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Mann Acts
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Suing NASA and UVA
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Facts on Frack Attackers
August 3, 2011 | 71 comments
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Indefensible
July 27, 2011 | 59 comments
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Inhibiting an Oil and Gas Boom
July 22, 2011 | 81 comments
The Public Policy
Whose Clean Energy Standards?
Answers for Sens. Bingaman and Murkowski.
Living in a home with four kids and two dogs, one child’s “clean” can mean “unacceptable” to an adult — think barely visible shower scum or machine-washed plates without phosphates.
And necessary energy levels and types mean different things to different people: A back-to-nature maiden who practices what she preaches needs much less than a multitasker who watches her LCD TV while researching on the Internet and listening to her iPod.
And as we know from years of observation of political discourse, one man’s “standard” is another’s moral abhorrence.
Put them together in a “Clean Energy Standard” (CES) and you ask for real trouble.
But that’s not stopping Sens. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who on Monday — as Chairman and Ranking Republican respectively of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee — issued a “white paper” that solicits comments on what should constitute a CES. You might remember that in his State of the Union address last January 25, President Obama proposed that the federal government impose an 80 percent standard by the year 2035.
In the past Bingaman and others have proposed a national Renewable Electricity Standard, which would have required electric utilities to generate a specific percentage of their power from “alternative” sources such as wind, solar, biomass, or other impractical technologies. So the president wants a mandate that requires four-fifths of utilities’ total electricity production to come from what a future law would define as “clean energy” by 2035.
Thirty states presently have Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS; some call them Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards). Most are fairly specific in their definitions of what qualifies as acceptable in their schemes, but each has its own percentage targets and dates. You can view specific states’ requirements via an interactive map at American Tradition Institute.
But expanding the mandate to a “Clean Energy Standard” worsens an already costly, ineffective policy. ATI and others, in conjunction with the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston, have analyzed RPS’s in several states and found they universally drive costs for electricity up, because they force utilities to replace efficient power generators like coal with inefficient sources such as wind or solar. For example, ATI’s Colorado study determined that the state’s utility customers would pay $11.8 billion more for electricity between 2011 and 2020 because of the state’s RPS.
Recognizing the unlikelihood of a national cap-and-trade law and Bingaman’s repeated attempts at a national RPS, ATI also commissioned Beacon Hill to do a study on potential national mandates of 15 percent, 20, percent and 30 percent by the year 2021 (Bingaman co-sponsored a bill last year that called for the 15 percent national RPS). Under the ambitious 30 percent scenario — a likely intermediate goal that would be required to attain President Obama’s target — the U.S. economy would take a hit in the trillions of dollars.
The white paper questions that Bingaman and Murkowski ask only complicate matters. Because the president was vague on what a Clean Energy Standard would look like, Congress is left to navigate the rippling waters between what environmentalists and alternative energy rent-seekers want defined as “clean.” Free-marketers need not advise, but I will do so anyway based upon reality, instead of the fantastical answers the Senators are likely to get:
Q. Is the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower electricity costs, spur utilization of particular assets, diversify supply, or some combination thereof?
A. None of the above, because it cannot do any of the above. Instead it will set up uninformed government meddlers as authorities to dole out favors and tax breaks to undeserving technologies that have capable lobbyists as the only thing going for them.
Q. Depending on the goals, is a CES the right policy for the nation at this time?
A. It doesn’t matter what the goal would be. A CES establishes bureaucrats and lawmakers as decision-makers, rather than individuals who can determine the form of electricity that best meets their power and environmental needs. A CES would be an economic disaster (see ATI study mentioned earlier).
Q. Should any states or portions of states be specifically excluded from the new program’s requirements?
About the Author
Paul Chesser is executive director for the American Tradition Institute and a senior fellow for the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives. The views he expresses do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
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joedoc| 3.24.11 @ 6:52AM
"Because the president was vague". I love that comment. The POTUS is vague on everything. He just says something vague on any policy and lets the hacks in Congress come up with something and signs his name to it. For him to do any real work would interrupt his vacation and golf time. Does anyone think this guy has really worked one full day in his life?
GavInTucson| 3.25.11 @ 12:26AM
Of course he hasn't. This man's spent his entire life surrounded by leftist people that hate this country -- Mom, Dad, Dad 2.0, grandparents, Indonesian schools, liberal Occidental College, Harvard Law, Jeremiah Wright, William Ayres, etc.
None of this is in dispute.
He's here for the perks. As President, he wants to spend the majority of time doing anything not involved with leading or governing. He and his hag of a wife feel that the American people owe them something.
But we can all take comfort in the fact that Michelle is, finally, proud of her country. Apparently all it took for her was to have a taxpayer-payed makeup artist available 24/7.
GavInTucson| 3.25.11 @ 12:28AM
I forgot to add that this farce never held a private sector job in his entire life.
Spoonman| 3.24.11 @ 7:36AM
Clean energy standards - let me begin with this: alternative (green) energy is unreliable, inefficient and very expensive. For every Megawatt of electricity generated by an alternative energy facility, a conventional generating plant (think expensive to build and have in reserve) of equivalent capacity must be available to generate power whenever the alternative energy facility is incapable of generating power (think cloudy days, windless days). Operating staff have to be paid, immediately available and ready to operate these backup facilities 24/7 . There is also a significant delay from initiation of plant startup until it can actually generate power (think the time it takes to boil water when a pot of water is placed on a stove until it begins to boil and form steam). All of this backup capacity is required if reliability of power generation is a priority. Because of this the cost of the minor contribution that alternative (green) energy makes is extremely high. Open up your wallets because as consumers you will be paying this defacto tax brought on by obama and his kind.
Pecos Pete| 3.24.11 @ 7:44AM
Luckily the House of Representatives will not, in this session of Congress, pass a CES bill.
And, luckily, Sen. Bingaman is retiring and will not seek reelection in 2012.
Walking Horse| 3.24.11 @ 8:47AM
Well done, Mr. Chesser, and to the point. Unfortunately, there will be one of two reactions: (a) you will be ignored because it is not possible to deliver this message with a slap to the face of these control freaks;
(b) the poor dears will get their lace undergarments in a twist and go into hysterics, in an attempt to drown out your message.
Tony in Central PA| 3.24.11 @ 9:12AM
An ugly series of 400 foot tall wind turbines were built on the mountaintop above my hometown last year. They have been idle since they were completed over 6 months ago. Why ? According to the local paper, nobody wants to purchase them.
This isn't stopping another big ugly wind farm from going up about ten miles north on the same ridgetop. These bird - killing eyesores have been brought to us by Gamesa, A Spanish concern that fled Europe after government subsidies for wind projects dried up there. Thankfully for these companies, there are plenty of dumb Americans willing to give them money they don't have for something they won't get - - free, clean energy.
Old Soldier| 3.24.11 @ 10:06AM
Let me think, where do people use the most energy to heat their houses through a long bitter winter, and most drive inefficient 4-wheel-drive vehicles to deal with the weather? And many of the residents work on dirty petroleum energy?
I know! Alaska! I hope they pay dearly for returning that despicable Rino Murkowski to the Senate.
Mara| 3.24.11 @ 3:00PM
Oh, we will Old Soldier, we will! We already are.
And worse, the same people who put her back in are now whining because the pipeline in on its last legs.
Ned| 3.24.11 @ 10:13AM
Gamesa? Would that be the same Spanish company that was delivering "clean solar electrical power" at a high premium price by ringing their solar panel fields with diesel generators?
Tony in Central PA| 3.25.11 @ 10:16PM
Was it " clean diesel "?
Petronius| 3.24.11 @ 11:38AM
After the first earth day I asked an "environmentalist" why he was so gung ho on windmills and solar panels. His reply verbatim: "so the electric company CAN'T SELL it to you." These people want to abolish all commerce in any natural resource not merely to prevent anyone from profiting from it. They have a pipe dream to re-establish the garden of Eden and nullify any necessity to WORK for anything in life. Their logic dictates; no commerce=no competition=no private enterprise=no working for "the man" to pay for anything=bliss. This guy had a vision and desire to live in a depopulated world of nomadic hunter/gatherers with marijuana being the only cultivated crop.
I find it astounding and appalling that any reasonable legislator at any level of government should throw in with this pack of loonies and refried hippies regardless of how well they have concealed their motives and intentions these past 40 years. If the public at large does not wake up and 86 this ecocrap they are buying into their own economic destruction and Our Freedom then dies with it.
Irish22| 3.24.11 @ 12:01PM
$20 per month for every man, woman, and child in Colorado. Where do you think that money will go?
ciero| 3.24.11 @ 12:04PM
I love the socalled invironementalists who want everybody to return to the good old days of yore. I believe it was Hobbs who describedd those good old days, when life was "solitary, cruel, nasty, brutish, and short."
Hillel| 3.24.11 @ 1:03PM
The problem is there is a dearth of volcanos to sacrifice virgins to Gaia. There also is a dearth ov virins.
play nice| 3.24.11 @ 1:57PM
Which came first, virgins or volcanos?
George S| 3.24.11 @ 3:16PM
As long as we're asking questions:
Q. In 'Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services', the Supreme Court upheld citizen standing in environmental law suits. Does this mean we can file suits to demand never ending environmental impact studies for proposed wind and solar farms, the same way that stopped petroleum refineries from being built over the past three decades?
A. Are you for real?
Q. Will Washington make an example by subjecting themselves to scheduled blackouts necessitated by non windy and non sunny days?
A. Are you for real?
Q. If clean energy is defined with preset emissions levels, then any form of energy generating less would be acceptable?
A. Yes.
Q. How much emissions (CO, CO2, NOx, sulfites) are generated by nuclear power?
A. Zero.
Q. Ergo, the obvious question: will nuclear power qualify under CES?
A. Are you for real?
pomdter| 3.24.11 @ 3:33PM
You missed the most important question of all:
How can I profit from this? I'm tired of hearing about the government blowing billions to line the pockets of the lobbyists and their employers. How do I get a piece of the action???
john dubose| 3.24.11 @ 3:36PM
Clean and not too expensive energy is coming.
But it will be in spite of our wastefull and incompetent federal government.
Yosemeti Sam| 3.24.11 @ 10:39PM
Um, has the idea of eugenics ever been thought of in connection with environmentalist wackos?
Marc Jeric| 3.25.11 @ 2:08AM
This 40-year old conspiracy in 4 acts (global cooling scam, global warming hoax, climate change flimflam, cap & trade power grab) by our eco-nazis and commies continues today. Not only the "green" energy sources are extremely expensive and unavailable when needed most, they are also environmentally destructive. But what do they care - the country must be destroyed by whatever device so the criminals can assume total power.
Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 4:12AM
And necessary energy levels and types mean different things to different people: A back-to-nature maiden who practices what she preaches needs much less than a multitasker who watches her LCD TV while researching on the Internet and listening to her iPod.
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 11:28PM
is good