In the Pipeline: 10/11/12

Dan is right.  The Obama crew has a relentless preference for unreliable, expensive forms of graft and corruption that require taxpayer support.  They have waged relentless war on affordable, reliable energy.  How much simpler can we make it? IER (10/10/12) reports: “IER Senior Vice President Daniel Kish released the following statement in response to the Interior Department’s announcement regarding the Chokeberry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in Wyoming: “The constant message the Obama administration sends to the American people is clear — unreliable, intermittent and expensive energy sources will receive preferential treatment, while the affordable and reliable sources we use every day will be taxed, embargoed, and driven into bankruptcy.”

None of these entities are going to pay the tax.  The people of Japan are going to pay the tax. Reuters (10/10/12) reports: “Japan’s new tax on carbon emissions will cost utilities about 80 billion yen ($1.02 billion) annually from 2016, adding to their already high costs of running power stations after the Fukushima crisis shut most of the country’s nuclear plants, a government backed think-tank said.”

It is about time. Energy & Commerce (10/10/12) reports: “Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee today wrote to U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office Gene Dodaro requesting a study of federal spending used to support energy-related technologies. Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY), Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) are requesting the study in response to concerns over the dramatic growth of spending and subsidies in energy markets.”

Where is Senator Boxer’s letter howling about this market manipulation, this victimization of Californians? Forbes (10/10/12) reports: “California regulators on Wednesday approved a $10 million grant to Tesla Motors to help manufacture its next electric car, the Model X sport utility vehicle.”

Did Obama Policies Aid Hugo Chavez’s Reelection? IER (10/10/12) reports: “The value that U.S. dependence on Venezuelan oil provides to that country’s socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez, cannot fully be estimated. Currently, Venezuela ranks fourth as a supplier of U.S. oil imports after Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. But the United States could drastically reduce support of Hugo Chavez’s oil regime if President Obama had approved the Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to move 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast where Venezuelan crude arrives by tanker.”

I have no idea why we keep running these sort of stories, except that they amuse us.  They also help confirm our suspicions that this whole solar thing is a bit of a racket. Renewable Energy World (10/10/12) reports: “Suntech has $541 million of convertible notes due in March, more than triple its market value of $164 million. It has a total of almost $2.3 billion in debt and is expected to report a loss of $495 million this year, the average of five estimates compiled by Bloomberg, as panel prices fall. The company is overleveraged and will face difficulties shoring up its balance sheet, Molchanov said in an interview… “I’d be interested to see the rabbit Suntech and UBS can pull out of their hat,” he said.”

I wonder if this is disappointing for the people who worship solar panels as if they were some sort of savior for mankind. Washington Times (10/10/12) reports: “But a series of emails from solar power giant BrightSource Energy Inc. show how the company applied political pressure and used behind-the-scenes cajoling to win a $1.6 billion loan guarantee in April 2011.”