Gore To Congresswoman: If You Think It’s About Greed, “You Don’t Know Me”
Is Rep. Barton (R-TX) Confused by Plate Tectonics?
The nonsense coming out of Congress lately on climate and energy policy continued on Wednesday when Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, apparently failed to grasp the concept of plate tectonics in a hearing with Energy Secretary (and Nobel Prize in Physics recipient) Steven Chu.
Congressman Barton, after an exchange (copied below) with Secretary Chu, sent out a twitter message stating:
Tweet 1: Participating n climate change hearing. I asked energy secretary where oil in alaska came from. answer puzzles-from continental plate shift
Tweet 2: I seemed to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question – Where does oil come from? Check out the video: http://bit.ly/O4m0p #tcot
Here is a video of the testimony. While Barton is right that Chu was baffled, it seems to have more to do with the inanity of his question rather than its complexity.
And a transcript:
Barton: Dr. Chu, I don’t wanna leave you out, you’re our… you’re our scientist. I have one simple question for you in the last six seconds. How did all the oil and gas get to Alaska and under the Arctic Ocean?
Chu: [Nervous-sounding laughter] This is… this is a complicated story, but, but oil and gas is the result of hundreds of millions of years of geology, and in that time also the plates have moved around, and so it’s the combination of where the sources of the oil and gas are…
Barton (interrupting): Well, I mean, isn’t it obvious that at one time it was a lot warmer in Alaska and on the north pole? It wasn’t a big pipeline that we created in Texas and shipped it up there and put it underground so we could now pump it out and ship it back.
Chu: No. There are… there’s continental plates that have been drifting around throughout the geological ages…
Barton (interrupting): So it just drifted up there?
Chu: That’s certainly what happened. And so it’s the result of things like that.
Transcripts via ScienceBlogs
Congressman: God Decides When ‘The Earth Will End’
This clip shows Congressman John Shimkus’s (R-Ill) introductory remarks at a House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing last week.
Democrats to Propose Greenhouse Gas Emissions Bill
House Democrats will propose a new bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday. The legislation, co-sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the panel’s Energy and Environment Subcommittee, aims to cut emissions by 20% from 2005 levels by 2020 and to increase energy efficiency in order to reduce electricity demand by 15% by 2020. The bill targets an overall 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.
Although Democrats have a majority, any emissions bill is expected to face a tough road given the current economic situation and political opposition. Even Sen. McCain, who was an early supporter of cap-and-trade recently described current proposals derisively as “cap-and-tax“. Additionally, Congresspeople from large coal producing states will likely oppose any emissions legislation across party-lines. Whether the U.S. can put together a meaningful greenhouse gas bill this year will be key to the success or failure of the international climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen in December of this year.
U.S. Offers $535 Million Loan Guarantee to Solar Panel Manufacturer
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced on Friday that the federal government would be offering a $535 million loan guarantee to solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. The California based company will use the funds to widely expand its photovoltaic panel manufacturing capacity.
The loan guarantee is the first to be offered under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. During the Bush Administration the program was bogged down by Energy Department bureaucracy, as well as congressional foot dragging.
The money for this loan guarantee comes from appropriations from the Obama stimulus package. “The leadership and actions of President Barack Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the U.S. Congress were instrumental in concluding this offer for a loan guarantee,” said Solyndra CEO and founder, Dr. Chris Gronet.
Solyndra’s new facilities will eventually produce solar panels capable of producing 500 megawatts a year.
Hybrid Sales Fall Precipitously as Gas Prices Remain Low
Not surprisingly, as gas prices have fallen in recent months, so have sales of hybrid vehicles. In February, only 15,144 hybrids sold in America, down two-thirds from last April, when sales for that segment peaked (and gas was an average of $3.57 a gallon). While auto sales across the board have fallen dramatically as a result of the economic situation, the drop in hybrids has been even more precipitous.
Two main lessons can be learned from this situation, with the most obvious being that the higher gas costs, the more consumers will purchase efficient vehicles. But the second lesson, which is less apparent, is that as Congress forces automakers to build more alternative fuel cars as a condition of the bailouts, it is putting these companies in a new bind– since consumers don’t want to purchase these efficient vehicles while gas is reasonably cheap.
Apparently, the only entity that is more out-of-touch with the American consumer than the domestic automakers is Congress. By forcing automakers to build efficient cars while gas prices hover around $2, Congress could be setting the stage for another domestic auto industry crash in the coming years.
Of course, this could all be solved by just following the number one lesson above– and dramatically increasing the federal gasoline tax so that consumer (and industry) behavior changes permanently. But Congress, like the automakers, rarely makes the right strategic decision.
House Subcommittee to Look at Offshore Drilling
The NY Times (via Greenwire) reports that on Tuesday:
The [House] Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee will hold the latest in a series of hearings on petroleum development on the outer continental shelf, or OCS, that will feature an official with the Minerals Management Service, Interior’s acting inspector general and a Government Accountability Office expert.
The House hearing is expected to explore allegations that oil companies are failing to produce energy from tens of millions of acres of existing leases on federal lands and waters even as the industry is pressing for new areas to be made available, among other OCS drilling issues.
President Obama’s 2010 budget addresses some of these concerns by calling for:
several changes, including new fees on nonproducing Gulf of Mexico leases, part of a “use it or lose it” strategy Democrats say is needed to encourage production from acreage already offered for leasing.
Proposed Legislation Would Speed Up Permitting Process for Transmission Lines
Targeting a major hurdle in the wide scale development of renewable energy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a bill last week that would give the federal government the authority to fast-track permits for new transmission lines.
The proposal is contained in the Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act, which would provide the regulatory framework to develop a national grid that is capable of transmitting renewable energy from remote locations such as the Desert Southwest and Great Plains to the country’s population centers, often thousands of miles away. Streamlining the permitting process for new transmission lines will be key if we are to achieve President Obama’s plan to produce 25% of the nation’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
Senate Committee Conducts Hearing on Smart Grid Technology
A hearing on smart grid technology in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee took place on Tuesday. The hearing focused on how government funding is being used and what type of interoperability standards are being implemented in the roll-out of a national smart grid.
Some of the specific issues included how to address cyber security concerns that smart grid communications create and how to promote common software communications throughout the industry. Additionally, it was noted that a key to effective smart grid technology is the ability to offset inconsistent electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar. An effective smart grid needs to efficiently communicate dips in power from one energy source and replace it with power from other sources.
Senate to Examine Smart Grid Technology
Even though Congress recently approved $11 billion for it in the stimulus bill, many are still unclear as to what smart grid technology really entails. As a result, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will take up this issue in a hearing on Tuesday.
“Clearly, everyone agrees we should do more,” Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said, “but we know we have to get down to the details of what does that mean.”
Witnesses at the hearing will range from the Department of Energy to Google. As we noted recently, Google has jumped head-on into the smart grid debate by strongly advocating the use of open standards and protocols for all smart grid technologies that are funded by the government.
Commission Recommends Increasing Gas Tax and Paying Per Mile
A congressional commission released a report on Thursday calling for a 10 cent per gallon increase in the federal gas tax, as well as transitioning to a system by which motorists are charged for how much they drive, rather than how much gas they consume.
The bipartisan National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission noted that the current 18.4 cent per gallon gas tax is too small and unsustainable to support necessary transportation infrastructure projects. Since concerns about climate change and dependency on foreign oil are motivating consumers to move towards more fuel efficient vehicles, the commission predicted that gas tax revenues will continue to be insufficient in the future. As a result, the commission proposed that the country move to a system of charging motorists for how much they drive, rather than how much gas they consume.
While this plan would more accurately connect the amount drivers’ pay for transportation infrastructure to the amount they actually use that infrastructure, it would do relatively little to discourage increased gas consumption and consequential emissions. However, in fairness to the committee, it is their duty to figure out how to pay for infrastructure, not how to fight climate change.
Sen. Reid Proposes to Rapidly Grow Transmission Lines
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced on Monday that he will introduce legislation this week to redevelop the nation’s electric transmission lines. Reid made the announcement while attending the National Clean Energy Project with other green giants like Al Gore, T. Boone Pickens, and Bill Clinton.
The intent of the bill is to make it easier to carry renewable energy from the remote areas where renewable energy is often generated to the urban population centers.
“My legislation will require the President to designate renewable energy zones with significant clean energy generating potential. Then, a massive planning effort will begin in all the interconnection areas of the country to maximize the use of that renewable potential by building new transmission capacity. If that process falters, then the federal government would be given clear authority to keep it going and get that new transmission built on schedule,” Reid said.
Stimulating Renewable Energy…
The massive $787 billion stimulus bill was signed into law on Tuesday and people are beginning to digest what was inside it. According to Recovery.gov, in general, the bill is allocated in the following manner:
- Tax Relief $288 billion
- State and Local Fiscal Relief $144 billion
- Infrastructure and Science $111 billion
- Protecting the Vulnerable $81 billion
- Health Care $59 billion
- Education and Training $53 billion
- Energy $43 billion
- Other $8 billion
Of course what is of interest to us is the $43 billion allocated for energy. With $22 billion in tax relief also going towards energy, the total investment in energy is actually $65 billion. This stimulus money allocated for energy is broken-down as follows: READ MORE
Smart Grid Provisions of Stimulus Bill Stir Debate
As Congress prepares to direct $4.5 billion from the stimulus package to smart grid and smart meter technologies, a debate is raging over the criteria to be placed on the funds. The current version of the House bill says that in order to receive funds, the smart technologies must use Internet-based networking standards or other open protocols and standards (if available and appropriate).
If enacted, this requirement will permit utilities to mix and match equipment from a variety of manufacturers, instead of being tied to just one proprietary technology. While this is probably an overly simplistic analogy, it brings to mind the difference between being able to use a standard electric charger for all cell phones, or being forced to buy a new one every time you get a new phone. It seems superficially, that having a more open and standardized protocol for our nation’s smart grid makes sense.
However, without a technical understanding of the state of this industry, it is hard for us to intelligently opine on which is the best course. Either way, it is important that we keep in mind that the goal of the bill is not to ensure that every company has equal footing going forward– but is to do what’s best for our electricity grid. As long as that goal is kept in mind in drafting the final legislation, we are agnostic as to which specific criteria is set.
Pickens: Oil to Hit $75 by End of Year
T. Boone Pickens predicted on Monday that oil prices would be back above $60 per barrel within two months and at $75 by the end of the year. Pickens is not alone in his anticipation of a future oil spike, as he is joined by both oil traders who have been buying up oil to be sold in the future, as well as history, which dictates that although oil may go down, it always comes back up.
“We got a break here, a little bit of breather, but within 60 days we’ll be back up to $60 oil and by end of year we’ll be on our way … at $75,” Pickens noted.
Of course, Obama has warned that we need to avoid falling into the regular shock and trance cycle with oil prices, and hopefully Congress will send him an energy package that substantively addresses this classic problem.
