Obama's new energy plan

[KRonn]

Yes, Obama has had some bad luck and poorly received ideas on energy. But this latest idea seems a decent mix and compromise to start out with, with the aim of reducing oil imports by a third.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/30/news/economy/obama_energy_plan/index.htm?hpt=C1

Obama's cursed energy hand

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- President Obama has had some pretty lousy luck with his energy plans.

Last March he proposed opening up new areas of the country for offshore oil drilling. A month later BP's rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.

This year he asked for $36 billion to help build new nuclear plants. Within weeks at least three reactors at a Japanese nuclear plant were on the verge of a meltdown.

His capstone plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions failed in the Senate. Governors are giving back his high speed rail money. His energy czar is gone.

"He picked the three losers right from the start," said Kevin Book, a managing director at the research firm ClearView Energy Partners, referring to the greenhouse gas law, oil drilling and nuclear power. "His timing couldn't be worse."

To be fair, a lot of this isn't Obama's fault. But just what has the president accomplished on the energy front, and where can he go from here?

On Wednesday Obama will outline a plan to reduce the nation's imports of foreign oil by a third in a little over 10 years, mainly through increased domestic production, conservation, and a shift to biofuels and natural gas.

In 2010 the nation imported about 9.5 million barrels of oil, gasoline and other related products a day and used just over 19 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Agency.

Despite calls for more drilling, Book said the Obama administration has actually made fewer areas available for oil and gas exploration, and not just because of the BP spill.

Onshore, leases in Utah granted under the Bush administration have been rescinded over environmental concerns.

Just prior to the BP spill, the Obama administration had called for opening up more areas for offshore drilling. But Book says that was a bit of a ruse.

Those areas were supposed to be open anyway under polices put forth by the Bush administration. Obama held them up, and said he might open them if Congress was willing to bargain on other energy issues, primarily passing a cap on greenhouse gasses. Thanks to the BP spill, that bargaining never happened and most of those areas remain off limits.

On the coal front, Obama has been reining in the energy companies, primarily though aggressive restrictions via the Environmental Protection Agency surrounding mountain top mining.

"Almost everything that has been done is to ratchet back the decisions of the Bush administration,' said Book. "It's largely been a restrictive policy."

[derspiess]

A good way to reduce dependency on foreign oil might be to actually, you know, drill for more oil here at home.  Obama can't stand the thought of that, yet he went down to Brazil & promised to help *them* drill for oil.  Even the Washington Post was flummoxed by the whole thing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/drill-brazil-drill-says-the-us/2011/03/25/AFHba4kB_story.html

[Caliga]

Princesca was ranting about that whole thing the other night.

[garbon]

Actually K-dog it sounds like a bunch of hooey.

[Berkut]

So the plan is to increase domestic production, but we won't allow more drilling.

We want to increase conservation, but that goes without saying. This is right up their with balancing the budget plans by "reducing waste and corruption!"

And we want to use more biofuels, but we will be maintaining the tariffs on biofuel imports and continuing to prop up domestic ethanol production, even though it makes little sense?

Yeah, sounds like a fucking outstanding plan.

[derspiess]

At least he didn't spend half his time talking about windmills & electric cars.  That's a start, I guess.

[crazy canuck]

Simply buy more of our oil - which is not all that foriegn....

edit, I see that is part of the plan.

In his speech, the President said he knows the country will still have to bring in foreign oil, giving a nod to America's friends in the Western Hemisphere, including Canada.

[Valmy]

At least he didn't spend half his time talking about windmills & electric cars.  That's a start, I guess.

Especially since we already use those things.

I do not understand the drilling issue.  If conservation is really that critical why not spend research money on more environmental drilling techniques and so forth?  If that would result in enabling expansions in drilling surely that would be a good investment.

[MadImmortalMan]

The part about converting thing to NasGas is a great idea.

[Sheilbh]

This is all terribly nice but not really meaningful.  I think only the French can have a serious energy policy because they're the only country with a strong enough central government for it.

[MadImmortalMan]

This is all terribly nice but not really meaningful.  I think only the French can have a serious energy policy because they're the only country with a strong enough central government for it.

Well, yeah. It's less about dictating direct action and more about incentives and disincentives.

[derspiess]

At least he didn't spend half his time talking about windmills & electric cars.  That's a start, I guess.

Especially since we already use those things.

Point?

I do not understand the drilling issue.  If conservation is really that critical why not spend research money on more environmental drilling techniques and so forth?  If that would result in enabling expansions in drilling surely that would be a good investment.

That assumes there's something to research.  I don't know enough about it to say whether there is or not.  Anyway, Obama just seems to be dead set against any new drilling here.

[DGuller]

Obama is exactly the kind of politician to have the courage to screw the detractors, denounce the corn ethanol racket, tell Iowa to get fucked, and get us off that highly ruinous dead end.

[Ed Anger]

Obama is exactly the kind of politician to have the courage to screw the detractors, denounce the corn ethanol racket, tell Iowa to get fucked, and get us off that highly ruinous dead end.

I like making money off of it. 

[citizen k]

Obama is exactly the kind of politician to have the courage to screw the detractors, denounce the corn ethanol racket, tell Iowa to get fucked, and get us off that highly ruinous dead end.

I like making money off of it. 

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