Domestic Energy Policies

DOmestic energy POLICIES

Just days after the election, Obama’s  domestic energy plans  are clear.  . Vast areas in the western US have been put off limits for drilling and exploration. He will continue to reduce our ability to reap domestic energy sources forcing us to shift more of our wealth to the Middle East and further eroding the value of our currency. This will greatly increase the cost of gasoline and diesel increasing the cost of all goods that need to be shipped. Food costs will soar. He will continue to use false environmental claims and improved green energy initiatives as reasons for this.

On November 09, 2012, Zack Colman with FOX NATION reported, “Obama Moves To Restrict Oil Shale Development On Fed Land In Colo., Utah, Wyoming.” The Interior Department issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land for oil shale development.

Interior’s Bureau of Land Management cited environmental concerns for the proposed restrictions in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. Among other things, it excised lands with “wilderness characteristics” and areas that conflicted with sage grouse habitats while claiming that 677,000 acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming would still be open for oil shale exploration. Another 130,000 acres in Utah would be set aside for tar sands production.

But the Alaska Pipeline and associated activities do not seem to have bothered the caribou there. This picture was lifted from Babylontoday.com. These fish seem to enjoy the habitat supplied by the offshore oil rig. This picture was lifted from article.wn.com, Oil Rigs Great for Marine Environment. Exploration companies today care for the environment, too.

 

 

 

In his 2011 State of the Union speech on January 26, 2011, Obama said, “Already, we’re seeing the promise of renewable energy. We’re issuing a challenge. We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fun the Apollo projects of our time. With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s. Clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market. So tonight, I set a new goal: By 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources..  From  Ashe Schow writing for THE FOUNDRY in his article, “Nearly every single tax giveaway he has had for green energy has failed” on October 18, 2012, you find the list below.

  1. Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
  2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
  3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
  4. Beacon Power ($43 million)*
  5. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
  6. SunPower ($1.2 billion)
  7. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
  8. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
  9. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
  10. Amonix ($5.9 million)
  11. Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
  12. Abound Solar ($400 million)*
  13. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
  14. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
  15. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
  16. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
  17. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
  18. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
  19. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
  20. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
  21. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
  22. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
  23. Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
  24. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
  25. Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
  26. GreenVolts ($500,000)
  27. Vestas ($50 million)
  28. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
  29. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
  30. Navistar ($39 million)
  31. Satcon ($3 million)*
  32. Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
  33. Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

With new technology, specifically hydraulic fracturing, we have enough natural gas today to be energy independent. The American Gas Association reported on April 4, 2012, “When periodic assessments of undiscovered resources are combined with proved reserves a vision of future supply of natural gas emerges. Today, the combination of reserves information and resource assessments places that future supply at 2,100 Tcf or greater. That represents about 100 years of supply at current gas production rates, which are 22-23 Tcf per year.” Some even claim that our supplies are so great that we should start exporting gas. November 21, 2012, Benjamin Lefebvre, in a Wall Street Journal article, “Should the U.S. Export Natural Gas?” reports, “Supporters of the idea say it would enhance American sway abroad, but skeptics see economic risks.” “The U.S. is awash in natural gas—a historic surplus that has driven domestic prices to lows not seen in decades. But amid this sea change, a surprising debate has arisen: Are gas exports bad for the U.S. economy?” If we have enough natural gas for energy independence, why are we subsidizing more expensive forms of green energy? Why not let corporate researchers do that on their own so they can come up with a practical alternative? They have at least 100 years to work on it.

We have the world’s largest reserves of oil. From the Seekingalpha.com web page on July 2, 2012, in an article titled, “U.S. Has World’s Largest Oil Reserves: So Why Is No One Talking About It?,” Michael Johnson reports, “The story is nothing new, it has been known for quite some time that the U.S. may hold the largest oil reserve ever. That reserve, dubbed the Green River Formation, stretches across western states Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and is sitting on mostly federal lands, making it much easier for the government to drill for the resource. So how big is the biggest reserve ever? It is estimated that this area contains a massive three trillion barrels of oil, half of which is currently recoverable. To give you an idea for how significant that number actually is, three trillion is approximately equivalent to the rest of the world’s proven reserves combined.” If the Obama administration talks about it, they lose their claim that we have to find alternatives now, and they lose their ability to claim that that government gifts they call investments are necessary for green energy sources.

Biofuels are not fossil fuels. They are not limited by how many plants and animals died in distant history, rotted and got pushed underground. Thomas Gold is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an Emeritus Professor of Physics at Cornell University. Regarded as one of the most creative and wide-ranging scientists of his generation, he has taught at Cambridge University and Harvard, and for 20 years was the Director of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. In his book, THE DEEP HOT BIOSPHERE, THE MYTH OF FOSSIL FUELS, he spends 216 pages explaining and describing how biofuels are created from the primordial gas methane and will continue forever, and he supports that thesis with 17 pages of notes and references. Many reservoirs worldwide are refilling or have been filling as they are drained, which accounts for much of the under-prediction of supplies. So, if there is a near permanent supply of this stuff, why are we clamoring to build new green energy sources at the expense of the entire nation?

An observant indivual concludes  that Obama wants to continue the massive wealth shift into the Middle East. As costs for gasoline and diesel increase, the cost of all goods that have to be transported  food will continue to rise as well. These increased costs, increased failed expenditures and increased wealth transfers to the Middle East will continue to drive down the value of our dollar and decrease the living standards in the United States.

As to federal subsidies; all must end.   It is not the government’s prerogative  to be picking winners and losers in the market place. The only way we have to do that at this time, is to refuse  to increase the debt limit. Holding the line on the debt limit will force Obama to reduce spending on those issues that are not absolutely necessary to the operation of the federal government.