Remember when alarmists told us that biofuels made from corn would drastically increase the price of that basic staple?
The best measure for whether or not that has held true is to go down to WalMart and see for yourself. Look at the price of an ear of corn. Earlier this year it was something akin to forty or fifty cents per ear. That's not really too bad and the early prices for fresh corn are usually higher.
This week I bought some ears for twenty cents a piece. That seems about right for this time of year and it should keep dropping as we move into harvest season. Now I thought that we were supposed to have a worldwide disaster because of the switching of production to biofuels. Of course people around here know that a lot of land lies fallow. If you increase the price for corn, you will see people increasing production. Is that what happened here?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. The bottom line is that capitalism has provided corn for fuel as well as corn for food without raising prices in the long run. Most alarmists base their predictions on models that do not take into account rises in production. The media will usually report the alarmists' point of view because it makes for more interesting copy. In the boring old real world, as long as we keep it, capitalism will provide food and fuel as efficiently as possible.
The "Cap and Trade" plan supported by Al Gore failed a crucial test in the Senate this past week. It is a victory for the US economy and especially for energy producing states like West Virginia. 66 Senators voted to require a 60 vote majority to impose any "Cap and Trade" legislation. This will make it harder for the Obama administration to pass this anti-economic growth legislation.
The fear is that the Obama administration will try to by pass the Congress and the Constitution by imposing stricter regulations through the Environmental Protection Agency. Some of these regulations will reach deep into local governments causing increasing taxes across the board putting even more strain on the sluggish economy.
Let’s face it we need jobs in our community.The economy is turning down and many in the area have been laid off and people are looking for new job creation.Many see the Windfarm on GreenMountain as a potential job creator.Both sides of the issue are putting their spin on what will happen with job creation.
The anti-windmill faction has been sending out the following information on jobs, “one maintenance employee for every 12-15 turbines. A 20 turbine windplant in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania now employs only two maintenance employees.”I was e@mailed that information again by the anti-windmill faction after yesterday’s blog, but I have seen it before.I can not attest to its accuracy, because no source was quoted.As for US Windforce’s position, they have made no official claim as to the number of jobs created.
From my own research I believe that the claim of one employee for every 12-15 turbines is probably in the ball park.Wind energy production is not very labor intensive, but how does it compare to coal electrical generation?Dominions Mt. Storm Power plant has 3 units.Unit 1 and 2 are rated at 551 Megawatts each and unit 3 at 553. (1)That gives the plant a total capacity of 1,656 MW.With 270 employees (1) that is about 6 MW generated for each employee.
The name plate capacity on the US Windforce project is 55.2 Megawatts (2).Typically a windfarm can only operate on an annual basis of about 30% of rated name plate capacity. So if we believe that the US Windforce project is only going to employ two people, then that works out to about 8 MW generated for each employee.
This means from a labor stand point that wind energy generation is slightly more efficient, but real close to what the nearest coal fire plant achieves.This begs the question; is the anti-windmill faction advocating that the Windfarm is too efficient? Efficiency leads to lower cost electricity and for most people that is a good thing.
But the permanent employment numbers are only part of the story.The anti-windmill faction provided the following information, again from an unnamed source, “of the 200 total construction jobs, only 20 were local—and all disappeared within six months.”Most construction workers don’t hang around after the job is complete.That is the nature of construction jobs; they are there until the job is complete.It doesn’t make them any less important to the community.
At the last public windmill meeting on Feb 2nd, 2009, Mr. Shirley a local construction worker working on the Mt.Storm project indicated he had been employed for 2 years on that project.Many other workers that have been employed on that project were in attendance and expect to move to the GreenMountain project.Our area is developing a skilled work force of wind turbine erectors and these workers may begin to travel with their new skills.They will still be bringing those paychecks home.That fact is completely discounted by the anti-windmill faction.In claiming that only 20 construction jobs are local, they fail to take into consideration that the local concrete plants, lumber yards, earth movers will all be local subcontractors.
But the local economic impact is not limited to those employed by the project.The landowners will receive lease payments for the use of their land.While the lease agreements with the specific landowners on the GreenMountain project are private, typically $5,000 per windmill is what is seen in the industry for our area.That will pump around $115,000 annually into the local economy.An additional $373,000 in property taxes (2) will be paid to MineralCounty.
The average wage of a MineralCounty resident is $26,645 per year (3). That $488,000 in new money being brought into Mineral is the equivalent of 18 new wage earners being brought to MineralCounty.We also know that each dollar brought into the local economy has a multiplier effect as it is spent.
The real effect on the economy is much more than the information being disseminated by the anti-windmill faction.In this case we are finding that even the numbers presented by US Windforce under estimate the true economic impact of the project.
Reference:
(1)May 2005, Power Engineering Magazine, “Dominion Mt.Storm”
The University of Delaware has just developed a prototype vehicle that may be the answer to rising fuel costs for small cities, businesses, and college campuses.
The V2G, or vehicle to grid, propulsion system for automobiles was created by Willett Kempton who has been refining this technology for over a decade. Kempton actually powers a Scion with this engine. The Scion is a hideous vehicle, but it is the size of a small SUV. This means that such an engine could probably run a moderately sized pickup truck, minivan, or SUV if the conventional engine and gas tank are removed. It runs on a battery that works as an energy sponge. It absorbs power from the grid when plugged in. If the battery contains excess power, it flows back into the power grid. This reduces strain upon the power system which from time to time sees its own fluctuations.
Right now the battery requires two hours to charge and has a range of 150 miles. This means that families cannot yet rely on it for vacations. However automobile fleets maintained by small towns, local busineses, or college campuses could utilize this type of engine and save money on fuel. Families can also benefit by purchasing an electric car for local use and a gasoline powered one for longer trips.
Over time, these types of vehicles will gain more power and range. Owners have already started turning to hybrids. The current electric power system cannot handle a massive demand surge for electric power that a jump in the number of electric vehicles will create. Expansion of coal, wind, and hydroelectric power now is essential to anticipate this demand. If electric vehicles are an answer to large segments of the market, then we must start preparing for it.
Conservatives are not anti-environment. We simple prefer that market solutions be allowed to occur instead of governmnet imposed ones. Conservatives also favor balancing the needs of the environment against the needs of people, rather than denying human beings what they need to prosper. The market will demand alternate energy sources as the price of oil moves more and more out of reach. This prototype developed by the University of Delaware could be a market solution to this market problem.
In the 1990's the Republican Party took control of the US Senate and House when they promised to put the needs of the American people first. Unfortunately once in power they forgot that there primary job was to take care of the nation first and not the special interest groups and the American voter took away their majority in the 2006 election.
The Democrats have not learned from the mistakes of the Republican Congress and are now putting the needs of the special interest ahead of the American people and the people are not happy. Some in the Democratic party are starting to realize that. Surprisingly extreme left wing group, MoveOn.org, is warning members they are loosing the energy argument. In an e@mail to supporters they wrote, "Here's the truth:Right now, progressives are losing this argument." They don't realize they are wrong, just that they are loosing the argument. I can tell them the reason they are loosing the argument is because they are WRONG! Last week when Congress walked out on the American people without doing anything to help with the current energy crisis. Many in congress had had enough. Republicans have been staying in Washington protesting speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's choice to ignore the plight of the average American. American Solutions held a press conference at the capital on Wednesday.
Unlike the anti-energy elites that have a stranglehold on the Democratic Party, the American people clearly understand that laws of economics still apply. If you increase the supply of any product that price will drop. Drilling for more oil is only part of the answer, but it will bring oil prices down. Ironically Paris Hilton is right on energy policy, we need to move forward on all fronts. We need to drill now, but we also need to explore alternatives such as bio-fuels, wind and solar.
The Republican Party is on the side of the American people on energy policy and for any political party being on the American peoples side is the right place to be. The Republican party should not do what is right for the party, it should do what is right for the American people. If you do what is right for the American people, then it will automatically be what is correct for the party.
The Republican party has been the party of common sense. We used common sense solutions that helped the average American. We got away from the in the 1990's drunk with power. Now we have an opportunity to return to the core values of the American people and the party. Standing firm on drilling for our own oil to bring down fuel prices and help the American people is the right side of the issue.
I had heard the stories of how people are skipping vacations because of the high price of gas, even talked to people who were not vacationing because they tallied up the price of gas and it would cost too much. I expected less traffic this weekend when I drove to Va. Beach area, but that wasn't the case. Since I have family living in Richmond, Va and Newport News, Va, my wife and I have been regular travelers of that route for the last two years. Traffic was at least as bad if not worse for our trip than in prior years. I don't know the statistics of visitors to the beaches this year, but if my extra 2 hours of traffic delays yesterday are any indication, beach vacations are as popular as ever. My hotel had not reduced it's cost to attract customers in a dwindling vacation market, on the contrary, they were booked to capacity as were all the other hotels in the area. When I thought about this long and hard I realized that even though gas prices doubled in the last year or so, compared to the cost of the trip, it wasn't a big increase. Not big enough to cancel plans or to skip driving to Newport News for a family members wedding. My minivan holds about 20 gallons of gas. So a complete fill-up adds about $40 compared to $2 per gallon gas prices. That tank of gas could get me there and almost back home. So my gas price may be $40-$50 higher than in previous years. My hotel was $250 for two nights, and I spent over $150 on meals and the customary round of pre-wedding golf. That was a 48 hour trip. Had we gone for an entire week, our budget would have been around $2500 and the extra $50 in gas wouldn't even be noticed.
We rarely think of it in total cost terms. My wife shops for the lowest price on gas. But even a 10 cent savings per gallon only saves us about $2 or the cost of my cup of coffee on a fill up.
Guess what the most popular vehicle on the road was...not just an SUV, but Chevy Suburban and Ford Expedition sized SUVs. The super-SUVs. And reasonably so, the space makes your drive more comfortable, and the extra large gas tanks makes it so you don't have to stop to fill up en route. My sister-in-law drives a Hyundai Tiburon and had to stop 2x in her trip from Western PA to Va Beach to fill up. When you have kids in the car, stopping is a 20-30 minute ordeal, not to mention the possibility of sturring up a fight or interrupting a movie. So the large SUV may add $100+ to your gas bill, but having space (with kids that translates into peace and quiet) and saving 4-5 stops and 2 hours of travel time is worth a 4% increase to the vacation budget. With the extra space, one can bring your own beach equipment, bikes, etc. which will save money and time over renting this equipment upon arrival. The benefits seem to outweigh the extra cost of gas and neither the low gas mileage nor the $4/gallon price tag seem to have slowed down vacationer traffic.
Jay Wolfe is sending a message that all of us can identify with when we head to the pump to fill up with fuel.
The irony that Rockefeller's money comes from Standard Oil, as he is a direct decedent of the founder, should not be lost on any of us. The majority of Congress in the past have voted to block drilling for US oil. That majority has included both Democrats and Republicans. In West Virgina all of those members have been Democrats.
The problem is this should not be a partisan issue. It should be an American issue. Each day we send nearly $2,000,000,000 to foreign nations for oil. Years ago oil drilling was blocked in much of the US coast, in the Rocky Mountains and ANWR. At the time the technology was not there to drill safely, but now it is any many refuse to accept that.
Rockefeller whose vast fortune comes from oil should understand that technology in the oil industry has changed significantly. If our elected officials will not change with the times, then maybe it is time to change our officials?
During my trip out west at the beginning of the month I saw the Free Market doing its job. I have driven across the continent many times and I usually see these oil pumps sitting idle. This time it was different. Most of the pumps were bobbing up down looking like giant birds picking up corn.
The reason is because oil prices are at record highs. The Free Market is bringing these wells online to fill the demand for oil. The supply and demand curve is infallible as price increases more people are willing to supply product.
The few pumps that were not running seemed to be waiting in line for repair crews to arrive, and we saw many repair crews working in the fields. We also saw drilling rigs drilling new wells, especially across southern Indiana and Illinois.
All of this is evidence of the Free Market responding to consumer demand. As the oil from these wells begin to fill the pipeline (both figuratively & literally) oil imports will drop helping the US economy and the price at the pump.
Now many people forget that West Virginia is an oil producing state. In fact we are the second state that oil was discovered in, but our government is holding us back from taking advantage of it. Bad policies by the government cause us to lag behind.
If Del Nancy Guthrie (D-Kanawha) has her way, there would be no business at all in West Virginia. People like Guthrie don't understand how Free Markets work and they fear it. She actually wants more government control over you life. To the point Karl Marx would be proud.
Can you imagen how bad this would be if the government was in total control? The Free Market brought those oil wells online quickly. If we had to wait on government to do it, then I'm not sure if they would have even began to study what to do yet. After year or so of study, they would determine that we would need to start up the old wells, something the free market did automatically.
Government can never do what the Free Market does. The best expertise in the world can never anticipate what the market will do. The head of IBM in the late 70's never saw a need for personal computers, but yet we all have them today. The ability of the Free Market to react to changes in the market place is essential to economic growth and that is something that central planning can never replace.
Since the first oil crisis of the 1970 we have known that our Achilles Heal is energy. In the 30 plus years since the first crisis, the power has shifted back and forth between both parties. During that time neither party has come up with a viable solution. Recent statements from the governor show that has not changed. "I've spoken to most of the presidential candidates on both the Republican and Democratic sides," Governor Joe Manchin stated at the Bluefield Coal Show. "They know what I'm saying. But none come out with a true energy policy."
West Virginia has coal, gas, wind, and water to generate energy for the nation. If a lead is not going to be taken anytime soon on a national level, then the state must step forward and take the lead. We should be reforming our laws to allow easier construction of modern power plants that will use West Virginia coal to produce power in the state and provide much needed jobs in the state.
The political landscape of West Virginia hurts the very industries that we need to grow. The current system put in place by the Democratic controlled WV Legislature holds back our economic growth. We must reform the legal and tax structure to encourage growth in the energy producing industries. In its current form, the WV legislature will not make the necessary changes to bring economic growth to this sector. We need to make some serious changes in West Virginia and take advantage of our strong points, or we will continue to fall behind the other states.
Remember when alarmists told us that biofuels made from corn would drastically increase the price of that basic staple?
