{"id":326356,"date":"2024-05-05T08:56:45","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T06:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=326356"},"modified":"2024-05-05T08:56:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T06:56:47","slug":"the-biden-administration-ever-more-delusional-on-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=326356","title":{"rendered":"The Biden Administration Ever More Delusional On Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Manhattan Contrarian<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis Menton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three and a half years into the Biden Administration, and to an ordinary citizen on the ground it might seem like not that much has changed as to energy. Despite hundreds of government actions and initiatives <\/a>in an all-of-government regulatory onslaught to transform the energy economy, the important things have been remarkably stable. Production of oil and gas are actually up, and prices increases have been relatively modest<\/a> \u2014 far less than one might have anticipated from the extreme regulatory hostility to production. The percentage of what is called \u201cprimary energy\u201d (that is, energy for everything, not just electricity) coming from fossil fuels has remained nearly unchanged. EIA data here for 2022<\/a> (latest I can find) show about 79% of U.S. primary energy from fossil fuels, barely changed since Biden took office, and indeed very stable for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this situation of stable energy production and consumption results because it reflects what markets and consumers want and need to satisfy their demand for energy. So do you think that the hyperactive regulators might just relax and let the consumers have what they want?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, that is not how this works. Even as the energy producers and consumers have figured out endless workarounds to avoid the fossil fuel suppression that the Bidenauts attempt to impose, the little regulatory tyrants have been busy preparing new bouts of punitive restrictions. Last week saw a round of some of the most sweeping regulatory edicts yet. The regulators really plan to put the people in their place this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the new round, the regulators have gotten farther and farther away from anything realistic, anything consistent with the laws of physics or thermodynamics, anything that might actually work. We are now well into the world of fantasy and delusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On last Thursday (April 25), the Administration, via the EPA, announced a suite of no fewer than four final rules \u201cto Reduce Pollution from Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants.\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>Essentially, this is the replacement for the Obama Administration\u2019s so-called \u201cClean Power Plan,\u201d that ordered a complete re-do of the electricity generation system to gradually shutter fossil fuel plants and replace them with unworkable \u201crenewables.\u201d That Plan got struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2022<\/a> for being far beyond anything the EPA was authorized to do under its statutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is the new Rule covering the comparable subject<\/a>. The title is \u201cNew Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong>The document is 1020 pages long because, hey, we\u2019re the EPA, and anything worth doing around here deserves a Rule of at least a thousand pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how does this new Rule achieve the goal of reducing \u201cgreenhouse gas emissions\u201d? You could probably spend all week trying to read the thing without ever figuring that out. EPA\u2019s press release makes the following claim:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEPA\u2019s final Clean Air Act standards for existing coal-fired and new natural gas-fired power plants limit the amount of carbon pollution covered sources can emit, based on proven and cost-effective control technologies that can be applied directly to power plants.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what is the \u201cproven and cost-effective control mechanism\u201d they are talking about? The AP summarizes it here in a few words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the \u201ccapture of smokestack emissions\u201d \u2014 otherwise known as carbon capture and storage, or CCS. I had a post last August<\/a> at the time this Rule had been proposed and comments were being received. In my August post I highlighted some of the comments, including those from the states of Ohio and West Virginia. Those comments made mincemeat of any possible claim that CCS technology was either \u201cproven\u201d or \u201ccost-effective.\u201d Not only has it never been proven, but it\u2019s impossible for it ever to work economically. There are many long quotes from comments in that post. Here are just a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Ohio comment<\/a>, page 4:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study of 263 carbon-capture-and-sequestration projects undertaken between 1995 and 2018 found that the majority failed and 78% of the largest projects were cancelled or put on hold.  After the study was published in May 2021, the only other coal plant with a carbon-capture-and-sequestration attachment in the world, Petra Nova, shuttered after facing 367 outages in its three years of operation. . . . [T]his [SaskPower] facility is the world\u2019s only [remaining] operating commercial carbon capture facility at a coal-fired power plant.   And it has never achieved its maximum capacity.  It also battled significant technical issues throughout 2021\u2014to the point that the plant idled the equipment for weeks at a time.  As a result, the plant achieved less than 37% carbon capture that year despite having an official target of 90% . . . . <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the West Virginia comment<\/a>, pages 24 – 25:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take efficiency to start. CCS units run on power, too. An owner can get that power from the plant itself. But this approach makes the plant less efficient by increasing its \u201cparasitic load\u201d\u2014and CCS more than triples combustion turbines\u2019 normal parasitic load. . . . This is the cause the Wyoming study analyzed that showed installing CCS technology would devastate plants\u2019 heat rates and lower net plant efficiency by 36%.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is endless more of same. The fact is that CCS technology is neither \u201cproven\u201d nor \u201ccost-effective.\u201d It is nowhere after 30 years of trying because it cannot be done economically. It cannot be done economically because it is, in effect, a war against the Second Law of Thermodynamics. To capture more and more of the CO2 from the plant takes more and more of the plant\u2019s output of energy, until in the limiting case you use all the energy of the plant and still some small amount of the CO2 escapes. The whole idea of CCS is to avoid having the disorder of the universe increase by the method of putting sufficient energy into trying. Won\u2019t ever work. See also, perpetual motion machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the sensible comments have all been rejected and EPA has just gone ahead and done what it was always planning to do, which is to order up something that can\u2019t ever work economically and can only result in forcing the closure of an energy system that works without any idea of something realistic to replace it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deadlines for this start around 2030. Most likely between now and then either the Supreme Court will strike this down, or we\u2019ll get a Republican administration that will sweep it all away. In the meantime we have completely ignorant and tyrannical regulators ordering up an energy system that can\u2019t possibly work and heedless of the enormous destruction that they will likely cause if not stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s only part of what these fools were up to last week on the energy front. Here from Wednesday (April 24) is a \u201cFact Sheet\u201d issued by the White House<\/a> on another totally delusional effort: \u201cBiden-\u2060Harris Administration Sets First-Ever National Goal of Zero-Emissions Freight Sector, Announces Nearly $1.5 Billion to Support Transition to Zero-Emission Heavy-duty Vehicles.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got some news for them: the freight transportation sector (trucks and railroads) is not going to convert to electricity any time soon. At least this announcement was not a regulation mandating the conversion, but only the supposed setting of a \u201cnational goal,\u201d with no idea of how it could possibly be achieved or at what cost. The $1.5 billion mentioned is an irrelevant rounding error of a figure that maybe could buy 10,000 new electric trucks (in a sector with at least 3 million existing non-electric ones), and the 10,000 trucks would be mostly useless for the purposes in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These people become more and more detached from reality with each passing day. They seem to have no idea how much damage they are doing, and they don\u2019t care a bit. Somehow they have convinced themselves that they are \u201csaving the planet,\u201d when if they could do even a little arithmetic they would know that their efforts cannot possibly move the needle on that effort. It\u2019s just another week in the Biden Administration energy clown show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three and a half years into the Biden Administration, and to an ordinary citizen on the ground it might seem like not that much has changed as to energy. Despite hundreds of government actions and initiatives in an all-of-government regulatory onslaught to transform the energy economy, the important things have been remarkably stable. Production of oil and gas are actually up, and prices increases have been relatively modest \u2014 far less than one might have anticipated from the extreme regulatory hostility to production. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":326359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819556,691818128,691818073,691828477,691818864],"class_list":{"0":"post-326356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ccs-technology","9":"tag-energy","10":"tag-epa","11":"tag-primary-energy","12":"tag-the-biden-administration","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2ecf0ce2f-c452-453d-bccf-221bba20d74c.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1mTO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":293311,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=293311","url_meta":{"origin":326356,"position":0},"title":"Biden Admin Rolls Out Slew Of Regs Targeting Americans\u2019 Appliances On Last Friday Of The Year","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/01\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The DOE proposed new rules designed to promote \u201cenergy efficient\u201d commercial fans and blowers, and also finalized energy efficiency standards for refrigerators and freezers, the agency\u00a0announced\u00a0Friday.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-1.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-1.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-1.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-1.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":299005,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=299005","url_meta":{"origin":326356,"position":1},"title":"Biden Pauses Natural Gas Export Approvals","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/01\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"President Biden doing his best to burn down an industry filled with well paid unionised jobs.","rel":"","context":"In \"Liquefied Natural Gas\u00a0Exports\"","block_context":{"text":"Liquefied Natural Gas\u00a0Exports","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=liquefied-natural-gas-exports"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-29-190859.png?fit=1184%2C664&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-29-190859.png?fit=1184%2C664&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-29-190859.png?fit=1184%2C664&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-29-190859.png?fit=1184%2C664&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-29-190859.png?fit=1184%2C664&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":201755,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=201755","url_meta":{"origin":326356,"position":2},"title":"Claim: President Biden \u201cAiming to Destroy a \u2026 Climate Lawsuit\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/05\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Essay by Eric Worrall A lawsuit to make climate action a constitutional right; A team of young plaintiffs including\u00a0James Hansen\u2019s\u00a0granddaughter is shocked that Biden is opposing their effort to make climate action a binding requirement on the US government. Biden Is Aiming to Destroy a Historic Climate Change LawsuitBY JULIA\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/00lawsuit1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/00lawsuit1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/00lawsuit1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/00lawsuit1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/00lawsuit1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":220347,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=220347","url_meta":{"origin":326356,"position":3},"title":"GOP \u201cResolutions of Inquiry\u201d Effort Could Make President Biden\u2019s Anti-Fossil Fuel Bias Transparent","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"According to a recent article in\u00a0Fox Business,\u00a0House Republicans are planning to force the Biden administration to disclose its plans for restricting the use of fossil fuels through the issuing of Congressional \u201cResolutions of Inquiry.\u201d","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1136.png?fit=1200%2C757&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1136.png?fit=1200%2C757&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1136.png?fit=1200%2C757&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1136.png?fit=1200%2C757&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1136.png?fit=1200%2C757&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":205836,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=205836","url_meta":{"origin":326356,"position":4},"title":"Biden Got the Energy Market He Wanted","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"25\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Paul Homewood Karl Rove covers all the bases here: Since day one, he\u2019s tried to limit fossil-fuel supplies, and we\u2019re all paying for it. Trying to limit the political damage of skyrocketing gasoline prices, the Biden administration on Sunday trotted out Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. They\u2019d have been better\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/00image-71.png?fit=912%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/00image-71.png?fit=912%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/00image-71.png?fit=912%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/00image-71.png?fit=912%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":247780,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=247780","url_meta":{"origin":326356,"position":5},"title":"Biden Administration partially approves Alaska\u2019s Willow gas and oil project","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"15\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Half a loaf is better than none on energy, but America needs and deserves a full ration.\u00a0 Biden failed both to appease his Green base and deliver reliable energy at the scale required.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-470.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-470.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-470.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-470.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-470.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326356"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326360,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326356\/revisions\/326360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/326359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}