Scissor Tales » Energy

Our green speaker

j.e. mcreynolds — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:45:07 +0000

It’s easy being green these days, but if you’re a conservative Republican it’s not so easy being known as being green. Yet the man taking the lead on alternative energy at the state level is Republican House Speaker Chris Benge of Tulsa. He wants to make it easier for vehicles to run on natural gas instead of gasoline or diesel. He wants to reward people for using solar power and wind power. Conservatives and Republicans are widely represented in the alternative fuel movement. Benge, R-Tulsa, is pushing House Bill 1952, which offers incentives for increasing the number of vehicles powered by compressed natural gas. The bill also addresses the problem of the paucity of CNG fueling stations. Benge is also pushing initiatives creating incentives for wind power and solar power. The state will be better off for his efforts.

No place at home…

j.e. mcreynolds — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:01:55 +0000

Somewhere along the Yellow Brick Road, coal went from being the Tin Man – solid, if clunky - to the Wicked Witch. Thus an abundant source of domestic energy is being pushed to the margins. The Scarecrow in this scenario is environmentalism and the brainless idea that importing fuel from the Mideast is preferable to burning our own clean coal. Oklahoma rejected a coal-fired power plant in 2007. Seems coal isn’t wanted in Kansas anymore either. With geography that places it closer to Wyoming coal than Oklahoma, coal-fired plants perhaps make even more sense in the Sunflower State than here. But political wrangling has pushed two proposed plants to the side of the road. Lawmakers approved the plants but Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed it. Coal plants are under fire from the Flying Monkeys of the Left as well as energy producers such as Oklahoma’s natural gas mavens. Cleaner fuels certainly need to be a larger part of the power-producing mix, but must coal be trapped in Munchkinland, never to reach the Emerald City?

Too weird Tuesday

j.e. mcreynolds — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:09:35 +0000

The old Republican oil man cozying up to Barack Obama. The young U.S. Senate liberal and president-elect backing off on a windfall profits tax for energy companies. This wasn’t Black Friday. It was Too Weird Tuesday. On the same day this week, Boone Pickens said Obama gets it on energy and the nation could finally get a national energy policy – something that eluded the current president who actually knows something about exploring for oil. Obama meanwhile has backed off on a punitive windfall profits tax because crude oil and gasoline prices have fallen so low. One of the components of a national energy policy should be to avoid punishing companies for doing what they’re supposed to do, which is bring energy sources to the market. But another runup in gas prices next year will likely have the next president salivating for a special tax. Perhaps Pickens can talk him out of it.