In the Pipeline: 9/14/12

If he’s not shaking hands and preaching the good word in Small Town, USA, you can probably find Tom on cable news. AEA(9/12/12) reports: “I think they’re right in making the case that it’s time for this production tax credit to end. What has become, really, is just a boondoggle for the wind industry. We’re talking about an industry that has been getting this credit now for twenty years and now what’s happening is they’re literally distorting the markets that they’re in by negative pricing. In other words they’re paying for their energy to come onto the grid because they know they can get the money back through the tax credit.”

This is the sort of thing that happens when you have an energy tax.  API’s tax committee should think about this when they meet next week. Frances Bula (9/12/12) reports: “A carbon tax places a ‘price’ on GHG emissions and should encourage users of fossil fuels to switch to fuels with little or no emissions. To be effective, a carbon tax has to meet two conditions: it must be sufficiently high to send a market signal that emissions have a cost and it has to be sustained to encourage the development and adoption of low emission technologies and transportation systems by businesses and residents.”

Maryam Brown and Cory Hicks just keep the hits coming. Energy & Commerce (9/13/12) reports: “As recently as 2010, President Obama stated in a national address that we are running out of places to drill on land. He also cites the outdated and misleading claim that we possess only two percent of the world’s oil reserves,” said Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY). “This pessimistic view is being blown away by reality. Increased domestic oil production is already cutting into the amount we need to import from unfriendly oil-exporting nations, and many experts believe that this production growth can continue for years to come. When you add the equally impressive growth from our ally Canada, the goal of North American oil independence could be reached in as little as a decade.”

Yesterday, the Pipeline linked to a story that indicated the Heritage Foundation and Congressman Ed Markey agreed with respect to the No More Solyndras Act.  The story was wrong and has been corrected (below). E&ENews (9/12/12) reports: “The original version of this story indicated that all the groups would oppose the legislation today. Only Taxpayers for Common Sense opposes the bill as written.”