Energy & Environment
Energy fuels any economy; access to affordable, abundant and reliable energy was always key to America’s dynamism, innovation and standard of living that was the envy of the world. On a global scale, wealthier is healthier -- disease, drudgery and infant mortality are among the many scourges eroded by abundant energy -- and wealthier is cleaner. Abundant energy drives all of this and, in the global economy, afforded the U.S. a competitive edge. American policies long recognized and sought to continue these truths.
America possesses the largest combined gas, coal and oil reserves of any nation in the world. Amid our prosperity, some began disparaging this blessing of resources as a curse to be controlled. Pro-abundance policies gave way to policies seeking to impose scarcity. This is now accelerating and must be stopped and reversed to avoid decline and human suffering, and then replaced with pro-abundance policies reviving America’s economy with a cost-free stimulus that liberates, as opposed to dictates.
With so many taxpayer-financed ‘busts,’ from politicians and bureaucrats pretending to dictate that unproven, unready and sometimes utterly unrealistic energy sources will work, the coming policy debate must recognize we have the choice of an energy boom.
Facts about energy and the economy:
- Economic downturns are typically preceded by energy price spikes;
- Businesses pass on increased costs, until they can’t, then they leave;
- Social costs of increased energy costs -- job loss, economic slowdown, fuel poverty.
Of all sectors of a free economy the energy sector should not be viewed and centrally planned as a jobs program, yet that is now the norm; we are told it is a virtue to require more workers per unit of energy, making energy more expensive, killing far more jobs.
Liberating the energy sources that work, and that are economic -- rather than trying to force those into the market that require mandate, coercion and particularly policies disabling those that work -- would create an American economic boom, in two ways:
- Energy production jobs, and those downstream, are economically ‘sustainable’
- More affordable energy helps an economy grow, more expensive energy hurts
North Dakota, where massive recent energy finds and development reside on or below private land -- and are therefore free of many restrictions aimed at keeping resources untapped -- is a boom state in the current economic downturn.
This could be repeated throughout our energy-rich country, with centuries of resources.
Countries that the current administration used to cite as its model for America’s energy policies are indeed examples, demonstrating the real threat of these failed experiments:
- These countries face crushing debt burdens due to the massive subsidies required to artificially create industries which cannot survive on their merits;
- These countries lost jobs -- including many of their once-trademark ‘renewable’ industry jobs -- to countries that do not impose energy-scarcity policies;
- These countries proved that coercive energy policies, despite their enormous per-job cost and the resulting massive debt, are difficult to undo once the constituencies demanding they continue are artificially created - living the reality, they are all scaling back that which we are accelerating;
- They are no longer touted as success stories; now we are told look to China.
China, however, knows ‘green’ economics: they make solar panels to sell them to other countries; they’re paid to install windmills under Kyoto; and they massively deploy traditional energy sources to drive their growing economy.
It is a choice between sources requiring more wealth than they create, or create more wealth than they require; that is, between economic drain and economic growth.
It is equal parts critical that we a) avoid repeating these mistakes, by halting the vowed ‘Spanish model’ here before it is too late; b) stop the war on American energy sources that are products of performance, not politics; and c) reverse the encroaching decline with policies liberating domestic production of that which is proven to work, not unsustainably propping up that which doesn’t, hoping it will or insisting that it should.
This requires regulatory moratoria and reversal, Executive Order, and statutory change.
News & Articles
Texans Are Baffled by the Keystone Decision
Unfortunately, it's bad news for Americans, particularly when you consider that one of the main reasons China has become such an attractive market to Canada was President Obama's recent rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline. This cross-border connection would have provided a golden opportunity to partner with our neighbors to the north in producing massive amounts of energy, both for our country and the globe.
Where Will America's Energy Come From in 2035?
Fake! Fake! Fake! Fake!
Here I am using the word "fake" as an adjective, and not as a verb. I mean to say that the scientific conclusions derived from such temperatures are not real, but I don't imply that the values themselves have been purposefully altered or adjusted. We simply don't have any information to support such an accusation.
$100,000 electric cars recalled over fire risk
Fisker Automotive is recalling its 2012 Karma because of a potential coolant leak.
The plug-in hybrid cars cost about $100,000. Fisker has sold about 50 of them and says 1,200 more are in production or waiting to be sold.
Improperly installed hose clamps in the car's battery pack could cause coolant to leak, which could start a fire. Fisker says no incidents have been reported by customers or retailers.
America's Massive Energy Potential Awaits, Mr. President
For decades, activists have been trying to convince the American people that declining resources would forever make us dependent on expensive foreign oil. But according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) on North America’s energy resources, that line of thinking is flat-out false. Based on the latest official statistics, domestic oil, natural gas, and coal deposits are much more extensive than commonly realized.
The real problem is that much of our resources are not being developed because of antiquated, heavy-handed government regulations. As a consequence, the American economy is being deprived of significant job creation and new investments.
Rebuttal to “The Wonky Liberal”
In his December 6th article “The Wonky Liberal”, David Brooks pushes the Obama administration’s mantra that regulations “are not tanking the economy.” I simply cannot understand how anyone can continue to issue such blanket denials when so much of the evidence points to the contrary.
America's New Energy Security
No longer. U.S. petroleum imports, on a net basis, reached their peak—60%—of domestic consumption in 2005. Since then, they have been going in the other direction. They are now down to 46%.
BOOK REVIEW: The Delinquent Teenager who was Mistaken for the World’s Top Climate Expert
THE Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World’s Top Climate Expert is a book about climate change and the claimed thoroughness of the reports issued by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "The science is settled"; "95% of world scientists agree"; "the time for discussion is over".
Such expressions dominate debate on climate change. The font of wisdom from which these assertions emanate is the IPCC, whose job it is to survey the scientific literature and to issue reports for the guidance of governments in formulating climate change policy.
Shale gas will support 870,000 jobs by 2015, study says
The study said in 2010, the shale gas industry supported more than 600,00 U.S. jobs, and by 2015, it will support 870,000 jobs. By 2035, the industry is expected to support 1.6 million jobs.
Big Oil Heads Back Home
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 in rich, developed countries—a shift that could have profound implications for the industry, global politics and consumers.
The End of Climategate?
New data on global temperature trends sheds light on the 2009 climate change scandal.
Climategate erupted into public with the release in November 2009 of thousands of emails sent to and from researchers associated with the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. It became a scandal because some of the emails seemed to suggest that prominent climate researchers may have fiddled with historical climate data with the goal of making recent increases in global average temperature look worse than it is.
Greens Occupy Wall Street, Indeed
So the trumpeted migration by green groups to join in solidarity with the anti-capitalist protests — which I’ve already noted was no such thing, given that the Greens and Wall Street agreed to occupy each other years ago in a Baptists-and-Bootleggers alliance promoting the global warming agenda — is even less an event than I supposed.
Solar3D CEO Says Government's Installation Subsidies Are Hurting Innovation
By the end of the year the solar industry will get a another dimension when Solar3D, led by CEO Jim Nelson, introduces its “three-dimensional” crystalline silicon prototype. The design aims to increase efficiency by reducing the amount of energy lost when sunlight is reflected off the solar cell or absorbed into the material before reaching the contact wires.
Oil Price Shocks and the Recession of 2011?
Ten of the last 11 recessions were preceded by oil price hikes.
Oil prices surged to near $107 per barrel yesterday and regular gasoline is going for $3.51 per gallon. Last March oil sold for around $80 per barrel and gas cost about $2.79 per gallon. The uprisings throughout the Middle East are in part responsible for the recent uptick in prices. For example, the fighting in Libya has reduced global oil production by about one million barrels per day. On the other hand, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are boosting their output by a similar amount to make up for the shortfall. Democrats in Congress are calling upon President Barack Obama to damp down prices by selling off oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.