Reboot Congress: energy

Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Institute for Energy Research Requests Lisa Jackson Emails Sent Under "Richard Windsor" Alias

The non-partisan Institute for Energy Research (IER) has responded to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) use of 'alias' email addresses by issuing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for emails sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson from her internal email account which is under the name "Richard Windsor". IER is seeking documents related to the Federal government's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.

In this video I speak with Dan Simmons of IER about the Keystone XL pipeline, the EPA's use of alias email addresses, and IER's FOIA request.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

#MOSen: Claire McCaskill's backdoor support for Cap and Trade

While campaigning in south St. Louis county, Todd Akin explained how Claire McCaskill supported cap and trade. While it's true she did not vote for the cap and trade legislation introduced in 2009, she did vote for it in 2008.

More recently, she voted to grant authority to the EPA to regulate carbon emissions. That effectively allows the EPA to implement cap and trade and other policies that will increase the cost of energy. As Americans for Tax Reform wrote the other day:

She supported the Administration’s efforts to classify carbon dioxide as a pollutant, and voted over and over against amendments to block the EPA from regulating CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Even the Missouri AFL-CIO president said these EPA regulations “will both threaten jobs and increase costs on energy consumers in Missouri.” Bear in mind, humans exhale carbon dioxide. From an economic standpoint, this policy is devastating – St. Louis’ Meramec power plant is older, and is likely to close because of these policies.

Claire McCaskill supports the same policies of Barack Obama under which the price of energy derived from coal, oil, and natural gass will necessarily sky rocket.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

#MOSen: Sen Jim Inhofe on US Oil Production

At a round table discussion on energy, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) debunked the myth that it would take ten years to develop America's untapped oil reserves. Citing Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm, Inhofe argues that it would take 70 days to get the first barrel of oil to market if the US were to open more federal lands to drilling.

Inhofe was in St. Louis campaigning for Republican Todd Akin on Monday, 10/29/2012. The two discussed the impact that Sen Claire McCaskill's and President Barack Obama's energy policies would have on Missouri residents. McCaskill has supported the President's effort to grant the EPA more authority over greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide. In effect, McCaskill has helped position the EPA so that it can implement cap and trade without a vote in Congress.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

EnerDel: $12 Million from Indiana Taxpayers

Photo by Egil Kvaleberg

EnerDel is a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles like the Think Global Pivco PIV3 car pictured at right. They've received a lot of tax payer money to research and build new "green" EV car batteries including $118 million in stimulus grants.

Dick Lugar

Sentor Dick Lugar (R-IN) was instrumental in steering that money to the "green" battery manufacturer. Lugar also earmarked $6.5 million to the company. But to top it all off, the spreadsheet data which accompanies the Good Jobs First report* (h/t: Instapundit) that came out yesterday, indicates that EnerDel recieved about $12 million from Indiana taxpayers. EnerDel was second only to Arcadia Resources, Inc. among Indiana companies receiving Indiana tax credits and rebates.

Dick Lugar's fifth largest contributor, Cummins, Inc., came in sixth in Indiana in the Good Jobs First data with tax credits and rebates totaling $5 million. A few Cummins employees also donated to Richard Mourdock (R-IN). Mourdock hopes to unseat Obama's favorite Republican in Indiana's May 8th primary.

Click on the image below for more details or download the spreadsheet and find the companies in your state that you're subsidizing.

EnerDel

Last October EnerDel's parent company, Ener1, was de-listed from the NASDAQ. This past January, Ener1 declared bankruptcy. In short, it's the Solyndra of Indiana. And just as Obama took credit for Solyndra's "success" in 2011 and distance himself from it earlier this year, we see Dick Lugar praising EnerDel when the money was awarded--touring the factory even--while going AWOL now. Indiana needs to replace him on May 8th with someone who will be accountable to Hoosier voters: Richard Mourdock.

* The Good Jobs First report "Paying Taxes to the Boss" argues that state tax credit and rebate programs for corporations as well as state grants to companies are like your boss collecting and keeping state income taxes. I would argue that such programs are incentives offered by central planners at the state capital. In short, I disagree on the spin, but agree that they need to end.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Senator Lugar's Ties to Bankrupt Ener1

About two weeks before Ener1 declared bankruptcy, I blogged about Indiana Senator Dick Lugar's ties to the Indianapolis-based EnerDel. EnerDel, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Ener1, was awarded $118 million in stimulus funding. Lugar's Senate office issued a press release about a smaller DOE grant awarded to EnerDel in June of 2009:

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced that EnerDel has been selected to receive one of seven cost-shared research awards from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Awardees will use the funds for the development of advanced batteries for electric drive vehicles. The total DOE investment for these projects is up to $10.96 million over three years, subject to annual appropriations.

In February of 2008, Lugar, the former mayor of Indianapolis and erstwhile inhabitant of Indiana, delivered a speech and toured the EnerDel factory. I was a little surprised that Lugar's connections to government subsidized green and alternative energy went largely un-remarked upon when the Ener1 bankruptcy was announced. Perhaps those connections deserve more scrutiny as Indiana's May 8th primary approaches.

Lugar's primary opponent, Richard Mourdock, understands that the federal government needs to stop spending tax payer dollars on frivolous projects EnerDel.

Update: Thanks to Smitty at the OtherMcCain for the link!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

IL Republican Rodger Cook on the XL Pipeline

Roger Cook

In response to President Obama's cancellation of the XL pipeline and the 20,000 American jobs that it would create, conservative Republican Rodger Cook sent out the following press release. Cook is running in Illinois's 12th Congressional District.

Cook to the President: “Stop putting politics before American jobs.”

Contact: Ben Evans 573-268-2790

Belleville, IL….President Obama moved to block the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport oil from tar sands in Canada to the US. Underlying the Keystone Project are many political implications. Rodger Cook, a candidate for the US House in the 12th Congressional District of Illinois, sees the project as a source of many much needed jobs in a struggling economy.

“Once again President Obama and his administration have put politics ahead of what is best for this country and the American worker. Thousands of jobs and the opportunity to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil has been put aside to satisfy his left wing political base. Enough is enough!” replied Cook.

Rodger Cook sees reviving the economy as a central issue in his campaign, and keeping the government from hindering job creation is important. The US Chamber of Commerce determined that this project could create upwards of 250,000 jobs in the US. Southwestern Illinois could benefit tremendously from similar projects related to coal mining. Developing the mining industry in the Illinois 12th Congressional District, in addition to the Keystone Project, would help America become energy independent.

Cook stated, “President Obama obviously has no interest in developing an energy independent America that does not rely on Middle Eastern oil. We should be drilling and mining at home, and working closely with North American allies like Canada.”

In addition to the economic and energy interests at stake, the Obama Administration’s decision to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline will have foreign policy implications.
“Stopping the Keystone Project affects job creation in our struggling economy, but it also has implications in foreign policy. The last thing Americans want is for this oil to end up someplace like China, and this may hurt our ties with ally Canada,” said Cook.

# # #

Paid for by Rodger Cook for Congress

P.O. Box 397

St. Libory, IL 62282

Cookforcongress.org

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Obama's Plan to Bankrupt Coal-fired Power Plants is Underway

chicagotribune.com: Coal plants closing: Why coal plants closing means higher electricity prices:

Consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years.
The reason: Pending environmental regulations will make coal-fired generating plants, which produce about half the nation's electricity, more expensive to operate. Many are expected to be shuttered.

The video above is from before the 2008 election, so it's clear from the Chicago Tribune article that the President's plan to close coal-fired power plants via bankruptcy is proceeding as planned. I expect that coal mines and the coal distribution infrastructure will suffer a similar fate.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Goldman Sachs Calls $5 Gas This Summer

NYPOST.com: Coming this summer: $5 gas:

Goldman Sachs' crystal ball is proclaiming that oil will soon soar to $135 a barrel, and likely have service stations jacking up fuel prices to $5 a gallon in New York just like the summer of 2008 that preceded the recession.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Video: The Heritage Foundation Cuts through White House Spin on the Gas Price

Heritage Foundation: Busting Gas Price Myths:

As Americans across the country gas up their cars for their Memorial Day getaways this year, their wallets will take a bigger-than-usual hit. That's because gas prices are up $1.06 from last year according to a study by AAA. In fact prices have more than doubled since President Obama took office. And while the media has been slow to demand answers of the President, he has been busy trying to deflect attention away from his incoherent energy policy with a number of gas price-related myths. From overstating the impact of green energy to downplaying the devastating impact of his drilling moratorium, the President should spend less time trying to deflect criticism and more time working to ease pain at the pump.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Video: Federal Gas Tax Debate on CNBC: Cato's Jerry Taylor vs Tyson Slocum

CNBC and Cato Institute: Cato's Jerry Taylor Debates Tyson Slocum on the Federal Gas Tax on CNBC:

Why does the federal government need 18.4 cents from every gallon of gasoline you purchase? Shouldn't state and local governments be spending on transportation infrastructure?

During a time when people are less and less able to afford gasoline, Cato senior fellow Jerry Taylor and Public Citizen energy program director Tyson Slocum debate whether or not a gasoline tax is good for the economy, or for our fiscal habits.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Video: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) on Domestic Oil Production

Associated Press: GOP Address: Oil Production:

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas accused the Obama administration of over-regulating and not doing enough to spur production at a time of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Martha Roby (R-AL) on Expanding Domestic Energy Production

Associated Press: GOP Address: Expand Domestic Energy Production:

Republicans are calling for action on gasoline prices and spending. In the weekly GOP radio and internet address, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby says it's time for Washington to get serious about the challenges facing the country.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

South Carolina's Brilliant Idea about Light Bulbs

The Heritage Foundation: South Carolina Taking Light Bulb Ban into Its Own Hands:

Fed up with the federal government’s ban of the traditional incandescent light bulb, state representatives in South Carolina are pushing for the state to produce and use incandescents solely for its state.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

The Story of one Company Bankrupted by the Offshore Drilling Moratorium

Heritage Foundation: Obama's Anti-Energy Policies Are Bankrupting America:

Randall Stilley has witnessed firsthand the Obama administration's job-killing agenda. As the president and chief executive of Seahawk Drilling, he had to lay off 632 employees before filing for bankruptcy — a direct result of President Obama's anti-energy policies.

"As an American," he told us, "you never want to look at your own government and say they're hurting you personally, they're hurting your business and they're doing it in a way that's irresponsible. I'm not very proud of our government right now and the way they handled this."

Saturday, January 15, 2011

OPEC Raises the Price

Kevin Williamson in National Review Online notes that OPEC is not bailing out the world economy:

Good news for Generic Republican, who already has established himself as a legitimate contender for the White House in 2012: OPEC is not bailing us out. The oil cartel is making it known that it is cool with $100 oil and will not act unless prices move significantly higher and stay there. Oil, like most commodities, has been rising steadily as governments around the world keep their printing presses running to dump new money into the global economy.

I don't buy the idea that OPEC controls oil prices. Sure, they manipulate it at the margins, but they don't control the oil market to the extent that De Beers controls the diamond market. The reason for that is simple: each OPEC member is an independent entity. They might agree to fix the price at $100/barrel, but since they are independent actors they can get away with selling for $99/barrel. Whoever's selling for $99 will make up in volume what they lose on margin.

All of that is to say that I think the rising oil price is an indicator of inflation.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Republicans End Global Warming Committee

The UK's Guardian reports that House Republicans have closed down Nancy Pelosi's (D-SF) global warming committee:

The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership. In the final days of the committee, staffers released a report on what the committee accomplished in its brief tenure – an epitaph of sorts.

And the optimistic view from the epitaph:

Someday, our children and grandchildren will look back on the record of the Select Committee. That record will reflect a respectful and rigorous debate and an unprecedented understanding of the challenges before us. Whether or not they will see that this generation has taken the bold action required by these challenges remains to be seen.

Unless, of course, the politicization of the environment was orchestrated by Liberals and Progressives and their dire predictions continue to turn out other than predicted. In that case, the final report will be read for its entertainment value as generations hence look back upon the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming as the 21st Century's first foray into phrenology.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Bill Boosting Nuclear Plant Begins Legislative Path :

Missouri News Horizon reports on pending legislation to add another nuclear plant in the state:

Legislation that backers hope will speed the process of building a second nuclear plant in Missouri is already in lawmakers’ hands.

Sponsor, State Senator Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, was one of the first lawmakers to file legislation for the upcoming session. His bill would allow power companies involved in an effort to obtain an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recoup through rate hikes the permit costs. The permit cost is estimated at about $40 million.

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Three Problems with Ethanol

This is the best sentence I've read today:

Ethanol is so uneconomical that Congress supports it three different ways — with a mandate for its use, a tax credit to subsidize it, and a tariff to keep out competitors.

There are at least two other great sentences in that article, so go read the whole thing!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Hal Lewis Resigns

Gateway Pundit already noticed the resignation of Hal Lewis. I guess I'm behind the times. I think the entirety of Lewis's resignation letter is interesting, so here it:

From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara

To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society

6 October 2010

Dear Curt:

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence---it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d'être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford's book organizes the facts very well.) I don't believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer "explanatory" screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind---simply to bring the subject into the open.

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members' interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people's motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don't think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I'm not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Hal

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

Hal, best of luck to you in your future endeavors!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Gateway Pundit: "Barack Obama finalized plans this week for his third vacation since the Gulf oil spill and explosion back on April 20"

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