It may take years to clear the insanity from the EPA after Obama's tenure is completed. It has gotten so bad that new EPA regulations will treat biomass power generation as equivalent to coal power generation, in terms of CO2 greenhouse gas penalties and taxes.
Although the environmental neutrality of burning biomass as a fuel has long been acknowledged by the EPA, biomass will be treated the same as fossil fuels when new greenhouse gas permitting regulations come into play in the New Year.So, let's see: Obama wants to bankrupt coal companies, his EPA wants to shut down shale gas and the importation of Canadian oil sands, his NRC is stonewalling licensing of safe new nuclear fission technologies, and his Interior Department has put most US oil reserves off limit for drilling.
The new regulation provides extra incentive to U.S. biomass fuel companies planning to export biomass pellets to the United Kingdom and other European countries where biomass-fueled power production is encouraged by governments.
EnergyBoom reported Monday that high-priced coal is driving the UK to double its electricity generation from biomass in the next two years. According to a spokesperson for the owner of Western Europe's largest coal-fired power plant, switching from coal to biomass is a win for everyone: "It will remove coal from the energy mix and replace it with significant, reliable, cost-effective and dispatchable renewable power."
Power companies such as Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) , which is awaiting permitting to use biomass to displace some coal at its coal-fired Buck Steam Station in North Carolina, weigh the economics carefully before adding biomass. Greenhouse gas regulations and permitting would be a strike against using biomass, the company has said.
Another power company, The Southern Company (NYSE: SO), which is considering nuclear, biomass and natural gas to displace coal from several of its generation plants, has said the EPA’s regulation “could kill biomass in its tracks.” _RenewableEnergyWorld
What kind of energy is the Obama administration willing to permit? Importing oil from Venezuela and MENA is acceptable to Obama and his pack. Buying wind and solar equipment from China would be simply lovely. But, you say, wind and solar are not reliable, and buying oil from state sponsors of terror only make the world worse? True, but then no one could accuse the Obama administration of being rational now, could they?
More evidence that the left (at the highest level anyway) doesn't actually believe any of the environmentalist dogma they traffic in. They care about power, not energy. Purposefully putting the boots to biomass by treating it as if it were the same as coal rather than as a carbon neutral or even carbon sequestering would be unthinkable if his administration was seriously concerned about rising CO2 levels.
ReplyDeleteThey should just ban energy all together and turn the sector over to organized crime. Every neighborhood and business could have a generator and some people to keep an eye out for the energy "revenuers" while fuel smugglers meet our energy needs.
Biomass and microbial energy are the only "renewables" with any chance of growing profitably.
ReplyDeleteLefty-Luddites prefer wind and solar, which are unreliable and exorbitantly expensive.
The Obama energy starvation agenda is all about cutting all forms of reliable US energy off at the knees, so that government can step in and control every aspect of energy.
Al - I am not convinced the Obaminoids actually have a plan to starve the US people (and themselves) of energy (and thus ultimately of food, water, education, & medical care -- which are not sustainable without cheap energy).
ReplyDeleteIt is more likely that the Obaminoids are simply removed from reality.
They think they can eliminate every aspect of modern industry & agriculture without incurring any negative effect. It never crosses their pretty little minds that there is a reason they live so much better than their forebearers. They have as little knowledge of history as they do of arithmetic -- and no understanding of anything important.
This "educated ignorance" seems a more likely explanation for the Obaminoids self-destructive behavior than deliberate self-immolation.