In the Pipeline: 1/30/13

We’re not entirely cynical, because Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy are still real. Consumer Energy Report (1/29/13) reports: “I don’t ride a unicorn to work because unicorns don’t exist… But imagine the following scenario. A number of companies claim that they are developing unicorns, and in 3 years they will be commercially available. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thinks ‘Hey, this is a great idea. It would be a more environmentally friendly method of transport. Let’s force automakers to start selling these unicorns in 3 years. We will base our projections on how many unicorns these unicorn companies say they will produce. After that we will increase the number the automakers must sell in each subsequent year, and then force the automakers to pay up if they don’t meet these quotas.’”

If you woke up this morning, and you are an EPA Administrator, do you feel better knowing that Congressional investigators are reading your emails?  Probably not.  But it makes us feel better. Senator Vitter (1/29/13) reports: “In a joint letter sent today, Senator David Vitter (R-La.), the top Republican of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, questioned James Martin, Region 8 Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regarding his use of a non-official e-mail account to conduct official business, potentially violating federal transparency laws… In documents obtained by Senate EPW and House OGR committees, Administrator Martin used a non-official, me.com, e-mail account, which may have been an attempt to circumvent the Federal Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and Congressional oversight.”

This is what happens when you elect morons (Ritter, not Hickenlooper). Denver Post (1/29/13) reports: “The audit concluded the agency can’t demonstrate the $252 million spent over the past six years was used cost-effectively. Much of that amount-$144 million from fiscal years 2009 through 2012-was federal stimulus money… First created in 1977 to promote energy conservation, the office took on new significance under former Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, whose focus on renewable energy development was a legacy of his term from 2007 to 2011. Last year, the Legislature and current governor, Democrat John Hickenlooper, agreed to expand beyond renewables, with funding for all types of energy development projects in the mix, including gas, oil and coal.”

EDF.  The Nature Conservancy.  The Audubon Society.  This is the sort of thing we are up against every day. Walton Family Foundation(2012) reports: “In 2012, the Walton Family Foundation invested more than $432 million in initiatives to expand opportunity for individuals and communities in the United States and internationally. The majority of investments were made in three key areas of focus – K-12 education reform, freshwater and marine conservation and quality of life initiatives in Arkansas and Mississippi.”

We’re just glad something in DC still works. Breitbart (1/28/13) reports: “Washington, DC local residents and environmentalists gathered at a meeting room in a Methodist Church on Capitol Hill last Thursday to discuss their dissatisfaction with the Capitol Hill cogeneration plant… The plant, which was completely coal fired for almost one hundred years, exclusively heats the capitol. However, since 2007, according to the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), the plant began to move from burning primarily coal to burning mostly natural gas–but not entirely. Coal is still burned at the plant, but the rate of its reduction is not fast enough for local environmentalists and lawmakers.”