Renewable Energy Will Always be Under a Political Cloud

Sometimes I have to laugh when I read an article or a op-ed that is written by a libtard.  I swear it is audacity of the incredulous and nothing demonstrates this more than renewable energy.  A headline by the New York Times says it all: Even as wind power rises, it falls under a political cloud.

Really? Do you think?!  Anytime a government entity forces its citizens to subsidize an industry or mandates its use, it will become a political issue.  This should be common sense; however, progressives don’t think this way.  They believe in the supremacy of their beliefs and to hell with yours.  Can anyone say Obamacare?

What is amazing is how liberals can accuse the opposition of ideology without recognizing their own biases.  This excerpt from the aforementioned article is a perfect example:

The study has been praised by trade groups representing the nuclear and coal industries. But it is being conducted without including many of those potentially affected. And clean-energy executives and advocates, as well as some lawmakers, have expressed concern that it will be grounded more in ideology than in evidence.

A group of trade organizations representing clean-energy interests delivered analyses to the department in mid-May arguing that renewables do not threaten grid reliability and that subsidies are not to blame for the economic troubles of coal and nuclear plants.

I’m sorry, but forcing the American people to subsidize inefficient energy schemes while over-regulating proven energy sources is a threat to grid reliability.  Even the author of this article concedes renewable energies can’t exist without subsidies.

Energy experts say that without the credit and other favorable subsidies, mandates and market policies in place, wind development and production will be threatened. When the credit has periodically expired, installations nearly ground to a halt — dropping by roughly 76 to 93 percent, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists — only to resume again with its renewal. Congressional estimates put the cost of the credit at $3.1 billion last year, and the figure is expected to reach $4 billion this year.

“There’s no question: if the P.T.C. goes away, that’s a big number,” said Robert F. Shapiro, a lawyer at Chadbourne & Parke in Washington, who focuses on project finance and energy. “New plants would have to meet a tougher test, a market-price test, that can’t be masked in part by that subsidy.”

You’re damn right renewable energy is under a political cloud and will continue to be as long as the federal government forces it upon us.

  

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/business/energy-environment/wind-power-base-load.html?_r=0

Big Solar Energy Swarms upon N.C. Republican Manure Pile

Did North Carolinians kick democrats out of office only to replace them with like-minded republicans?  I know I didn’t vote for the status quo.  Just because a politician has an “R” behind his name doesn’t give him a license to continue the corrupt practices that’s endemic in Raleigh.  Republicans were supposed to put an end to this crap.

Big Solar Energy has once again wormed its way into the taxpayers’ wallet.  So-called free market conservatives voted to continue government mandates and subsidies for inefficient and expensive renewable energy schemes.  We can expect no relief from high utility bills.

Who are these scoundrels?  The Civitas Institute reported the following:

Rep. John Szoka (R-Cumberland), perhaps the most outspoken proponent of solar energy this year, is listed as a sponsor on HB 454 The Energy Investment Act, a bill that would extend the 35 percent state tax credit for renewables. He also is a primary sponsor on another bill, HB 245, Utilities/The Energy Freedom Act, which will allow third-party sales of electricity from on-site renewable energy facilities.

And don’t forget these people:

Szoka is not the only Republican who has turned his back on conservative, free-market principles to take up the cause of more government mandates, political favoritism and higher electric bills. In April 2013, Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford) sponsored legislation to roll back the renewable energy mandates. Six Republicans joined with all the Democrats in the Public Utilities and Energy Committee and voted against the legislation, preventing the bill from making it to the House floor for a vote. The Republicans who voted against the legislation, thus maintaining these solar mandates, were current Speaker of the House Tim Moore (Cleveland), Jerry Dockham (Davidson), Ruth Samuelson (Mecklenburg), Nelson Dollar ( Wake), Charles Jeter (Mecklenburg), and Linda Johnson (Cabarrus).

Of course, where would we be without lobbyist pushing for these boondoggles.  Many will be surprised to find out that Big Solar has hired republican political consultants and lobbyists to raid the treasury.  Once again, Civitas flushes out their names:

The environmentalists pushing “clean” energy have fashioned a new weapon that can best be described as “Big Solar.” But Big Solar is not a job-growth engine as claimed by lobbyists, it exists only because of government. The major solar corporations, however, have hired the right Republican political consultants and lobbyists in North Carolina to push the narrative to their clients – GOP legislators.

For example, the “Clean Energy” power players in North Carolina include the most powerful and well-connected Republican political consultants.

Paul Shumaker, Partner, Strategic Partners Solutions and President of political consulting firm Capital Communications, Inc. Shumaker boasts as his clients Sen. Richard Burr, Supreme Court Justices Mark Martin and Bob Edmunds, and Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry. Shumaker served as campaign director for the North Carolina Republican Party from 1985-1987 and worked for former Gov. Jim Martin in both of his successful gubernatorial campaigns.

Dee Stewart, Partner, Strategic Partners Solutions, is also CEO and President of the political consulting firm the Stewart Group, Inc. Stewart was U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry’s chief of staff in 2005 and is currently his chief political advisor. He was the executive director of the Iowa Republican Party during a presidential primary year. According to the Strategic Partners Solutions website, Stewart has worked for dozens of current and former state legislators – all Republicans – including Senate Leader Phil Berger, Sen. Bill Rabon (Brunswick) and Rep. David Lewis (Harnett).

Betsy McCorkle, political consultant to North Carolina Clean Energy Business Alliance (NCCEBA). McCorkleis the director of government affairs for the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Alliance (NCSEA) and was formally the Economic Development Program Manager for the North Carolina Solar Center at NC State University.

Kristen Laster, Managing Partner, Southern Strategy Group. Laster is also a registered lobbyist with NCSEAand is the treasurer for the NCCEBA PAC.

Scott Laster, Partner, Southern Strategy Group is a registered lobbyist with NCSEA. Laster worked as the house campaign director for the North Carolina Republican Party in 2010. In 2012, he was hired as executive director for the NCGOP.

Other clean energy operatives working to recruit conservatives to Big Solar include:

Mark Fleming, President and CEO of Conservatives for Clean Energy. Formerly, Fleming served as district director for Congressman Patrick McHenry. According to his bio, he also worked as vice president of NCFREE and executive director of the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ivan Urlaub, executive director and registered agent for NCSEA. He was also the registered agent for theNCCEBA.

These power players, and the misnamed “conservative” groups, are all connected to environmental groups who get their funding from some of the most radical and well-funded organizations in the world. A 2014 United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Minority Staff report, titled “The Chain of Environmental Command – How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA,” described an organization named Sea Change this way:

“Even more unsettling, a dominant organization in this movement is Sea Change Foundation, a private California foundation, which relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed donors. In turn, Sea Change funnels tens of millions of dollars to other large but discreet foundations and prominent environmental activists who strive to control both policy and politics.”

What do you know? We have the same flies, just a different pile of manure.

Source:

http://www.nccivitas.org/2015/special-report-conservatives-pushing-big-solar-funded-by-the-left/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Civitas%20Institute&utm_content=Newsletter+2015-04-22

Krauthammer: Obama's Energy Policies are a Complete Contradiction

We in North Carolina can attest to higher energy bills.  The state forces Duke Energy to purchase renewables which is unreliable and inefficient.  And the federal government forces coal plants to shut down.

We just had a rate increase.  Now, they are asking for another.  The progressive life is and expensive life.

N.C. Law Forces Higher Energy Prices onto Consumers

The green energy scam continues to cost North Carolinians.  Duke/Progress Energy is forced by the state to purchase renewable sources such as solar.  Of course, these pie-in-the-sky technologies are costly and inefficient.  The News and Observer reported the following:

At a time that Progress Energy is seeking a 14 percent rate increase for residential customers in North Carolina, the Raleigh power company wants to slash payments as much as 29 percent for electricity it buys from solar generators and other renewables producers. If approved by the N.C. Utilities Commission, the request would reduce rates the electric utility pays for green energy to levels not seen since 1984, when there was no green energy to speak of in North Carolina.

The power company’s request is tied to the plummeting cost of natural gas, which is lowering the market price of electricity nationwide. Progress contends that it is now overpaying for the green energy it has to buy under state law, and passing on those inflated costs to its customers, who ultimately bear the financial burden in their monthly bills.

The move to cut rates comes at a crucial time for solar power in the state as the industry has nearly weaned itself off a key subsidy.

Only a few years ago, power companies paid solar generators a premium of about 12 cents for every kilowatt hour of power, roughly twice as much in subsidy support as the solar producers made from selling electricity. Today, solar producers typically receive less than 1 cent a kilowatt hour as a subsidy.

The shrinking subsidy – known as a “renewable energy certificate” – had solar advocates congratulating themselves for creating a self-sustaining industry in relatively short order. With the subsidy expected to go away in the near future, North Carolina’s solar industry is operating on razor-thin margins and could come to a standstill if Progress significantly cuts payments for electricity, advocates warn.

“There would be a big curtailment,” said Richard Harkrader, chief executive at Carolina Solar Energy, a Durham developer. “The stuff under contract would go ahead, but it would be very difficult to build any new (solar projects).”

Earlier this year, a hearing was held in Charlotte.  Consumers blamed the energy companies of profiteering.  Unfortunately, these outraged citizens are unaware of a law that requires Duke/Progress to purchase a resource that is costly; a cost that is passed onto them.

 

 

 

The Democrats would have us believe that renewables will save the planet.  And that you should be happy to pay higher energy bills to save Mother Earth.  After all, you’re nothing compared to the environment.    

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/25/2565806/progress-duke-want-to-slash-payments.html#storylink=cpy

To Tariff, or not to Tariff: That is the Question

There is such a demand for renewable energy that two foreign owned companies are laying off workers.  Even a tax credit worth $84 million couldn’t help this pie-in the-sky fantasy.  The Heritage Foundation reported the following:

A pair of foreign-owned solar companies that benefited from a combined $84 million in Energy Department tax credits have announced they will lay off employees.

One of the companies, German-owned SolarWorld, was integral in the fight for tariffs against the importation of Chinese photovoltaic solar panels. The other, Chinese company SunTech, blamed those tariffs for its own layoffs.

Both companies benefited from the Energy Department’s stimulus-funded Advanced Energy Manufacturing (48C) Tax Credit. The 48C credit is worth up to 30% of the cost of manufacturing qualifying green energy projects.

SolarWorld received a credit worth $82 million, while SunTech’s was worth $2.1 million.

Both companies announced this week that they will shed some employees. SolarWorld, which announced a 47% revenue decline in the third quarter, blamed a potential 37 layoffs at its Oregon plant on “illegal” Chinese trade practices.

SunTech said the U.S. International Trade Commission’s 35.95% tariff on Chinese solar panels was partially responsible for the 50 impending layoffs at its Arizona production facilities.

To tariff, or not to tariff: that is the question.  I have a better one: why don’t we let the market place determine the worth of these companies?

Just think, we have four more years of these incompetent boobs running the country.  Isn’t that comforting?

Source: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/11/16/two-more-stimulus-backed-solar-companies-announce-layoffs/

NC Forum Declares Wind Farms Costly and Inefficient

Carolina Journal reported on a renewable energy forum sponsored by the John Locke Foundation. Economist and scientist discussed the cost, efficacy, and environmental value of wind power. Their conclusions are in stark contrast to the assertions of clean energy proponents. John Droz, a fellow of the American Tradition Institute, stated the following:

“Because of the wide fluctuations of wind, it typically produces less than 30 percent of its nameplate capacity,” Droz said. “This problem is made worse by the fact that there is no practical or economical way to store the electricity produced.”

It’s not reliable or predictable and cannot be counted on to provide power on demand, he said.
Wind power plants aren’t compact either, he added. They cover more than 1,000 times the surface area of a conventional facility.

Most importantly to Droz, wind power is not economical. The cost of running a wind power plant is higher than any other type of plant.

“The more wind power an energy company uses, the higher the consumer’s electric bill,” he said.“Denmark, which uses more wind power than any country in the world, has the highest cost of electricity of any country in the world. Their residential electricity rate is more than three times as much as ours.”

Finally, wind does not make a consequential reduction in carbon emissions, said Droz. “No scientific study has ever proven that wind power saves a meaningful amount of CO2. A National Academy of Sciences study says U.S. CO2 savings by 2020 will be at about 1.8 percent."

North Carolinians had an opportunity to voluntarily add renewable energy sources to the grid; it was roundly rejected. But that didn’t stop Governor Beverly Perdue and the democratically controlled General Assembly. In 2007, they passed a law called Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards, which mandated power companies employ 7.5% renewable energy sources. This arrogant piece of legislation will cost consumers millions of dollars.

Governor Beverly Perdue and her fellow democrats profess that they’re looking out for the middle-class, when in fact they’re outright hostile. And in this economic environment, no one can afford higher utility bills.

Source: http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=8597

Another Department of Energy Boondoggle Exposed

We can’t go a day without another green energy boondoggle being exposed. This time the spotlight falls upon the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado:

According to the Denver Post, the lab plans to eliminate between 100 and 150 of its 1,350 jobs. The Obama administration supported the NREL in 2009 with roughly $200 million in stimulus grants. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu visited Golden in May 2009 to promote the NREL as a beneficiary of those funds.

At the time, the Associated Press reported that the stimulus grants included $68 million to build a demonstration model of an energy-efficient office building; $19.2 million for solar, geothermal and fuel cell equipment; $10 million for testing and evaluation of wind technology; and $45 million to research and test drive-train systems for wind turbines.

NREL spokesman Bob Noun blames Congress for the organization’s failures. The Denver Post reports that he believes the gridlocked U.S. Congress forced the NREL to find $8 million in new budgetary savings

Well thanks for saving $8 million. If it hadn’t been for the dried up taxpayer teat, I’m sure these vultures would’ve squandered that money too. But I want to take note of the arrogance and the entitlement mentality of this guy. Since Obama and the Democrats took over Washington D.C. the NLRB’s budget went on steroids:

“Their funding for 2008 was $328 million,” Oliver said in a phone interview. “In 2010 it was $536.5 million. They’ve had a 64 percent increase in their funding during the Obama administration.”

Exactly how big is the Department of Energy’s Budget? I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed one government agency waste so much money. It’s time to disband the DOE.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/04/green-jobs-farm-in-colorado-sheds-jobs-after-receiving-200m-in-stimulus-funds/#ixzz1ZratABl0

Crony Capitalism Alive and Well in Sen. Harry Reid's Nevada

The Department of Energy strikes again. It looks like another pie in the sky “renewable” energy boondoggle is about to go bust. Nevada Geothermal secured $79 million in loan guarantees along with an additional $66 million in federal government grants. But that’s not enough to pay the bills:

But even before it applied for the Obama administration incentives, problems at the plant cropped up. Company executives have variously predicted the plant could generate as much as 45 megawatts, after accounting for energy needed to power it.

Yet when the plant started up in October 2009, only 27 megawatts of net power were initially generated from the hot water pumped from the earth. That was not enough for the company to honor its commitment to the electric utility company, or to pay back a $91 million loan — carrying 14 percent interest — that it has with a Washington-based investment firm.

Through modifications at the Blue Mountain site in Nevada — drilling new wells to produce more steam — the company has been able to get the net power output up to a steady 35 megawatts. But, as the annual report released last week reiterated, that was still not enough production to cover the company’s loans and operating costs.

The Obama administration knew about these problems and still offered to underwrite a second guaranteed loan to Nevada Geothermal:

Obama administration officials knew about most of these difficulties before the Energy Department agreed in September 2010 to partly guarantee a second major loan to Nevada Geothermal, worth $98.5 million.

Nevada Geothermal executives, meanwhile, are working to renegotiate their $91 million, high-interest loan to avoid a default, which could come as soon as December. They have teamed up with Ormat to drill at a new Nevada site, and hope perhaps to do future drilling at the Blue Mountain site to increase the energy output there.

Who is Ormat? And how are these companies getting huge amounts of taxpayer monies?

During the tour, Mr. Reid had a chance to see electric generation equipment installed by a company called Ormat Technology, which is a Nevada Geothermal partner. Ormat’s lobbyist in Washington, Kai Anderson, and one of the company’s top executives, Paul Thomsen, are former aides to Mr. Reid.

Just last month, again with Mr. Reid’s support, Ormat secured its own Energy Department loan guarantee, worth $350 million, to help support three other Nevada geothermal projects that are expected to produce 113 megawatts of power.

Mr. Reid has received some support from the industry, in the form of at least $43,000 worth of campaign contributions from the geothermal industry since 2009, according to an analysis of federal campaign finance records.

Of course! It’s the biggest whore in the state of Nevada: Senator Harry Reid. And the two top company executives are former aides. Who would’ve thunk it? How dare we call this crony capitalism?


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/business/a-us-backed-geothermal-plant-in-nevada-struggles.html?pagewanted=all