Stimulus Money Well Spent

I have ridden on the subways in D.C., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto. All of them provide a marvelous means of transportation. Here in Los Angeles we really only have one subway line. It stretches from Downtown to North Hollywood for 17.4 miles. The usage proves that the city needs a subway system. Seats are difficult to find at mid-day.

Angelenoes love their cars. I have grown up in this city and have driven through some of the worst traffic nightmares. They were on the 101, 405, and 5 freeways. Some traffic has made a 30 minute drive into a 3 hour nightmare. A trip from my home to LAX (using the 101 and the 405) is 30 miles but you should allow 1½ hours and that is the time without serious accidents.

For two years I worked on Wilshire Boulevard. It always amazed me that conventional buses would travel down that street in group of three to accommodate the extraordinary need for public transportation. That was happening at lunch time not at rush hour times. If you missed a group of three there will be another group in 5 minutes. In spite of the obvious need for a subway under that boulevard it has been resisted by many people. The NIMBYs have succeeded and in the process have hurt the city’s poorest people and caused major traffic congestion. Who cares about the poorest among us? The have no political voice and so they are ignored.

In the mid 1980s NIMBYs successfully had a federal law passed prohibiting the construction of a subway under Wilshire Boulevard. Now that the congestion has become overwhelming, that law has been reversed. The mayor wants to see this project completed in less than ten years. Building that $6.1 billion subway would employ many thousands people and the resulting mass transit would be eco-friendly. This would be a worthwhile project for stimulus money.

Wind Turbine Manufacturing

No economically successful nation exists without a manufacturing base. While the financial markets do create jobs and are part of our economic engine they could not survive without manufacturing, mining, and agriculture. Most governments do encourage the development of every kind of endeavor.

However, the United States is a capitalist nation that stringently follows the philosophy of free enterprise. As a result we object to government aid to any private enterprise. Most Americans believe in Darwin’s theory when it’s applied to business. That belief translates to most of us questioning the use of government funds to bail out the financial industry, auto manufacturers, or any other business. Does this mean the end of the Big Three auto makers? If the Republican Party controlled both houses of Congress the answer would be yes. The Democratic Party is likely to be emendable to a bail out.

Barack Obama has pointed out that the United States could employ thousands of people building a Green economy. Look for Wind Turbine companies on the internet and you will find there are about 20 of them in the United States. Only one name is familiar to most of us, General Electric. Two others that caught my eye are Suzlon Energy Limited and Urban Green Energy. The likely disappearance of the Big Three auto companies and our need to reduce oil imports should make this manufacturing opportunity a high priority in the new administration.

A Hoax to Control Oil

Oil reached $147.27 per barrel on July 11 . Today it has dropped to $117.11 per barrel (as low as $114.90 on August 8). In January of this year the price was $99.62 per barrel. What caused the price jolts? No one in a position to know is talking publicly.

Television news, Business Week, Newsweek and most other media outlets have been telling Americans that the cause of the higher prices is the growing demand in China, India, and elsewhere. After all, they told us, those countries now have growing middle class societies that drive cars and they have industries that require the use of oil. Ted Koppel’s: People’s Republic on the Discovery Channel showed American style freeways filled with cars that helped to reinforce this image. Many of us thought, “Wow! The rest of the world is catching up with America. That’s why we are paying more at the pump.” So, what happened? Perhaps Big Oil, Big Lies is the best we will ever know.

Remember when the cost of electricity in California spiked dramatically? It seemed that we had to blame the state legislature for the mess. Actually it was a manipulation of power generating equipment led by Enron. A recording was made of an oil trader laughing about how they had manipulated the cost of electricity. That manipulated shortage went away as quickly as it arrived.

The problem is the gullibility of the American public. What is worse about this current manipulation is that the media, for the most part, has gone along with the explanations offered by oil companies and the Federal government. I am not in a position to do the investigation of this hoax. This item from CBS on May 29, 2008 has not received any follow-up. Manipulation is not the same as speculation. Will anyone do the investigation?

“Project Independence” is a New Manhattan Project

Both candidates for president have energy plans according to their web sites. The ideas are remarkably similar. The problem is that neither McCain nor Obama have recognized this issue as significant enough to create a “Manhattan Project” to bring about U.S. independence from foreign oil. Some writers like James Pethokoukis in his U.S. News and World Report blog http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/05/30/do-we-need-an-energy-manhattan-project.html will make fun of this idea but there really is no alternative. Too many people are talking and writing about gasoline at $7.00 a gallon for this not to be a real possibility. The consequences of that situation would be devastating to our nation.

Wind: The Power. The Promise. The Business on the Business Week web site http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_27/b4091046392398.htm is a perfect example of the need for a focused national program. The forces wanting to use coal for generated electricity are fighting against those wanting to use the power of the wind. Coal generated power costs about 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour to produce but wind power costs 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Can we afford wind power?

Similarly agricultural interests want to convert corn into ethanol and that will impact our nation’s food supply. My own article on ethanol points out the lack of information on the real cost implications and the battle of farmers that are more inclined to fight for their own interests rather than the national interest. See The Energy Crises at http://coastcontact.blogspot.com/2008/06/energy-crises.html.

I believe coal is the answer for the next 100 years. In an article posted August 14, 2007 http://green.yahoo.com/blog/climate411/24/how-much-coal-does-the-u-s-have.html Jeffery Greenblatt, an expert on low-carbon energy technologies at Environmental Defense, and confirmed in a New York Times article dated June 21,2007, indicates the enormous amount of coal in our own country. Project Independence is all about converting our own coal to a non-polluting alternative to gasoline and oil and finding other long term alternatives.

From My Congressman On The High Cost of Gasoline

I sent a letter to my congressman, Henry Waxman (D) 30^th District California, about the high cost of gasoline and oil products. I voiced my dismay with the lack of action by the House of Representatives.

Rep. Waxman is the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and is a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Following is his response. You will notice

The vision for reducing our dependency on oil is vague. I expect more since Rep. Waxman is on the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Improved car efficiency by 2020 is too late. Auto manufacturers should be required to start improving auto perfromance next year.

Undoubtedly he did not personally respond to my letter. It was sent by one of his office workers.

Thank you for contacting me about the high cost of gasoline and the role of oil companies in rising prices. I strongly share your concern and appreciate your taking the time to be in touch.

According to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, the Bush Administration has now implemented 95% of the policies proposed by Vice President Cheney’s energy task force. The result? Big oil companies are now reporting record-high earnings, consumers face soaring prices for natural gas, heating oil and gasoline, and we are more dependent on foreign oil than ever. In June 2008, the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported that California families are paying an all-time record high of $4.58 per gallon on average for regular gasoline – more than double the cost when President Bush took office. This course is misguided and unsustainable.

To reduce gasoline prices and solve many of the other problems associated with its use, we must enact policies that aggressively promote the development and use of more efficient vehicles and clean, sustainable energy alternatives. Sustainable energy alternatives and energy efficiency will not only help reduce fuel price fluctuations, but can also reduce toxic air pollution and global warming, create American jobs, and increase our national security.

On December 19, 2007, the United States took an important step toward stabilizing the global climate and achieving our clean energy goals when H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, was signed by the President. The centerpiece of this historic law will require an increase in the average vehicle efficiency 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a nearly forty percent increase compared to today’s cars and light trucks. This change is estimated to save American families $700 – $1000 each year, to save at least 1.1 million barrels of oil a day in 2020, and to reduce global warming pollution by an amount equal to taking 28 million of today’s average cars and trucks off the road. This new law also gave the Federal Trade Commission the authority to investigate market manipulation of oil and gas prices and fine those who engage in this behavior.

Unfortunately, the President has threatened to veto a number of other energy bills that might help to further reduce gas prices. In February, the House passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act (H.R. 5351), which would shift $18 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for the oil and gas industries into incentives for clean energy technologies. In May 2007, I also voted for two bills to prevent oil companies from cheating consumers at the pump. H.R. 6074 would authorize the Justice

Department to take legal action against OPEC state-controlled entities that conspire to limit the supply, or fix the price, of oil. H.R. 1252 would impose criminal penalties for price gouging, and permit states to bring lawsuits against wholesalers or retailers who charge unconscionably excessive high prices. I will continue to work hard for passage and enactment of these bills into law.

To learn more about my work in Congress or sign up for periodic e-mail updates, please visit www.henrywaxman.house.gov

and www.oversight.house.gov.

Again, thank you for contacting me and I hope you will continue to keep in touch on issues of concern.

With kind regards, I am

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman

Member of Congress.

World Oil Crises

The world has been using oil as far back as 347 B.C. http://www.geocities.com/mudsmeller/history.html#ancient_to_present and there were some sources even farther back in history. The 20^th century brought the widespread use of oil in cars, trucks, and industry that have brought us to this dilemma. Today’s dwindling supply has created the world wide crises.

Articles by Kenneth Deffeyes http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/current-events.html and Paul Krugman, a well respected economist who writes a column in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Paul+Krugman+may+12+2008&st=nyt&oref=slogin are indicators of how complicated this issue has become. An article in my local newspaper entitled “understanding ethanol” written by Renee Schoof and Kevin G. Hall of McClatchy-Tribune (not accessible on the internet) left me with more questions than answers. I have not heard or read any reasonable plan proposed by any politician.

Going forward I am going to track the progress of this very serious world issue. Inputs and links are appreciated.