Expose Obama » Department of Energy

Environmentalists Cause Me to Wear Dirty Clothes (Just Like They Do)

Ben — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:36:31 +0000

Tom Purcell, FloydReports.com

I need to buy a new washing machine. I guess I’m out of luck.

I refer to a fascinating article written by Mark Thornton for Mises Daily, part of the Ludwig von Mises Institute website (mises.org).

Thanks to the government, you see, washing machines aren’t what they used to be — and they’re getting worse.

It wasn’t long ago — prior to World War II — that folks washed their clothes by hand or used clunky hand-cranked machines.

During the postwar consumerization boom, labor-intensive clothes washing was made easy by automatic electric machines.

In 1956, Wisk, the first liquid laundry detergent, offered a vast improvement over the soaps Americans had been using to clean their clothes.

Competition among detergent and washing-machine makers continually improved the quality of both.

To be sure, clothes washing had become so easy and effective, even clumsy oafs such as I could do it with little effort.

But our government is unwittingly reversing our washday advances.

Thornton cites a 1996 Consumer Reports test of 18 washing-machine models. Thirteen were rated excellent, five as very good.

In fact, any decent detergent and any machine would get your clothes nice and clean back then.

In 2007, Consumer Reports tested 21 models. Not one of them was rated excellent. Seven were rated as poor, the rest as mediocre.

What’s worse: Consumer Reports found that in most cases, the clothes were as dirty after washing as they were before!

True, some high-end front-loading machines fared slightly better, but they are much more expensive and, the report found, have issues with mold.

Why are newer models so much less effective than 1996 models? The answer is….

Obama Drills Our Wallets, Not the Gulf

Ben — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:58:30 +0000

Susan Stamper Brown, FloydReports.com

Poor Peggy Joseph. Overwhelmed by the promise of hope after hearing an Obama campaign speech, Joseph said, “I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help [Obama], he’s gonna [sic] help me.” Peggy kept her part of the bargain, but looking at food and gas prices lately, the day Peggy never thought would happen – likely never will.

Gas prices have soared above $4.00 per gallon in some parts of the country and, on average, have risen .38 cents per gallon over the past three weeks. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts motor fuel expenses for 2011 to rise 28 percent from last year. But that’s okay; everything’s going according to the playbook. After all, back in 2008, Obama said, “Under my plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket.” Prices have skyrocketed, and now Obama is running for cover while at the same time trying to take credit for last year’s peak in oil production. Considering the lag time between exploration permits and production, it begs the question: How much of the rise in production is due to Bush-era policies?

As presidents typically do, Obama surrounded himself with like-minded people. Energy Secretary Steven Chu once said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe” and had previously suggested that a gradual increase in gasoline taxes would “encourage” consumers to become more energy-conscious.” Good job, Mr. Chu, we are “encouraged,” – encouraged that 2012 is just around the corner….

How George Soros Handicaps American Energy

Ben — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:59:21 +0000

Ed Lasky, The American Thinker

George Soros has been a brilliant investor over the years. As befits many hedge fund operators, he uses leverage to magnify his returns. But in his case, leverage has a double meaning.

Leverage can refer to the debt Soros assumes when he makes his investments. But it can also refer to the practice Soros has engaged in, both overseas and in America, to use his money and influence to bolster his political power — power that he then uses to boost returns on his investments. He is not just a hedge fund billionaire but a crony capitalist kingpin who puts GE to shame.

His latest efforts to try to weaken American energy companies and empower their overseas rivals is by advocating the Securities and Exchange Commission draft laws that burden our companies-and leave foreign ones alone and untouched.

From the Hill:

Billionaire investor George Soros is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to craft the “strongest” rules possible requiring oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments and urging against an exemption that Exxon and other companies are seeking.

The SEC is crafting rules to implement a provision — Section 1504 — in last year’s Wall Street reform law that forces oil and mining companies to provide the regulators specific information about payments connected to projects in foreign countries…

A suite of energy companies, in comments to the regulators, say they favor disclosure but warn that prescriptive rules would be burdensome and place them at a competitive disadvantage compared to certain state-backed oil companies from countries such as Russia and China.

In practice this is what would happen: American companies would not be able to reach deals to drill in foreign nations — where much of the world’s last undeveloped reserves are probably located. Not only would it be against the law to meet the overseas competition’s terms, but Soros would probably unleash his bevy of think tanks, 527 groups, human rights and monitoring groups to investigate American oil companies to ensure they have their hands tied. Meanwhile, competitors based in countries such as Russia and China that would not be subject to the same scrutiny. Nor do those countries — or others, such as Saudi Arabia — have an active and free press that would be more than eager to take leads and information from Soros’s groups and turn them into exposes. These exposes, in America anyway, would then be grist for politicians to hold Congressional hearings and excoriate American energy executives for the cameras and the viewing public.

I have written numerous columns regarding the actions George Soros has taken over the years to hurt American oil and gas companies. He has a vested interest (to the tune of at least a billion dollars) in trying to rig the system to make his “clean energy” investments pay off. Since these investments need oil and gas to be high-priced, anything he can do to harm the companies that bring this bounty to the surface help those green schemes.

Obama: Deliberately Making Americans Poorer

Ben — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:45:29 +0000

Richard W. Rahn, The Washington Times

The Obama administration’s policies are causing Americans to pay far more for gasoline and other fuels than necessary. America is awash in fossil-fuel energy sources with almost 30 percent of the world’s coal and 80 percent of the world’s oil shale – which contains an estimated three times the recoverable oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Canada, with its oil sands, has the world’s third-highest oil reserves, after the United States and Saudi Arabia. New technologies that enable low-cost natural gas production from shale mean that many countries, including the United States, will have gas for centuries at current production rates.

Fossil fuels at some prices are interchangeable. Coal, gas, and oil can all fuel electric power plants. Liquid motor fuels can be made easily from natural gas, and, in fact, many auto, truck and bus fleets already use natural gas. For more than 70 years, the technology has been available to turn coal into liquid motor fuel.

Natural gas now sells in the United States for a British thermal unit (BTU) equivalent of $30 a barrel of oil, and coal sells at roughly half that price. Much of the Canadian oil sands, U.S. domestic oil shale and offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico can be produced at prices well below $75 per barrel. The United States should be an energy exporter; Canada already is and is the single biggest source of oil for the U.S.

Most countries try to produce oil, gas, and coal and sell it on the global market as a way of increasing the real incomes of their citizens, but not the United States. The Obama administration has a hatred of fossil fuels and is determined to reduce their use despite the economic damage. So-called green energy often is not very green and cannot possibly serve as a substitute for most fossil fuels. Windmills and solar panels are far more expensive than coal and gas; their production is intermittent, unreliable and largely unstorable. Because of the physics of the electrical grid, wind and solar can never produce more than about 18 percent of electrical production – at least not until low-cost storage devices are developed. Many biofuels, and in particular corn-based ethanol, are not only more expensive than the natural fuels but have a bigger total carbon footprint.

The Obamaites believe carbon dioxide (CO2) is evil because they think more of it will cause global warming. They ignore the facts:

Earth has been at times in the past both cooler and warmer with higher concentrations of CO2.
Other factors, such as sunspot activity, are more important than CO2 in determining Earth’s temperature.
Scientists are in the process of finding new commercial uses for CO2 and are experimenting with the use of biological agents to turn CO2 back into a useful fuel. CO2 always has been part of our atmosphere and is necessary for plants to grow.

Just think for a moment of all the….

Obama Official Goes to Work for George Soros (Openly)

Ben — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:28:14 +0000

Ed Lasky, The American Thinker

Yesterday, I blogged that Cathy Zoi, acting undersecretary of Energy at the Department of Energy, was leaving office to go to work for private industry. The New York Times article that mentioned the transition failed to note where exactly she would be working.

Timothy Carney at the Washington Examiner found out today. The answer is George Soros.

George Soros — whom we’re always told is not serving his own economic interests at all by promoting liberal politicians and big-government policies — is launching a new investment fund, that plans to profit off of the “green energy” boom, which is entirely dependent on government subsidies.

As the press release puts it, this fund will “leverage technology and business model innovation to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, harness renewable energy, and more efficiently use natural resources, among other applications.” As Soros puts it in the same release: “Developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency is both a significant global investment opportunity and an environmental imperative.” Cadie Thompson at CNBC’s NetNet flagged this.

So, yeah. The big-government policies advanced by the liberal outfits he funds — like Center for American Progress — will enrich the companies in which Soros is investing.

But this story gets better.

The press release casually mentions whom Soros is hiring to run this new fund: Cathy Zoi. As Cadie Thompson at CNBC’s NetNet (edited by my brother John Carney), puts it,

Zoi was Barack Obama’s “Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.” An Al Gore acolyte, Zoi was Obama’s point-woman on subsidizing green tech. Now she’s going to work for George Soros to profit off of subsidized green tech.

As I pointed out in my blog yesterday, Zoi has had a checkered career during which she appeared to take actions in her official capacity that benefited her and her husband’s investments in “green energy.” For example, Serious Materials, a “green buildings material” company benefited from federal stimulus dollars. But as I noted in my blog the extent of what appears to be crony capitalism extended beyond that instance….

Abolish the Department of Energy

Ben — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:14:44 +0000

Jim Campbell, Examiner.com

It’s absolutely amazing when the electorate is aroused and sees how their “elected leaders” have been squandering their tax dollar. The November elections may very well lead to the complete destruction of the Democratic party as President Obama continues to bring it down.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has one of the richest and most diverse histories in the Federal Government. This agency has been in operation for thirty-seven years. It was formed after the oil crisis on August 8, 1977 by President Jimmy Carter’s signing of legislation, The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-91, 91 Stat. 565).

The agency was originally tasked with making sure the United States became energy independent from foreign sources. Currently the DOE provides the framework for a comprehensive and balanced national energy plan by coordinating and administering the energy functions of the federal government.

Does it really? What about drilling off the US coast and locations in the US known to have rich oil fields? What has been done about nuclear power, windmill energy and solar? The Department of Energy has done a great job of creating jobs in China and India.

More Stealth Reparations: Obama Passes Van Jones' Indian Energy Plan

Ben — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:59:25 +0000

Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com

The Obama administration’s actions last week proved, although Green Jobs Czar Van Jones is gone, his ideology continues to guide the White House. Barack Obama called the leaders of American Indian tribes to Washington to witness him sign a UN treaty that, if followed literally, would return the entire continental United States to tribal control. He is not prepared to go that far, but he has made a down payment on the pledge by offering stealth reparations to the tribes in exactly the manner advocated by Van Jones.

Last Thursday, Obama held a summit with the tribal elders of 565 federally recognized American Indian tribes to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The treaty stipulates, “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.” In essence, the president signed away the entire country.

Even the few conservatives who paid attention to the treaty’s dangerous language missed a significant element of the pow wow. The Energy Department’s website announced “the establishment of an Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs in order to more effectively engage tribal governments in our national energy priorities and promote tribal energy development.” Specifically, the office will fund “projects to improve energy efficiency and develop geothermal, solar, bio-mass and wind energy on tribal lands.”

Compare that with Van Jones’….

Obama Rewards Companies Pushing His Energy Policy

Ben — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:10:36 +0000

National Center for Public Policy Research

On Thursday, policy experts from the National Center for Public Policy Research are calling attention to corporate special interest groups receiving stimulus money that also are lobbying for Obama’s energy policy.

“It’s alarming that many of the remaining corporate members of the United States Climate Action Partnership – a cap-and-trade lobbying group – such as General Electric, Duke Energy, NextEra Energy, Exelon, and Honeywell all received economic stimulus funds. It seems pushing Obama’s agenda has financial rewards. The coordinated effort between big government and big business threatens our free enterprise system,” said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project.

General Electric seems to be a chief beneficiary of stimulus funds, with federal money being given to many of its businesses. As noted in a 2009 Wall Street Journal story, ‘General Electric Pursues Pot of Stimulus Gold,’ GE CEO Jeff Immelt geared up his lobbying army to exploit President Obama’s economic stimulus package.

Obama and Congress–Energy Price Deceit

NewsEditor — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:55:55 +0000

By Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine

Power Plants will become major source of Government Revenue under Cap and Trade Scheme

Last month, leading Congressional climateer, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, pushed out a sweeping 1000-page bill that aims to dramatically reshape how Americans will use energy in the 21st century. At the heart of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act is a cap-and-trade proposal for limiting the emissions of carbon dioxide by American industry and consumers. Carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels and chopping down forests, is building up in the atmosphere where it is thought be the chief cause of man-made global warming.

The ACES Act would establish an artificial carbon market by setting a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted each year. Beginning in 2012, a national cap—or total maximum CO2 emissions—would be set and then ratcheted downward annually. Under ACES, the U.S. would emit 17 percent less carbon dioxide in 2020 than it did in 2005, eventually falling to 83 percent less than emitted in 2005 by 2050.

Electric and gas utilities, cement plants, steel foundries, and other companies would be required to have one emissions permit for every ton of CO2 discharged from their smoke stacks. Under a cap-and-trade scheme, emissions permits can be allocated and/or auctioned up to the set cap. Once allocated, the market allows companies emitting less than their quota to sell their excess permits to emitters needing to buy extra to meet their cap. This process sets a price on each ton of carbon dioxide.

The central fact of the cap-and-trade proposal is that it will increase the price of energy. If energy prices don’t go up, the goal of getting energy producers, manufacturers, and consumers to shift away from carbon generating fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) toward low-carbon sources of energy (nuclear, solar, wind, conservation) will not be achieved.

Crisis, Catastrophe: Are These Words of Hope?

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:33:57 +0000

by Charles Krauthammer, Townhall.com

In recent speeches Obama has switched from hope to fear

“A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe.” — President Obama, Feb. 4, 2009.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared “we have chosen hope over fear.” Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn’t understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.

Read the Full Column: