourteen to twenty-five percent of the time instead of the usual 8%! Bad news; every hour wind makes a megawatt, U.S. subsidies mean we Borrow $22 more dollars from the Chinese who make the confounded things Houston Chronicle (8/11/12) reports: The wind hasn’t provided much relief to Texans during the recent run of 100-degree-plus days, but it has helped keep air conditioners humming…Texas’ wind turbines, particularly those along the Gulf Coast, have come through for the state’s electrical grid more than expected during the hot afternoon hours when demand has been highest…Wind accounts for 11 percent of the state’s total power capacity, and last year only 8 percent of the power produced in Texas came from wind turbines…But during last week’s daily power crisis, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s main high-voltage power grid, repeatedly touted wind power’s contributions during peak demand…Typically ERCOT expects only about 800 megawatts of power to come from the 9,500 megawatts of wind turbines installed around the state…But wind’s contribution ranged from 1,300 megawatts to 2,400 megawatts during peak demand — including 2,000 megawatts last Wednesday, when the state set a demand record at 68,294 megawatts…It’s a big improvement from last summer, when only 650 megawatts of wind power was humming during the peak hours on Aug. 23, when Texas hit its 2010 record of 65,776 megawatts…”The wind gods have been very, very good to us this summer,” said Ted Hofbauer, director of asset management for Pattern Energy, which owns and operates the 283-megawatt Gulf Wind project south of Kingsville in Kenedy County.

“We must destroy the village in order to save it” : Fracking Panel Head Justifies Federal Government Stealing State Authority NPR (8/10/11) reports: A Department of Energy panel hopes new recommendations — if implemented — will restore the public’s trust in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for natural gas…In the last few years, fracking has brought new life to old gas fields around the country. Most of the increasing production comes from dense layers of shale deep underground. By pumping huge deep underground amounts of water, along with smaller amounts of chemicals and sand, drillers can force gas out of shale…Due in part to fracking, the Energy Information Administration estimates the U.S. now has enough domestic natural gas to supply the country’s needs for 100 years, based on 2010 consumption levels…President Obama has declared natural gas key to the country’s energy future. Burning natural gas produces fewer greenhouse gases emissions than coal and oil, and as a domestic source of energy its creating much needed new jobs. But as gas booms have popped up across the country reports of problems have also increased. Critics worry fracking may be polluting ground water…Homeowners who live near the wells claim methane, and possibly toxic chemicals, are leaking into water supplies. These growing concerns prompted President Obama to call for a panel to examine how to make fracking cleaner.

Does anyone have Senator Reid’s email? He needs to know this bit of information Bloomberg (8/11/11) reports: Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) spent a decade moving chemical production to the Middle East and Asia. Now it’s leading the biggest expansion ever seen back home in the U.S. as shale gas revives the industry’s economics.
Dow is among companies planning to build crackers, industrial plants typically costing $1.5 billion apiece that process hydrocarbons into ethylene and other synthetic materials. The new crackers will be the first to be built in the U.S. since 2001 and the largest wave of additional capacity, John Stekla, a director at Chemical Market Associates Inc., a Houston-based consultant, said in an interview.
Driving this renaissance is the plunge in the price of natural gas, used in crackers as a raw material, to a nine-year low. New drilling methods are opening up vast shale formations from Texas to West Virginia. U.S. chemical investments stemming from shale gas may top $16 billion, creating 17,000 jobs directly and another 400,000 indirectly, according to the American Chemistry Council, a Washington-based industry group…“The U.S. now has investment-grade economics, and because of shale we are going to lock those economics in,” Dow Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris said. “We can grow our Americas base off our U.S. Gulf Coast assets. That is a big change.”

How is this different from what BOEMRE does? The Global Mail (8/11/11) reports: A man has been charged with trying to bilk oil and natural-gas firms out of millions of dollars in bogus environmental fees…Investigators allege a company calling itself Alberta Environmental Registry sent out false invoices last month that requested payment of environmental compliance fees…The invoices ranged from $400,000 to $3.3-million and were based on the number of wells owned and operated by each company…“It looked pretty sophisticated and it is alleged he did have knowledge of the oil and gas industry so that these invoices [were] very believable,” said Constable Tanya Bertulli of the Calgary Police Service economic crimes unit…“A lot of these companies were very smart to pick it up. We believe had the amounts been smaller, that they would have just paid out.”…John Edward Wilson of Calgary is charged with three counts of fraud over $5,000. Police say further charges are possible…Alberta Environmental Registry was only incorporated last month…The invoices listed a downtown Calgary address and phone number and demanded payment for “2011 Environment Fees – Oil and Gas Sector.”

Do you think someone should let Senator Reid know that it is his own people who have been trying to destroy the energy industry in the country? E&E News (8/10/11) reports: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he will be looking for GOP cooperation to make energy policy a “signature issue” for the Senate this fall…Reid’s comments today that the Senate will focus on job-creation legislation — including energy bills — echo those he made earlier this month before the chamber broke for a four-week recess…”One of the things at the top of the list is energy jobs, and we’re going to try to see if we can get a little cooperation from the Republicans so we can make that one of our signature issues during the next couple of months,” Reid told reporters today during a conference call to promote the upcoming National Clean Energy Summit…”I’m disappointed that we haven’t done better,” Reid added…But he provided few details about what the energy jobs legislation would look like, and he stayed mum on whether any of it would come from the cache of legislation Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have pushed through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this year…”That’s one of the few committees in the Senate where there has been really outstanding cooperation between the chairman and ranking member,” Reid said when asked about the prospect of including the panel’s energy bills in the jobs agenda. “They have some legislation that has been reported out of the committee.”…Bingaman indicated last week that he will push Democratic leaders to include some of the 14 reported energy bills as part of the jobs package.