Day: July 17, 2009

The real energy crisis…

This excerpt from a ClimateWire story (“Carbon Capture: Consultants help companies tap into stimulus dollars,” July 17) describes the real energy crisis:

Take the case of Joe Tondu, president of Tondu Corp., an independent power generator looking to construct new plants.

Tondu said his firm couldn’t build coal plants because no one would approve its permits, and it couldn’t build carbon-capturing coal plants because their costs remain too high.

When the company struck out to invest in renewables, it met another roadblock: To get stimulus funds from the Department of Energy, Tondu would have to get an environmental impact review for each project. That would have offered local interests “a huge opportunity to stall your project for years and years and years,” he argued, and it ultimately derailed the company’s plan.

“It’s almost unbelievably easy to slow down … it created another hurdle we just couldn’t get through,” he said

We’re not running out of energy. The crisis is being caused by the government and greens who have choke-holds on the ability of businesses to produce energy.

Smart Democrat of the day: Sen. Byron Dorgan

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) rails against the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill and all the opportunities created therein for carbon market speculation in a July 16 Senate floor speech.

Sure, Dorgan is misinformed on the need for a cap on carbon emissions, but first things first: the Senate version of Waxman-Markey neededs to be defeated and then we can move on to re-educating those who have been deceived by Al Gore and the greens.

Dorgan should be congratulated — at least so far — for his courageous stand in favor of taxpayers and consumers and against the likes of the morally bankrupt Al Gore, Goldman Sachs and others who would sell our country down the river in order to profit from cap-and-charade.

Utility con of the day: Pepco’s Thomas Graham

Commenting on Washington, D.C.-based utility Pepco’s application to the Obama administration for $254 million in federal stimulus grants to upgrade its grid, Pepco region president Thomas Graham said in a statement,

“Every dollar we obtain from the federal government offsets the cost customers would otherwise pay to make these important improvements to the system.”

While this is technically true, it overlooks the fact that Pepco customers will be paying for the improvements through taxes.

Moreover, since virtually all utilities plan on tapping into the taxpayer honeypot, all ratepayers and taxpayers will be paying for all the money utilities obtain from the Obama stimulus ATM.

To paraphrase Milton Friedman, there is no such thing as a “free grid improvement.”

If Graham doesn’t know that, then Pepco needs to hire smarter executives. If Graham did know that, then Pepco needs to hire more honest executives.