Energy Independence-Politics & More

The spectacular oil fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond California, was still burning as cadres of lawyers blanketed the surrounding communities.   Wherever plumes of smoke drifted, you could find a lawyer knocking on doors and handing out cards.

 As I watched the spectacle on nationwide TV and web news, it brought me back to the time when a minor bus accident occurred in San Francisco. The bus with no more than 15 passengers on it had a minor collision with a car.  As the passengers exited the disabled bus, they mingled with pedestrians on the sidewalk.  Pretty soon ambulances were dispatched to the scene and over 40 bus “passengers” were taken to local hospitals with assorted neck and back pains.

 

Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America(UMWA),  spent some time with us discussing issues affecting his members.  This was right on the heels of  Patriot Coal Company announcing it was filing for bankruptcy protection.  Patriot is one of the largest producers of coal in the US and is one of the largest employers of UMWA members. Patriot is the first major casualty in President Obama’s war on coal.

UMWA has a membership of 100,000  and is affiliated with the  AFL/CIO.  They have a rich history in fighting for the protection of workers health and safety, in a dangerous occupation.  They have brought dignity and honorable wages to generations of workers who supply our country with its main source for electrical energy.

The recent storms that plowed through the east caused widespread power outages.  They are offering us an example of what it is like to have a society without electricity. To make matters worse, the outages are occurring during record heat, compounding the misery of millions of Americans.   But if this was happening during winter under record cold, it could be disastrous.

When you realize how much we take for granted such simple tasks as keeping the food in your refrigerator cool, operating your air conditioner, turning on the street lights, operating the electric fuel pumps at the gasoline station…Or charging your electric car, we are dependent on power.

Estimates for restoring power to the many millions without, range from a few hours to over a week. 

During past major power outages affecting America, statisticians have pointed out a spike in birth rates 9 months later, showing that television and electronics have a  birth control quality about them….Will 0bamacare show it’s value by focusing in like a laser beam on women’s contraception?  Time will tell.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been waging war on our nations sources of energy.  Since the beginning of the Obama administration, this war has escalated with the appointment of far left activists who are committed to getting us off of “fossil” fuels as a source of energy and replacing them with so called “renewables” of solar-wind.

Of course if past performance of “renewables” is any indication of future performance, the current power outages in the east are a good indicator of what’s in store for us.  How would windmills fare under the assault of hurricane force winds, or even strong erratic winds?  Here’s what’s happening to some in the UK:

Wrecked by gales again as wind farms get 300,000 to switch off….. in high winds

Recent EPA rulings and regulations will force many energy producing coal fired plants out of business.  These plants cannot afford the drastically expensive retro fitting the EPA is forcing upon them and will drop from the power grid. It’s not going to take many of these coal fired plants to drop off line before we see problems with energy delivery.

Video shows how cheap and abundant energy brings prosperity to the world

Gas fired power plants are being hailed as a good replacement for coal plants, but these are also “fossil” fuel and deep down there is resentment against this power source as well.

Time will tell what our brave new energy future will be under the guidance of the EPA.  Many people think expensive energy and energy shortages will be the norm.

Americas reliable energy resources are being attacked on all levels.  When was the last time a nuclear power plant was built in America?  Even hydro electric dams are under assault & being torn down in the name of environmentalism.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he would like to see our gasoline prices the same as Europeans.  Of course  environmentalists on the left have been waging war on coal, oil and gas for years.

This mindset couldn’t have been any more apparent when I was attacked for writing a column about governments  war on coal

An environmentalist had his simplistic answer to my column on the war on coal. He just claimed that “coal kills” and people needed to revert to a simpler lifestyle,  use less energy and make that energy “green”.  He bragged how he used wood to heat his home, along with wind and solar.  He tried to stay “off the grid” as much as possible, in the rural lifestyle he enjoys.  Of course on further questioning, he did admit to the use of “auxiliary power” in order to supplement his off the grid lifestyle for cooking and refrigeration.

He suggested people move out of cities to get closer to nature and live off the grid.  It was certainly interesting listening to him with his simple answer to stave off the pending “climate crisis” and save the world….All of the simple answers without thinking about the consequences to society.  In Washington,  that same mindset of government planners who know what’s best for us is on vivid display. They are not afraid to let reason stand in the way of their Utopian plan.  Their plan will, like in the movie, take us “back to the future”

For the millions of people who don’t have access to firewood, or govt subsidized solar, or wind systems to supplement their power needs, there is still the need for plentiful cheap power.

The world has seen other Utopian dreamers in the past.  China’s Premiere, Mao, ordered his “great leap forward” to modernize China.  Reports are that over 60 million people died of exposure and starvation in 4 years.

Americas engine of prosperity is powered by cheap and nowadays relatively clean energy, this is the backbone of American might. We are still a great manufacturing country in spite of  inroads by other countries.  But our new high tech information age, is requiring the use of even more power.

Companies such as Google and Apple use the power equivalent of small cities in order to keep their data centers providing vast amounts of information.  Many of these power hungry companies, although waving the “green banner,”  are quietly moving their data centers,  to other states that have lower cost electricity powered by coal.

We have already seen a great migration of American companies to foreign shores, due to lower labor costs, less taxation and far less regulation.  How long will it be before the next impetus for Corporations to leave our shores is due to high energy prices? President Obama already said his policies would necessarily make our utility prices skyrocket?  I believe he was telling the truth

I asked Janet Gellici,  the CEO of the American Coal Council, to give me an idea of  the assault her sector of energy producers was under by the Obama administration:

She said “The Obama Administration’s intent has been to increase the cost of coal in an attempt to level the playing field for more expensive energy resources, i.e., renewables.  They have been doing this primarily through excessive regulation of coal utilities and coal producers ~ in the process of attempting to bankrupt the coal industry, he’s contributing to the economic demise of our country”.

The bulk of our electrical energy production is from coal and natural gas, with nuclear and hydro electric farther down the line.  “Renewables” such as wind and solar, provide a tiny fraction of Americas energy needs in spite of billions thrown at them by the social engineers in Washington DC.

The free market has a way of determining winners and losers, in spite of government meddling.  Let the energy industry compete to determine what the cheapest & cleanest source of energy will be. Due to private sector technological advances, we have abundance of natural gas.  We also have an abundance of cheap coal reserves that can fulfill our energy needs for hundreds of years.

Innovations in the clean burning of gas, coal and oil have made remarkable advances in recent years, to the point that when you look at a modern coal fired power plant, it is hard to tell whether it is on or not.  Let’s use our ingenuity to find even cleaner and more efficient ways to use our energy natural resources.  Lets encourage these industries instead of punish them.  After all,  if our energy prices “necessarily skyrocket” many of us might be forced to “live off the grid.” and we all might end up “back to the future.”

The new EPA rulings will finally bring to fruition President Obama’s promise his policies will necessarily bankrupt the coal industry.

Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama explained his anti-coal energy policy in an editorial board meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle: “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad.”  “So if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can – it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”

But the 2010 elections saw a landslide defeat of those politicians in the house and senate who supported skyrocketing our utility rates through cap and trade and put an end to President Obama’s aspirations in a new energy tax.

But that didn’t put an end of efforts to kill the coal industry and the day after the landslide defeats of the 2010 elections, President Obama said  “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way. It was a means, not an end. I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”

After that the EPA began to enact regulation by bureaucratic fiat rather than the legislative process.

Even staunch supporters in the labor unions are beginning to wake up to the fact that they are being regulated out of a job if the Obama administration has its way.  The Keystone Pipeline rejection already has hit the labor unions hard by halting the creation of 20K plus jobs in the construction industry.

But the heart and soul of Americas labor movement is in the roots of the coal industry and this is where the new EPA regulations will hit the hardest.   Cecil Roberts, President of the powerful United Mine Workers of America said recently in a radio interview:

“The Navy SEALs shot Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and Lisa Jackson shot us in Washington.”

Roberts blasted Jackson, the EPA administrator, over proposed regulations, which would limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. Opponents of the regulations, including Roberts, say the new rules would be the death knell of the coal industry.

Roberts wrote in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette::

“We told EPA that as many as 54,000 direct jobs were at risk in the utility, mining and rail transport sectors, in addition to 200,000 jobs in related industries and communities impacted by plant closures.


We also made it clear that we supported the rule’s basic objective of reducing mercury and other harmful emissions. Our principal concerns were the inadequate time provided for compliance and the feasibility of meeting some of the proposed emission limits with different types of coal.


But the EPA ignored our concerns. Instead, the agency created a rule that not only will cause far more negative effects on the utility and coal industries than it is willing to admit; the rule will also make it next to impossible for new coal-fired power plants to be built based on current technologies. The consequences for workers and communities would be devastating.”

Of course these regulations are done to stave off “Global Warming-morphed into Climate Change”, which is not at all a settled science and is hotly disputed in scientific circles. Wouldn’t it be wise to have settled scientific confirmation and consensus on a subject before you kill off an industry your economy depends on? Shouldn’t the closure of an industry in a representational democracy like the United States be done through legislative process, rather than behind the scenes, clever use of regulation?

Someday, in the not too distant future at this rate,  Americans will flick on their light switch and nothing will happen.  The mercury laden corkscrew light bulb made in China, will not have any power to turn it on because the last coal fired power plant will have been shut down. Government master planners forgot to note that at night, when there is no sun or wind, the wind and solar power generators cannot produce electricity.

Leaks out of Hillary Clinton’s State Department suggest they will reject the rerouting of the Keystone Pipeline, which means the pipeline project itself is rejected. This important conduit of new energy would have brought Canada’s tar sands oil directly down to US refineries efficiently and safely by pipeline, rather than rail, barge or truck. Ironically the pipeline would be a much more environmentally safe way to transport oil, if it is brought down to the US.

The proposed route would have bypassed the Ogallala aquifer, this removed one of the main environmental objections in the first place. Foes had said the chances of leakage by the pipeline could have tainted water supplies for millions. Proponents of the pipeline said they have many safeguards in place to prevent such an occurrence and there are hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines in place that will attest to that safety record.

Responsibility for the rejection of the pipeline falls firmly on the State Departments shoulders. If any of the cabinet departments should know how vulnerable we are to terrorism and blackmail by outside providers of oil, the state Department should know. Witness how Iran is using its quest for nuclear weapons, by threatening the Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil shipping lane in the world.

It is also noted that Venezuela, another one of the foreign sources we rely on for our oil, is ruled by a dictator who hates America and is becoming allies with Iran. It has been reported Iran and Venezuela are teaming up to install ballistic missiles on Venezuelan soil from which they can target American cities. True or not, it is beyond comprehension that America is allowing itself to be blackmailed by powers that hate us.

The lame excuse this administration is using as cover for this rejection is that they don’t have enough time to study it. In reality they have had over three years to study this pipeline, time enough to ponder this critical piece of infrastructure that can keep America’s economy humming. All bets are that the pipeline will have miraculous approval from the Obama administration, as soon as the November Presidential election has occurred.

Already labor unions that are so critical to Obama’s re-election plans are up in arms, decrying this rejection. Union leaders were counting on the estimated 20,000 new jobs the pipeline would have created, to help buoy the crippled construction industry.

It appears the rejection of the Pipeline by the Obama administration via Hillary Clintons’ State Department, is for political purposes rather than what’s best for our country’s security. If the house of foreign cards our country’s energy dependence is built upon collapses, there will be more than finger pointing when it comes to next Novembers elections. Those that had a hand in forcing our country to depend on overseas foreign sources of oil, will carry that decision around for the rest of their political careers.