Energy  by Roger King  

Table on Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Costs
  3. Anti-Energy Actions and Suits
  4. Conclusion

Introduction

Fox News Reports on New Anti-Global Warming Gas Tax Poll  March 20, 2008  The poll, scheduled to be released on Thursday, shows 48 percent don't support paying even a penny more, 28 percent would pay up to 50 cents more, 10 percent would pay more than 50 cents and 8 percent would pay more than a dollar.  Link and   Link

DOE-NETL: Opposition to Coal Will Reduce Electricity Reliability, Harm US Economy   by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory   April 2008   The North America Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has warned that most regions of the country are in dire need of new capacity to ensure safe reserve margins and avoid the high risk of power shortages or a South African-like, electricity supply deficit.   Link

This is an excellent article written in the Washington Times that sums up our pending energy and economic crisis better than anything I have read to date.  Read it and then read it again.

COMMENTARY: Jim Crow energy policies  by Roy Innis  at the Washington Times  May 30, 2008   Energy is the master resource of modern society. It transforms constitutionally protected civil rights into rights we actually enjoy: jobs, homes, transportation, health care and other earmarks of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. With abundant, reliable, affordable energy, much is possible. Without it, hope, opportunity, progress, job creation and civil rights are hobbled.

Laws and policies that restrict access to America's abundant energy drive up the price of fuel and electricity. They cause widespread layoffs and leave workers and families struggling to survive, as the cost of everything they eat, drive, wear and do spirals higher. They roll back the progress for which civil rights revolutionaries like the Rev. Martin Luther King struggled and died.

They create unnecessary obstacles to the natural, justifiable desire of minority Americans to share in the American Dream. They prevent us from resolving conflicts through compromise and impose needless and unfair burdens on our poorest families. These regressive, energy-killing laws and policies deny minority and other poor families a seat at the energy lunch counter and send us to the back of the economic bus.   ...

If we attempt to force a massive switch away from fossil fuels, we will create a Grand-Canyon-sized energy gap between what we need and energy we actually have if its production is delayed, outlawed, restricted or priced out of reach.

Geologists say America's onshore and offshore public lands could contain enough oil to run 60 million cars and heat 25 million homes for 60 years; enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for 160 years; enough coal, uranium and shale oil for centuries of power.

These energy resources belong to all Americans. They are not the private property of activists who insist they never be touched, or citizens who have been bamboozled into thinking they cannot be developed without destroying ecological values.   ...

More than a dozen climate bills are pending in Congress. Hundreds more are pending at the state, county and city level. Unaccountable activists and judges say we must protect polar bears that unreliable computer models say might someday be endangered.

Every proposal requires major reductions in greenhouse gases - many of them by 80 percent below 2005 emissions, a level not seen in these United States since 1909! Every one would give activists, courts and bureaucrats control over virtually any activity that produces greenhouse gases, and every aspect of our lives. Every one would curtail energy use and economic opportunity. Not one would make a serious dent in global CO2 levels or temperatures.   Link

Why "renewables" (solar, geothermal, wind power and biofuels) isn't enough.   Sorry Al.

Al Gore's Doomsday Clock   by Bret Stephens   July 22, 2008   In 1995, the U.S. got about 2.2% of its net electricity generation from "renewable" sources, according to the Energy Information Administration. By 2000, the last full year of the Clinton administration, that percentage had dropped to 2.1%. By contrast, the combined share of coal, petroleum and natural gas rose to 70% from 68% during the same time frame.

Now the share of renewables is up slightly, to about 2.3% as of 2006 (the latest year for which the EIA provides figures). The EIA thinks the use of renewables (minus hydropower) could rise to 201 billion kilowatt hours per year in 2018 from the current 65 billion. But the EIA also projects total net generation in 2018 to be 4.4 trillion kilowatt hours per year. That would put the total share of renewables at just over four percent of our electricity needs.    Link

Saving lives with coal  by Paul Driessen  January 5, 2009   the vast bulk of modern power plant particulates are ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. “Neither substance is harmful, even at levels tens of times greater than are ever found in the air Americans breathe,” Schwartz says.

Costs

America is sending 750 billion dollars a year out of our country to buy oil

Increased Demand and Limited Supplies Drive up Price

  1. With a population 8 times the USA, China and India demand for fuel has skyrocketed as their economies and lifestyles have rapidly increased.  This increased demand has bid up the price for existing barrels of oil.
  2. OPEC has limited oil production which limits supply and again drives up the price per barrel.
  3. By raising taxes on the Oil companies or "seizing their profits" raises the price of fuel.   Although this might seem silly, the companies just raise the price of fuel to the consumer.  This is just another indirect tax on the consumer and particularly the poor which have to spend a greater percentage of their earning for fuel costs.
  4. Government Taxes on a gallon of gas is over twice the profit the oil companies get.
  5. "Eighty-five percent of offshore oil is off-limits." to US oil companies  Link
  6. According to the Department of Energy, U.S. oil production has fallen approximately 40 percent since 1985, while the consumption of oil has grown by more than 30 percent.   Link
  7. From 1990 to 2000, U.S. crude oil demand rapidly accelerated by 7.41 quadrillion BTUs, according to Department of Energy data. And our rate of foreign oil dependency dramatically increased while our domestic oil production steadily declined.  Link

Energy Available in the US

  1. According to government estimates, there is enough oil in areas accessible to America - 112 billion barrels - to power more than 60 million cars for 60 years.   Link

Not allowed to Drill

  1. For the past 31 years, Congress repeatedly prevented us from building any new oil refineries that we now badly need..  Link
  2. More recently, congressional Democrats defeated and discouraged any bill that would let us drill in the deep sea 100 miles out. However, it's somehow OK for China to drill there..  Link
  3. As a further indictment of our Congress, since the 1980s it has continually stopped all building of nuclear power plants while France, Germany and, yes, Japan, plus 12 other major nations, did build plants and now get 20% to 80% of their energy from their wise and safe nuclear plant investments..  Link
  4. Congress ... refuses to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which holds up to 20 billion barrels of crude, or offshore, where another 30 billion await.   Link
  5. The shale proposal went down to defeat with Allard and 13 other Republican members in favor and 15 Democrats opposed. Once again, Democrats were on the wrong side, opting to keep oil in the ground and punish you with higher prices as a result.   Link

Dems and High Oil Prices  by  Patrick Casey   May 13, 2008   Cuba made a huge offshore discovery of oil in 2006, 50 miles or less off the coast of Florida. As it's in Cuban territory, that country has sold off blocks for development to Venezuela and China. Correctly assuming that the United States was best equipped to drill responsibly in that area (thus protecting Florida's coastline), Republicans in Congress introduced the "Western Hemisphere Energy Security Act of 2006", which would have allowed US companies to lease that land in Cuba's territorial waters. The bill was killed before hearings were even held on it.  Link

In Defense of 'Big Oil'  by Cal Thomas  May 13, 2008   President Clinton ... vetoed exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in 1995   Link

Government Subsidies

Wind ($23.37) v. Gas (25 Cents)  May 12, 2008; Page A14  the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent federal agency that tried to quantify government spending on energy production in 2007. The agency reports that the total taxpayer bill was $16.6 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, loan guarantees and the like. 

  1. Ethanol and Biofuels  is subsidized by about twice Solar Energy (Approx $48.70 per megawatt hour)
  2. "Clean Coal"    is subsidized by $29.81 per megawatt hour
  3. Solar energy    is subsidized by $24.34 per megawatt hour
  4. Wind                 is subsidized by $23.37 per megawatt hour
  5. Nuclear Power is subsidized by $1.59 per megawatt hour 
  6. Natural Gas      is subsidized by 25 cents  per megawatt hour
  7. Normal Coal     is subsidized by 44 cents per megawatt hour
  8. Hydroelectric    is subsidized by 67 cents per megawatt hour

A Bleak Future  by Investor's Business Daily  May 29, 2008

  1. Pennsylvania's 11th district, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, is proposing a federal "Reasonable Profits Board." Its members would be charged with determining when oil and gas companies' "profits are in excess."
  2. "This liberal will be all about socializing, uh, uh . . . would be about . . . basically taking over and the government running all of your companies," Rep. Maxine Waters told oil executives on May 22 during yet another show-trial congressional hearing.
  3. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has threatened to seize oil company profits for her political projects
  4. If the energy industry were relieved by Washington of its "excessive" profits, its incentive and means to explore for new sources of energy and develop them would vanish. The only response the market could have is to raise prices to forestall shortages as the supply is drained.
  5. Skeptics who want to check the data need to search no further than the eight-year 1980s run of the energy industry windfall profit tax. During that time, domestic oil output fell to its lowest level in two decades. With domestic companies unable to extract more crude, the country's dependence on foreign sources rose by 8% to 16%, according to the Congressional Research Service.

 

 

Anti-Energy Actions

Legal Battle Ensues Over Kenedy Ranch Wind Farm by Jennifer Bordelon March 20, 2008   Link   In court news, a legal battle over the wind farms being built on Kenedy Ranch has been brought to the attention of Nueces County Commissioners. A local environmental group has filed an injunction in federal court to stop the construction of the wind farm project.   Jim Blackburn, of the Coastal Habitat Alliance, told KRIS 6 News, "We believe it will impact fresh water inflow into the Laguna Madre and cause serious damage and it will also kill a lot of birds."

A New 'Green' Body Count Begins  by Steven Milloy of Fox News | Tuesday, April 22, 2008   The Sierra Club campaigns to shut down our coal-fired electricity capabilities, the Natural Resources Defense Council campaigns to prevent nuclear power from taking its place.  The demise of coal-fired power and the blockage of increased nuclear power will increase the demand for supply constraints on, and the prices for, natural gas.    Link

Why Obama Models Dukakis  by Jeffrey Lord  July 22, 2008  Building nuclear power plants: Here's an AP dispatch from July 9, 2008. 

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- An environmental group has filed a petition with federal regulators, seeking to block Duke Energy Corp.'s plan to build and operate two nuclear reactors near Gaffney, S.C.   In its filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League said the cost to build nuclear power plants and the inherent dangers of operating them outweigh the benefits of increased power generation.   Link

Why Obama Models Dukakis  by Jeffrey Lord  July 22, 2008  Drilling for oil: This story is an Associated Press report from December 2007:
Environmental and Native Alaskan groups asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to block Royal Dutch Shell PLC's plans for exploratory drilling near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.   ...

The attorneys told a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the federal agency failed to adequately consider the impact of Shell's exploratory activities on endangered bowhead whales and other marine mammals."   Link
Why Obama Models Dukakis  by Jeffrey Lord  July 22, 2008  Drilling for natural gas: Here's a July 11, 2008 story from the Denver Business Journal:
Ten environmental groups filed suit in federal court Friday, seeking to block new natural-gas leases on western Colorado's Roan Plateau until federal officials evaluate alternative ways to develop the area's energy resources   Link
Why Obama Models Dukakis  by Jeffrey Lord  July 22, 2008  Mining for oil shale: Here's a May 15, 2008 story from the Rocky Mountain News about the response of U.S. Senate liberals and the Democrat who is Governor of Colorado. Need it be said that Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) is the conservative in this story?
The Senate Appropriations Committee today narrowly defeated Sen. Wayne Allard's attempt to end a moratorium related to oil shale development in Colorado   Link

Problems with Windfall Taxes

Democrats' Windfall Tax — On You   by Investor's Business Daily   May 08, 2008  Congress wants to impose windfall taxes on the "evil" oil  companies.   Senators also want to impose steep penalties on "price gouging" — despite the fact that some 17 separate studies have found it doesn't exist. The plan amounts to little more than an attempt to impose price controls — a socialist tool dressed up in populist garb.  ...

  A nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2006.  It shows that from 1980 to 1986, the last time the U.S. had a windfall profits tax on oil companies, the results were disappointing. As the chart shows, oil companies were hit hard by the tax. And in line with basic economic theory, they produced less oil, not more.

"Over the entire 1980-1986 period," the study said, "the (windfall profits tax) reduced domestic oil production from between 320 million barrels . . . and 1,268 million barrels."  The study also concluded: "The effect of reducing domestic oil production was to increase the level of imported oil."   Link

 

 

Conclusion

Dakota Gas House   by Investor's Business Daily  June 04, 2008   America has gone from 301 refineries in 1982 to less than half that (149).   Link

Fossil Fool   by Investor's Business Daily   July 01, 2008   Even if we tripled our current output from wind, solar and geothermal, they'd produce just 2.2% of our current energy needs.   Link

It's Unwise To Tax 'Well-Earned' Profits  by Margo Thorning   August 25, 2008   A more serious and useful approach for bringing down high energy prices would consist of several steps: