Once again, America leads in the next energy revolution, but will our government get out of the way? Wall Street Journal (12/5/11) reports: Big Oil is redrawing the energy map…For decades, its main stomping grounds were in the developing world—exotic locales like the Persian Gulf and the desert sands of North Africa, the Niger Delta and the Caspian Sea. But in recent years, that geographical focus has undergone a radical change. Western energy giants are increasingly hunting for supplies...
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She might be able to make due with off shore wind energy, but I don’t live in a hovel and I enjoy my big screen TV Richmond Times (11/30/11) reports: About 50 environmental activists called on the State Corporation Commission Wednesday to require Dominion Virginia Power to invest more in renewable energy…"There's enough offshore wind energy in Virginia to provide all of our energy needs," Sierra Club organizer Patrick Stelmach said…Enough sunlight falls on downtown Richmond that "we'd...
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President Obama’s new electric car will cost $96,000 this holiday season (batteries not included) Greenwire (11/30/11) reports: A123 Systems has cut 35 percent of the workers at two Michigan plants that make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles following a reduction in orders from prime customer Fisker Automotive…The company, which received a $249 million grant from the Department of Energy to produce batteries in Michigan, has been touted by the Obama administration as evidence...
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It is tough to imagine EPA would do this.  But then again wrecking the relationship with Canada to satisfy some enviro crazies and Senator Johanns over Keystone seemed unlikely Bismarck News (11/27/11) reports: With millions, if not billions, of dollars hanging over the ledge, the boom in the oil patch would go into a free-fall if drilling suddenly stopped…Thousands of workers unemployed overnight, housing starts abandoned, businesses shuttered and bustling oil towns from Williston to...
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"The energy debate has changed from scarcity to abundance . . .”  Where have I heard that before?  Oh right, we’ve been saying it for years.  Keep this story in mind over the next few years, because the environmentalists really object to liquids coming out of the shale.  When the Utica comes on line, and the Bakken is going full-out, then the attacks will being in earnest Financial Post (11/21/11) reports: While the green movement naively harbours hopes it will be able to shut down...
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Let’s see, Doug Foy.  Gina McCarthy.  John Holdren.  Boyden Gray.  Jim Connaughton.  What do all these people have in common?  That’s easy; they all want to destroy the American industrial economy.  They were all appointed by or consulted with Governor Romney on energy and environmental issues.  They are all Obama Administration appointees (not really, only Gina and John; Jim and Boyden just seem like Obama appointees) Hot Air (10/15/11) reports: Conservatives know well that Mitt...
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This is a little complicated.  Let me make it easy.  When you have a commodity defined by stochasticity, and then you mandate its use, things tend to go bad pretty quickly for the remainder of system.  Or, mandating unreliable energy, like wind, is usually not a good idea Bloomberg (10/3/11) reports: The 15 mile-per-hour winds that buffeted northern Germany on July 24 caused the nation’s 21,600 windmills to generate so much power that utilities such as EON AG and RWE AG (RWE) had to pay...
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The North Dakota Experiment — we can become the Saudi Arabia of the 21^st century with the right energy policies Wall Street Journal (10/1/11) reports: Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma-based founder and CEO of Continental Resources, the 14th-largest oil company in America, is a man who thinks big. He came to Washington last month to spread a needed message of economic optimism: With the right set of national energy policies, the United States could be "completely energy independent by the end of...
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Blinded by the light — Obama Administration rushed the Solyndra loan to boost solar energy production for political points and it worked, but it turns out those are our political points… New York Times (9/23/11) reports: President Obama’s visit to the Solyndra solar panel factory in California last year was choreographed down to the last detail — the 20-by-30-foot American flags, the corporate banners hung just so, the special lighting, even coffee and doughnuts for the Secret...
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EPA, after Shell spends $4 billion and counting and may have 54,000 jobs waiting to be filled by Americans, grants a permit Washington Post (9/19/11) reports: Shell Oil Co. on Monday took a step closer to tapping vast petroleum reserves off Alaska’s Arctic coasts when the federal Environmental Protection Agency approved an air quality permit for one of the company’s drilling vessels…The EPA approved the air permit for the drilling vessel Noble Discover, which Shell hopes to use for...
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