Reid: Republicans exaggerating benefits of Keystone XL pipeline

The current Keystone pipeline has already had 14 spills since its operations began in June, 2010.

Republican claims about the benefits of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are greatly overblown, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Sunday.

“It won’t lower the price of oil. Construction won’t be complete for a long, long time,” Reid said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to the proposed Alberta, Canada, to Texas pipeline. “And under the way it’s constructed now, all the oil would be sold elsewhere. We can’t have that. When I say elsewhere, I mean to some other country.” … Continue Reading

The War Against Oil is Being Won

by Dana Blankenhorn – With natural gas prices having tanked, and the President being given stick on the campaign trail over high gas prices and failed subsidies at Solyndra and elsewhere, it may be hard to see that the War Against Oil is being won.

But it is.

The War Against Oil is a long-term project, begun some years ago, meant to wean the market from its dependence on fossil fuels and create a new era of sustainable abundance. It is at the heart of today’s politics, oil interests having taken command of our politics 12 years ago and retaining an absolute stranglehold on the Republican Party. But this is, in the end, an economic struggle, and what ultimately matters is cost. … Continue Reading

Washington Week Ahead: Transportation, energy tax credits and farm bill

Fight for Clean Energy Jobs continues this week

WASHINGTON - Renewable energy advocates will be watching closely this week to see if some of their favorite tax incentives will be renewed and extended as part of a surface transportation bill, S. 1813, that’s been slowly moving through the U.S. Senate. … Continue Reading

Should President Obama Receive Any Credit?

If President Obama’s economic policies were the cause of the bad economy, now that the economy is getting better, does he get the credit?

If higher gas prices are the cause of the President, when prices subside does he get the credit?

If Solyndra’s failure was a show of the President’s inadequate business abilities, especially towards the idea of an energy policy based on Clean and Renewable Energy, then is GM’s success story that of an overall wise business decision from him as well?

If President Obama floated in the sky above, healed the sick and gave wealth to the poor, called out and punished the corrupt government officials and business leaders by stripping them of their wealth and power, achieved peace in the Middle East, ended the war in Afghanistan, provided all Americans the ability of lowering their energy costs through clean and renewable energy resources, regained near full-employment for the country but remained amongst other things named “Barack Hussein Obama”, would he still be consider by republicans as the worst President ever and still compared to the worsts’ leaders in mankind? Oh yeah, and Universal Health-care, The Affordable Health-care Act (“Obama-care” to republicans) remained mandatory for all, and thus not subjecting those who do choose to pay for health-care having to pay in additional premiums for those who choose not to but instead, live off the backs of others…

Is the President deserving of any credit or is everything only good if the President is not in office and instead, a Republican member is?

What Do You Think – Does the President Deserve Any Credit?

Oil speculation inflating gas prices

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall and 69 other members of Congress have called on federal regulators to address oil speculation contributing to a rise in the price of gasoline to more than $3.50 a gallon in New Mexico. In a letter sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday, lawmakers requested that new trading limits be put in place, as mandated by Congress in the 2010 Wall Street reform law. Limits were supposed to be put in place by the commission before Jan. 17, 2011.

“We are disappointed that, more than a year later, the commission has not fulfilled this important regulatory duty,” the lawmakers said in the letter. “It is one of your primary duties — indeed, perhaps your most important — to ensure that the prices Americans pay for gasoline and heating oil are fair, and that the markets … operate free from fraud, abuse, and manipulation.”

The recent rise in oil prices comes as the U.S. has increased its oil production three years in a row for the first time since 1985. U.S. drilling activity is at the highest level in at least 24 years, with over 1,000 rigs drilling for oil. New Mexico oil production is also at a 12-year high. U.S. foreign oil dependence is now under 50 percent, down from 60 percent in 2005. As a result, the supply of U.S. oil and gasoline is greater today than it was three years ago, yet, oil prices are up. While this is partly due to rising global demand, especially in Asia, and ongoing Middle East conflict and tensions, the recent price increases have been significantly worsened by speculative trading.

“There has been a major debate over the last several years as to whether spikes in oil prices are caused entirely by the fundamentals of supply and demand or whether excessive speculation in the oil futures market is playing a major role,” wrote the lawmakers. “It is clear to us that debate has ended.”

According to Forbes magazine, the investment bank Goldman Sachs believes that oil speculation is the cause of more than 50 cents in the current price of gasoline.  Continue reading more…

What Do You Think… Who’s to Blame for High Gas Prices, President Obama, Congressional Republicans, Oil Companies, or Wall Street Speculation?

Why Rising Gas Prices Could Backfire on the GOP in November

A gallon of regular is 19 cents higher than it was a month ago and 40 cents more than a year ago. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Eight months before the fall elections, Republican strategists are in a dour mood.

• The economy has begun to gain traction.
• Their leading candidate for president, Mitt Romney, is universally viewed as an uninspiring poster child for the one percent, with no core values anyone can point to except his own desire to be elected.
• Every time Romney tries to “identify” with ordinary people he says something entirely inappropriate about his wife’s “two Cadillacs,” how much he likes to fire people who provide him services, or how he is a buddy with the people who own NASCAR teams rather than the people who watch them.
• The polls show that the more people learn about Romney, the less they like him.
• The Republican primary road show doesn’t appear to be coming to a close any time soon.
• Together, Bob Kerrey’s announcement that he will get into the Senate contest in Nebraska and the news that Olympia Snowe is retiring from the Senate in Maine, massively increase Democratic odds of holding onto the control of the Senate.
• The Congress is viewed positively by fewer voters than at any time in modern history — and two-thirds think the Republicans are completely in charge.
• Worse yet, the polling in most presidential battleground states currently gives President Obama leads over Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

The one thing Republican political pros are cheering right now is the rapidly increasing price of gas at the pump and the underlying cost of oil.

The conventional wisdom holds that if gas prices increase, it will inevitably chip away at support for President Obama — and there is a good case to be made. After all, increased gas prices could siphon billions out of the pockets of consumers that they would otherwise spend on the goods and services that could help continue the economic recovery — which is critical to the president’s re-election.

But Republicans shouldn’t be so quick to lick their chops at the prospect of rising gas prices. … Continue Reading

Why America Is Failing in its Energy Independence and Security Needs

At our current rate do Americans really expect to be “in-charge” of the world for much longer? At its heart, the U.S. is a place for all those who seek freedom. A place where through capitalism, one can achieve a great financial wealth through enormous opportunities. Yet because of politics, and maybe even because of the system we so dearly strive to maintain, we are coming apart at the seams. … Continue Reading

Amory Lovins Lays Out His Clean Energy Plan

For four decades, Amory Lovins has been a leading proponent of a renewable power revolution that would wean the U.S. off fossil fuels and usher in an era of energy independence. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about his latest book, which describes his vision of how the world can attain a green energy future by 2050.
Amory B. Lovins is fond of referring to the Rocky Mountain Institute, where he serves as chairman and chief scientist, as a “think and do” tank, and it’s clear that to Lovins the doing is every bit as important as the thinking. Hardly lacking in confidence or ambition, Lovins — in conjunction with his colleagues at the institute — has published Reinventing Fire, his step-by-step blueprint for how to transition to a renewable energy economy by mid-century.

Amory Lovins

Impressive in both its scope and detail — Lovins discusses everything from how to redesign heavy trucks to make them more fuel efficient to ways to change factory pipes to conserve energy — the book lays out a plan for the U.S. to achieve the following by 2050: cars completely powered by hydrogen fuel cells, electricity, and biofuels; 84 percent of trucks and airplanes running on biomass fuels; 80 percent of the nation’s electricity produced by renewable power; $5 trillion in savings; and an economy that has grown by 158 percent. … Continue Reading