News

What? You mean that people take advantage of venal and corrupt government extortion efforts to feather their own nests? E&E News (4/12/11) reports: Officials along the Gulf Coast have spent tens of millions of dollars — furnished by BP PLC — on gear, technology and vehicles, much of which has little to do with the oil cleanup…Much of the money was provided with no strings attached by the oil giant last spring while the crisis was unfolding. Many of the expenditures were only remotely connected with spill cleanup efforts…Reserve police officers in a Mississippi town bought Tasers. A Louisiana parish president received an iPad. A Florida county spent $560,000 on concerts to promote its oil-free beaches…Some of the money went to towns and cities that were never even touched by the oil…Altogether, BP said it paid state and local governments more than $754 million as of March 31, not including $694 million in reimbursements to the federal government…Although BP and the federal government took the lead on cleanup efforts, many communities said they needed additional tools…Charlotte Randolph, the Lafourche Parish president who received the iPad, said she needed it in addition to her parish-paid Blackberry to communicate with staff and officials. She purchased the iPad on Aug. 26, 2010, a month after the well was capped and a few weeks after the federal government said it had cleaned up most of the oil.

Governor Moonbeam plans on powering California with sunbeams Seattle Times (4/12/11) reports:Gov. Jerry Brown plans to sign legislation that would require California utilities to get one-third of their power from renewable sources, giving the state the most aggressive alternative energy mandate in the U.S.Under the bill, California utilities and other power providers would have until the end of 2020 to draw 33 percent of their power from solar panels, windmills, landfill gases, small hydroelectric plants and other renewable sources…Supporters said the increase from the current 20 percent target will reassure investors that demand for renewable energy will grow, fueling a field that has been one of the few growth spots for California’s economy during the recession…U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu was expected to attend the bill signing ceremony Tuesday at the SunPower-Flextronics solar manufacturing plant in the San Francisco Bay area city of Milpitas.

Oscar Wilde once described second marriages as the triumph of hope over experience.  Which sounds like a pretty good description of the Obama Administration’s fetish with solar and wind power E&E News (4/11/12) reports: California’s most aggressive large-scale solar power developer today won a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the federal government…The Department of Energy announced plans to direct the funds to Oakland-based BrightSource Energy Inc. for completion of a 392-megawatt solar-thermal generation facility in Ivanpah, Calif. The plant, which is expected to go live in 2013, is one of a handful of renewable energy projects to be streamlined by the Obama administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act…The DOE loan adds to $530 million in investments from private equity investors (E&ENews PM, Feb. 15)…Also assuming liability for the DOE loan are NRG Solar LLC and Google Inc. A BrightSource spokesman reached today said Google has joined the partnership with a $168 million investment, making the Internet search giant a new equity partner…In October 2010, NRG said it would invest up to $300 million in the project.

Even potheads understand the need for access to affordable and reliable energy Evan Mills (4/11/11) reports: What kind of facility has lighting as intense as that found in an operating room (500-times more than needed for reading), 6-times the air-change rate of a biotech laboratory and 60-times that of a home, and the electric power intensity of a datacenter?…The emergent industry of indoor Cannabis production results in prodigious energy use, costs, and greenhouse-gas pollution.  Large-scale industrialized and highly energy-intensive indoor cultivation of Cannabis is driven by criminalization, pursuit of security, and the desire for greater process control and yields. The practice occurs across the United States and in many other countries…The analysis performed in this study finds that indoor Cannabis production results in energy expenditures of $5 billion each year, with electricity use equivalent to that of 2 million average U.S. homes. This corresponds to 1% of national electricity consumption or 2% of that in households. The yearly greenhouse-gas pollution (carbon dioxide, CO2 ) from the electricity plus associated transportation fuels equals that of 3 million cars. Energy costs constitute a quarter of wholesale value…In California, the top-producing state—and one of 17 states to allow cultivation for medical purposes—the practice is responsible for about 3% of all electricity use or 8% of household use. Due to higher electricity prices and cleaner fuels used to make electricity, California incurs 70% of national energy costs but only 20% of national CO2 emissions.

Up, up and away! Gas prices soar as President Obama continues his war on affordable and reliable energy CBS Chicago (4/11/12) reports:  At one time, $5 per gallon gas seemed like a far-fetched idea, but that is no longer the case…As of Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Chicago area is $4.11, compared with $3.71 a month ago, and about $3.10 a gallon at this time a year ago…Some experts say $5 per gallon gas is possible by Memorial Day-or sometime in summer. Others caution that reaching that mark is unlikely over the next six weeks. In Chicago, the prices keep rising to near-record levels–with no relief in sight…Right now, oil markets are so skittish that records set in 2008 could fall.

T. Boone “Rent Seeker” Pickens gets some favorable ink in the NYT and the author is right to point out it’s not about money, but power — in every sense of the word New York Times (4/12/11) reports: On Wednesday, amid all the hullabaloo over the budget battles, a simple, discrete and largely overlooked bill was dropped into the Congressional hopper. Sponsored by two Democrats and two Republicans — that’s right: an actual bipartisan piece of legislation — its official title is the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act, or the Nat Gas Act, for short. People in the know, however, call it the Boone Pickens bill…. His critics like to point out that anything that boosts natural gas will put money in his pocket. But so what? He’s already plenty rich, and, he says, “I’m sure not doing this for the money.” Besides, he’s right…The bill introduced last week is an offshoot of the Pickens plan, his cri de coeur for energy independence, which he put together in 2008 and has spent more than $80 million promoting. Although Boone believes that our continued reliance on OPEC oil is dangerous, he also knows that even if you drill, baby, drill, as many Republicans want, it won’t make much difference. Quite simply, America is running out of oil. The Pickens plan calls for increased use of wind, solar, nuclear, even coal. ”I’m for anything that’s American,” he said.

The common sense defense: producers would rather sell than spill oil Wall Street Journal (4/11/11) reports: The Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010 was the largest offshore spill ever in the U.S. It humbled one of the oldest, biggest and most distinguished oil firms, BP, forcing it to set aside $20 billion in compensation and sacrifice its chief executive. No wonder the oil industry is doing some soul searching. In response to the catastrophe, oil companies have taken measures ranging from delaying drilling to devising new technologies to contain giant spills. Big oil has also drastically improved the oversight of contractors and training…Soon after the disaster, BP postponed its offshore drilling projects in Libya. This was before the current unrest forced it to mothball its Libya strategy for the longer term. Moreover, Total of France said it would take a closer look at its deep water CLOV project in Angola—before launching it August 2011…Searching for oil deep under the sea tends to yield the reward of huge gushers. But the blow-out preventer—the device used on a rig to stop the release of natural gas – also has to deal with unusual levels of pressure. This is critical to the safety of the entire operation. In the case of Deepwater Horizon, the device couldn’t resist the flow, which led directly to the catastrophe. The sheer scale of the disaster also meant it took months to plug the well.

Like green energy, green jobs are carbon neutral…and don’t exist Western Energy Alliance (4/7/11) reports: As the managing director for a professional recruiting and consulting firm in the energy industry, I split my time between seeking job opportunities in the renewable energy and oil and natural-gas sectors…While I have no allegiance to one over the other, reports of green jobs inspired me to target much of last year’s efforts in the renewable sector…“Green jobs” is a big buzz term, thanks in part to the president’s campaign promise to recover our stalled economy. However, the only green jobs I’ve seen with any consistency in the last couple years are low-paying, temporary positions that are mostly in manufacturing…As Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, and Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Washington, reported two years ago, the dirty secret behind many of these green jobs is that they fall short of union leaders’ expected standards for pay and working conditions…I understand that natural gas doesn’t carry the same cachet as renewable energy, but I was struck by the under-reporting of this sector’s relative job boom. Many times, recruiting conversations with hiring managers, which I expected to be about green jobs, instead centered on the many job opportunities in the natural-gas industry.

If you can’t beat ‘em, tax ‘em Wall Street Journal (4/11/11) reports: The European Union next week will propose taxing transport and heating fuels according to their greenhouse-gas emissions as well as their energy content, introducing a climate-change component in EU tax rules for the first time, after years of negotiations…The European Commission, which has executive powers in the European Union, will propose a minimum rate of €20 ($29) a metric ton of CO2 emitted by products like gasoline, diesel, natural gas and coal starting in 2013, a draft document obtained by Dow Jones Newswires shows…According to the document—which is the draft revision of an existing law on taxation of energy products, and might still change before being made public Wednesday—the commission will also propose a gradual increase of a minimum levy on diesel to bring it to the same as that on gasoline by 2018.

The government is bidding away top talent from the private sector; instead of working on the next invention these poor souls will be making sure the forms are in order Fuel Fix (4/11/11) reports: The federal government has collected more than 300 applications from aspiring environmental scientists who are eager to get a job working for the U.S. agency that polices offshore drilling…The resumes poured in during a four-day swing this week through universities in California, Oregon and Washington, said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement…“This dramatically exceeds my wildest applications on planning this trip,” Bromwich told reporters during a conference call from southern California, where he met with students at two universities. “I think it shows the level of interest in our agency and in the expansion of our environmental science capabilities and in playing a role in the new era that we’ll be seeing in BOEMRE.”

For all you Dragnet fans, here are ‘just the facts’ for gas prices Yahoo (4/11/11) reports: The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States has moved closer to $4, jumping more than 19 cents since mid-March to a level less than 10 percent below its all-time high, a widely followed survey said on Sunday…The Lundberg Survey said the national average price of self-serve, regular unleaded gas was $3.765 on Friday, up from $3.573 on March 18, and up 91.3 cents from $2.852 a year ago…Prices in several western U.S. cities are already above $4 per gallon, led by San Francisco at $4.13. Chicago was close behind at $4.11 a gallon, the survey said.
The national average would have been higher had refiners and retailers not resisted passing on rising crude oil prices as customers grow less willing to pay what it takes to fill their gas tanks, analyst Trilby Lundberg said in an interview…”Demand has been falling at these prices,” she said.
The record high average pump price is $4.112 set on July 11, 2008. Lundberg tracks roughly 2,500 gas stations.

The Employment Prevention Agency survives the budget battle The Hill (4/10/11) reports: A last-minute spending deal to avoid a government shutdown reached late Friday night does not include a requirement to study the effects of Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said…Key Senate Democrats said Friday afternoon that they were considering accepting such a study in exchange for Republicans dropping policy riders restricting various EPA rules…Neither the study nor the EPA riders are included in the final agreement, Reid spokesman Jon Summers told The Hill Saturday…Republicans had been pushing for the inclusion of a series of policy riders that would prohibit EPA from implementing climate and other regulations in the legislation to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend…new study tries to turn coal and natural gas against each other The Hill (4/11/11) reports: Cornell University professors will soon publish research that concludes natural gas produced with a drilling method called “hydraulic fracturing” contributes to global warming as much as coal, or even more…The conclusion is explosive because natural gas enjoys broad political support – including White House backing – due to its domestic abundance and lower carbon dioxide emissions when burned than other fossil fuels….Cornell Prof. Robert Howarth, however, argues that development of gas from shale rock formations produced through hydraulic fracturing – dubbed “fracking” – brings far more methane emissions than conventional gas production…nough, he argues, to negate the carbon advantage that gas has over coal and oil when they’re burned for energy, because methane is such a potent greenhouse gas

Before Obama says he can do nothing about gas prices, how about he tries to do something first? Like have open up some of the 97% of OCS where he doesn’t allow development Herald Times (2/6/11) reports: Pitching the promise of energy independence, President Barack Obama cautioned Wednesday that it’s going to be tough to transition from America’s oil-dependent economy and acknowledged there’s little he can do to lower gas prices over the short term…“I’m just going to be honest with you. There’s not much we can do next week or two weeks from now,” the president told workers at a wind turbine plant. It’s a theme Obama’s struck before as he tries to show voters he’s attuned to a top economic concern with gas prices pushing toward $4 a gallon…Obama said he wants to move toward “a future where America is less dependent on foreign oil, more reliant on clean energy produced by workers like you.” That will happen by reducing oil imports, tapping domestic energy sources and shifting the nation to renewable and less polluting sources of energy, such as wind, the president says. He has set a goal of reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025.

Go Anchorage! Anchorage Daily News (2/1/11) reports: Anchorage’s city power utility made a long-awaited offer this week to buy wind power from Cook Inlet Region Inc., backers of a proposed wind turbine project on Fire Island… But CIRI senior vice president Ethan Schutt said the offer is so low it’s ridiculous and contains unworkable terms…Municipal Light and Power director Jim Posey held a press conference Thursday to explain the utility’s offer, which he said protects ML&P customers from higher costs…CIRI wants to begin construction of turbines on Fire Island off Anchorage this summer, but has so far been unable to get any utility companies to sign contracts to buy the power it would generate, said company spokesman Jim Jager. “Realistically, the project isn’t going forward until we have power-purchase agreements,” he said in a recent interview…The corporation is lined up to get nearly $44 million in federal grants to help build the turbines, but the money is contingent on starting this year. The state has approved using $25 million in public funds to build a transmission line from Fire Island to the mainland…The first phase of the project — 22 turbines that could provide electricity for 12,000 households — would cost about $135 million, said Schutt.

Shock Study! Wind Farms are inefficient.  Who would have thought? BBC (2/5/11) reports: The analysis also suggested output was low during the times of highest demand…The report, supported by conservation charity the John Muir Trust, concluded turbines “cannot be relied upon” to produce significant levels of power generation…However, industry representatives said they had “no confidence” in the data…The research, carried out by Stuart Young Consulting, analysed electricity generated from UK wind farms between November 2008 to December 2010…Statements made by the wind industry and government agencies commonly assert that wind turbines will generate on average 30% of their rated capacity over a year, it said….But the research found wind generation was below 20% of capacity more than half the time and below 10% of capacity over one third of the time.

Weird — You mean turning food into fuel means there’s less food? New York Times (2/6/11) reports: But last year, 98 percent of cassava chips exported from Thailand, the world’s largest cassava exporter, went to just one place and almost all for one purpose: to China to make biofuel. Driven by new demand, Thai exports of cassava chips have increased nearly fourfold since 2008, and the price of cassava has roughly doubled… Each year, an ever larger portion of the world’s crops — cassava and corn, sugar and palm oil — is being diverted for biofuels as developed countries pass laws mandating greater use of nonfossil fuels and as emerging powerhouses like China seek new sources of energy to keep their cars and industries running. Cassava is a relatively new entrant in the biofuel stream… But with food prices rising sharply in recent months, many experts are calling on countries to scale back their headlong rush into green fuel development, arguing that the combination of ambitious biofuel targets and mediocre harvests of some crucial crops is contributing to high prices, hunger and political instability.

Senate to Vote on Plan to Reign In EPA Today–Unless Vote Gets Postponed Again… The Hill (4/5/11) reports: The Senate will vote on a GOP-backed plan to kill Environmental Protection Agency climate change rules Wednesday afternoon, according to Democrats and a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)…Lawmakers will vote on McConnell’s amendment to small-business legislation, as well as several Democratic alternatives. The amendments need 60 votes to pass…The GOP-led EPA amendment mirrors legislation that the House will debate Wednesday as well. The Senate Democratic alternatives would limit or delay EPA rules without stripping the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, including Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) plan that would delay regulation of power plants, refineries and other facilities for two years. All the plans face very high hurdles to winning 60 votes…A caveat: The votes have appeared imminent several times in recent weeks without materializing. Stay tuned.

What has the world come to–the Communists in Cuba understand the value of domestically produced energy, but the President of the United States does not Associated Press (4/5/11) reports: Cuba on Tuesday announced plans to drill five deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico beginning this summer, expressing confidence that its efforts will be rewarded with major new energy finds…”We’re about to move to the drilling phase,” said Manuel Marrero, an official with the government authority tasked with overseeing Cuba’s oil sector…”We’re all really hopeful that we will be able to discover large reserves of oil and gas,” said Marrero, who added that the ventures would be undertaken with the help of unspecified foreign companies…He said the deepwater wells were to be drilled between 2011 and 2013, and would be in waters ranging in depth between 400 meters (a quarter mile) and 1,500 meters (1.6 miles). He did not specify which countries would be among the foreign partners working with Havana on the project.

Since members of Congress and the President do not have to pay for their own gas, it must be hard to notice that the national average is $3.70 Financial Times (4/6/11) reports: As the oil price continues to soar, taking it to record sterling highs, governments are starting to fret….In the UK, the chancellor was last month pushed to offer a 1p cut in fuel duty to offset the impact of higher oil prices. The opposition claimed on Tuesday the cut has already been erased by the rise in oil since then, and it is no coincidence that on the same day, the energy secretary Chris Huhne met the Saudis to talk about what can be done on the supply side…In the US meanwhile, Barack Obama has talked about weaning the country off its oil imports to improve energy security…But none of this activity is likely to have a bearing on the oil price, says Moody’s, which predicts that it will continue to rise as markets start incorporating a higher political risk premium into their commodities valuations…This seems an unexpected conclusion, given that the risks of producing oil in politically unstable parts of the world are surely well known already. But the argument would help explain why the oil price has risen so much since the beginning of the conflict in Libya, which only produces around 2 per cent of the world’s daily oil output.

Lisa Jackson channels her inner Scooby Doo villain and says, “If it weren’t for you pesky free market advocates, we would have gotten away with it!” New York Times (4/4/11) reports: A Virginia state lawmaker caused a stir in February when he admitted that his resolution declaring U.S. EPA’s effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions a “regulatory train wreck” was written by the coal industry…Republican Delegate Will Morefield’s resolution said EPA regulations would have potentially “devastating consequences,” called for a “comprehensive study” of their impact on the economy and urged Congress to place a two-year moratorium on new air pollution regulations….Morefield’s resolution was drawn almost word-for-word from model legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which touts its access to almost 2,000 state legislators. The Washington, D.C.-based group claims credit for advancing legislation that it says has undermined climate science and environmental regulation in several states since the late 1990s….ALEC has been focusing of late on EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations and regional climate initiatives. At least eight state legislative bodies have adopted resolutions this year urging Congress to limit EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases — all of which came directly from ALEC model legislation….Legislators in more than 10 other states have introduced similar resolutions, according to Clinton Woods, the director of ALEC’s energy, environment and agriculture task force.

Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell? Whoa oh, oh…Wind is in love with money and not with saving the world Wall Street Journal (4/5/11) reports: After years of blustery growth, wind power is facing a blow-back in some of its major markets. It is reeling from lackluster electricity demand in many mature economies, rock-bottom prices for competing natural-gas in the U.S. and uncertainty throughout much of the world about government subsidies. Companies that make wind turbines are slashing production at some plants and reconsidering previous expansion…Wind power is the biggest and cheapest of the renewable-energy sources now attracting major investment, from solar to biofuels to ocean waves, analysts say. Bigger blades, taller towers and slicker software all have improved the efficiency of the massive, pinwheel-style turbines that now dot landscapes from Iowa to India. The uncertain outlook for nuclear power after the Japan disaster should boost wind power’s appeal…Yet wind remains a tiny slice of the energy pie. In the U.S, it generated about 2% of electricity in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. World-wide, it generated about 1% of electricity in 2008, the most recent global numbers available, the International Energy Agency says.

When it comes to shale gas, Huff Po writers pay homage to Mark Twain who said, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please” Huffington Post (4/5/11) reports:  We are desperately awaiting good news, but the bad news involving energy steadily worsens. It was a year ago this week that 29 miners perished in West Virginia’s Upper Branch coal mine and we collectively asked how much sooty coal we want to keep burning. Soon after, the Gulf of Mexico was carpeted with oozing gunk for months, forcing us to question whether offshore drilling is viable following the worst oil spill in history. That tragedy had only begun to recede when the Middle East began to explode and we once again confronted the vulnerability of our tenuous energy supplies. Then, as if Japan’s double-punch earthquake and tsunami wasn’t horrific enough, meltdown of the crippled nuclear power plant began. These events in rapid succession reminded us that every source of traditional energy is its own Hobson’s choice fraught with danger…All of these events together made people – and energy markets – increasingly jittery. Most Americans don’t make the connection until their pocketbooks are affected, such as when fuel prices surge, along with air fares, transportation costs and everything else. But Americans don’t want to hear about the problem; rather, our can-do attitude and American ingenuity demand a solution…Right when energy is on everybody’s mind, the biggest-circulation news magazine rides to our rescue with a compelling cover story “This Rock Could Power the World: Why Shale Can Solve the Energy Crisis.” It proclaims that natural gas offers us a whole century of relatively clean energy.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain — the same guy who didn’t see the financial meltdown coming is now telling us not to worry about rising energy prices CNBC (4/5/11) reports: Concerns over global growth were also fueled by a survey published in the Nikkei business newspaper which showed economists expect the Japanese economy to contract by 0.6 percent for the January-March quarter and by 2.6 percent in the three months to the end of June…They expect growth quarter in the world’s third-largest economy to return in the July to September, the survey found….Back in the US, investors were digesting comments made by Federal Reserve President Ben Bernanke Monday evening which suggested the Fed is not yet ready to start tightening monetary policy despite an improving economy…Bernanke said a recent rise in prices was driven by a spike in global commodity prices and was unlikely to persist…The Fed releases the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting at 2 pm New York time…The report could offer further clues on whether the Fed is likely to raise rates in the near term.

The beatings will continue until morale improves — Republican senators want to know where Obama is getting the money for his high speed rail The Hill (4/4/11) reports: Twenty-two Republican senators are asking President Obama to explain where he would find the revenue to pay for his proposed increase in transportation funding…The Republicans said they hoped the White House would not consider raising the gas tax to offset the costs of the 2012 budget request…”To communicate to our constituents whether or not the $435 billion trust fund represents a large gas tax increase, we respectfully request details on how the Administration calculated the amount of revenue it envisions for the ‘Bipartisan financing for Transportation Trust Fund,’ ” the senators wrote…”As energy prices continue to increase, we are hopeful that this new revenue stream proposed by the Administration would not be a new gas tax on American consumers.”

NYT reporter is shocked by his discovery that we live in a world that is confined by scarcity and that includes energy New York Times (4/3/11) reports: Political support may be holding for nuclear power and offshore oil, despite the Fukushima and Gulf of Mexico disasters, as decision makers confront the challenges of climate change and dwindling energy reserves…A theory of “peak everything” suggests the world is running short of vital assets like clean water, carbon-free air, some minerals, fish stocks and the cheap fossil fuels that have powered the world economy and helped rein in the price of food…If countries want to secure domestic supplies and curb carbon emissions, too, then energy options are limited. And that fact has clearly dawned on governments.

Make due with what you have – onshore oil producers squeeze oil out of a turnip while weathering the EPA storm Houston Chronicle (4/3/11) reports: A spill-related slowdown in the Gulf of Mexico could cut into oil production from the offshore basin for several years. But a number of emerging oil fields onshore, once thought out of reach, are helping the U.S. fill in the gap in the meantime…Oil and gas companies, using techniques mastered in recent years to produce natural gas from shales and other dense rocks, are now having success extracting big quantities of oil from tight rock formations stretching from Texas to North Dakota…Amid steadily high oil prices and a U.S. market saturated with low-price shale gas, they’ve had ample incentive to try…In 2010, when an offshore disaster dominated the news, rising output from such fields – including North Dakota’s Bakken Shale and the Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas – quietly helped domestic crude oil production rise for the second year in a row, after years of declines…Production also rose in the Gulf, where several new pro-jects ramped up output. (A federal moratorium on deep-water drilling, which lasted for five months after the Deepwater Horizon accident, did not apply to producing platforms.)

Will it lower energy prices? Check. Will it create jobs? Check. Will it create money for the U.S.? Check. Can we have a permit to build? NO! New York Times (4/2/11) Later this year, the State Department will decide whether to approve construction of a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast called Keystone XL. The underground 36-inch pipeline, built by TransCanada, would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to Texas refineries and begin operating in 2013. The department should say no…The Keystone XL would cut diagonally across Montana and the Nebraska Sand Hills — a delicate region of porous, sandy soils — to northern Kansas before heading south to the Gulf. It would also cross the Ogallala Aquifer, a shallow underground reservoir of enormous importance for agriculture that also provides drinking water for two million people. A pipeline leaking diluted bitumen into groundwater could have disastrous consequences….For this reason, Senators Mike Johanns and Ben Nelson of Nebraska have vigorously opposed the planned route of the Keystone XL. Still, political pressure to win swift approval has been building in Congress. Moving ahead would be a huge error. From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.

The fight between reason and emotion on Gulf energy production is renewed with dead sea turtles as we approach the one year anniversary of Deep Water Horizon Huffington Post (4/3/11) reports: Sea turtles continue to wash ashore along the Gulf, forcing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to scramble and figure out what is causing the spike. Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Huffington Post were first to publish blogs about the sea turtle deaths in Mississippi…Since then, the national media picked up the story. Last Friday, NMFS released a statement with some details about its investigation: In the past few weeks, we’ve seen an increase in turtle strandings in the northern Gulf, primarily in Mississippi. The spring time is the typical time when turtle strandings in this region begin to increase, but the sharp increases in recent days are of concern to us….Like the dolphin strandings this year, it’s likely that many more turtles have died and will never be found. A recent study of dolphin deaths showed the true number of mortalities is probably 50 times what is recovered.

Here’s a free talking point — end subsidies for all energy sources. Iowa farmers, go back to growing what the market demands Washington Examiner (4/1/11) reports: I was far from thrilled with John McCain as the GOP presidential candidate, but I always admired one thing about his two bids for the White House: he never sucked up to the ethanol lobby in Iowa. Nearly every other Republican and Democratic presidential candidate did, including Bill Bradley and Al Gore, both of whom admitted they better…You might think the Tea Party’s seriousness about shrinking government and strong distaste for corporate welfare might liberate this year’s GOP field from the ethanol chains. But you’d be wrong. Aside from Buddy Roemer, the lonsghot Republican from Louisiana, who said “I will eliminate the ethanol subsidy,” the rest of the GOP field looks hooked on ethanol.

You go first, Mr. President Detroit News (4/1/11) reports: The U.S. Secret Service said today that some federal vehicles for law enforcement and security purposes will be exempt from President Barack Obama’s directive that all federal vehicles purchased starting 2015 be advanced technology models….Secret Service spokesman Robert Novy said the directive wouldn’t apply to vehicles used for some law enforcement or security reasons by various federal agencies…”Certain specialized vehicles including those with law enforcement and security specifications are not subject to this directive,” Novy said…That would include the GM-built Cadillac presidential limousine and other vehicles in the motorcade. It also expected to include many law enforcement vehicles

Obama positions his green pivot on national security and we all know OPEC is far more stable than the U.S. Politico (3/30/11) reports: President Barack Obama will try yet again Wednesday to make his case for major energy reforms, a mission he’s so far struggled to accomplish, thanks to global and domestic challenges often beyond his control…Senior White House officials said the speech at Georgetown University kicks off a “concerted effort around energy security” that will occupy the president and several Cabinet officials in the coming weeks…Pivoting off Middle East unrest and spiking domestic energy prices, Obama plans to set a goal of reducing the nation’s foreign oil imports by a third over the next decade. To get there, he will describe a range of executive tools and call on Congress to advance several pieces of energy legislation.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer rent seeker — T. Boone says he has the votes to pass his crony natural gas legislation Fuel Fix (3/30/11) reports: After spending nearly three years and more than $80 million of his own money to tout his energy plan, T. Boone Pickens says he finally is about to have something to show for the effort…On April 6, a bill, known as the Natural Gas Act, which he has championed, will be introduced – again – in Congress. And this time, the billionaire oilman says the legislation has the votes the pass…“I think we got the deal done,” Pickens told reporters after a luncheon speech at the Petroleum Club of Houston, hosted by the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers and Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists…“I think we’ll get it through the House before the summer recess.”…The Natural Gas Act would dramatically expand the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel among heavy-duty truck fleets, including 18-wheelers and garbage trucks. Pickens sees the legislation as a key first step in broader adoption of natural gas in the transportation sector and weaning the U.S. from foreign oil.

It’s not the energy policies of command and control causing setbacks for green energy, it’s that Obama doesn’t have the right people CNN Money (3/30/11) reports: President Obama has had some pretty lousy luck with his energy plans…Last March he proposed opening up new areas of the country for offshore oil drilling. A month later BP’s rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico…This year he asked for $36 billion to help build new nuclear plants. Within weeks at least three reactors at a Japanese nuclear plant were on the verge of a meltdown…His capstone plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions failed in the Senate. Governors are giving back his high speed rail money. His energy czar is gone…”He picked the three losers right from the start,” said Kevin Book, a managing director at the research firm ClearView Energy Partners, referring to the greenhouse gas law, oil drilling and nuclear power. “His timing couldn’t be worse.”

Obama wants a third less oil consumed in a decade, wants a million electric vehicles, and wants every man, woman and child to use a winged Pegasus to get to work

Maybe Keynes was right, we are all dead in the long run — CA increases their renewable energy goal to 30% Green Journal (3/30/11) reports: California has further underlined its position as the leading clean energy hub in the US after lawmakers voted yesterday to beef up the state’s renewable energy goal. It will now require energy firms to source a third of their energy from renewable sources by 2020…The State Assembly voted 55 to 19 to approve bill S.B. 2, which requires the state to generate 33 per cent of its energy from renewables. The bill has already been approved by the state senate and will now move to governor Jerry Brown’s desk where it is expected to be approved…California has had its renewable energy target in place since September 2009 when former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order requiring the target to be met. Since then, regulators have put in place a series of measures designed to ensure the goal will be met.

Governments create the incentive to invest in green energy with tax credits and subsidies, but real question is who is buying the product and I don’t think it’s China New York Times (3/30/11) reports: A study released Tuesday by the Pew Environment Group suggests that investment in clean energy among the world’s 20 leading economies, a k a the G-20, is generally on the rebound after a grinding global recession…It also suggests that the narrative in the United States, which has been marked by partisan bickering and general paralysis over energy and climate policy, continues to weaken its position as a locus for investment…China drew 22 percent of the $243 billion in clean energy investments last year, or $54.4 billion — up from $39.1 billion in 2009. Coming in second place, and nudging the United States down a rung over last year, was Germany, which drew $41.2 billion, up from $20.6 billion in 2009…The United States drew $34 billion, up from $22.5 billion over 2009.

HOF won’t induct Charlie Hustle for betting on his team to win, but the HOF just placed a bet against American energy Mother Nature Network (3/29/11) reports: The hall of fame, based in Cooperstown, decided to support the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce’s recent resolution opposing hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” as it is commonly known. Fracking is a controversial method used by the natural gas industry where rig operators pump a mixture of water, sand and secret chemicals into the ground to extract isolated pockets of natural gas….Cooperstown is located in central New York, in the heart of the of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale region. The sleepy town is a picturesque tourist destination for baseball fans around the world, and is even a growing retirement community….A full transcript of the hall’s opposition to fracking was reprinted online over at pressconnect.com, and can be read below. The statement isn’t nearly as strong as the hall’s opposition to Pete Rose, but as far as I can tell, the natural gas has never bet on baseball.

President Obama’s interior monologue: “I made energy prices skyrocket, but still no one is buying my $40,000 Volt – what gives?” CNBC (3/28/11) reports: Last week, the Commerce Department revised real GDP up to 3.1 percent for the fourth quarter of last year. That was some cause for joy in the stock market. But today we saw a poor consumer-spending report for the month of February, which is picking up the rise in gasoline prices and the decline in consumer sentiment…Real income after-tax — known as real disposable income — actually fell in February. But the inflation rate jumped 0.4 percent, which is almost 5 percent annually. And while real consumer spending did rise, over the past three months it has gained by only 1.4 percent annually… The gasoline-driven inflation hike now puts consumer inflation as measured by the personal consumption deflator at 4 percent over the last three months. That’s higher than wage and salary income. So while energy prices are bulging along with food, real wages look to be falling — not a good combination.

Rent seekers panic that their gravy train is leaving the station, but something tells me Markey or Waxman New York Times (3/28/11) reports: There is growing angst over the pending end to a Department of Energy program that allows projects to claim cash grants in lieu of the tax credits that have been the mainstay of renewable-energy project financing for years. Insiders assume the production tax credits and investment tax credits will return next year, but most also agree the grants will end this Dec. 31. That raises a big question: Can projects shift from grants to credits?…Deals are getting done, but not at the rate that the industry would call robust, and many project developers are still dependent on temporary government support measures.

On the House side, we gave Barney this lesson and we will do the same for the Senate — when supply is restricted and demand remains constant, prices increase. This applies to snuggies and gas prices The Hill (3/28/11) reports: Five senators are pressing the Federal Trade Commission to use its powers under a 2007 law to probe whether recent oil price spikes – and the attendant rise in pump prices – stem from market manipulation…“We are writing to inquire whether the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is fully utilizing the regulatory authority granted to it by Congress to ensure American consumers are paying a fair price for gasoline. We urge you to use this authority aggressively to ensure that recent crude oil market price spikes and volatility are not the result of manipulative practices or anticompetitive behavior,” states a letter to the FTC from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)…Rockefeller chairs the Senate Commerce Committee…The letter Friday is the latest example of lawmakers – mostly Democrats – essentially laying energy price increases at the feet of Wall Street, and comes as GOP leaders pressing for wider offshore drilling…It presses the FTC to use 2009 rules – which stem from a 2007 energy law – that give the regulators enhanced power to crack down on anti-competitive practices in wholesale petroleum markets.

Insanity is defined as repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results — are the inmates running the asylum in Florida? Miami Herald (3/28/11) reports: The Florida Senate unveiled its plan Monday to allow Florida’s electric companies to raise average customer bills $1.40 to $2.60 a month to build solar and biomass energy plants for the next five years…But because the measure also allows the electric monopolies to control the renewable energy market by earning as much as $377 million a year in additional revenue, the proposal drew warnings that it will stifle jobs and hurt customers over time…“We will go out of business,’’ said Scott McIntyre, president of Solar Energy Management of St. Petersburg. “The Senate bill will not attract renewable energy to the state of Florida. It will not employ people.”…By contrast, Josh Kellam of Global Energy United, a Virginia-based solar panel manufacturer, said his company will employ 250-300 people at its Rivera Beach plant if the bill passes…Kent Crook, president of Wire Masters of Miami, a residential and commercial electrician, said that he has received a Workforce Florida grant to retrain his employees in installing solar energy panels but has had to stop using it “because there are no jobs.”