The Keystone pipeline decision shows that politics triumphs over “shovel ready,” real job-creating projects and American energy security. The decision shows that in Obama’s mind, “big green” is more important than energy security. His administration continues to take us down the road to serfdom with its failed fantasies, such as Solyndra solar project, that will deny us the energy to maintain our economy and make us more dependent on sometimes unfriendly foreign sources.

As Warren Meyer writes in Forbes: “Obama made the decision to block the pipeline because of concern over contamination of the Ogallala Reservoir….But local environmental concerns were merely the public pretext for a decision that is much more troubling. Opposition to the pipeline began to rally among radical environmental groups long before any of them had the first clue about the pipeline route. The real goal of these groups was not to protect water along the pipeline route, but to make it impossible to develop new sources of oil in Canada.”

The pattern of obstructing American energy production is seen with the EPA’s regulatory war on electricity production from coal-fired plants, with Interior Secretary Salazar’s withdrawal of uranium resources in northern Arizona, and with its de facto moratorium on off-shore drilling.

I have previously written about how Obama seems clueless on energy (see links below). I wonder, however, whether it is truly a lack of understanding or whether it is a concerted ideological quest to cripple America. The White House website has said, “”We need to deploy American assets, innovation, and technology so that we can safely and responsibly develop more energy here at home and be a leader in the global energy economy.” But action gives the lie to the rhetoric.

See also:

Keystone XL pipeline and the Ogallala aquifer

Obama Clueless on Energy – Part 1

Obama Clueless on Energy – Part 2

Obama administration still clueless on energy

Obama’s April Fools Joke

Politics versus American Energy Security

It looks like crony capitalism is still rampant in the Obama administration.  First there was the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, the now bankrupt maker of solar panels.  Now, according to Investor’s Business Daily, the U.S. is forcing the Navy to buy 450,000 gallons of jet biofuel, the biggest federal purchase of biofuel ever, from an Obama-connected firm at $16 per gallon versus the normal price of less than $4 per gallon.

Investor’s Business Daily says:

A  member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a ‘strategic advisor’ at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy.  Glauthier worked on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill.  Solazyme had already gotten a nearly $22 million chunk of change out of the taxpayers thanks to the 2009 stimulus.

And this is only the beginning of this two-for-one bad deal — swindling taxpayers while ravaging national security. Obama’s Agriculture and Energy departments and Navy plan to spend $510 million over three years buying biofuel for military and commercial purposes, bypassing Congress by “leveraging Defense Department procurement.”

See also:

EIA says Clean Energy program will increase electricity costs 29%

Electricity generated by wind power may raise temperatures and costs

The cost of energy conservation

Another Federal Boondoggle?

One would normally expect that if we use less of a commodity we would pay less.  But in the perverse world of government mandated energy policy, conservation costs us more.

A case in point: As a result of Arizona’s effort to boost renewable energy use and energy efficiency, we are using less natural gas.  That puts Southwest Gas in an bind.  They contend that with lower usage, they are unable to recover fixed costs to provide service.  Southwest Gas and other utilities are therefore urging the Arizona Corporation Commission to allow the utilities to impose a surcharge to gas customers, that is, allow the utilities to “decouple” charges from actual usage.  That policy will, of course, cost ratepayers more.  Not a good incentive for conservation.

We are already paying the cost of renewable energy mandates for electricity.  The Arizona Corporation Commission, in its benighted wisdom, requires electric utilities to produce an increasing percentage of electricity from much more expensive renewable sources due to fear of the phantom menace of global warming.

Tucson Electric Power Company notes that in 2011 it collected an extra $36 million from ratepayers to pay for renewable energy installations (mainly solar), and that in 2012 it expects to collect an extra $44 million in ratepayer money for these projects.

The Arizona Corporation Commission is not serving the public with these policies.  It is mandating that we produce electricity from more expensive and less reliable sources.  To put that in perspective the Energy Information Administration calculated the costs of electricity generation in dollars per megawatthour as follows:

Conventional coal power: $100.40; Natural gas: $83.10; Nuclear: $119.00; Onshore wind power: $149.30; Offshore wind power: $191.10; Thermal solar power: $256.60, Photo-voltaic solar power: $396.10. Note also, that the availability, i.e., the ability to produce electricity on demand, according to EIA, is 85% for coal, 87% for natural gas, 90% for nuclear, but only 34%-39% for wind, and 21%-31% for solar.

I urge the state legislature to take the power of issuing mandates away from the Commission and repeal the renewable energy standards.  That way utilities will be free to seek more efficient and cost effect ways of providing electricity.

See also:

Solar energy cannot economically compete in electricity generation