From the Thomas J. Pyle, President of the Institute for Energy Research:
The President’s efforts to “make electricity prices necessarily skyrocket” failed with cap-and-trade; his decision to lock up natural resources in the Gulf Coast was met with resounding opposition; his Administration’s threats to use the EPA to target the forms of affordable, reliable energy they dislike have been met with nothing but dismay; the ever-increasing subsidies for unproven, unreliable, expensive wind and solar are widely decried as examples abound of similar policies’ failure in Europe. But, instead of changing direction on his failed energy approach, the President has changed nothing.
“The President continues to talk about how America needs to become more competitive. But his Administration’s plans do nothing but hurt our ability to compete. We don’t have a competitiveness problem, an innovation problem, or a resource availability problem; we have a government problem.
“We have the ability to produce nuclear, but can’t get a permit to build a plant. We have the world’s largest coal supplies, but the Administration is halting construction on even the cleanest plants. We have vast resources offshore, but 97 percent of our ocean energy lands are not least for oil and gas production. We have enough oil shale to free us from any imports, but his Administration stopped development. If the President and his government will just get out of the way, our energy problems might not be solved, but it’d certainly be an improvement.
Amen.
But most impressively, Mr Pyle issued the statement while casually pouring crude oil over water fowl, just because he could.
*****
“Competitive.” Hah. Even the WayLeft Greens understand how wacked-up and stifling the bureaucratic-political complex has gotten:
CASTEN: Bruce, the technology is very old and it’s the same technology that the power plants use. We basically use the heat to boil water and make steam, we use the steam to drive a turbine, which is the same thing that every nuclear, coal or gas plant does, and the turbine drives an electric generator. The only difference is they burn fuel and release emissions and we don’t. The plants that we build don’t use any fossil fuel. They simply recycle the waste energy out of these stacks you’ve described or other forms of waste energy, and greatly improve the energy productivity…….Electric generation inefficiency is the elephant in the room. Everybody assumes that the electric just is where it is. But it accounts for 46 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions. It’s the only industry that’s subject to monopoly protection. It’s subject to more regulation than anything else and the rules, quite frankly, were designed for yesterday’s technology and yesterday’s reality.
GELLERMAN: So what one rule, on the federal level, would you like to see change?
CASTEN: The federal Clean Air Act makes improving energy productivity effectively illegal. Once you have a permit for a plant, if you modify it to make it better you lose your permit and you have to go back in and get a new permit based on the latest possible technology. And this has frozen the efficiency of all of our heat and power plants since 1976. It is a disastrous rule. We make energy productivity illegal in the largest industry in the country.
GELLERMAN: So if you could change one state rule – you’re in Illinois – what would it be?
CASTEN: Each state gives monopoly protection to the distribution and often the generation of electricity. So this giant industry is not subject to competition like everybody else. What is the most important question in energy? Why has electric generation not improved since Eisenhower? And I believe it hasn’t improved for two reasons: number one, it’s protected from competition by each state; and number two, the federal approach to clean air makes improving efficiency illegal. That’s bad news. But the good news is, those rules were made by human beings. They can be changed. So we change the rules, and we’ll have a little economic boom on our hands.
D’oh. I meant to type “bureaucratic-regulatory complex.”
I sometimes pour some estate olive oil over grilled fowl.
Because I can.
Obama is an asshole. And what makes him an asshole, is also what makes him an idiot. Ride it out.