Blog

ObamaAdmin. Touts Job Creation as Number One Priority, Except When They’re EnergyJobs – that’s the Case in Alaska Where Shell has 35,000 Jobs on Stand By.New York Times (11/5) reports, “Eager to win approval forits stalled plan to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell isbeginning a public lobbying campaign, including national advertising, onMonday. As part of the effort, the giant oil company is promising to makeunprecedented preparations to prevent the kind of disaster that...

Message toMitch and the Senate: Lame Duck Energy “Compromise,” Renewable ElectricityMandate Raw Deal for American People.E&E News (11/5) reports, “President Obama andRepublicans have repeatedly highlighted energy as an area where compromise andprogress can be found over the next two years after the tumultuous and partisanmidterm elections. But the prospects for any progress will land squarely on theshoulders of a few Democratic and Republican senators who can successfullynegotiate and woo...

Cap-and-Spayed: Real SimpleMessage Emerges from 2010 Elections: If You Voted for Cap-and-Raid in aDistrict Where Folks Were Actually Awake, You Lost. Politico (11/3) reports, “Democrats who voted for the controversialHouse climate bill were slaughtered at the ballot box, including Rep. RickBoucher, the 14-term Virginian who helped broker some of the key dealsinstrumental to its June 2009 passage. In the Senate, several reliable green advocatesalso went down to opponents who derided tough new...

Bifurcation Station: GreensAlready in Spin Cycle Pre-Butting Election Results Tonight – InsistVoters Aren’t “Thinking About” Cap-and-Raid, Just the Economy (!)ClimateWire (11/1, subs. req’d) reports, “President Obama was still trying to motivate hisbase on the eve of elections. He has campaigned hard to turn out the vote forweeks. Yesterday, he gave campaign-themed interviews to radio stations inFlorida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- all battleground states whereDemocrats could lose...

Don’t Call It a Comeback:Or Maybe That’s Exactly What You Should Call It; Defamed by Enviros, Media,World Coal Consumption Hits 40 Year High. Bloomberg News (10/30) reports, “Chris Cline foresaw thatthe dwindling Appalachian supply, coupled with what he expected would be rulesto force all power plants to add scrubbers to remove pollutants, would makeIllinois coal attractive. If plants had to clean the coal anyway, Clinereasoned, why not use inexpensive Illinois stock? He was right. Three...

Flashback:Prof. Calzada Sounded Alarm on Out of Control “Green” Subsidies in Spain TwoYears Ago. Today: Spain Set to Rein in Solar Subsidies, Unsustainable. Bloomberg (10/28) reports, Spain may limit the hours during which photovoltaic-powerplants may earn subsidies as part of a plan to rein in electricity costs forconsumers, according to a government official involved in talks with theowners. It’s too early to say how much the cut might cost companies thatgenerate the solar power using...

By Hook orBy Crook, Obama Administration Hell-Bent on Bankrupting Coal Industry;Increasing Consumer Energy Prices.Wall Street Journal (10/27) editorializes, “Anyone who caresabout the U.S. economy is breathing easier now that cap and tax appears to beon the political garbage barge, but don't be so sure. The White House is stillpursuing its carbon agenda through regulation, albeit with almost no publicattention, and a new study shows the damage that is already being done.Yesterday the North...

Houston Chronon China’s Energy Strategy, “The Chinese get it. We hope the [Obama] administration does, too.” Houston Chronicle (10/26)editorializes, “It's an accident of the calendar that word of China's purchaseof an interest in 600,000 acres of oil and gas leases in South Texas camewithin days of the Obama administration's announcement that the moratorium ondeep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would be ending. We take the word ofthose in the oil and gas industry who say lifting of the...

OutsourcingEnergy Production; That’s the Latest Policy Out of Obama Administration,Opponents of Responsible Offshore Energy Exploration.OneNewsNow (10/22/10) reports, “The Obama administration may have liftedthe moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but it may not doenough to retain jobs and keep prices down. Several nations are stepping upefforts to become self-sufficient when it comes to oil and gasoline, includingCuba. Dan Kish, an energy policy expert with the Institute...

Who Really Killed theElectric Car? Its Battery Pack – the One Featured on the Nissan LeafCosts $16,000 – With Very Little Hope of Price Coming Down.Wall Street Journal (10/19) reports, “The push to get electriccars on the road is backed by governments and auto makers around the world, butthey face a big hurdle: the stubbornly high cost of the giant battery packs,which can account for more than half the cost of an electric vehicle. Both theindustry and government are betting that a quick...