Calpundit discusses A.L.'s latest energy policy post, and what it means vis-a-vis the War on Terror.
Here are some quick tips for adding simple Textile formatting to your comments, though you can also use proper HTML tags:
*This* puts text in bold.
_This_ puts text in italics.
bq. This "bq." at the beginning of a paragraph, flush with the left hand side and with a space after it, is the code to indent one paragraph of text as a block quote.
To add a live URL, "Text to display":http://windsofchange.net/ (no spaces between) will show up as Text to display. Always use this for links - otherwise you will screw up the columns on our main blog page.
I wonder what role the State Department has in all of this? Because I wouldn't be suprised if the Saudis were "generous" to people who opposed such a policy. I think that Bush's biggest weakness right now might actually be certain areas of national security, such as border control and conservation. While the latter is open for the Dems, I suspect the former is taboo for both.
FH,
The Federal energy policy will have aproximately zero effect on the energy markets. They are driven by supply and demand.
Wind no longer needs a subsidy because it costs less than natural gas produced electricity. Soon it will cost less than coal.
Fuel cells are in high demand as a power source for cell phones and portable equipment.
Solar cells are heavily produced for small energy needs such as calculators.
With current demand high for all these products development is proceeding whether government helps or not.
The Saudis may be able to affect this a little but only at the margins.
Personal anecdote-
I work with some guys who are negotiating power purchasing agreements (PPAs) on behalf of wind developers. A power purchasing agreement is a financing agreement that gives a developer the capital he needs to build the wind farm. An energy provider agrees to purchase a certain amount of electricity at a certain price for the next, say, 25 years.
One of the roadblocks here in PA has been a lack of willingness on behalf of energy providers to sign PPAs here in PA. There are many complicated reasons for this reluctance.
The 1.7 cents a kilowatt hour wind subsidy in the energy bill, while it may be not be necessary for much longer (as M. Simon points out) is critical in PA. Without it, a lot of the PPAs that are happening wouldn't get signed.
As someone who generally doesn't like subsidies, I sympathetic to M. Simon's view...but there are so many tax breaks given to coal and other fuels that the subsidy, in effect, levels the playing field.
The wind guys were actually quite disappointed that the energy bill didn't pass (because they need the subsidy), which was kind of perverse given all of the bad stuff in the bill.