Between the Obama administration’s plan to drive prices up in order to put fossil fuels out of business and the turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the U.S. is in real danger of another economic collapse, just as we seem to be coming out of the very deep recession. In both cases the problem is ideology. Obama’s ideology apparently is to cause the US to become a second rate, socialist nation. (Perhaps I am redundant when I use “socialist” and “second rate” as descriptors.) The ideology behind the turmoil in MENA is less clear. In some cases it seems to be a move for a democratic society and in other it appears to be a power grab by the “Muslim brotherhood” for example. Thumbs up for the former and thumbs down for the latter.
Part 1 of this entry will be a look at the Obama Administration. Part 2 will be a look at the turmoil in MENA and the interconnections with the US Energy Policy.
Obama Administration Policies
President Obama made his position on energy perfectly clear, even before he was elected. He said he would cause the electricity rates to skyrocket. He told people that if they put their money in coal plants he would see that they would go bankrupt. see here
He is for offshore drilling in Brazil. In his recent visit to Brazil, he applauded their efforts and pledged billions of dollars in aid for their work. But he does not like offshore drilling for the US.
He populated his Administration with people of the same mind.
Obama’s Science Advisor is John Holdren. If you have followed Holdren’s career, you know that this man has made more bad predictions of things to come that anyone except possibly his cohort, Paul Ehrlich. According to CNS News.com Holdren said:
In a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the “free market economy” to implement the “massive campaign” he advocated along with Paul Ehrlich to “de-develop the United States.” (My emphasis added)
He and Ehrlich described de-development in their book, Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions ” as: “Resources must be diverted from frivolous and wasteful uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries,”
Ken Salazar is the Secretary of the Interior. He manages to minimize leases for new drilling and he prevents development of good potential fossil fuel resources sites by setting aside land. He and Obama do not want the prize areas like ANWR developed although these and other could make us far less dependant on sources outside to the US.
Steven Chu the Secretary of Energy has said that we should figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to $8. This Administration seems to be on track to do just that.
The EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has a big role in these policies.
Lets look at their latest outrageous abuse of power. See full posting here
Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. At stake is an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil. That’s how much the U. S. Geological Survey believes is in the U.S. portion of the Arctic Ocean.
The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.
The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project.
“What the modeling showed was in communities like Kaktovik, Shell’s drilling would increase air pollution levels close to air quality standards,” said Eric Grafe, Earthjustice’s lead attorney on the case.
Who is on the EPA appeals board that is appointed by the EPA Administrator, Shelia Jackson?
The Environmental Appeals Board has four members: Edward Reich, Charles Sheehan, Kathie Stein and Anna Wolgast. All are registered Democrats and Kathie Stein was an activist attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund
And here is another one:
A three-inch lizard that thrives in desert conditions could shut down oil and gas operations in portions of Southeast New Mexico and in West Texas, including the state’s top two oil producing counties. Called the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, it is being considered for inclusion on the federal Endangered Species listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. To read more click here.
And we don’t want to forget the cover his ever faithful friends, the mainstream media, are giving the Administration: click here
While Obama is taking some heat for the price of gasoline, he never forgets what his goals are. Remember how he seemed to back off ObamaCare only until he found a way to get it approved through the back door of the Senate. He is not pushing for Cap and Trade legislation. He does not need to do that because the Supreme Court in a monumental example of bad judgment gave the EPA keys to our bank account when they said the EPA could write regulations for capping CO2 emissions.
His solutions are primarily wind farms and solar cell farms to make up for the fossil fuel powered utilities that he would see shutdown. These renewable energy sources are not ready at the present time to accomplish this. They may never be able to substitute for fossil fuel. See these postings for more information on renewables:
dept-of-energy’s-analysis-says-wind-and-solar-not-competitive/
/real-wind-power-data—disappointing-performance/
https://cbdakota.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/are-windfarms-driving-the-uk-to-third-world-status/
https://cbdakota.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/treasury-few-renewable-energy-projects-deserve-funding/
In Part 2 we will look at what are the forces shaping the new energy world order.
cbdakota
Climate Change Sanity 