In the Pipeline: 10/16/12

Why we fight. 

How in the world did this run in the Washington Post? Washington Post(10/15/12) reports: “Al Gore is about 50 times richer than he was when he left the vice presidency in 2001. According to an Oct. 11 report by The Post’s Carol D. Leonnig, Gore accumulated a Romneyesque $100 million partly through investing in alternative-energy firms subsidized by the Obama administration.”

When the Bloomberg crowd starts running things like this, you have to think they are beginning to hedge their bets, just in case the blessed one loses. Bloomberg (10/11/12) reports: “In 2008 candidate Barack Obama promised to create 5 million green jobs. He laid out a plan to invest $150 billion over 10 years that would advance a clean-energy economy built around biofuels, hybrid cars, low-emission coal plants, and renewable sources such as solar and wind. How many has he actually created? … Digging into the public records of the $21 billion spent so far through 19 U.S. Department of Energy programs reveals 3,960 projects that employ 28,854 people.”

I am amazed that a federal government program, especially one as well-designed and run as the 30% tax credit for expensive and unreliable energy, is subject to corruption. Renewable Energy World (10/15/12) reports: “A new government investigation of SolarCity on the eve of its initial public offering (IPO) may explain how solar leasing is fleecing federal taxpayers and making U.S. residential solar more expensive than in other countries.”

Even at the State level, government does not pick winners and losers.  It just picks losers, mostly because winners don’t go to the government for funding.  Losers on the other hand, understand that their only hope is the corrupt and irrational government approach.ToledoBlade.com (10/14/12) reports: “Four of the 10 companies or projects funded under the advanced energy program have failed to repay the state on time, submit financial reports by designated deadlines, or adhere to stipulations of state loan agreements, a Blade investigation found. Some of them face a combination of these problems. Four of the 16 projects initially approved by the state aren’t moving forward.”

For those of us already losing sleep over Obama’s energy policy, this is not a good thing. Berwickshire News (10/11/12) reports: “An honorary consultant in sleep medicine, Dr C D Hanning, is warning of the “unacceptable levels of sleep disturbance” for people living within 1.5km of wind turbines.”

If some is good, more is better. ABC News (10/15/12) reports: “There were cheers around Germany when Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last year, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, a swift end to nuclear power in favor of renewable energy sources like wind and solar… But only 18 months into the plan, the cost of the switchover is beginning to sink in. Some politicians, fearful of losing popular support for the transition, are demanding an overhaul of the way it is financed… The country’s four main grid operators said Monday that households will from January see a nearly 50 percent rise in the tax they pay to finance the switchover – from €3.6 cents to €5.3 cents ($6.7 cents) per kilowatt hour. A typical family of four will pay about €250 ($324) per year under the tariff, including a sales tax.”