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There has been quite a bit of discussion around the State Capitol the past couple of months in regards to energy policy. Back in August, I unveiled a bill to incentivize local gas stations to put in fueling ports for CNG and other alternative fuels. Following that release, Speaker Benge held a press conference to discuss this and other policies, such as creating classes in the career tech system to teach students how to build and repair equipment for these ports and also for continued work on wind energy turbines. T. Boone Pickens has also unveiled a plan called “The Pickens Plan” that hopes to break our addiction to foreign oil and develop local alternatives.
I’m hoping this discussion will continue, along with ways to bring down the current gas prices. In order to help this along, I’m holding an energy forum at the State Capitol on Friday, September 19th to discuss the upcoming bills and possible solutions that other states have pursued. I have invited several experts in the various energy and tax fields to present to the legislators in attendance and also those in the public that wish to attend. The meeting will begin at 9:00 A.M. in the State Senate Chamber and if you could, please RSVP to my office to let them know so we can prepare enough seating. Read more…
We told you to watch for a sellout: the sale starts now!
House Speaker Chris Benge is starting his “Sold Out” tour this week. The Speaker has bought into the CNG con being perpetuated by some rich Oklahoma and Texas con artists, and somewhere Al Gore is laughing his fat behind off at yet another Republican seduced by Ponzi-scheme solutions for Gore’s contrived global warming fantasy.
And what will the con artists get? The politicians who have sold out won’t want you to know, but here it is: a built-in market for their natural gas and, dare we say, monstrous amounts of tax credits. We also suspect legislation to require the entire state fleet of vehicles to run CNG, and you can bet the taxpayers, not the con artists, will be footing the bill.
It’s just the latest con job (remember ethanol?) foisted on the public by opportunists seeking to exploit America’s anger toward the energy situation. Do you remember natural gas promoters spending millions last year to stop a coal-fired electricity plant? Do you recall the results? higher prices for Oklahoma electricity consumers! If going green is so great, why does it feel like a prostate examination?
Remember the famous words: those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Apparently Mr. Benge slept through that part of history class.
So here’s a primer: when demand goes up, prices go up, and when demand drops, price drops! And we know what’s going to happen to supply if millions upon millions of Americans spend billions upon billions of dollars on retrofitting their cars and start burning CNG: lower supplies and higher prices. To put it another way, Mr. Speaker, after you spend thousands and thousands converting your vehicle to CNG, and millions of Americans start using CNG, the price will go up. Oh, and by the way, if millions stop using gasoline, the price of gasoline will go down.
Here’s our new slogan: CNG, it isn’t a bargain for long!
Remember the words of PT Barnum: there’s sucker born every minute. By the way, we thought you would enjoy a look back at some of history’s most famous con artists in light of today’s “Sold Out Tour.” It will help remind you that really foolish people are often taken advantage by con artists. It kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it.
Related:
The Oklahoman: Oklahoma House speaker touts natural gas as part of Oklahoma’s energy strategy
T. Boone Pickens talks about energy on the Talk Radio News Radio Row at the DNC Convention.
Daily Kos: T. Boone Pickens’ Fancy Sales Pitch
“Devilstower and I just went to a talk here at the DNC featuring T. Boone Pickens. Everyone was under the impression that the event would involve an actual discussion (as in, a Q & A session, like nearly all of the other Big Tent special topic sessions). We had a really energetic live blog thread going, where all of you were submitting questions.
Sorry, guys. Apparently, the whole thing was just a sales pitch. T. Boone hightailed it out of there before anyone could even raise their hand.”
We’ve been documenting the beanie propellers and compressed natural gas snake oil job that T. Boone Pickens has been peddling to the American people.
In Oklahoma and Texas, he’s bought influence by giving away money he’d otherwise have to pay in taxes, thus rendering many legislative and business leaders, and of course the MSM, deaf, dumb and blind.
Other parts of the country are not so intoxicated from freshly printed money/feedlot smell that emanates from the confidence job being sold by the former greenmail pirate gone “philanthropist.”
So it seems there are two types of people who are buying Picken’s folly: those he buys and those who are idiots. Some, it seems, wouldn’t know a renewable resource from an oil field sludge pit. Read about one of those poor ignorant souls here.
All we have to say is, “Pray for America.” With the clueless leadership we’ve had, we’re going to need a lot of Divine intervention to survive.
Related:
Republican.Senate.Gov: Dems Pick Pickens To Headline Energy Summit Despite His Opposition To Their Energy Plans
Video: T. Boone Pickens: “I Say Drill, Drill, Drill”
By Ernest Istook
The visuals are terrific. Imagine the Empire State Building with a windmill on top rather than King Kong. That’s how the New York Post depicted Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest idea. Another illustrator adorned the Brooklyn Bridge with windmills atop its towers.
It’s all because Bloomberg proposed that the Big Apple should blossom with windmills to provide at least one-tenth of its power.
What if his idea caught on? Why not mandate that every building taller than a few stories sport a rooftop windmill? We could include the Washington Monument. And every TV and radio antenna. And every hilltop and mountain, including those in national parks.
Don Quixote would be proud. But had Bloomberg done the math, he’d know that even if Manhattan were topped by a solid block of windmills, they wouldn’t come close to meeting the city’s power consumption.
Wind power has its place as a power source, but it’s not a place at the top. It provides less than one-tenth of 1 percent of U.S. electricity because it costs more to produce. The wind may be free, but the equipment is expensive.
The costs are even dearer if you follow Bloomberg’s other suggestion, namely floating windmills in the middle of the ocean.
How many windmills does it take to meet the power needs of a typical city, much less New York City?
At www.scitizen.com, Kurt Cobb worked the numbers. Generously, he presumed the windmills would use 5-megawatt turbines – generating three times the output of a typical 1.5-megawatt turbine. He compared that with a 500-megawatt fossil-fuel (coal) power plant needed to power a city of 300,000 people. A typical power plant, he noted, would cover 300 acres, but use only 30 of those for the actual facility.
Cobb calculated it would take 233 5-megawatt wind turbines to equal the coal plant’s output, since the wind doesn’t blow constantly. Each would need to be spaced 2,065 feet away from the others (five times the diameter of their 413-foot rotors). Adding the rotor diameters to the spacing requirement equates to a 110-mile long line of windmills, half a mile in width.
It comes to 55 square miles. That’s to provide electricity for a town of 300,000 people. Read more…
Related:
CleanSkies.Org’s Denise Bode: Bloomberg Backs Off
Michelle Malkin: Pelosi And The Big Wind Boone-doggle
“Which brings us to Madame Speaker’s 2007 financial disclosure form. Schedule III lists “Assets and ‘Unearned Income’” of between $100,001-$250,000 from Clean Energy Fuels Corp. — Public Common Stock. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) is a natural gas provider founded by T. Boone Pickens. Yep, that T. Boone Pickens — former oilman turned wind-power evangelist whose ads touting a national wind campaign are now as ubiquitous as Viagra promos.” Read more…
This one is too easy, so let’s make it interactive…
We recently suggested that a certain billionaire’s motives might not be all philanthropic and pure, and that there might soon be clues how all the “philanthropy” might get cashed in, specifically regarding the taxpayers/ratepayers having to shell out bongo bucks to help the billionaire “NOT” make any more money (remember, he said he has enough already) on a certain energy type that some experts believe is nothing more than a carnival con job. Keep reading, you are getting warm…
We recently suggested a certain legislative leader might not have the “equipment” necessary to punish a band of rogue business leaders who, using big bucks and dirty tricks, tried and failed to politically terminate a member of his leadership team. Bear with me I know you’ve got it now…
We also suggested that leader might have been compromised because a certain company, seeking to create a virtual monopoly by creating a government-assisted domestic market for its product, will buy him off with campaign cash. Humor me, we will get the answer together…
Finally, after careful consideration, which politician seems to be siding with the governor’s ultra-liberal secretary of energy, and which public official sounds more like a fiscal conservative, wary of corporate welfare-seeking energy companies. BINGO…
Related:
Jim’s Journal: (Sen. Inhofe) T. Boone Pickens Comes Home to Oklahoma to Talk About Energy Plan