MY
comments: Osama's energy plan is not feasible. He is going to accomplish the
impossible without any nuclear power. Jerry Brown, governor of California in
1975, was going to do the same thing. It did not happen then, not
even close. Governor Davis took the heat for it by being thrown out of
California.
What goes around comes around. In California that cost of electric energy from
the three major utilities is the highest of any in the nation. The cost of
upper end tier use of electric energy reaches 30 cents per kWh.
I
am discouraged with Obama. I though he might at least think for himself
and get a wide view of the energy situation. After all he comes from the
state in the union that has the largest amount of nuclear power for
electricity. He did not take the time to understand the situation. Obama
merely
takes his energy plans from Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico. Richardson
after eight years in charge of the DOE under Clinton came up with virtually
nothing. The National Renewable Energy Lab, with 800 employees, also has
not come up with any renewable systems in their entire existence.
Obama's plan is a lot of nice words leading nowhere. We need a president of
Eisenhower's stature to get back on track.
Dick Morris said " Voters must
hear how Obama can't possibly finance his programs — particularly his
health-insurance schemes — with the tax hikes he's advocating. They need to
ponder the impact of these tax hikes on an already slowing economy, it's
legitimate to fear a new depression, not just a recession.
Below is the plan by Obama
and Biden, neither who know absolutely anything about energy systems.
Non of this will become true in my opinion. But they could waste a lot of
money with this ridicules plan until another president team is elected.
The Obama‐Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan
will:
• Provide short‐term
relief to American families facing pain at the pump.
• Help create five million new jobs by
strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze
private efforts to build a clean energy future.
• Within 10 years save more oil than we
currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined
• Put 1 million Plug‐In
Hybrid cars – cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon – on the road
by2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America
• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity
comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by2025
• Implement an economy‐wide
cap‐and‐trade
program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80percent by 2050
Cap
andTrade Is Bad
A STEALTH TAX ON ENERGY
BY THOMAS PYLE
BARACK OBAMA AND HIS TEAM HAVE MADE
it clear that a cap-and-trade system will be an
important tool for the
new administration to provide green jobs and reduce the nation's
greenhouse-gas
emissions. But the real purpose of cap-and-trade is to
increase the
cost of energy. The European experience
shows that countries lose their enthusiasm once they experience the actual
costs of these programs. Implementing cap-and-trade now would kick the U.S.
economy while it's already down.
On the surface, cap-and-trade sounds like a
straightforward
procedure to reduce total greenhouse-gas emissions. In consultation with
scientists and economists, the federal
government picks annual quotas for total emissions and then issues a
corresponding number of permits. Parties
are then free to trade their permits at prices determined on a market.
Theoretically, cap-and-trade achieves
emissions reduction goals in an efficient way. If the government
has picked the right cap, then the induced price of
permits leads firms to
internalize the alleged cost of greenhouse-gas emissions. Because the
permits are tradable, emissions reductions occur in those sectors where they
are most affordable. This lowers the total
cost of compliance compared
to a top-down government plan, and it's why proponents call
cap-and-trade
a market solution.
Cap-and-trade sounds
pleasant in theory, but in practice it has been a failure. Europe has the
largest cap-and-trade system in the world, and instead of
leading to a
decrease in emissions, Phase I, between
2005 and 2007, led to a 1.9 percent increase in
greenhouse-gas emissions. What's worse,
electricity bills in much of Europe have substantially increased because of
cap-and-trade policies.
Below is what the Apollo Alliance
statement said the new president will include in his stimulus package.
Stimulus Consistent With Apollo Proposals
 When
it comes to clean energy development, it's fair to say that never has more been
expected of an incoming president. The economic stimulus package includes $11
billion to modernize the electric grid, $8 billion in renewable energy loan
guarantees, $10 billion for transit construction, a goal of doubling production
of wind, solar and other renewable sources of power, and the near-term creation
of 3 million jobs, many of them in the clean energy sector. Similar levels of
funding are proposed to make government buildings, homes, and factories more
energy efficient.
My comments: Electric grid OK, it needs an
upgrade. The others are backward. The US is too spread out to utilize
greater transit systems. Renewable sources have been tried for over
thirty years and none has been shown to be effective or economical.. What will
the loan guarantees be for? What three million jobs will be started
for undefined renewable systems? The US started thirty years ago to make
buildings, factories, and homes more energy efficient. What more can be done? It
is all a replay of old measures that have all been explored.
Green
jobs cause loss of real jobs
By Gretchen Randall Date: April 1, 2009
Issue: Barack Obama promised to create 5 million new
clean energy jobs and his 2010 budget allots $20 billion in tax incentives to
expand green energy. He has based his plan partly on Spain’s efforts to
create “green” jobs. Now, a newly released study of Spain’s attempt at
creating “green” jobs has found that at least 2.2 other jobs were lost for
every “green” job created. The study estimates that in the U.S., if Obama
follows Spain’s lead, the U.S. will lose 6.6 million to 11 million other jobs.
In addition, the study’s author, Gabriel Calzada, found that Spain’s
“expensive and extensive ‘green jobs’ policies . . has created a surprisingly
low number of jobs” with only 1 out of 10 being permanent. The study
calculated that since 2000 Spain spent about $753,000 to create each Spanish
“green job” — costs that are not unique to Spain but “are inherent in schemes
to promote renewable energy sources.”
Comment 1: But then, could a president who campaigned on fantasy be
expected to govern on reality?
Comment 2: This comes as Interior Secretary Salazar has put a hold on
all test leases for plentiful shale oil, the Democratic leadership has
introduced job-killing cap-and-trade legislation, the president has announced
plans to force GM to build cars that won’t sell, Democrat Senator
Diane Feinstein has introduced legislation to prevent development of solar
energy in the Mojave Desert and Democrats recently passed a huge public lands
bill that will prohibit energy production on federal lands — what do all these
things have in common? They are green policies killing real jobs.
I wonder where all of the
renewable solar plans will be located? They require a lot of land mass.
Also, I cannot find any information about the performance of Spain's solar
energy systems.
I bet this boondoggle spends a lot of
money with very little results. I wonder what the Indian Tribes will come up
with?
DOE to Award $3.2 Billion in Energy Efficiency Block
Grants
EERE Network News - 4/2/09
DOE announced last week that it plans to
invest $3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation projects in U.S.
cities, counties, states, territories, and tribal lands. The Energy Efficiency
and Conservation Block Grant program, funded by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, will provide formula grants for projects that improve
energy efficiency and reduce fossil fuel emissions. Funding is based on a
formula that accounts for population and energy use, and to ensure
accountability, DOE will provide guidance to grant recipients and require them
to report on the number of jobs created or retained, energy saved, renewable
energy capacity installed, greenhouse gas emissions reduced, and funds
leveraged.
Obama Lays Out Clean-Energy Plans
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 24, 2009; A05 President Obama yesterday outlined
plans to spend about $59 billion in economic stimulus funds and $150
billion from the federal budget to promote what he calls America's
"clean-energy future."
"We will attack the problems that have held us back for too long,"
including dependence on foreign oil, Obama told a gathering of
clean-energy entrepreneurs and leading researchers at the Eisenhower
Executive Office Building.i
I wonder what the problems are that hold us
back so long? Could it be the sun does not shine 24 hours a day, and the
wind is intermittent? How does independence on foreign oil effect the
performance of renewable systems??
He said his plan to invest $59 billion from the economic stimulus
package in clean-energy projects and tax incentives would ultimately help
create more than 300,000 jobs and double the nation's supply of renewable
energy.
Doubling the nation's supply of renewable energy
would add only 2% to the energy mix. This is not a significant amount of
energy for the price.
In addition, Obama said, his $3.55 trillion budget proposal for fiscal
2010 calls for spending $150 billion over 10 years to promote clean energy
and energy efficiency. It includes nearly $75 billion to make permanent a
tax credit aimed at stimulating private-sector investment in research and
development.
Obama discussed his commitment to clean energy and reduced U.S.
dependence on foreign oil after examining a display of technological
breakthroughs in solar power, car batteries and other areas.
"Innovators like you are creating the jobs that will foster our
recovery and creating the technologies that will power our long-term
prosperity," Obama told the gathering. "At this moment of necessity, we
need you. We need some inventiveness. Your country needs you to create new
jobs and lead new industries. Your country needs you to mount a historic
effort to end, once and for all, our dependence on foreign oil. And in
this difficult endeavor, in this pursuit on which I believe our future
depends, our country will support you. Your president will support you."
Obama plans to use money from the stimulus plan and his new budget to
spur cutting-edge research, develop clean-energy technologies and provide
incentives for private research, according to a White House fact sheet.
"These investments will establish the foundation for America's future
economic prosperity, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and help combat
climate change," the White House said.
The $787 billion stimulus plan, officially called the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act, includes $39 billion for projects at the Energy
Department and $20 billion in tax incentives for clean energy, the fact
sheet said. Among other goals, the funding is intended to create an
advanced research agency for energy modeled on the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, which developed the Internet, and to support
Energy Frontier Research Centers, which could lead to breakthroughs in
energy storage, super-efficient engines and inexpensive solar cells that
are "as cheap as paint," the fact sheet said.
The stimulus plan will also support U.S. manufacturing of advanced
batteries needed for plug-in hybrids, renewable energy backup and other
applications.
About $1.2 billion is destined for "research infrastructure" at the
Energy Department's national laboratories, including the Brookhaven
National Laboratory on Long Island, where Obama said recovery funds will
speed construction on a lab "that will help develop materials for new
solar cells and other clean-energy technologies."
In making the case for spending almost $75 billion from next year's
budget to make the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit permanent, the
White House said every dollar of tax benefit for private research and
development yields $2 in benefits to the U.S. economy and society in the
long run. It said companies need to be able to count on the credit, which
has been extended 13 times, with some extensions lasting only six months.
Where did the White House ever
get the fact that every tax dollar spent for R & D returns $2 in benefits?
The NREL has been spending millions dollars for years and nothing has
become of it yet.
According to Dick Morris, Obama
better get with it and tell us how his stimulus plan is doing. He cannot hide
behind Bush's problems forever.
If
Obama doesn't talk up the economy and emphasize how effective the stimulus
package is in ending the recession, he will be throwing away one of his most
potent weapons.
All a
stimulus package can do is put money in people's hands. It can't make them
spend it on things that help the economy. If all they hear from the White
House is negatives and doom, they will sequester the money in bills or use it
to pay down debts, neither of which will do Main Street much good, not to
mention Wall Street.
Is the
president capable of optimism after years of preaching doom, first in Iraq and
now in the economy? We are about to see if he can master a second language
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