Sad news: Sequestration might hamper more renewables projects and “investments”
posted at 5:21 pm on February 27, 2013 by Erika Johnsen
I am mystified as to why I am supposed to interpret this as a bad thing.
Gains made in the last four years to build dozens of renewable energy projects on public lands and create a regulatory framework for offshore wind production in the United States could be stymied by the large federal budget cuts scheduled to begin Friday as a result of the so-called sequester, outgoing Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said Tuesday.
Speaking before a crowd of about 300 gathered at the opening of the Offshore Wind Power USA conference in Boston, Salazar said the effect of the cuts would be akin to an “almost 10 percent cut across the Department of Interior for this fiscal year” — but shoehorned into the next seven months.
“It’s almost the equivalent amount of money as what we have to power the entire Bureau of Land Management and all its functions,” Salazar said.
Salazar’s warning sounded an alarm similar to Energy Secretary Chu’s message to the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month, lamenting the effect the spending cuts will have on clean energy programs: We simply cannot let sequestration stand because we must protect our green “investments” at all costs, and failing to do so would be a national travesty. (Oh, trillion dollar deficits what? Meh).
The Department of Energy works across energy sectors to reduce the cost and speed the adoption of clean energy technologies. These efforts range from cost-competitive high-efficiency solar installations to carbon capture and storage to next generation biofuels and high-efficiency vehicle technologies. Under sequestration, funding reductions would decelerate the Nation’s transition into a clean energy economy, and could weaken efforts to become more energy independent and energy secure, while spurring overall economic growth.
Keep in mind, by the way, that the Department of Energy’s budget has ballooned by 43 percent… in just ten years:
In fiscal year 2002 (Oct. 1, 2001 – Sept. 30, 2002), outlays for the Energy Department were $17,772,000,000, according to the Final Monthly Treasury Statement for fiscal year 2002. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $22,681,180,000 in 2012 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
For fiscal year 2012 (Oct. 1, 2011 – Sept. 30, 2012), outlays for the Energy Department were $32,485,000,000, according to the Final Monthly Treasury Statement last September. That’s an increase of 43.2 percent for the last decade in real inflation-adjusted dollars.
Nevermind that the all that extra money that the Energy Department receives these days has been frivolously and/or cronyish-ly disbursed in the oh-so-noble mission of green venture socialism, nor that the Department of Interior regularly blows our money on spectacularly mismanaging the one-third of the United States’ surface area of which they refuse to cede any control. But, sequester or no sequester, I’m sure they’ll somehow manage to soldier on and keep their bloated bureaucracies’ eyes on the prize:
In a speech Tuesday to the Offshore Wind Power USA Conference, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar touted his department’s progress in approving solar, wind and geothermal projects “and transitioning from planning to commercial leasing for offshore wind.” …
The tax arguments are not new for a clean-energy resource. Onshore wind proponents lobbied hard for an extension of their prized production tax credit during the fiscal-cliff negotiations at the end of 2012. The agreement included a one-year patch for the investment tax credit — which is more beneficial to offshore wind developers because of their projects’ larger size — in addition to a modification allowing companies to claim the benefits once they begin construction, rather than when they start generating electricity. …
The Energy Department also is working to propel projects beyond the research-and- development stage, leading a competitive demonstration program that will fund up to three finalists to advance their wind farms to the commercial stage by 2017.
I suppose that permitting and leasing areas for really any energy development is the most innocuous thing the Interior Department can do, if the requests are coming from private-sector companies and they’re doing so unbiasedly (although I wish that oil-and-gas permitting processes got the same “streamlining” treatment these past four years, hmm), except that that isn’t all the Obama administration does — not by a long shot.
Again, I have absolutely nothing against wind energy, or any private company trying to invest in and compete with alternative energy ventures in the free market. I have everything against the federal government repeatedly using our money to go out on a limb for these ‘green’ energy industries and lobbies. It is not the federal government’s job to pick economic winners and losers — and the very fact that the federal government has to identify something as a winner, is probably a pretty good indication that it’s a loser.
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Why would he do that? If it is a wind company then, ipso facto, it can’t be a tea party outfit. They are against that sort of thing.
Lily on May 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM
Are you thinking the laws are supposed to be enforced equally?
Only in another time, before progressives came to power.
MTF on May 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM
Big Wind kills eagles!
No news on it at eleven.
Liam on May 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM
That walked right up to Chevy Chase’s meltdown in Christmas Vacation. :)
Ex-cellent.
Axe on May 14, 2013 at 8:07 PM
More free stuff for Libtards—PILLOWS!
hillsoftx on May 14, 2013 at 8:08 PM
…can we get JugEars and Carnival Carney to kiss a couple of those blades?
KOOLAID2 on May 14, 2013 at 8:12 PM
This shows the Sierra Club and the other environmentalists are just so full of BS. It is OK to sacrifice for their political aims. Anyone who honestly donates to these lying bastards out of a true concern for the environment have been taken. This is the same political ideology responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th century all for expediency. I think we should hang them all. That would cut way back on CO2 emissions.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft on May 14, 2013 at 8:14 PM
I saw an eagle flying once, up close. It changed me forever. Neither here nor there.
Anyway, problem solved.
Axe on May 14, 2013 at 8:15 PM
The ends justify the means.
OldEnglish on May 14, 2013 at 8:15 PM
Breaking news, huh?
Sorry, all of these “administration scandals” breaking right now are just the same old crap we’ve been seen since Obama ascended to the white house.
Timin203 on May 14, 2013 at 8:18 PM
As symbols of America, Obama and his worshippers are fine with seeing eagles destroyed.
malclave on May 14, 2013 at 8:22 PM
Sometimes ya gotta sacrifice a few eagle eggs to make a socialist utopian omelet….
dentarthurdent on May 14, 2013 at 8:22 PM
What goes “Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, WHAP”
“Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, WHAP“?
I’ll let you finish the punchline. Have fun, especially if the trolls show up.
CBP on May 14, 2013 at 8:28 PM
Scrumpy on the war-path.
OldEnglish on May 14, 2013 at 8:36 PM
Remember those Mexican Americans in Cali whose farms and lives the EPA destroyed to protect a fish?
I wonder if anyone has asked them about this.
29Victor on May 14, 2013 at 8:37 PM
Transforming America..
Say hello to America’s new national bird.
The Buzzard.
Electrongod on May 14, 2013 at 8:39 PM
Ya know, it’s almost as if everyone connected with this administration is on a mission to harass and intimidate everyone and everything that Bark doesn’t support or that doesn’t support him.
I mean come on, what next, the IRS will start using their power to intimidate hundreds of Tea Party non profits, the DOJ will decide to seize phone records of private companies, or HHS will try to force medical companies to fund BarkyCare?
Bishop on May 14, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Nawwwww – couldn’t possibly happen. Why, this is the most transparent administration EVAHHHHH…. Remember?
dentarthurdent on May 14, 2013 at 8:49 PM
There is a huge wind farm about 50 miles south of here. I have a cousin who lives in the area. Locals often refer to the windmills as the “birdchoppers”.
novaculus on May 14, 2013 at 8:51 PM
This outrage is on a par with NOW not complaining about the mistreatment of women in the muslim world.
birdwatcher on May 14, 2013 at 8:55 PM
I have a relative who was part of an environmental impact survey team examining the effects of a reasonably large ‘wind farm’ in Nevada. [something like 70+ turbines] A nondisclosure agreement was part of the hiring process. Couldn’t tell me the results of their 3 month study but judging by photos on the camera, these machines wack a LOT of animals.
The Sierra Clubers and PETA pukes don’t know squat about this pogrom. And if they DO their silence is defening.
Missilengr on May 14, 2013 at 9:02 PM
defening = deafening
Missilengr on May 14, 2013 at 9:04 PM
Other than beatings, night disappearances and work camps, how is this any different than other dictator regimes?
Taxpayer money subsidizes crap that can’t stand on its own, lawmakers don’t live by their own rules, and the govt. chooses who and what to fuk with. And those that get that great honor are hounded by very powerful forces.
arnold ziffel on May 14, 2013 at 9:05 PM
I would imagine, that like MaryJo Kopechne, these noble birds would be thrilled to know that, by by their tragic deaths, they too can promote the progressive cause!
Forward, Comrades!
Lily on May 14, 2013 at 9:12 PM
Common scum like us wouldn’t dare pee in the woods within ten miles of a bald eagle for fear of going to Federal prison.
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 14, 2013 at 11:00 PM
Whether it’s selective enforcement of immigration laws, selective enforcement of IRS regulations, selective enforcement of voting laws, selective waivers for Obamacare, selective enforcement of EPA regulations, etc. we are rapidly becoming a country in which the statue of Justice is no longer blind. Did I mention Congress exempting itself from the laws they pass?
Equal protection under the law is being eroded for political gain or to further political agendas, or to provide political favors.
The American people better wake up soon. Sooner or later you will be in one party’s or the others political correctness sights and subject to selective enforcement because of who you are and not what you’ve done. And whether you benefit from or are harmed by selective enforcement, in the end it will be very bad for everyone.
BMF on May 15, 2013 at 7:42 AM
At least the delisting of the gray wolf was successful.
I saw a juvenile out of place gray wolf here years ago in SW ND. He was just traveling through.
I see a lot of bald eagles in the spring here in ND & northern SD.
They’re young eagles. A lot of Golden Eagles as well.
They often set up camp for a few months on the big cutbank south of our house.
ND has lots of windmills. And all I hear is how we need more of them.
Even after a whooping crane was ground up in one.
And I thought it was kind of amusing that the wind mill people were leaving until they got an extension, so NOW they’re building some more.
Enviros have never cared about the environment bcs if they did, they would attempt to study & understand it & most of the stuff they support they would no longer support.
Badger40 on May 15, 2013 at 8:00 AM
an extension on their Federal Welfare $$, that is.
Badger40 on May 15, 2013 at 8:00 AM
At this point, what difference does it make?
LoganSix on May 15, 2013 at 8:33 AM
Maybe that’s the point of letting the windmills kill predatory birds–they won’t be eating fish!
/sarc off
Wind turbines, especially the generator boxes on them, attract predatory birds. To a bird brain, a flat box on a high pole with a bird’s eye view of prey below seems like an ideal nesting site to keep eggs and chicks out of harm’s way, and an ideal hunting ground.
But wind turbines usually have vanes to keep them pointed upwind (for maximum efficiency), and predatory birds instinctively take off upwind in order to develop enough lift under their wings. So the birds take off through the plane of the spinning blades, and one poorly-timed jump can kill an adult bird, and leave defenseless chicks to starve in the nest.
If the government wanted to protect predatory birds from wind turbines, it could mandate that wind turbine manufacturers take steps to discourage birds from nesting on them, such as:
1) Ensuring that the generator boxes have steep sloping sides and pointy tops, with no flat surfaces which could support a nest;
(2) Using constant ultrasound (inaudible to humans) irritating to birds to scare them away from the turbines (although this also may be irritating to dogs or wildlife which hear higher frequencies than humans do).
Steve Z on May 15, 2013 at 10:38 AM
As a hunter, I know you’re better off shooting a person, than shooting a Bald Eagle.
But hunters aren’t peddling some phony balony energy scam.
JackM on May 15, 2013 at 11:16 AM