Month: July 2009

Obama-meters on the way…

Baltimore Gas & Electric is leading the way to electricity rationing, courtesy of President Obama.

The utility announced to day that it filed with local regulators an application to install 2 million so-called “smart meters” in the homes of its residential customers.

Smart meters allow local utilities to control electricity use in your home.

Using a $200 million Department of Energy grant — part of the $787 billion Obama Stimulus package enacted earlier in the year — BG&E plans to charge customers for the balance of the costs.

BG&E claims that benefits to consumers (about $5 per month) will amount to about three times the cost of the meters.

Not only is this benefit trivial, it’s pretty phony. It comes from you using less electricity or using electricity at less convenient times — things you can already do without the meter. What’s the benefit from doing less or being inconvenienced?

We don’t know about you, but we’re not interested in selling our freedom to use electricity as we choose — especially for a lousy $5/month.

Also, consider that, since smart meters allow two-way communication, each meter represents a node from which a hacker can gain entry to the grid and wreak havoc.

The ultimate purpose of the meters is to allow local utilities to ration electricity as demand is rising faster than supply, a phenomenon that can be traced to the greens blocking construction of new power plants and transmission lines. Rolling power outages are already being planned for the Baltimore-Washington area starting as early as 2011-2012.

Smart is the new dumb.

Waxman-Markey cuts steeper than thought

Waxman-Markey’s emissions reductions goals will be more difficult to meet than previously thought, warned the electric utility industry in a July 6 letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV).

Edison Electric Institute chief Tom Kuhn wrote,

“H.R. 2454 would require a reduction of GHG emissions of 3 percent below 2005 levels by 2012–only three years from now. In reality, accounting for growth in electricity demand since 2005, the 2012 requirement is closer to a 10 percent reduction in projected GHG emissions. Achieving this near-term reduction would impose an abrupt and significant price increase on electricity consumers. The House bill also would require a very aggressive 17 percent reduction in GHG emissions below 2005 levels by 2020. Again, we support a more reasonable and achievable 2020 target that will help cushion the cost impact on our consumers.”

So does EEI oppose Waxman-Markey? Amazingly, the answer is no. Instead EEI suggests: (1) price collars,

“We also strongly support inclusion of a price ‘collar,’ consisting of both a floor and a ceiling on emissions allowance prices, in climate legislation. This critical consumer protection measure would help limit economic harm to energy consumers, U.S. workers, and the economy, while discouraging market manipulation and encouraging technological development.”

(2) more free carbon allowances,

“Under H.R. 2454, allowances would sharply decline from 35 percent to zero over a five-year period from 2025 to 2029. Such a swift phase-out will lead to abruptly higher energy prices for consumers. Instead, we recommend a longer phase-out period of at least 15 years to help protect consumers from sudden energy price shocks.”

and (3) greater ability to participate in the fraudulent carbon offsets market,

“In addition, a number of improvements are needed in the offsets provisions. In the early years, offsets will be one of the few tools utilities will have for meeting targets. Quantitative restrictions, such as the 20 percent discount for international offsets, should be eliminated both to bolster the supply and to lower the price of domestic and international offsets. Moreover, a number of severe qualitative restrictions should be either eliminated or eased in order to assure a full and affordable supply of offsets.”

Like the American Chemistry Council’s Cal Dooley, EEI’s Tom Kuhn is ready to sell-out America to get a deal that he naively thinks will work for his industry.

EEI's Tom Kuhn: Trying to buff the Waxman-Markey turd into a popsicle.
EEI's Tom Kuhn: Trying to buff the Waxman-Markey turd into a popsicle.

Waxman-Markey pays: Exelon expects billions

Chicago-based utility Exelon Corp. expects that Waxman-Markey will boost its profits by $1.1 billion (39 percent), according to a report in Restructuring Today (July 13).

Because of its nuclear fleet, the largest in the U.S., Exelon will have plenty of carbon credits to sell to other emitters.

Exelon is trying to exploit its potential Waxman-Markey boon in its efforts to acquire Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy, which is expected to spend $1.3-2.3 billion to reduce its carbon emissions under Waxman-Markey and which opposes the takeover.

In a letter to NRG shareholders, Exelon said:

We are offering you securities in a company… whose value rises rather than declines as carbon is priced into the marketplace…

Ironically, both Exelon and NRG are members of USCAP, the industry-environmentalist coalition lobbying for greenhouse gas regulation.

So not only will Waxman-Markey cut into fossil fuel-based NRG’s profits, it may very well mean the end of the company.

It makes you wonder what NRG CEO David Crane was thinking when he joined USCAP. If he thought that it’s better-to-be-at-the-table-than-on-the-menu, he was wrong since now he has two problems (carbon regulation and takeover) instead of one or even none.

BTW, if you want to see which regions of the country will be paying more for electricity thanks to David Crane’s bad judgment, click here for a list of NRG’s generation facilities in Texas, the Northeast, South and Southern California.

‘Green justice’ in Georgia trashed on appeal

The Court of Appeals of Georgia has overturned last year’s decision by Fulton County Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore to invalidate the permit issued for the $2 billion, 1,200 mega-watt Longleaf power plant, reports Carbon Control News.

JunkScience.com readers won’t be surprised since the Court of Appeals decision is based on the legal rationale laid out last July in this column by Steve Milloy.

Click here to read the Court of Appeals decision.

Tax credits old hat: Green power gets cash up front

So-called “clean energy” projects no longer need to be operational and  produce income to get taxpayer subsidies.

The Departments of Energy and Treasury announced yesterday that $3 billion worth of stimulus funds will be paid directly to  clean energy developers in exchange for foregoing future tax credits, according to a report in Restructuring Today (July 10).

Now how did that Steve Miller Band song go? Oh yeah…

Go on take the money and run…

We’ll be able to track this boondoggle at http://www.treas.gov/recovery/1603.shtml.

GE brings surveillance to life

General Electric and smart-grid start-up Tendril have agreed to develop “smart” appliances that work with the coming “smart” grid, reports Smart Grid Today (July 9).

The deal is pitched as allowing consumers to control their GE appliances via the Internet — but it probably also means that others would be able to monitor and control them as well, including hackers, local governments, local utilities, etc.

North Korea was recently blamed for wreaking havoc in U.S. government networks. We’re going to be really PO-ed if Kim Il Jung interferes with our thermostats and dishwashers. Of course, we won’t be any happier if Barack Obama does the same thing.

Chemical industry sells out America?

American Chemistry Council head Cal Dooley has been tasked to appease the Senate climate gods by suggesting that the Waxman-Markey greenhouse gas emission reduction schedule be scaled back from 17% by 2020 to 14% by 2020, reports Carbon Control News (July 9). In return for that concession and more free emissions credits, the chemical industry is apparently willing to sell the rest of us down the river.

Maybe Dooley’s group should just change its name to the Death-to-America Chemistry Council?

ACC's Cal Dooley: Willing to screw America for Waxman-markey lite
Cal Dooley: Willing to screw America for Waxman-Markey lite

Cap-and-trade anti-doughnut, baker says

If you live in the St. Louis, MO-area, you should patronize McArthur’s Bakery. Here’s why…

Complaining about the impact of Waxman-Markey on his small business, David McArthur of St. Louis-based McArthur’s Bakery said on Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck show (Eric Bolling sitting in for Glenn Beck) that,

You know, there are physics that say it takes a certain amount of energy to take a dough product to make it into a bread product. And nothing that anyone wants to do to make the world greener is going to change the amount of energy that goes into that.

This tax directly applies to us as well as every other food manufacturer. And so what it is going to do, long term, essentially says, “You haven’t cut back, so we’re going to continue to tax you and tax you more.” That’s a penalty. You know, quite frankly, the only way I can use less energy to bake a loaf of bread is to quit baking it.

Best of all, the bakery took action. McArthur said:

Well, Saturday, two weeks ago, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, I went to our reader board. We’ve got one of those nice reader board signs on our location. Out front, and I typed “Russ Carnahan voted to close us and other small business.” It was just in sheer – just aggravation, just fed up with it.

What is your business doing to fight Waxman-Markey?

Here’s Part 1 of the interview:

Here’s Part 2 of the interview:

Kaptur gets $3.5 billion for W-M vote

Toledo Rep. Marcy Kaptur received $3.5 billion to vote for the Waxman-Markey bill. As reported by the Washington Times,

When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained stubbornly undecided.

They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the old-fashioned way. They gave her what she wanted – a new federal power authority, similar to Washington state’s Bonneville Power Administration, stocked with up to $3.5 billion in taxpayer money available for lending to renewable energy and economic development projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states.

To paraphrase James Carville,

Drag a $3.5 billion bribe through the halls of Congress and there’s no telling what you’ll find.

Every pol has a price: Marcy Kaptur agreed to snuggle with Henry Waxman for $3.5 billion.
Every pol has a price: Marcy Kaptur agreed to snuggle with Henry Waxman for $3.5 billion

While some say that Waxman-Markey will never pass the Senate because of economic considerations, remember we said that:

  • Every politician has his price; and
  • President Obama is printing money like there’s no tomorrow.

Make sure Senators know that a vote for Waxman-Markey (or whatever bill the Senate develops) is a vote against their reelection — apparently the only price that they can’t afford.

Obama stimulus slows renewable projects

President Obama’s stimulus package is slowing the development of so-called “renewable energy” projects as developers shun private capital in hopes of getting better deals from the government.

The problem is that,

None of these incentives has yet been defined with specific rules and none of the programs are yet accepting applications…

And the rentseekers aren’t happy.

Matt Cheney, chief executive of Renewable Ventures, the U.S. subsidiary of Fotowatio SL, a Spanish developer of renewable-energy projects said of Obama’s stimulus program,

“It artificially slowed the recovery.”

Keshav Prasad, vice president of business development at Signet Solar Inc. added,

“We will not close on anything until we finally hear from the DOE on the loan guarantee.”

Bureaucracy thwarts rentseeking!

Senate version of Waxman-Markey imminent

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is “days” away from releasing a Senate version of the Waxman-Markey bill that just passed the House, according to Carbon Control News.

Based on comments from Sen. John Kerry made at a July 8 hearing, the Senate version will “revise” [read “water down”] the Waxman-Markey imposition of tariffs on goods from countries that don’t reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Click here for a new GAO report on trade options for climate legislation.

Unions won’t be happy about a retreat on tariffs…

De-desalination: Greens oppose Calif. plans

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

Early next year, the Southern California town of Carlsbad will break ground on a plant that each day will turn 50 million gallons of seawater into fresh drinking water…

Government agencies have opposed desalination because of the process’s energy consumption. The desalination plant would use nearly twice as much energy as a wastewater-treatment plant available in Orange County. Environmental groups also object because fish and other organisms are likely to be sucked into the facility.

“Eventually, people will have to realize, it’s either fish or children,” Mr. Lewis said…

Officials in Carlsbad began discussing desalination in 1998 and planned to open the plant this year. But opposition was fierce.

The Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper — two local environmental groups — argue the plant would be disastrous for marine life, “killing everything that floats” near the plant’s intake, said Surfrider’s Joe Geever.

The permitting process continued for six years, and included 14 public hearings that ran a total of 170 hours and included five revisions to the plan…