Obama’s Out-of-Touch Energy Priorities: Long Hot Summer Means Brownouts and Rising Energy Prices

National Review ^ | 07/01/2014 | Bryon Allen

[SeekAndFind]

President Obama and the Democrats hardly need another strike against them when they’re already dealing with public anger over health care, their questionable foreign-policy leadership, growing concerns about accountability in the IRS and Benghazi scandals, and a stagnant or shrinking economy.

However, with summer heat approaching, another major issue looms on the horizon: Democrats’ unpopular energy policies could be coming home to roost. Whether stalling on the Keystone pipeline, waging war on coal, or striving in myriad ways to constrain fossil-fuel use, this administration has never supported domestic energy production. And there is yet another energy issue now forcing Democrats to feel the heat: electric-utility generation.

Electric-utility generation (which is just another way of describing the energy that powers your home) has dropped 7 percent nationwide since Obama took office, if we go by the latest available figures from 2012. While some of the drop is due to a decrease in industrial demand — hardly a good thing for manufacturing in America — it doesn’t account for the entire dramatic drop.

Earlier this week, authorities found a bomb that had been placed next to huge diesel tank at a power station in Arizona. The bomb did not explode, and no one was injured, but police have not yet apprehended the saboteurs. This incident, like previous efforts to attack power stations, reminds us that utility companies have an additional worry in trying to protect their vulnerable stations from potential attacks that could knock their customers off the grid for an unknown amount of time.

When you combine reduced supply with a surge in demand due to record-high summer temperatures, you have a recipe for skyrocketing prices leading to brownouts or, even worse, blackouts across the country. At a time when most Americans are concerned about the economy and their ability to make ends meet, a sudden spike in electric bills could set off an immediate backlash. Brownouts and blackouts will be hard to swallow as summer temperatures soar.

We recently conducted a national survey about energy issues and found more than two in five Americans (43 percent) think that rising energy prices were the most important energy issue facing our country; another quarter say that our domestic production is too low. Far fewer worried about pollution or the renewable-energy agenda driving this administration’s approach. Clearly, on energy policy, the White House is not in synch with the American public.

These numbers are problematic for Democrats, and if weather forecasts for record heat this summer prove correct, the public’s anger about rising energy prices will only increase. When Democratic policies on health care started having an impact on the average American wallet, with huge increases in co-pays and premiums, President Obama and Democrats dropped precipitously in the polls. Now it seems another Democratic policy is about to hit Americans where it hurts most. It’s going to be a long hot summer, and the heat is likely to extend into the fall for this anti-energy President and his willing accomplices in Congress. November isn’t that far away, and voters will remember their summertime blues when it’s time to hit the polls.

— Bryon Allen (@AllenWPA) is the partner and COO of @WPAResearch, a public-opinion research company whose clients include Senators Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Mike Lee (R., Utah).

[eyeamok]

The last thing this country needs is an abundant supply of affordable energy, it will only lead to the desire for freedom and liberty, the two things tyrannical dictators can’t stand.

[thackney]

if we go by the latest available figures from 2012.

- - -

Latest available data is up to April 2014. If the “journalists” is that out of touch, how meaningful is his writing?

http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/xls/table_1_01.xlsx

- - - - - -

has dropped 7 percent nationwide since Obama took office

- - -

No it has not.

2008, the year before Obama took office, we generated 4,119,388 thousand-Megawatt hours.

2012 we generated 4,047,765 thousand-Megawatt hours, down 1.7%

2013 we generated 4,058,209 thousand-Megawatt hours, down 1.7%

Becoming more efficient results in using, and there for generating, less electricity.

[BitWielder1]

Neither hot or cold is a problem if you have cheap energy.

[MrB]

Abundant affordable energy makes it possible for people who are not the pets of the elites to live like the elites,

and that will not be tolerated.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Brownouts? Wait a coupla more years and it will be blackouts and grid down. Time to seriously invest in an alternative electrical system. We are going with off grid solar and I don’t care about ROI. I just want to have electricity when Blam finally puts the grid down.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Obama’s Out-of-Touch Energy Priorities: Long Hot Summer Means Brownouts and Rising Energy Prices

The ayatollah Hussein 0bama and his crew won't have any of those problems, so guess how much he cares.

[Organic Panic]

The good news is Al Gore will have plenty of power for his A/C.

[nascarnation]

Expensive gasoline gets the poor people off the streets

Outta my way!

[sefarkas]

The economy is weaker as measured by electric power production in the years listed. The 2008 capacity is largely intact (not all units were operating all the time in 2008). Therefore, the chance of a wide-area black-out is relatively less because the grid can establish more routes between generators and loads upon a fault without overtaxing the system. One of the side benefits of a lousy economy. Kinda like all the nice freeways in Detroit meant for a metro area of five million, but having less than half of that in residence.

[thackney]

The economy is weaker as measured by electric power production in the years listed.

I don't agree that is an accurate measure of the economy.

I've made changes both in my home and at industrial facilities that increase efficiency, using less power to do the same or even more work.

[grania]

The article doesn't even begin to articulate the problem. It's something I've been cyber-screaming about since central American teens started over-running the border. Almost every city has at least some "hot spots" the police are more or less aware of, where tempers could flare into very scary violence. These extra teens from central American could easily cause the tensions among ethnic groups to escalate beyond anything police have an awareness of.

If the tempertures are too hot, supposedly violence decreases because people stay inside, airconditioned and lazy. But if there are brownouts or blackouts? My gosh, the streets are going to be teeming with hot, angry teenagers and young adults. It won't be safe anywhere.

[thackney]

The change in our imports and exports of electricity also show generation alone is not a good measure of our economy. We are importing more and exporting less in the same time frames.

http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_02_13.html

[Don_Ret_USAF]

You can bet that the White House will not see any interruption of power. Bet their is an emergency generator system installed. With auto switch over from commercial to generator power during a power failure. The generator will use either, diesel, methane gas or gasoline fuel. Also it is possible that all government building has some sort of emergency backup power available too. AS they say “Why Me Worry”.

[sefarkas]

Still the capacity of the system is much more than what is demanded by the load. The journalist is a bit wacky in predicting this unfortunate outcome on top of the other 0bama disasters.

[thackney]

It is only the peak load that matters in designing generation capacity.