Breaking Wind(mills)

Like Don Quixote, we spend a lot of time tilting windmills, especially in this neck of the woods.

First let me say that windmills are certainly a component of any alternative energy program, and they will probably have a place in any energy plan developed over the really long haul. Their principal shortcomings are these: they are currently expensive energy sources, and their power production is intermittent rather than continuous, and so other electrical power sources whose production is controllable and stable will be needed, or a wide array of windmills, tidal energy sources, and so forth will have to be hooked together in a very sophisticated grid system which rapidly shifts the origin of power in the power grid to the particular energy sources that are currently producing. There are probably some other ways to somewhat alleviate the problem, as well, which sound “Buck Rogerish,” but even with current technology would be somewhat feasible, though also very costly. For example, the domestic consumers could easily have an array of batteries as components of electrical equipment, which would turn on when the power was low and turn off when it was normal, recharging themselves automatically during the powered- up intervals.

The Western European experience with windmills is instructive to a point. Windmills are obviously proliferating there, and apparently are a commercial success; just as nuclear power plants are and have been in France for years. But bear in mind that Western Europe is largely devoid of fossil energy sources, and almost any oil or coal they use for electrical power production must be imported, and is increasingly expensive. They also, generally speaking, don't have to worry about air-conditioning the way the United States does. Their economic payoff for switching to alternative energy now is different from most of America’s. There is an economic component to the switch to windmills and other alternative energy sources that is very rewarding in Western Europe. America’s situation is different in the sense that we have no shortage of coal whatsoever,(nor oil if we were willing to let the market develop it when economic factors dictate), and coal and eventually oil could supply most of our electrical power far into the future much more cheaply than any current alternative energy source except, perhaps, nuclear power currently could now, or likely ever could. In addition, we have a carbon-based energy system built and operating quite admirably, and there would be no difficulty in attracting private investment to enlarge and improve that system, provided that government action did not threaten the economics of the current American electrical energy production and delivery system.

This is what the windmill argument really boils down to: do we need and want so-called green energy sources now or soon. If we do, we can have them. Their inefficiencies currently are so profound that only government subsidies and concessions of various sorts, including some hammerlocks on the arms and shoulders of the electric companies in order to compel them to accept expensive electrical output from alternative energy sources when it is available. Without introduction of artificial factors into the economics of energy production in the United States, there would be virtually no interest on the part of private investors in most current alternative energy sources and therefore no arguments hereabouts over windmills. Would any nationally prominent politician, however, step forward and plainly state the truth: you can only have green energy if we take taxpayer money to create it and defeat the (tax-paying) competition by taxing them and you taxpayers, or both, to do so.

Personally, I have no particular objection to the presence of windmills on the horizons. Mankind has been tinkering with landscapes since time immemorial. Sometimes a Taj Mahal or an Exeter Cathedral is created; sometimes a dismal slum is the result. Indeed, most of West Virginia was clear-cut a hundred years ago, in arguably by mankind, and probably would be again if there were enough money in it to make the option interesting. (So much for ridge line or view scape integrity).

Are the windmills inevitable? If you believe Al Gore and all the proponents of global warming who blame energy production for a good bit of that problem, windmills are inevitable and so are nuclear power plants and hydroelectric plants, etc. because those who favor alternative energy and want to eliminate most or all carbon-based electrical energy production evidently have the predisposition and the votes to force that position on everyone else. If the people like Gore say you can’t use coal, even though it is plentiful and cheap, and they have a majority of even one, you don’t get much choice but accept the windmills now or later, and in all probability accept, also, an array of government regulations on the energy efficiency of your appliances, and probably eventually the rationing of the amount of electrical energy you can use in your household, or at the least, self-rationing, brought about by the enormous growth of your electrical bill as various alternative energy sources, derived not from competitive market action but rather government subsidy and regulation, replace current efficient and effective systems of electrical energy production.

“To green, or not to green”; that is the real question in this purported land of the fuzzy and ever jolly green government giant. The question really is not specifically about windmills on the ridge lines of Mineral and adjacent counties at all. Argue as we may around here locally about windmills, what we decide doesn’t matter much unless it coincides with what the federal government decides. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people perishes at the local level bit by bit any time local interests conflict with what those politicians who seldom or never come around here decide to do to us in cases such as windmills. That’s not what the Constitution provides for, but after all, the Constitution’s just a document, a socially-constructed reality which can be ignored by anyone who doesn’t have any compunction about doing so. It’s just a baseline isn’t it; something the political class can look at so they can deviate from it to show that they are avant garde, politically savvy, hip, and all that sort of ballyhoo. Unless, of course, we’ve got people with spine enough to stand up for the kind of governance of, by and for the people that we and they really believe in and value.

Don Quixote was either a pathetic fool, or a sort of Everyman. He was inspiring although he was usually ineffectual. He always stood up for what he believed in. My inclination would normally be to favor windmills hereabouts in order to give important new technology a chance, but the Don Quixote in me says oppose them in the extreme in order to put big government in the position of having to roll on over once more we local people in pursuit of their current “flavor-of-the-month” on the ultra-liberal policy wonk circuit. That would underscore the way it really is: West Virginians must pay again for some sort of sins we didn’t commit or didn’t knowingly commit, while those who benefited ignore their own culpability in the creation of the alleged carbon crisis and global warming, and are allowed to seemingly solve the problems they created by abusing their country cousins in new and satisfying ways at least one more time. If you buy windmills, wait until you see...(whatever is your worst nightmare)? that the feds have got for you next.

2 West Virginia Congressman vote to keep fuel prices at record levels

While many across the country have canceled vacations due to high fuel cost, Congress decided to take a 5-week vacation of its own. The reason was to avoid solving the high fuel cost problem. The answer is simple; drill for more oil domestically. 71% of the nation now agrees that drilling for our own oil is a good idea.

Many in Congress claim that drilling will not lower the cost of oil. Consider that oil prices in countries that drill for their own oil are the lowest in the world and those that do not are the highest in the world. The laws of Economics are simple. If you increase supply and demand remains the same the price will drop.

Obama made the comment that we all need to inflate our tires to save more fuel. It is true that properly inflated tires will increase fuel mileage, but that is about the equivalent of trying to irrigate the desert with a garden hose. We are dealing with a Congress that doesn’t live like you and I. They do not understand that families are having to make choices on whether or not to go on vacation or buy back to school supplies.

House Vote #566; to leave Washington for a vacation without taking any action to lower fuel prices breaks down like this for the West Virginia delegation.

Aye WV-1 Mollohan, Alan [D]

Nay WV-2 Capito, Shelley [R]

Aye WV-3 Rahall, Nick [D]

Only Representative Capito wanted to stay to vote on a package to lower fuel cost to West Virginians and she had this to say, ““With high energy costs placing such a heavy burden on the lives of West Virginians, it is incredibly frustrating that this Congress has been unwilling to even have open debate on a comprehensive solution.” We must remember when we go to the polls who is with us and who is against us.

Battling Jay's

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?

West Virginia Congressional Delegation on Wrong Side of Issue

Some of those Representatives that West Virginia sends to Washington are not listening to the people back home. These are starting to pop on the internet and around the state trying to send a message Rockefeller, Rahall, and Mollohan.
The United States is currently worlds number 1 user of oil and only the worlds 3rd largest producer of oil. Each day the US sends $2 billion overseas to purchase oil while over 600 billion barrels of oil are accessible in the US with current technology. The only thing stopping the drilling in the US is our own US Congress.

Birds, Bats, and Bears

As a country we need to stop our foolishness. Really. We cannot afford it anymore.

I am talking about our foolish insistence of holding ourselves hostage to not the survival, but the convenience of animals. Ten years ago we could afford to be concerned that Alaskan polar bears might not want to live next to oil rigs. We could debate the problem of birds and bats possibly or not possibly hitting windmills. Power was cheap and the economy was strong. No more.

Our national security depends upon our national economy. Our national economy runs on accessible energy and transportation. Without these things, our economy would adjust, but only after a painful transition.

George W. Bush saw this coming and proposed an energy plan some years ago. This plan would research a variety of energy sources while opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling for oil. The Republican Congress did not approve it due to skittishness over the upcoming election. Most of those don't have to worry about campaigning this year.

Had we listened to the foresight of Bush, we would not be experiencing many of the shortage problems we have now and Alaskan wildlife would be fine. White tailed deer and black bears thrive in the eastern United States. I doubt a few oil wells and pipelines would hurt wildlife in that area. ANWAR is the size of our smallest states. There is plenty of room for animals and oil production. I would predict that if it is possible, President Bush will open at least part of it to oil drilling near the end of his term via executive order.

Some propose that we lessen our dependency upon oil by driving hybrid cars. Not a bad idea and it is also a logical market reaction. The more we depend upon hybrid vehicles, the more we will need to expand production of coal while harnessing wind and water. As I pointed out recently, West Virginia has ample clean energy potential to supplement our coal. Our country needs it all. However there are some out there who would place the welfare of bats and birds above restoring sanity to the energy market. I'm sorry. When we and our neighbors struggle to pay our bills because the energy supply is constricting, we must expand the supply. Bring on the windmills! Start drilling for and using the natural gas resources that lie under our state.

People are more important than bears, birds, and bats. It is time to put some energy into finding solutions before we reach a full blown national crisis.

Free Market doing its job

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.