We’ve heard it all before, except now the message has been repackaged to deal with the evolving reality in the Energy Sector. In “fossil fuels”, we have two big success stories: the Shale Revolution and the continued success of domestic oil development. What we didn’t hear much about was rebuilding the economy based on Green Jobs. The new Green Economy had more than a few stumbling blocks (Kaiser/Solyndra and exploding Chevy Volts).
Of course, we heard not a peep about Keystone XL.
I keep circling back to the central irony of the Obama Presidency: Obama could have been the Energy President. Clean, responsible North American energy security is within our grasp, and nothing would jump-start our economy faster than to make that commitment. Think Kennedy/Space Program or Nixon/China: every president since Nixon has promised progress on energy, and now, the president in 2012 is in a position to deliver.
But will he?
It would mean making workable compromises with industry. It might mean giving in on ANWR. It might mean telling the anti-development Luddite environmentalists who have loyally backed him to go pound sand. It might mean acknowledging that we’ve been sold an elitist bill of goods in Global Warming. It might mean backtracking on alternative energy giveaways.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Anyway, back to the State of the Union:
Right now, American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right – eight years. Not only that – last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.
President Obama continues to take credit for the increase in oil production over the last couple of years. The production increase is not due to any Federal policies; it is due to risks taken by private companies, mostly on private lands in North Dakota, South Texas and elsewhere. Were it not for hostile Federal policies in the Gulf of Mexico, production in 2012 might be 500,000 barrels a day higher than is currently expected. Further reading: Shameless White House Takes Credit for Oil Production Increase.
But with only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, oil isn’t enough.
This is at least the third time I’ve heard President Obama revisit The Big Energy Lie™, the notion that the nation’s “Proved Reserves”, at 2% of the world total, represent some kind of limitation on its production capacity. Not true. Our reserves are low because we’ve chosen to import rather than drill at home; it’s our resource potential, and our resolve to help ourselves, that are important. Further reading: The Big Energy Lie, The Big Energy Lie, Revisited.
The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy. And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock – reminding us that Government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.
I have no idea what the President is talking about here. This is my thirty-fourth year in the industry. For a time in the early ’90s, I served as an industry advisor to the Gas Research Institute, which did direct research funds (derived from a small fee on interstate pipelines) to private and university research. In my mind, the major advances in drilling and completion technology happened because of innovations and initiatives on the part of the private sector, and independent oil and gas companies in particular, as opposed to Department of Energy initiatives.
If any reader is aware of DoE research projects that deserve some of the credit for the Shale Revolution, I’d love to learn of it. Federal Production Tax Credits were successful in assisting unconventional gas technologies (see: A Tale of Two Subsidies), but tax credits are not “public research dollars”.
Our experience with shale gas shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don’t always come right away. Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. … I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough. It’s time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs.
Production Tax Credits worked for unconventional gas because it reduced the risk in developing a technology that had the potential of being successful once the credits ended. Alternative energy cannot survive without the credits. Big difference.
“Doubling down” on Solyndra is a sucker’s bet. Putting wind and solar energy on perpetual life support is foolish. At some point, they need to be successful in the marketplace on their own merits, or die.
Favorable cost-recovery tax treatment for oil investments are not “subsidies”. Since 1913, Congresses have seen the value of encouraging domestic oil production, but President Obama would single the industry out for punishment by taking away tax incentives that are common across many industries. Further reading: Obama’s Softheaded Energy Policy (2011 SOTU), SOTU From an Energy Perspective (2010), How Much Will It Cost to Repeal Oil ‘Subsidies’
Cross-posted at My Blog.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Obama calls on NAVY to be GREEN Energy champion...
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, January 25th at 2:16AM EST (link)Wow…. Can’t wait to see the Solar powered Aircraft Carrier… or the Wind powered bases (hope those serving don’t mind being in the dark w/o power when the wind isn’t blowing)…. or that the wind blows the right direction when the launched Glider bombers have to float over our Nation’s enemies in order to drop their bombs…
All kidding aside…. This is more REDISTRIBUTION. Obama now wants to take Defense funds to throw at the next Solyndra boondoggle.
WHAT A MORON-IN-CHIEF!!!!!
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
We Have Some
edintexas Wednesday, January 25th at 11:34AM EST (link)“Green” aircraft carriers, that is. And submarines too. Of course Dear Leader, and the environmentalists I’m sure, doesn’t think nuclear power is “green”. I don’t think of it as “green”, just logical.
Obama calls on NAVY to be GREEN Energy champion...
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, January 25th at 2:16AM EST (link)Wow…. Can’t wait to see the Solar powered Aircraft Carrier… or the Wind powered bases (hope those serving don’t mind being in the dark w/o power when the wind isn’t blowing)…. or that the wind blows the right direction when the launched Glider bombers have to float over our Nation’s enemies in order to drop their bombs…
All kidding aside…. This is more REDISTRIBUTION. Obama now wants to take Defense funds to throw at the next Solyndra boondoggle.
WHAT A MORON-IN-CHIEF!!!!!
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
He's talking about the Navy purchase of "bio-fuels"
bobmark Wednesday, January 25th at 10:47AM EST (link)Which is Green code for ethanol etc. (all heavily subsidized) which anyone who drives knows provide less bang for the buck. Wait and see who get the contracts. More crony capitilism anyone?
http://www.senseandsustainability.net/2011/12/23/whos-buying/
There's no free wind and no free sunshine
Alpip Wednesday, January 25th at 4:13AM EST (link)At least not in any form that can be economically harnessed and turned into work. I’ve written several essays on the so-called “green energy” explosion. Without a major technological breakthrough of some sort, what Obama wants just isn’t going to happen in my lifetime.
The current administration is doing everything in its substantial power to cut off fossil fuel production and if they could, change the laws of physics so as to favor their environmentalist cronys. Even Brazil has dumped Obama in favor of the Chinese as customers for their latest oil finds!
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.
A Crock and a New Scandal
spinoneone Wednesday, January 25th at 8:44AM EST (link)First, the crock: The reference 0 made to shale subsidies refers to the ’60s and ’70s efforts to get oil from shale deposits in Colorado and Utah, which cost a billion or so. Also, in the early ’60s at least three attempts were made to open shale deposits for natural gas production using small nuclear warheads. Sort of worked, but it was expensive and the gas was radioactive. Bummer, dude!
Second, on Keystone XL, it turns out that crony capitalism is very alive and very well at the White House. To wit, the Bloomberg discovery, published on January 23rd, that 0, the White House, and the State Department all knew that stopping Keystone XL would be of direct and important benefit to their good buddy, Warren Buffett. See here for more: www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/buffett-s-burlington-northern-among-winners-in-obama-rejection-of-pipeline.html
On my way to work this morning I was listening to NPR
romeg Wednesday, January 25th at 9:16AM EST (link)(one of my greatest character flaws but, hey, there it is) as they appeared to carefully parse the SOTU and they came to Barry’s claim that energy production is now greater than at any time in the previous 8 years. I waited to hear them point out that despite his attempt to make it appear as if he actually had done anything to contribute to that increase, the he, in fact, had done much to impede that increase. Needless to say, they did not do that. Instead, they simply ratified his claim, confirming the increase but saying nothing to reveal that the increase had occurred as the result of either private enterprise initiatives or of policies put in place under Dubya’s administration.
If you haven’t heard it and are looking for something to wind you up then go to http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDoQjBAwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Fpeople%2F4080709%2Fsteve-inskeep&ei=Yg4gT7KNEe7CsQL_u6nTDg&usg=AFQjCNEzOhUy3dwRG2FAcqrTjvjnandkCg and look for Mr. Inskeep’s broadcast for this morning.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis
Thanks, romeg, but it would interfere with a root canal I'm really looking forward to. nt
Steve Maley (Diary) Wednesday, January 25th at 10:08AM EST (link)|
The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.
I can tell you exactly what living entirely on solar produces
renny (Diary) Wednesday, January 25th at 11:10AM EST (link)produces. In Africa, the Tanzanian Seronera Wildlife Lodge is run entirely on solar. It powers the kitchen, lights, and whatever electricity the hotel needs, and it is dead center in a desert, so it has all sun all the time.
Then, there is no hot water. You take cold showers or none at all. There are no house phones. You get cell service or none at all. Lights are not on all night, and when it is dark, the only thing shining are the stars (or maybe the moon, if it is full). Night where there is no artificial lighting is PITCH DARK. So, that result is likely the BEST solar can do. It is unobstructed, it has total sun availability, and it is not boosted by any other power source.
As to shale natural gas and the feds., the Marcellus shale in PA that is being accessed is all on private properties because the fed. EPA and local PA DOE fought tooth and nail to be keep any exploration off public lands and fought in the courts against even private land mineral tights sales and were defeated by a concerted effort lead by Mt. States Legal Foundation (and supporters) that fights for private property rights throughout the US.
NJ’s Christie has not yet approved fracting (fracturing rock) for our small portion of the Marcellus vein even tho’ in a very tiny area of NJ, but he should change his mind. NJ is equipped with the pipelines, the nat. gas storage, and high proportion of engineers and industry career people available. Due to a lack of total infrastructure, PA cannot sell as much of the gas it is recovering inside PA as could be possible.
The o can brag about increased energy production, but his moratoriums off shore, in the Gulf of Mexico, his curtailment of uranium production on public lands (Salazar, again), his unreasoning support of “green” debacles where tax dollars are essentially thrown away, all are physical evidence that this pres. and his cronies do NOT support domestic energy and do NOT care about its relation to national security and defense.