Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Press Briefing

May 13, 2010

Gender-Based Violence Must Be Addressed in Fight Against HIV/AIDS
http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi/index.php/site/entry/gbv_aids

The Struggle for Mastery of the Pacific, by Yuriko Koike
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/koike5/English

Can We Avoid Becoming Europe?
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/05/13/morning-bell-can-we-avoid-becoming-europe

Remarks At the 40th Washington Conference on the Americas. By Hillary Rodham Clinton, State Sec.
Loy Henderson Auditorium, Washington, DC, May 12, 2010
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/05/141760.htm

Presidential Memorandum--Oil Supplemental Package
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-oil-supplemental-package

Autonomous Car Learns To Powerslide Into Parking Spot
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/green-tech/advanced-cars/autonomous-car-learns-to-powerlslide-into-parking-spot

CPSS and IOSCO consult on policy guidance for central counterparties and trade repositories in the OTC derivatives market. May 12, 2010
http://www.bis.org/press/p100512.htm

Ermakova’s findings defy logic: Feeding Roundup Ready soy doesn’t result in infant mortality
http://academicsreview.org/reviewed-content/genetic-roulette/section-1/1-14-roundup-ready-soy-is-safe-5/

The Case for the New START Treaty - The treaty has the unanimous support of America's military leadership. By Robert M Gates, Defense Secretary
http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2010/05/case-for-new-start-treaty-by-secretary.html

What's Happening to Faisal Shahzad? - The lack of a court appearance suggests prosecutors are getting information. But they shouldn't have to improvise.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238620455479284.html

Notable & Quotable - Jacob Sullum and Michael Barone on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240291154629742.html

Washington's Bungling Auto Engineers - Congress is designing everything from the braking system in your next car to the loan with which you'll finance it. Be very afraid.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703880304575236373875947794.html

Obama's Kagan Admission - Confirmation and double standards
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240573955534404.html

Surveillance and Shahzad - Are wiretap limits making it harder to discover and pre-empt jihadists?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238444182924962.html

The Treasury-Financial Complex - The Dodd bill is perfectly designed to create the largest and most powerful crony system in history
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238841836433282.html


The We're-Not-Europe Party - The bill comes due for a life of fairness at the expense of growth
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240591350076252.html

Remarks by the First Lady at National Military Family Association Summit
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-first-lady-national-military-family-association-summit

Senator Kerry and Lieberman release their new energy tax bill
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/05/12/senator-kerry-and-lieberman-release-their-new-energy-tax-bill/

White House Task Force Hops on Activist Bandwagon - Obesity link to plastics!
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.1425/news_detail.asp

Additional Information on the Potential Discretionary Costs of Implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/114xx/doc11493/Additional_Information_PPACA_Discretionary.pdf

Statement by President Obama on Financial Reform
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-obama-financial-reform

No-More-Bailouts Bill Springs a Leak: Fannie and Freddie Ask for More
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/05/10/no-more-bailouts-bill-springs-a-leak-fannie-and-freddie-ask-for-more

How Badly Will the Democrats Do? - Rove on a few trends to watch ahead of November.
http://digs.by/adCGy3

The Price of Wind - The 'clean energy revolution' is expensive

The Price of Wind. WSJ Editorial
The 'clean energy revolution' is expensive
WSJ, May 12, 2010

The ferocious opposition from Massachusetts liberals to the Cape Wind project has provided a useful education in green energy politics. And now that the Nantucket Sound wind farm has won federal approval, this decade-long saga may prove edifying in green energy economics too: Namely, the price of electricity from wind is more than twice what consumers now pay.

On Monday, Cape Wind asked state regulators to approve a 15-year purchasing contract with the utility company National Grid at 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour, starting in 2013 and rising at 3.5% annually thereafter. Consumers pay around nine cents for conventional power today. The companies expect average electric bills to jump by about $1.59 a month, because electricity is electricity no matter how it is generated, and Cape Wind's 130 turbines will generate so little of it in the scheme of the overall New England market.

Still, that works out to roughly $443 million in new energy costs, and that doesn't count the federal subsidies that Cape Wind will receive from national taxpayers. It does, however, include the extra 6.1 cents per kilowatt hour that Massachusetts utilities are mandated to pay for wind, solar and the like under a 2008 state law called the Green Communities Act. Also under that law, at least 15% of power company portfolios must come from renewable sources by 2020.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved Cape Wind, placing it in the vanguard of "a clean energy revolution." A slew of environmental and political outfits have since filed multiple lawsuits for violations of the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, certain tribal-protection laws, the Clean Water Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act.

There's comic irony in this clean energy revolution getting devoured by the archaic regulations of previous clean energy revolutions. But given that taxpayers will be required to pay to build Cape Wind and then required to buy its product at prices twice normal rates, opponents might have more success if they simply pointed out what a lousy deal it is.