Mackenzie Valley shale leases sure to pique interest: NWT industry … iPolitics.ca – The Northwest Territories has had stranded natural gas in the Mackenzie Delta for 40 years, with a proposal to build a pipeline south long dormant….
What Does Colorado Agriculture Have To Do With American Energy Policies?
Commentary by
Dave Harbour
Last Sunday an audience of regulators learned that Agriculture is the second largest contributor to Colorado's economy, that each US farmer feeds 155 people worldwide and that 97% of US farms are family owned. And, they heard that America's family farms are under siege.
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TODAY, we hear from staff that: "The US House Natural Resources Committee will hold a Full Committee oversight hearing on Thursday, August 1st entitled “Transparency and Sound Science Gone Extinct? The Impacts of the Obama Administration's Closed-Door Settlements on Endangered Species and People.” (See our commentary, left, which partially deals with ESA impact on Agriculture.) "One criticism of the Endangered Species Act is that some of the data and science used to justify endangered species regulatory actions, such as listings and critical habitat designations, is not publicly available for analysis. This lack of transparency leads to questions about the scientific inadequacy and lack of prioritization of decisions and fails to give the public the right-to-know what means are justifying endangered species ends. "This situation will be worsened in light of the rushed nature of the so-called mega-settlements, in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to determine the potential listings of over 779 species by 2016. At a time when the federal government’s science is already being questioned because it is not made available, it makes little sense to list more species under a litigation-caused edict. "This hearing is the second in a series being held by the Committee this Congress on the Endangered Species Act. "In June, the Committee examined the positive species conservation efforts being undertaken at ‘on-the-ground’ levels when compared to the seemingly never-ending cycle of Endangered Species Act litigation. "Visit the Committee Calendar for additional information, once it is made available. The meeting is open to the public and a live video stream will be broadcast: http://naturalresources.house.gov/live." |
The public utility regulators from throughout the United States and Canada were attending the summer meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). The audience also learned that over-regulation of farming is threatening farm production at a time when a 9-plus billion world population by 2050 will require as much food production over the next 40 years as was consumed in the past 4,000 years combined.
Chad Vorthmann (NGP Photo, above), Executive Vice President of the Colorado Farm Bureau, was addressing the regulators at a Consumer Energy Alliance luncheon briefing.
Vorthmann was born and raised a fourth generation farmer and most of his family is still engaged in farming and ranching.
He said that the growth in demand and technology will provide a "huge opportunity" for Colorado agriculture and farmers everywhere — if all of the special interests learn to coexist.
However, a recently conducted Colorado Farm Bureau survey reflected member concern that challenges to family farm viability were becoming more and more threatening. "No one ever wanted to become a farmer to do paperwork," Vorthmann said, while noting that modern farming required more and more administrative time and skills.
| See our 2012 report of the California Farm Bureau video featuring Paul Wenger, Bureau President. |
The Colorado Farm Bureau survey revealed a sophisticated understanding by farmers of the challenges they face.
An overwhelming majority of survey respondents believed that the rising cost of energy and other farm necessities was of critical concern.
Well over 90% supported a decrease in regulatory constraints and reform of the Endangered Species Act which now enables the Federal government to significantly reduce agricultural and energy activity on federal as well as state and private lands. (See notice in box, above right.)
Members almost unanimously supported an increase in domestic oil and gas activity and a reduction on Renewable Energy Portfolio mandates which threaten utility and energy costs and availability.
Vorthmann quoted Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper's 2012 State of the State address wherein he noted that, "…Colorado agriculture is leading the state out of this recession…."
One left the meeting room convinced that the nation's prosperity is critically dependent on a very free market approach to energy and agriculture as well as commercial fishing, transportation, minerals mining, manufacturing and other American enterprises that have led to such a productive society.
Abundant and low cost energy is the base, the foundation of the economy and our way of life. Without it, all other enterprises composing the American dream begin to weaken under the economic weight of imported energy. Without abundant and low cost energy and the industries it supports, Hickenlooper's 2012 observation could turn into remorse that agriculture, "can no longer lead the way out of future recessions."
The US Constitution embedded power in the individual and permitted the government to have those powers that the people granted it.
We fear that if Americans do not wake up and begin to reclaim their original powers from government, they'll find someday soon that the tattered, remaining powers they do posses are doled out, piecemeal, to them by government, not the other way around.
Energy and agriculture are two industries among many that are the canaries in the coal mine (i.e. Coal is another grand but endangered American specie). Both agriculture and energy are experiencing dreadful burdens and challenges at the hands of government bureaucracies. Both are speaking out more and more loudly.
If we do not hear and act upon the cries of the canaries now, it will not be because they didn't warn us, as Vorthmann did this week.
And, someday when we do recall their silenced lamentations, it could be too late to react.
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Today's Consumer Energy Alliance News Links
Bloomberg: Nuclear Closures at Entergy to Exelon Seen on Obama Plan – Nuclear reactors that light New York City and Chicago with carbon-free electricity face possible extinction before they can reap the benefits of President Barack Obama’s proposed climate rules. Entergy Corp. (ETR)’s Indian Point power plant in New York and Exelon Corp. (EXC)’s Clinton facility in Illinois are among nuclear generators that may be shut down from either political or financial pressure on an industry that generates as much as $50 billion in U.S. electricity sales each year.
(Many more follow….)
Bloomberg: Republicans Propose Limiting Obama Climate Plan in Budget – House Republicans proposed cutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by a thirdand denying funds for a key part of President Barack Obama’s plan to combat global warming. The House Appropriations committee’s panel that oversees the EPA will consider cutting $2.8 billion from the agency’s 2014 budget, and prohibit the administration from spending on greenhouse-gas rules for power plants, the centerpiece of Obama’s climate plan. The budget for the year starting Oct. 1, which will get a vote tomorrow in the subcommittee, also would bar the EPA from imposing new curbs on sulfur in gasoline and on the use of water by power plants.
National Journal: Ethanol Mandate to be Debated for Two Days Before House Panel – After a year battling over the airwaves and strategizing behind closed doors, the legions of lobbyists fighting over a federal biofuels mandate will finally get the chance to present their arguments to Congress during a two-day House hearing starting Tuesday.
Houston Business Journal: Keystone pipeline timeline may be 'difficult' to meet – The Keystone XL pipeline start is still a pipe dream for TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling.Bloomberg reports that Girling said it would be "difficult" to stick to the timeline of the Keystone XL project — projected to start in the second half of 2015 — because it is still waiting for a final environmental impact statement from the U.S. State Department.
Fox Business: T. Boone Pickens: Get U.S. Off OPEC Oil – BP Capital CEO T. Boone Pickens weighs in on oil and natural gas production.
Reuters: U.S. rules on fracking on public lands seen costing drillers dearly – Oil and gas companies in the U.S. West would face at least $345 million a year in extra costs if rules on hydraulic fracturing on public lands proposed by the Obama administration are finalized, industry groups said on Monday.
Businessweek: Eagle Ford’s May Oil Production Rose 58% From Previous Year – Oil production in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation rose 58 percent in May from the prior year. The nine fields that make up the majority of Eagle Ford yielded 581,923 barrels of crude a day, according to preliminary data released by the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling in the state. The fields produced 368,770 barrels daily in May 2012.
Times-Tribune: Natural gas industry routinely fixing state roads – Natural gas companies fixed or are repairing at least 413 miles of state roads in Susquehanna, Wyoming and Wayne counties, mostly damaged by their heavy trucks, a Times- Tribune review of state Department of Transportation records shows.
Prairie Business: 2 Minn. agencies to craft sand mining rules – Two Minnesota government agencies are in the early stages of developing new environmental rules governing the silica sand mining vital to hydraulic fracturing. The Department of Natural Resources and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency put out requests for comment Monday as they fashion sand mining rules. The Legislature ordered the agencies to develop regulatory standards.
Times Union: Pro-fracking forces keep ponying up – The debate over whether New York should allow hydrofracking continues to rage, and there is no clear timetable for a decision. That hasn't stopped the campaign contributions from fracking supporters, according to an analysis that finds 183 people, companies and other organizations contributed more than $14 million to state and local politicians as well as to political parties since 2007.
Kansas City Business: Kansas regulators considering new fracking rules – Kansas utility regulators are considering new rules to require oil and natural gas companies to disclose some information about the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing, but representatives of an environmental group said Monday that the regulations wouldn't go far enough.
News & Observer: NC House turns to offshore energy exploration – The state House approved an energy policy Monday that looks beyond fracking in the short term and turns its focus to offshore energy exploration, which could take decades.
News & Observer: NC energy policy shifts attention from fracking to offshore drilling – The state House approved an energy policy Monday that looks beyond fracking in the short term and turns its focus to offshore energy exploration, which could proceed on a scale of decades. The legislation’s focus on offshore oil drilling, and its effect on tourism-dependent areas, is a shift that could transform North Carolina's coastal region with the promise of jobs and the threat of an accident, as well as the certainty of heated disagreement. Drilling in the Atlantic Ocean remains under prohibition but is slowly being revisited as the nation looks for future sources of energy.
FuelFix: Natural gas prices are up 60% and still cheap – Natural gas prices were up nearly 60 percent in the first half of 2013, compared with the same period last year, but they were still too low to inspire new drilling in much of the country, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Akron Beacon Journal: The U.S. shale boom boosts upward mobility – The places in the United States with extensive and growing fracking of shale are among the most upwardly mobile regions in the nation, reports the Via Meadia blog at The American Interest. "A fascinating map of American income mobility has been making the blogging rounds today. The map is based on a study that the NYT notes is being hailed as 'the most detailed portrait yet of income mobility in the United States.' The study found that metro areas with greater income heterogeneity had greater social mobility."
The Kansas City Star: Kansas regulators considering new fracking rules – Kansas utility regulators are considering new rules to require oil and natural gas companies to disclose some information about the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing, but representatives of an environmental group said Monday that the regulations wouldn’t go far enough.
The Hill: Advocates, foes of biofuels mandate get ready to rumble – The federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has been an “unmitigated success” that curbs oil import reliance and creates jobs. No wait, forget that . . . the national biofuels mandate is actually an “unworkable law that places consumers at risk of high food and fuel costs, engine damage, and environmental harm.”
Oregon Live: Amid safety concerns, big Port of Vancouver oil shipping terminal is up for approval this week – The Port of Vancouver's commission could endorse building the largest crude oil terminal in the Northwest this week, though concerns about the safety of oil trains after a deadly accident in Quebec may delay the vote.
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