Posted on 10/31/2011 6:26:24 AM PDT by IbJensen
America has been under attack since Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009. The primary target has been the nation’s ability to generate energy for electricity and transportation, without which this nation will slide into Third World status and economic decline. » If you like this article, please subscribe to our daily newsletter
Oil_Platform_1This appears to be the goal of this administration from the President to his Secretaries of Energy and Interior, to his Director of the Environmental Protection Agency. There is no other rational explanation for what they are doing.
We are days away from the latest Environmental Protection Agency assault in the form of the “MACT” rule allegedly to reduce mercury and other emissions that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says will reduce electricity generation in America by about 81 gigawatts in the years ahead. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial said “this could compromise the reliability of the electric system if as much as 8% of generating capacity is subtracted from the grid.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that eleven Governors have written the EPA to ask that it delay the final rule in November. Twenty-five state Attorneys Generals have filed suit “to lift a legal document known as a consent decree that the EPA is using as a fig leaf for its political goals.”
As but one example, in Illinois, Ameron announced the planned shutdown of its Meredosia and Hutsonville energy centers, The Meredosia center generates 369 megawatts. The Hutsonville center has a generating capacity of 151 megawatts.
The EPA, even before the Obama administration, has been using the 1970 Clean Air Act to bludgeon the nation’s ability to access the energy resources required to generate electricity, primarily coal that provides 50% of such generation, and oil that fuels our transportation capability.
In late October, James J. Mulva, the CEO of Conoco-Phillips, addressed the subject of the growing discoveries of natural gas being found throughout the nation. “More than 600,000 Americans already explore, produce, store and produce natural gas, according to consultancy IHS Global Insight.”
At least 15 states now produce shale gas and others may join them,” noting that the largest shale area, the Marcellus which covers much of the Northeast” “already supports 140,000 jobs in Pennsylvania alone.”
The Obama administration, beginning with the president’s admitted goal of shutting down as much of the coal industry as possible, has demonstrated his intention of deterring the provision of energy. When the BP Oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, the administration imposed a moratorium on all drilling. The decreased production cost 360,000 barrels a day in addition to lost jobs related to oil drilling in the Gulf. Rigs that are needed to drill have since been moved to other sites around the world.
The U.S. is home to more than 150 billion barrels of conventional oil that has the capability of generating thousands of new jobs if access to it was permitted. The most immediate result has been the rise in the cost of gasoline at the pump. Two courts ordered that the moratorium be lifted.
Oil companies currently pay more than $30 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. Meanwhile the Obama administration has been wasting billions in loan guarantees to essentially useless solar and wind power companies, the latest of which, Solyandra, will cost taxpayers millions when the solar panel producer went belly-up. Others will follow.
Meanwhile, the President crisscrosses the nations demanding higher taxes on companies engaged in coal, oil and natural gas. When Jimmy Carter imposed a windfall tax on oil companies many ceased to explore for new sources here, moving their efforts to other nations. Today, by withholding the necessary permits to produce energy in Alaska, the Trans Alaska Pipeline System is operating at one third of its capacity.
A proposed pipeline from Canada still awaits approval and, on November 6th, led by the Sierra Club, the largest protest against its tar sands is expected to draw thousands to Washington, D.C. to join hands and circle the White House to ensure the Keystone XL pipeline is kept from providing the U.S. with the oil extracted. The proposed pipeline would reduce the U.S. dependence on Middle East oil. The U.S. already has more than 50,000 safely operating oil pipelines to support our transportation and other needs.
In January 2010, Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, warned that the Obama administration “continues to embrace Washington-dominated, command-and-control energy policies focused on mandates, subsidies, and political favors—not market forces.” He criticized “subsidizing one form of energy,” wind and solar, “while restricting the exploration of another,” warning that it “will lead to several measurable outcomes, increasing energy prices across the board, fewer jobs, and a weaker footing in the global economy..”
Nearly two years later, that warning has come true with a vengeance.
Oil, coal, or natural gas, it doesn’t matter to an administration and a president determined to restrict the amount of energy Americans need for their present and future needs. The result, in part, has been a stalled energy sector and a contributing factor in an economy with an estimated 20 million unemployed or under-employed.
The losses in income taxes and the taxes paid by this industry sector, in addition to the hideous borrowing and spending by the Obama administration is doing enormous harm to America and yet Barack Obama wants a second term in office.
Little wonder that Americans fear for the future of the nation.
Spin or not, there is absolutely no denying that the Obama administration has taken steps that have the effect of restricting domestic supplies of energy. This is hurting our economy and our national security.
The idea is to run the debt up higher and higher to kill the country.
The debt obligation that this country has committed to is 20 times the total money supply. Sleep well with that info.
Your assessment is accurate as far as I can tell. I do some contract work (voice & data)in PA for a major player headquartered in Texas. They've recently hired a few locals but it's still mostly TX & LA workers. Nice people and they pay well but few locals.
Crash the system, crash the economy, generate civil unrest, usher in socialism/communism,
THEN re-open domestic energy supplies, but under control of “the party”, so that only the “right people” have access to energy.
Contrast the Marcellus Shale region with the Williston Basin in North Dakota. In the wake of the oil/shale gas operations the latter is booming, both with respect to population and economic enterprise. In contrast, environmentalists, state and local entities have fought activity in the Marcellus from the beginning.
The great difficulty these days is locating the rigs needed for horizontal shale drilling. As Marcellus screws around, the drillers go to the Eagleford in Texas, the Niobrara in the Rockies and the Williston Basin. For the moment, Marcellus sucks hindteat; while the market is enormous, it has many obstacles still to overcome.
More rigs operating than any time in the last 10 years...the price of oil helps.
You are starting to see less activity in shale gas plays just due to the MCF price and storage issues.
The next administration should kill the alternative energy business in its tracks, just pull the massive loans and subsidies and it will collapse like a cheap suitcase.
Energy Subsidies
According to the Dept of Energy
• natural gas - 25 cents per megawatt hour of electricity produced
• Coal - 44 cents per megawatt hour
• Nuclear $1.59 per megawatt hour
• Wind Energy $23.37 per megawatt hour
• Solar Energy $24.34 per megawatt hour
• Biofuels $1.78 per gal
These numbers do not include the additional subsidies we taxpayers have been compelled to pay for wind, solar and biofuels through the stimulus plan
“crash the economy”
In New York State, according to a solar energy calculator, a Solar Panel Installation costing $44,055 will be funded by $30,466, (69%) of governmental grants and tax benefits; $13,216 in Federal Tax credits and $17,250 in state grants and tax credits...Your tax money and/or increased debt.
And that’s not counting the annual subsidies the utilities’ customers have to pay for to provide service to the solar panel people.
If the EPA isn't dismantled or defunded when the Conservatives win in 2012, there will be suffering and misery unlike anything seen since the middle ages.
Those responsible for these foolish and heinous anti-civilisation laws must hate their own children to advocate such miserable draconian regulations!
All trick and no treat from the EPA this year!
I believe that you are making a disingenuous argument. The amount of equipment and people available to exploit domestic energy supplies is variable depending on the amount of capital invested. With the Obama administration creating an uncertain environment for our domestic energy industries largely by misusing regulatory agencies such as the EPA... they are restricting the amount of capital invested in domestic energy production.
Where’s Obama gonna get the electricity for his Government Motors Volt? The dolts in the White House make people believe these plugin cars don’t cost anything to operate. I’ve never seen the cost to operate one of these grid guzzlers.
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