Islands Trying To Use 100% Green Energy Failed, Went Back To Diesel

(Hat tip: KimR) - The islands of Tasmania and El Hierro tried to power their economies with 100 percent green energy, but both islands eventually went back to diesel generators after suffering reliability problems and soaring energy costs. Read more at the Daily Caller Read More......

Energy Poverty Around the World

(Hat tip: KimR) - The global warming/climate change industry has been aggressively pushing renewable energy, wind, solar, and biofuels for a long time even though the economies of various industrialized countries need much more energy than what renewables generate. Read more at the Canada Free Press Read More......

Climate Alarmists Unnecessarily Condemn Poor to Continuing Energy Poverty

(Hat tip: KimR) - Poverty and energy poverty go hand in hand. It is estimated that three billion people [1] still rely on solid fuel (firewood, cornstalks, etc.) for cooking, which, according to the World Health Organization, causes four million deaths per year from the indoor air pollution. Read more at Read more at CNS News Read More......

California’s Hidden Coal Use

California’s politicians would like you to believe that their electricity comes from non-coal sources. However, while there are very few coal plants in California, making up only 0.4 percent of the state’s generation in 2014[i], California imports electricity from neighboring states and as much as half of Southern California’s electric generation comes from coal-fired generating plants in Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.[ii] Although California is pushing electric vehicles, wanting 1.5 million on the road by 2025,[iii] the greenhouse gas savings from their use will be minuscule if electricity continues to be generated mainly from imports of coal-fired generation and natural gas that supplies the state with 60 percent of its electricity.

Read more at Institute for Energy Research
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Five Points for Resetting America’s Economic Foundation

Speaker Boehner addresses the American Enterprise Institute (AEI):
As reported by Newt Gingrich: Speaker Boehner began with what the House Republicans have accomplished in the last four years, despite Democrats controlling both the Senate and the presidency. Some of their record may surprise you. Republicans cut total federal spending for two straight years--the first time that's happened in half a century. They guaranteed that 98 percent of Americans would not see permanent income tax hikes. And they pushed through free trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. These are historic accomplishments. They have real meaning for the lives of millions of Americans. And they create room for future economic growth.

Watch video or read more at www.speaker.gov Read More......

The Problem with a National Energy Policy

By Jim Huffman (Oregon)
At least since the 1973 Oil Embargo there have been calls for a national energy policy. Most proponents of such a policy envision guidelines for the future mix of energy sources, targets for energy conservation, standards for balancing energy production against competing social needs, and recognition of foreign policy considerations.

A 2004 Congressional Research Service report to Congress concluded that over the three decades since the embargo, Congress had periodically responded to instabilities in energy markets but had failed to develop a coherent national energy policy. Now, another decade later, Congress and the President are still urged to come up with of a national energy policy.

What would such a policy look like?

Read more at InsideSources Read More......

Todd Wynn: European Lessons on Renewable Energy Subsidies

"Federal and state government officials in the U.S. would be well served to recognize the potential ramifications of overreliance on taxpayer support of green energy. It is time to finally restore sanity to the energy debate and reject budget busting, unreliable policies, lest we follow Europe’s path." Check out these snippets on how Europe is beginning to see the light on taxpayer support for renewable energy at American Legislator Read More......

You have been fed a load of crap!

You're not supposed to be this well informed! If you agree, don't read this...
2012: The Progressive Elite vs. the American Hard Hat by By Larry Leonard, published by Oregon Magazine

April 21, 2012 — You have been fed a load of crap. It comes to you in two types. The first is in the form of a lie. Something is this, and the liars tell you that it is that. The second type of lie is more subtle, and is created by omitting information from a story. These are known as lies of co-mission and lies of omission. Used simultaneously, they throw a blanket of fantasy over reality. ✧ We’ll use energy as a model for this essay, but remember that the process works in education, campaign speeches, the presentation of history, economics — you name the topic and somewhere in each information pot you will find deception of the type described above.  

Energy and the American Economy - All this week, from all the news sources in America, you have been misinformed by both the liberal MSM and fair and balanced FOX. The MSM did it intentionally. FOX did it unintentionally. To set up this section, here’s something you’ve heard for weeks: “The president says that if he opened up government energy locations, it would not lower the price of gasoline.” ✧ That is a beautiful attempt to sidestep the key political issue today by way of what sounds like a reasonable lie about another, related subject. I’ve been waiting for weeks for FOX to pick it up. They haven’t, so it’s time Oregon Magazine did. Read more at OregonMag.com...

I particularly like Mr. Leonard's summation, "...Euro-socialism or a dynamic economic revival. It’s up to you." --bc Read More......

Expanding Energy Production to Create Jobs, & Help Pay for Better Roads & Bridges

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER, 2/4/2012 - In the coming weeks the House will vote on the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act (H.R.7). Removes barriers to job growth by approving the Keystone pipeline rejected by President Obama, lifting the president’s offshore drilling ban, opening a small portion of ANWR, and more. Read more at the Speaker's Blog... Read More......

White House Rejects Keystone Pipeline Project

President Obama announced Wednesday that he will deny a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, blaming Republicans for imposing a "rushed and arbitrary deadline" which he said did not give officials enough time. ✧ GOP lawmakers immediately excoriated the president for the decision. House Speaker John Boehner said Obama is "selling out American jobs for politics," and said Republicans in Congress would continue to push for the pipeline. Read more at Fox News... Read More......

Johnson: Koch Bros control Congress, push Keystone

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., protested today on the House floor that the libertarian Koch brothers "control Congress," arguing that the Republican push for President Obama to approve the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas is motivated by a desire to reward the Koch brothers for financing the Tea Party during the 2010 election. Read more at The Examiner...

Rep. Johnson once worried that Guam might 'tip over' if more U.S. Troops and their families were stationed there. --bc Read More......

CPI: The Not So “Cool School” Initiative

CASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE by Michael Bastasch - The Oregon “Cool Schools” Initiative (House Bill 2960) directs the Oregon Department of Energy to provide zero to low-interest loans and grants to school districts for energy efficiency building improvements. Governor John Kitzhaber, the bill’s main proponent, argues that HB 2960 will create healthier, more energy efficient schools and create jobs. However, given the propensity of government to overestimate the benefits of its programs while completely understating the costs, the economic impacts of HB 2960 most likely will yield the opposite results of what Gov. Kitzhaber claims.

Luckily, Oregon has a case study in Washington State... Read more at CPI. Read More......

Heartland: EPA Finds New Way to Skin the Cat

HEARTLAND.ORG, 6/16/2011 by James M. Taylor - American Electric Power has announced new EPA regulations will force it to close five coal-fired power plants, pay for expensive retrofits for at least a dozen more, eliminate 600 jobs, and substantially increase the price it charges for electricity. ∴ AEP’s announcement came on the heels of a National Economic Research Associates Inc. report finding EPA’s new regulations will cause an 11.5 percent increase in U.S. electricity prices above baseline projections and will kill 144,000 jobs by the year 2020. AEP relied entirely on government data for most of its assumptions.

Coal Plants Closing Prematurely... Read more at Heartland.org Read More......

AEI: Big Oil has Little to do with Pump Prices

6/9/2011 - "Big Oil" is not to blame for the skyrocketing price of oil. Rather, domestic energy policy and international instability are to blame for rising prices. Read more at American Enterprise Institute (AEI)... Read More......

Barone: Free Market, Not Government Policy, Drives Energy Boom

MICHAEL BARONE: In contrast to the marginal effects of much ballyhooed public policies, there has been a huge breakthrough in energy production in the past couple of years. Read more at Townhall...

There is a lesson here for public policy generally, including health care. No centralized government expert predicted the vast expansion in energy supply from hydraulic fracking. It was produced by decentralized specialists in firms subject to market competition.

Learn a little about "hydraulic fracking" in this article. --bc Read More......

Congressional deal halts Interior Dept.'s western wilderness program

CORVALLIS GAZETTE-TIMES, 4/13/2011 - A last-minute budget deal reached by Congressional leaders would block an Obama administration plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection. ∴ Republican lawmakers had complained that the wilderness plan would circumvent Congress's authority and could be used to declare a vast swath of public land off-limits to oil-and-gas drilling. Read more in the GT... Read More......

BLM unveils new wilderness push

THE DAILY SENTINAL, 12/23/2010 by Dennis Webb - "The Bureau of Land Management will launch a new effort to identify and protect lands with wilderness characteristics under an initiative announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today. ∴ The effort comes in response to a 2003 settlement between former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other parties including the state of Utah that left the BLM without a national wilderness policy. 'That is simply unacceptable,' Salazar said in a news conference in Denver. ∴ Salazar said the Norton agreement “frankly should never have happened and was wrong in the first place.” The new initiative won’t disavow that agreement by the Bush administration, but will make use of existing BLM authority to evaluate its lands for designation as “wild lands” following a public process. Such lands would be managed to protect their wilderness characteristics unless a new public management process results in a modified designation. ∴ Wild lands would differ from wilderness areas, which Congress designates and can be modified by legislation, and from wilderness study areas, which the BLM typically must manage as wilderness until Congress decides whether they merit wilderness designation. ∴ Salazar said the wild land designation provides more flexibility for multiple uses of land, such as for alternative energy development. But it would give lands with wilderness characteristics “a significant place at the table,” whereas in the past such characteristics weren’t valued, he said." Read More......

WSJ: A Wind Power Boonedoggle

T. Boone Pickens badly misjudged the supply and price of natural gas. WALL STREET JOURNAL/OPINION, 12/22/2010 by Robert Bryce - After 30 months, countless TV appearances, and $80 million spent on an extravagant PR campaign, T. Boone Pickens has finally admitted the obvious: The wind energy business isn't a very good one. ∴ The Dallas-based entrepreneur, who has relentlessly promoted his "Pickens Plan" since July 4, 2008, announced earlier this month that he's abandoning the wind business to focus on natural gas. Read more at WSJ... Read More......

SUBJECT: FW: ANWAR

This post is from an older email that first circulated in 2008 and has come around again. The photos (below the fold) are beautiful and they do tell a story. Snopes rates the email on ANWR as "MULTIPLE" (containing true and false claims). However, are we energy independent yet? No. Have we gained on reducing our dependence on foreign oil? Not substantially, if at all. Should the debate on drilling in ANWR be resumed? There is some good current information at www.anwr.org.--bc

See the email below...

VIA EMAIL, 11/18/2010 (Hat tip: Carolyn Webb)

"Unbelievable! This is the best presentation on ANWR I have seen. I would like to add a little more information. A new pipeline across Alaska isn't required since the location for drilling in ANWR is about 70 miles from the North Slope Prudhoe Bay pipeline [Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)] where it would be connected. Second the wildlife love the pipeline since it is heated and provides a shelter during the worst times during the winter."

FIRST, do you know what ANWR is?
ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Now, a comparison...


And some perspective...


Note where the proposed development areas is. (It's in the "ANWR Coastal Plain")


The following pictures are what the Democrats, Liberals and "Greens" show you when they talk about ANWR... and they are right, these are photographs of ANWR.



Isn't ANWR beautiful? Why should we drill here (and destroy) this beautiful place? Well, that's not exactly the truth. Do you remember the map showing the proposed drilling area in the ANWR Coastal Plain? Do the photos above look like a coastal plain to you? What's going on here? The answer is simple. The photos above do NOT show where the plan proposes to drill!

Below is what the proposed exploration area actually looks like in the winter.


And this it what it actually looks like in the summer...




Here are a couple screen shots from GOOGLE EARTH...
(Click these images for larger view)


As you can see(above), the proposed drilling area is a barren wasteland. Oh, and they say that they are concerned about the effect on the local wildlife?

Below is a photo (shot during the summer) of the "depleted wildlife" situation created by drilling around Prudhoe Bay. Do you think the caribou really HATE that drilling?


Here's the same spot during the winter...


Hey, this bear seems to really HATE the pipeline near Prudhoe Bay, which accounts for 17% of U.S. Domestic oil production


Now, why do you think that the Democrats are lying about ANWR? Remember when Al Gore said that the government should work to artificially raise gas prices to $5.00 a gallon? Well, Al Gore and his fellow Democrats have almost reached their goal!

Now that you know that the Democrats have been lying, what are you going to do about it?

Read More......

Harnessing a star's power for clean energy

CNET NEWS, 6/4/2010 - LIVERMORE, Calif.--Think clean energy is a fantasy? What if the power of a star was applied to the problem? ∴ That's the approach being explored at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a huge-scale experiment in laser fusion based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory here. Scientists are looking at NIF as a potential key to producing large amounts of carbon-free power. ∴ It's not known if the system will ever bear the kind of fruit the scientists and administrators who run NIF would like. Still, the facility is a scientific wonder that can transform a single laser beam no wider than a human hair into 192 beams--each of which is 18 inches wide. Together, the beams are designed to produce 4 million joules, the amount of power that would produce 4 million watts of power in a single second. Read more at CNet...

See How NIF Works (video) at YouTube. Read More......