Archives for May 2016

Op-Ed: Once again, siding with greens over job creation

May 16, 2016 by Justin Williams

Philadelphia Inquirer | May 13, 2016 | Dan Kish

President Obama just had a change of heart on offshore energy development.

Last year, the president put forward a blueprint to expand oil and gas exploration off the Atlantic Coast. This month, he shelved the plan.

Environmentalists are celebrating. But it's a loss for the country. Obama has passed on an important opportunity to secure America's energy future and create thousands of jobs.

The president has a long history of siding with environmentalists over working Americans. While campaigning for the presidency in 2008, for instance, Obama stated proudly that "under my plan ... electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."

Upon taking office, the president wasted little time in pursuing this goal. After his attempt to get a cap-and-trade bill through Congress failed, he said that was "just one way of skinning the cat" and tasked the Environmental Protection Agency with carrying out his agenda through executive fiat.

The EPA responded with the Clean Power Plan, a sweeping carbon dioxide reduction scheme based on an imaginative interpretation of the Clean Air Act. Among other things, the plan promised to slash power plants' carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030.

By restricting the use of low-cost fossil fuels and forcing the construction of expensive new generation, the EPA's plan effectively mandates that Americans pay more for energy. Fortunately, in February, the Supreme Court halted the enforcement of this scheme until legal challenges are resolved.

Read full op-ed here.

Dan Kish is a senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research.

The Surge Profiles NOIA President Randall Luthi

May 11, 2016 by Justin Williams

The Surge | May 11, 2016 | Jesus Jimenez

Have you ever wondered how energy from the bottom of the ocean floor gets to your gas station? Probably not, since you don’t have to. But Randall Luthi makes everything offshore his business– as president of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA).

“What we’re trying to do is make sure people understand the process,” Luthi says. “For most Americans, their only contact with the oil and natural gas industry is when they go into the service station to fill up their vehicle with gas. They have no idea how sophisticated, how scientific, and how techy this industry really is. Particularly when you start talking about offshore exploration — it’s almost sexy-scientific. It’s that advanced. It’s almost like dealing with space-age technology when you get out there.

So how did a Wyoming native land in this high tech energy world? Through a vast career with many impressive highlights: he served in the Wyoming House of Representatives and worked for the Department of Interior in two administrations. Luthi also was Senior Counselor of Environmental Regulations in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Deputy Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. He was also head of the Minerals Management Service in President George W. Bush’s administration too.

“You get the opportunity to meet with people that may or may not agree with you,” Luthi says about his time as a state representative. “That’s certainly the kind of business I’m in each and every single day here in Washington. Wyoming is also an energy state so it gave me a great understanding of how important energy is to the American consumer. I got a taste of how we need all forms of energy. As we continue to grow, as the world continues to grow, as economies continue to develop, we’re going to need all forms of energy.”

Read the full profile on Randall Luthi by The Surge here.

Sally Jewell: ‘Keep it in the ground’ protests ‘naïve’

May 11, 2016 by Justin Williams

The Desert Sun | May 6, 2016 | Sammy Roth

President Barack Obama's Interior secretary had some sharp words for the "keep it in the ground" movement Thursday.

Environmental groups have increasingly urged the federal government to stop issuing new leases for coal, oil and gas extraction on public lands. They've argued that if the world doesn't keep the vast majority of its fossil fuels in the ground, global warming will almost certainly exceed 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, the target adopted in Paris last year by 195 nations, including the United States.

Speaking with a Desert Sun reporter after an event at the Whitewater Preserve on Thursday, Jewell said the United States is "waking up as a nation to the impact of climate change, and the impact of carbon on our environment." Eventually, "we will transition ourselves from a fossil fuel-dependent economy to an economy where we are not as dependent," she said.

But for now, the nation depends on coal, oil and gas, Jewell said. In California, she noted, "There are many, many miles driven every day. We don’t yet have solar-powered cars."

Read full story here.

Oil didn’t cause the Fort McMurray fire — it helped save people’s lives

May 11, 2016 by Justin Williams

Financial Post | May 5, 2016 | Kevin Libin

There are countless stories of human heroism to be found in this week’s mass evacuation of 88,000 people from Fort McMurray safely, without any reported injuries or deaths. But there’s one hero that will go unsung, as usual, despite showing up as a saviour in virtually every harrowing news report about the emergency. So, please, let’s all take a moment now to thank our lucky stars for … oil.

The technology of fossil fuel combustion is relatively modern; forest combustion is not. Wildfires have been routinely sweeping across vast swathes of Albertan forest long before the first settler arrived. The regular, mass conflagration of immense stands of trees is a natural and necessary part of a forest’s life cycle. But now that we’ve put cities in fire’s path, the only critical chemical substance that has kept humans from succumbing to those flames also happens to be Alberta’s No. 1 export to the world: wonderful, unloved petroleum.

As alarm over the approaching flames began rapidly spreading through Fort McMurray Tuesday night, and the evacuation was ordered, there was one thing everyone desperately wanted access to: a car or truck with a tank full of gasoline, so they could drive themselves and their loved ones to safety.

Service stations were lined up hundreds deep. Fleet of buses were commandeered to clear people out of neighbourhoods. One fast-thinking resident, Mohamad Bouchaaala, a Suncor employee, realizing his own car’s tank was too low on fuel to get far, had to scramble to the airport to rent a fully gassed Jeep to save his wife and three kids. As National Post reporter Tristin Hopper reported in an inspiring story, dozens of volunteers loaded up trucks with tanks and cans filled with diesel and gasoline to distribute to those needing it. United Rentals in Fort McMurray offered up its available fuel trucks. Good Samaritans patrolled the roads leading out of town providing food, water, blankets and, of course, unleaded petrol, to anyone stranded on the highway. People siphoned gas to share from their tanks to their neighbours without.

Read full story here.

‘Keep it in the Ground’: Not the Energy Plan We Need

May 11, 2016 by Justin Williams

RealClearEnergy | May 5, 2016 | David Holt

America’s energy revolution has resulted in record-low oil and gas prices, which have allowed us to keep warm for less, use energy-intensive electronics like smartphones, drive more than ever, and better provide for our families.

For many, the pleasantries of everyday life are made better with abundant, safe, and affordable energy. For others, reliable and inexpensive energy ensures shelter, food, clothing, and the ability to make a better life.

If you’re an energy consumer – and if you’re reading this, you are – your life has been made better by America’s energy revolution.

Unfortunately, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), this could all change.

The IEA recently warned consumers not to let the current low price of oil and gasoline fool them into a false sense of security amid forecasts of a price spikes in the next few years.

“It is easy for consumers to be lulled into complacency by ample stocks and low prices today, but they should heed the writing on the wall,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol cautioned. “The historic investment cuts we are seeing raise the odds of unpleasant oil-security surprises in the not-so-distant future.”

This warning is a stark reminder that today’s budget-friendly energy prices might soon be the good old times of tomorrow if we don’t maintain a domestic all-of-the-above energy strategy – a strategy that, as President Obama outlined in a State of the Union speech a few years back, “develops every available source of American energy.”

Read full editorial here.

David Holt is the president of Consumer Energy Alliance