In the Pipeline: 4/23/13

The EPA is completely unhinged. The Hill (4/22/13) reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) objected Monday to the State Department’s draft review of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline route, saying it included “insufficient information” on environmental issues.”

The negative consequences of government mandates are very real. Rural Coloradans are about to get slapped in the face if the bozos in Denver have their way. Heartland (4/12/13) reports: “A 2011 joint report by the American Tradition Institute and Beacon Hill Institute found the mandate would increase Colorado’s electricity prices by an average of 3.75 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a 40 percent rise. By 2015 this will lead to the loss of 6,000 to 29,000 jobs, according to the Beacon Hill Institute estimates… Rolling back the Colorado renewable portfolio standard, instead of increasing it, would help keep energy more affordable for consumers, attract more business investment, and increase job creation.”

This comes as a shock to precisely no one. SF Examiner (4/23/13) reports: “The Obama administration has seized $21 million from troubled automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. just weeks after the company laid off three-fourths of its workers amid continuing financial and production problems… Fisker had received $192 million in federal loans before a series of problems led U.S. officials to freeze the loan in 2011.”

Abundance. Prosperity. Manufacturing. The Speaker gets it. Maryam Brown is a star. Speaker Boehner (4/18/13) reports: “At his weekly press briefing today, Speaker Boehner discussed House Republicans’ plans to move forward on legislation that will unlock more American energy to help families and small businesses struggling with high gas prices and foster long-term economic growth and job creation.”

These people are either confused, dishonest, or both. If you want to turn, you also need to burn. But words like intermittent, expensive, grid-reliability, cycling costs, etc. don’t fit snugly into a slogan. The Buffalo News (4/17/13) reports: “The spinning windmills at the old Bethlehem Steel site in Hamburg and Lackawanna were a fitting backdrop as local environmentalists and community leaders made a plea to Albany to focus more on renewable energy… ‘Let’s Turn, Not Burn’ was the campaign slogan the groups used Tuesday to launch the Sierra Club’s Renewable Energy Week in Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton and Auburn.”

If Mother Earth didn’t want us to use organic fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal, why does she provide such plentiful reserves? Forbes (4/22/13) reports: “All the vitriol thrown at these fossil fuels by the environmental community notwithstanding, it is a simple fact that our prosperous, modern, energy-hungry society was made possible by the existence of these fuels.  Without the discovery of and ability to produce fossil fuels, it is likely that mankind would still be mired in a Medieval form of existence, reliant on burning wood for heat, horses for transportation, and still living largely in the dark after nightfall.”