In the Pipeline: 10/8/12

Why we fight. WCYB (10/5/12) reports: “Mitt Romney’s campaign stopped in Abingdon on October 5, 2012.”

All of the above means nothing from below. Human Events (10/5/12) reports: “The Obama administration’s plan to lock up nearly half of the National Petroleum Reserve from energy production has drawn criticism from key Alaska officials and Iñupiat Eskimos who say the plan is unacceptable and should be canceled… The 23 million acre reserve on Alaska’s north slope was set aside by Congress 90 years ago to preserve the domestic supply of oil and gas, and critics say the proposal shelves the most prosperous lands.”

Next up:  informing on parents and neighbors! CNS News (10/5/12) reports: “On the website page is a link to a 26-page EPA report entitled, “Sensible Steps to Healthier School Environment.” In the report’s chapter on Energy Efficiency, the EPA presents a box with items to help establish “Energy Efficiency Opportunities for Schools.” One of the items in the box reads, “Educate students and staff about how their behaviors affect energy use. Some schools have created student energy patrols to monitor and inform others when energy is wasted.””

First, the panels were bursting into flames.  Now, the finances are bursting into flames. Heritage (10/6/12) reports: “The DCNF’s sources also show agreement with the extraordinarily high number of replacement panels–nearly 160,000–due to underperformance issues. Faulty manufacturing, DCNF said, was apparently prompted, at least in part, by the necessity to meet loan guarantee production benchmarks issued by DOE… The company’s financial statements, under investigation in Colorado, will form a major part of the Congressional inquiry launched by Gardner.”

What can we possibly say?  Except that the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning, but without understanding.  At least that’s what my friend Lou used to say. BBC (10/4/12) reports: “Electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel-powered cars, according to new research… The Norwegian University of Science and Technology study found greenhouse gas emissions rose dramatically if coal was used to produce the electricity.”

Whatever you think about LNG exports, you have to dig the $65 billion in investments. WSJ (10/4/12) reports: “Energy companies are racing to export natural gas from the U.S. as they search for more-profitable markets amid a continent-wide gas glut that has depressed prices to the lowest levels in a decade.”

This is the kind of person who should be running EPA.  Or pretty much anyplace that requires judgment and common sense. Texas Public Policy (9/12/12) reports: “Among the most out-of-touch promotions for a carbon tax is former Congressman J. Inglis’ Energy and Enterprise Initiative. Touted as the conservative, free-enterprise solution, the Inglis carbon tax intends to make fossil fuel derived energy bear the full cost of its “negative externalities” construed as health impacts, global warming and “dangerous dependence on a scarce resource.” Inglis has overlooked some glaring facts in air quality improvement, discredited climate science and newly accessed abundance of domestic oil and gas.”