Anti energy left dirties the environment

Nicolas Loris:
For all of President Obama’s talk Tuesday night of boosting US energy production, he has a huge problem: The American left — a vital part of his political base — seems determined to force us down the opposite path. Indeed, the “Big Green Extreme” fights energy even when it means harming the environment. 
Take Obama’s decision last week to halt the Keystone XL pipeline. It defied common sense. Letting the oil flow from Canada to refineries in Texas would have generated thousands of high-paying US jobs (hence the unions’ anger with the president), given our nation’s flagging economy a big boost and reduced our energy dependence on less-friendly and less-reliable suppliers. 
Plus, killing the pipeline is a clear loser for the environment. The oil from Canadian tar sands isn’t staying in the ground. It’s heading overseas via tanker to China, where it will be refined under regulations far looser than ours. Every step of the way, the process is less “green” than the Keystone route. 
Oh, and we’ll have to import more oil via tankers from overseas, or carry crude oil from Canada in trucks or on rails. 
The assault on energy is relentless. Last year, the US Chamber of Commerce identified 351 energy projects stalled by “not in my backyard” suits, regulatory red tape and, of course, endless challenges from greens. Almost half these projects (140) are renewable-energy ones. 
In Alaska and Idaho, for instance, environmental groups are challenging hydroelectric projects, claiming they could threaten fish habitats, water quality or tourism. Wind and solar projects, meanwhile, face opposition because they might threaten desert tortoises or migratory birds.

...
Why do Democrats pay attention to these people?  Perhaps they are just as unintelligent when it comes to energy.  The rejection of the Keystone project may go down in history as one of the least intelligent decisions by a president.  If the Obama administration thought it could get in front of the criticism of this decision, it has stepped in front of the freight train that will have to be carrying the oil at four or five times the cost of the pipeline.  That is only good news for Warren Buffett who is an owner of the train.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more