Free Republic

‘Clean energy� is the political darling of the moment. President Obama has made the promotion of clean energy one of the centerpieces of his administration and his reelection effort. The Democratic National Committee claims that “clean energy� investments are “helping pave the way to a more sustainable future, creating new jobs and entire industries here in America.� Last month, the Center for American Progress, a leftist think tank, released a report that touted the need to build a clean-energy economy.On Sunday, an editorial in the New York Times extolled the benefits of renewable energy and declared that the “clean...

In case you needed any more evidence that President Obama's "all of the above" talking point on energy policy is a joke, Nevada Assemblyman "Tick" Segerblom, D.-Clark County, just wrote an op-ed bragging about how a recent ruling from Obama's EPA will kill coal power. Media analysts from left and right are predicting that the most recent EPA rule-making decision spells the ultimate end of Big Coal as utilities turn to cleaner, cheaper sources for energy. In the five years since the Supreme Court made its ruling, Nevada has moved faster than many other states to accommodate a new regulatory...

Even before he took the oath of office, Barack Obama embraced the financial crisis of 2008.  In the words of his then Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” and Obama saw the recession as an opportunity for him to play investor picking winners and losers with hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars.  This was his moment to “transform” the American economy to match his vision for a brave new world.  Lavishing billions on green technology was high on Obama’s list of favorites.  In just three years, his Administration has pumped $80 billion into...

Only a president long shielded from criticism and accountability could make the kind of State of the Union speech President Obama did Tuesday night. It's hard to know where to begin, given his repetition of tired ideas from his previous SOTUs, his taking credit for successful policies he resisted and omitting failed ones he promoted, his numerous misrepresentations on issues big and small, and his glaring refusal to address the main issues that threaten the nation. Let me touch on just a few highlights in this brief space. Excessive spending is the primary threat to our nation's and Americans' financial...

When President Barack Obama promised this week to open 75 percent of potential offshore gas and oil resources to drilling and praised the controversial fracking method for extracting untapped oil reserves on land, a collective shudder went through his green constituency. Welcome to election-year rhetoric. The green lobby is learning what other loyal Democratic Party constituencies have learned about being taken for granted. Like blacks and union members before them, the green lobby is discovering that, despite promises to champion their cause, reelection campaign rhetoric commands higher priority. It's safe for the president to offend loyalists. To whom would they...

Federal funds skew business investment during Obama termDisturbing revelations continue to emerge about how more than half a billion dollars of taxpayer dollars were shoveled into the Solyndra solar-panel boondoggle. It is becoming increasingly clear that the only “green” involved in this scandal is money. There is no compelling reason to empower the government to use public funds to engage in risky investments. There also is no reason to believe that government bureaucrats - especially political appointees, not usually known for their business acumen or technical expertise - are smart enough to pick winners in competitive business sectors. Energy Secretary...

A solar power station in space measuring several kilometres in length may sound like something from a science fiction film, but the reality is that this idea could well be operational and supplying much of the worlds energy requirements within less than 20 years. Space based solar power stations are not a new idea, in fact they have been researched since the 1970’s. Back in 2009 the Californian state regulators granted approval to the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Solaren Corp. to start creating a solar based power plant in space. Solaren, founded by veterans of Hughes Aircraft, Boeing...

Three years ago, a winner was chosen to make Rhode Island the nation's first state with an offshore wind farm. Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri made the announcement: Deepwater Wind Inc., -- a well-capitalized New Jersey wind power development company with hotshot lobbyists -- won the contract. Carcieri unveiled the $1.3 billion, 800-job venture in language fit for a legacy: "This is much more than an energy project. This is about creating a new industry in Rhode Island; an industry that puts Rhode Island at the epicenter of the emerging alternative energy market."

President Obama’s war on fossil fuels is adding to instability in a world already racked by international debt, demographic pressures and unpredictable, galloping technological advances. The domestic implications of his policies are increasingly apparent: The closing off of prospecting and drilling is costing tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs. The attempt to choose winners and losers through “green energy” subsidies is producing market distortions, huge losses of taxpayers’ funds and corruption rarely seen since the Soviet Union’s Gosplan. Using executive fiat for arbitrary environmental rulings after Mr. Obama’s “cap and trade” climate plan quietly died in Congress is eroding...

No joke. Here's what Secretary Steven Chu, a top official in the Obama administration who's in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy, claimed today at Sen. Harry Reid's National Clean Energy Summit: So the government played an incredibly intimate role in all the technologies that led to prosperity in the United States, and we must not lose sight of that fact. And if you don't believe he said that — and given how ludicrous that statement is, I wouldn't blame you — here's video of his comment (30:50 mark). Browse through these lists of 10 popular inventions and the top...

Vice President Biden is slated to deliver the keynote address at a Las Vegas energy summit hosted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) later this month. The fourth annual National Clean Energy Summit will also feature remarks from Center for American Progress President John Podesta, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), among others. “The Obama administration has proven time and again it understands the importance of building a competitive 21st-century economy through clean energy investments and policies that are focused on putting people back to work, reducing costs for consumers and...

EPA Deputy Administrator Mathy Stanislaus EPA Deputy Administrator Mathy Stanislaus should be given credit for showing up Thursday to an Environment and Energy subcommittee hearing, but may not be returning any time soon.  Let’s just say his performance was cringe-inducing as he spun like a top attempting to deflect the very pointed, and basic yes-or-no questions of Rep. Cory Gardner (R – Colorado).  An exasperated Stanislaus even resorted to a face-palm maneuver to regain his rhetorical footing.  Of course, YouTube video exists…see below.It’s clear that the GOP wants to eliminate the EPA’s current attempt/ability to regulate greenhouse gases (CO2) and,...

Renewable energy is all the rage. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law last week to encourage more of it. The law "encouraged" in the way government encourages everything: Do it or else. Rather than produce a mere 20 percent of California's energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar by the year 2020, state utilities now are ordered to generate a third of it that way. President Barack Obama trumpets similar lofty-sounding goals for the nation, although he's not having as much success, considering Congress isn't as rabidly left-leaning green as California's Legislature. California Gov. Jerry Brown, sitting,...

Just as Japan’s earthquake raises fears of catastrophe from a nuclear meltdown and Mideast turmoil jeopardizes the world’s supply of conventional energy, along comes word of a possible scientific breakthrough that holds out the hope of cheap, abundant power. Cold fusion - discredited and vilified in the past - is back in the news. The potential benefits are great enough that, despite past failures, the technology deserves a fair hearing from the scientific community this time.

Last week the House Energy & Power Subcommittee marked up H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act. Today, the full House Energy & Commerce Committee will mark up the bill.Opponents, especially Reps. Waxman, Markey, and Inslee, viciously attacked the bill last Thursday. Their arguments are reviewed in detail at the blog GlobalWarming.Org. The post concludes with this summary of the Waxman-Markey-Inslee argument as follows: We know what is good for America and the world. It’s a future without fossil fuels. We can’t persuade the people’s representatives to support our agenda and turn it into law. Therefore, it is necessary for...

(Reuters) - The United States should "put the brakes on" new nuclear power plants until fully understanding what happened to the earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors in Japan, the chairman of the U.S. Senate's homeland security panel said on Sunday.

Obama's clean energy boondoggle will be expensive for America President Barack Obama uttered not a peep about global warming in his State of Union this year. No dire warnings about climate apocalypse. No calls for cap-and-trade. Has this cold winter convinced him to put his global warming agenda on ice?Hardly. Indeed, even in this age of deficits and debt, the president’s budget is chock full of global warming items—except he wraps them around a new cause: clean energy.And that may be enough to get Republicans to sign on.That "clean energy" is code for "anti-warming" is obvious, given that even Environmental...

Here’s the story: “We can’t control the weather,” Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas. “We’re looking to see if we can cope with it more effectively, through the testing of a couple of techniques.”She says the conditions in northern New Brunswick have wreaked havoc on the wind farm this winter.“For us, cold and dry weather is good and that’s what’s typical in the region. Cold and wet weather can be a problem without any warmer days to prompt thawing, which has been the case this year.“This weather pattern has been particularly challenging.”Full article here...

President Obama in his recent SOTU address said that “this is our generation’s sputnik moment” referring to the need to use science and technology to develop cheaper clean energy (among other things). It seems the Chinese were listening because last week they announced a focused effort to achieve technological leadership in thorium molten salt reactors.From EnergyFromThoriumThe People’s Republic of China has initiated a research and development project in thorium molten-salt reactor technology, it was announced in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) annual conference on Tuesday, January 25. An article in the Wenhui News followed on Wednesday (Google English translation)....

Was this part of the inspiration for Obama’s SOTU goal: “by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources”?During last night’s State of the Union Address, president Obama essentially abandoned AGW proponents, and shifted the focus to energy, including uttering the greens most dreaded term: “clean coal”. He also set a bold goal that raised some eyebrows: I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this...

The dumbest criticism the Democrats' media sheep make of Tea Party members is that Tea Partiers don't accept the global warming nonsense that most Democrats and their media sheep have fallen for. Most Tea Party members aren't climate experts, but they are smart enough to recognize a political con when they see one. In business cons, police warn that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. In political cons, if something sounds too bad to be true it probably is too bad to be true. Like most con artists, the people attempting to continue Enron's global...

VINALHAVEN, Me. — Like nearly all of the residents on this island in Penobscot Bay, Art Lindgren and his wife, Cheryl, celebrated the arrival of three giant wind turbines late last year. That was before they were turned on.“In the first 10 minutes, our jaws dropped to the ground,” Mr. Lindgren said. “Nobody in the area could believe it. They were so loud.” Now, the Lindgrens, along with a dozen or so neighbors living less than a mile from the $15 million wind facility here, say the industrial whoosh-and-whoop of the 123-foot blades is making life in this otherwise tranquil...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday touted his administration's energy policy agenda, predicting that his clean energy programs will create "hundreds of thousands" of new American jobs by 2012. Meanwhile, he painted an ugly, contrasting picture of the GOP energy agenda, arguing that Republicans would only boost the nation's dependence on foreign oil and keep special interest groups in control. "We can go back to the failed energy policies that profited the oil companies but weakened our country," the president said in his weekly radio address, proving that he's not done attacking the GOP this midterm election season. "Or we...

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Unilever, the London consumer-products giant, is expected to announce on Wednesday that it invested in Solazyme Inc., the South San Francisco developer of oil from algae, The Wall Street Journal reported. Algal oil holds promise as a replacement for palm oil, .....

"It has been a matter of policy in the wind farm industry to make the financing of it both opaque and complicated," said Mr Etherington. "In all countries across Europe the customer is not told how much they are paying for it, and the whole financing of the industry is coming out of subsidy on electricity generation." .....Recent research by Kroll, the international corporate security firm, has discovered examples all over Europe of so-called "clean energy" schemes being used to to line criminals' pockets rather than save the planet. Some involve windmills that stand derelict or are simply never built,...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

When President Obama used the Gulf oil spill to promote his legislation for a Clean Energy Future, it was blatant opportunism. Comparing the oil spill with renewable power is like comparing soccer to baseball. Both are sports, both use a ball, but they are completely different things. Recent statistics show how renewable power, especially Wind Power and Solar Power just cannot be used to supply the constant amounts of power required absolutely 24/7/365. Analysis of these statistics shows exactly how these two current flavour of the month renewable sources for electrical power fail so miserably at what they are touted...

When the President uses the Gulf oil spill disaster to push the barrow for Cap and Trade Legislation, be fully aware this is just a red herring, because the one bears no relation to the other. The Legislation's proposer Senator Kerry came out yesterday and said the Legislation would only cost less than a dollar a day to lower the temperature. Notice how they always use the lowest possible price, without telling you the larger figure of how much this legislation will rake in for the Government. That amount, easily calculated comes in at around $260 Billion, each and every...

I (we) ask that you consider what has happened in the last 53 days. The most recent government estimate suggests that the Gulf oil disaster is spewing the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez every 5 to 12 days with no definite end in sight. You do the math. Our country is facing an environmental disaster of unknown proportions and characteristics. And no, a wind farm couldn’t have prevented that. But at least it will take a tiny step or two in the right direction.

Spikes of corn stalks are scattered along miles of fog-shrouded fields in Hancock’s Bridge on a spring morning — an eerie suggestion of the bayonets used in the Revolutionary and Civil War battles that were fought there. On the horizon is the billowing cooling tower of the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, which is taller than the length of a football field. It is a stark reminder that this historic rural hamlet relies on an industry that is playing a major role in the nation’s debate over energy policy. The contrast is not lost on Ellen Pompper. Her family moved to...

Good times could be coming for T. Boone Pickens' Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE - News), but according to Barron's that doesn't mean you should be buying it. When it comes to the trucking industry, the case for natural gas is a strong one. At recent prices of less than 50 cents per gasoline gallon equivalent, nat gas is a steal compared to diesel, and Pickens has put significant emphasis on eradicating American dependence on foreign oil. Barron's notes that about $8,000 in upgrades are required before a truck can run on the fuel, but the industry is hopeful for...

Drill here- drill now has been my mantra for a long time, to help break our dependence on the world for energy. Simultaneously, we need nuclear power. For 50 years the US Navy has safely sailed around the world on nuclear power and it's time for us to bring that technology ashore. Bill Gates, along with Toshiba, are in the process of developing a small nuclear reactor that can run continuously for 100 years without any refueling. Currently, Toshiba's US based partner; Westinghouse, has already built a model that can run up to 30 years continuously. The left propagates their...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/03/08/live-stanford-s-sustainability-summit Home • The White House Blog The White House Blog Live from Stanford: Secretary Chu on the Global Clean Energy Challenge Posted by Secretary Steven Chu on March 08, 2010 at 01:45 PM EST What are the steps we must take as a nation to create new, clean energy jobs and ensure America’s long-term competitiveness? What are the consequences for our climate of inaction? How can science and technology offer us new and better choices – and how can America’s young people make a difference? Today, I’m returning to Stanford University, where...

Hours after the unemployment rate was reported as holding at 9.7 percent, President Obama speaks about clean energy jobs at OPOWER, a smart grid and energy efficiency software company in Arlington, Va. "Just looking around, this looks like a fun place to work," he says, noting that the company makes homes more energy efficient, saves people money and creates jobs. He says it is a "model of what we want to be seeing all across the country." Commenting on Friday's jobs report, Obama says the loss of 36,000 jobs is "actually better than expected, considering the severe storms all along...

Energy activists met at the Stark County District Library at 715 Market Ave. N on Monday morning to stand in support of a national clean-energy plan. Sierra Club leaders says the plan will bring an estimated 67,000 clean-energy jobs to Ohio and protect national security by reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil. Participants will hold signs throughout the day, urging passersby to call the office of U.S. Rep. John Boccieri, D-Alliance, to urge his continued leadership in clean energy. The rally is part of a “National Day of Action� organized by the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and...

The President's State of The Union Address hyped up Clean Energy and Renewable Power. These three methods of electrical power generation are the most inefficient ways to produce electricity. Wind Power at best delivers it power at an efficiency rate of only 20%. If you got a brand new car full in the knowledge that it was only going to run one time in five, would you be happy? The same applies with renewable power. Enormously expensive and totally inefficient. Why should we be happy about that?

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Westinghouse Electric Co. next week to discuss the safety of its proposed AP1000 nuclear-reactor design. Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse unit will address the commission's concern about the structural integrity of the silo-shaped shield building that would contain the reactor and trap radioactivity in an accident, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said. Containment buildings at existing reactors were poured at the site as a solid piece of steel-reinforced concrete, Jaczko said. Westinghouse wants to piece the building together from sections, he said. "When you're dealing with the kinds of accident scenarios that we look at, or...

The clean energy industry is speeding up its spending on Washington lobbyists. During the first six months of 2009 the sector spent $12.1 million on lobbying, London based research firm New Energy Finance reports.

Department of Energy Denies USEC’s Loan Guarantee Application -Company begins demobilization of American Centrifuge Plant- BETHESDA, Md. – USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) President and Chief Executive Officer John K. Welch issued the following statement today after being advised that the U.S. Department of Energy would not proceed with USEC’s application for a loan guarantee to complete construction of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio: “We are shocked and disappointed by DOE’s decision. The American Centrifuge met the original intent of the loan guarantee program in that it would have used an innovative, but proven, technology, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and...

Invitation by Harry Reid and Al Gore -- National Clean Energy Summit 2010 and Jobs and the New Economy; August 10, Las Vegas, Nevada

Duke University Official Caught in Alleged Child Sex String. College kids go through hell on rape charge. Pedophile gets a free ride from the new media. Well not tonight on the Bobby D Show. Tune in 10pm EST - 12 m

CONGRESSIONAL VOTES...

Climate Change: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill? This was supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest tax increase in U.S. history on 100% of Americans, an attempt was made to suppress a study shredding supporters' arguments.

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

American Clean Energy and Security ActI couldn't get the results to format after copying its code. The link will have to do.

Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Edward J. Markey introduced "H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act." The Energy and Commerce Committee will begin markup of the bill on Monday, May 18, 2009, at 1:00 p.m., and will complete consideration before the Memorial Day recess. "The legislation will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, promote America's energy independence and security, and cut global warming pollution," said Chairman Waxman. "In support of these goals, this legislation ensures that consumers and industries in all regions of the country...

On Earth Day, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis wanted to make Obama's energy policy perfectly clear: "If we are going to create clean energy industry jobs in this country," they write in a widely syndicated op-ed, "break the stranglehold that foreign oil has on our economy and punish the polluters who are devastating our natural resources, then we've got to be honest about the difficult tasks and tough choices ahead. It's going to mean telling the special interests that their days of dictating energy policy in this country are over." Indeed, and we can...

Clean-energy investments target eastern Europe, but it remains to be seen whether they will create as many new jobs as hoped. Wind farms could benefit from greater investment by the European Commission.B. STRONG/REUTERS Three months after European Union (EU) leaders committed themselves to cutting greenhouse gases by at least 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, the European Commission has announced that it will subsidize 'green' programmes and infrastructures with €105 billion (US$136 billion). The windfall comes from the union's €347 billion in 'structural' funds. It is the second-largest budget in the commission's portfolio, behind agriculture, and is aimed at creating...

AT&T Inc. will spend up to $565 million over 10 years on alternative-fuel vehicles for its corporate fleet, the most significant investment by a U.S. company in transportation powered by natural gas. The Dallas-based telecommunications provider will purchase 8,000 vehicles that run on compressed natural gas for its fleet of installation and repair vans, and replace about 7,100 passenger cars with hybrid-electric models. The move expands on similar initiatives by companies like United Parcel Service Inc. and PG&E Corp., which already operate thousands of natural-gas-powered vehicles. AT&T will begin by deploying 800 new CNG and hybrid-electric vehicles in 2009. The...