NOW FOR some good news: Over the past four years, every high-profile energy policy championed by the Obama administration has failed. The “clean” coal promised during his first campaign? Sent back to the primordial swamps from whence it came. Five million green jobs? Never happened. Electric cars? Sales have faltered for the over-hyped and over-subsidized Chevy Volt, causing GM to shutter the plant for weeks at a time. And don’t get me started on the billions taxpayers lost on bankrupt firms like Solyndra, A123, and Evergreen Solar.
But back in the land of competitive markets, where honest investment and innovation still matter, something very interesting has happened. According to the US Energy Information Agency, America’s natural gas reserves logged their biggest gain ever last year, reaching record levels. Oil production increased in 2012 for the fourth straight year, and America became a net exporter of refined petroleum products, including gasoline. Last August, the agency projected that by 2020 the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas liquids.
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Great column, John. It is simply a government's function to find ways to interfere with markets, and as you have pointed out, it is nearly always a failure. President Obama's efforts are especially laughable. One of his early moves was to hire a "green jobs czar", who was a radical named Van Jones. The millions of green jobs never came, but our nation has found massive reserves of natural gas. There will probably be a massive energy boom in this country, but it will not be wind, solar or "green". It will be oil and natural gas, without the help of a czar, an agency, or a commission from the government.
http://vanjones.net/
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This free market hyperbole is just more right wing rhetoric. Just wondering if within your positing on the virtues of free markets you support government subsidies for big oil and gas but take a heretical posture when the government subsidizes renewables -- the latter of which is often considered by Republicans to be "picking winners and losers".
WOW, Bumpy, I saw what you did there! When it is the right wingers you use:
hyperbole
rhetoric
heretical
But the other stuff that has NOT worked is RENEWABLES.
And government didn't act successfully by creating Medicare when the private sector failed? And when government failed to regulate Wall Street during the Bush error, wasn't that a wonderful success? And the drug lab scandal, thank God regulators failed and let the market prevail. John, you are irrelevant since the mandate against your old ideas.
And what did ANY of those have to do with energy? Looks like your remarks Hoosier are totally irrelevant.
Sununu's name elicits a sigh and "here we go again". That is followed quickly by "Why bother taking the time?" The comments like the one for Richmond12, congratulating him on his fine contribution, clearly demonstrate that there is a crowd of people who drink from his kool-aid pitcher. Can Sununu and his supporters understand that every handful of mud they throw at the wall has a rational and logical rebuttal? Can they understand that there is a whole side of the picture which simply doesn't get acknowledged in their formulations? Can they understand that the personal attacks on a President, in the way it is done, puts their critique at the level of a middle-school bully who is not sufficiently mature to speak like an adult and think like an adult? The question is not whether there is a rebuttal for this column. The question is whether a refusal to acknowledge this column would be a signal to the Globe to finally take they microphone away from a person of this caliber, and find a truly worthy spokesperson for this side of the public debate.
What we CAN understand is that in that over bloviated comment of yours, you said ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH to refute one thing that he wrote.
What we also understood is that like most liberals you want to talk about how a message is delivered instead of what it says.
In other words, you had no point to make, so you just threw up all over the internet.
John can never see the other side of the story. He fails to see the push that govt. gave each of big oils actions. I am so tired of this "free market" nonsense. It is capitalism, but it isn't a free market. It is a market that is pushed and cajoled and supported and uplifted by government. From tax credits, to research to the sharing of technology by agencies from DOD to NASA. But John he won't see that, can't see that. It doesn't fit his formulation. You and the old man are about as dated as Leave it to Beaver. It's a new world and most of us recognize that neither government nor business nor the citizen stand alone.
True - and note elsewhere in this section the small passage about Sens. Imhofe and McCain attempting to derail the DoD's investment in alternative energies, obviously at the behest of the oil lobby. The DoD is the largest user of oil in the world and these two jokers look at the long term as "lobbyist payment receipts" rather than as a need to be fully prepared to keep the USA safe under all circumstances.
It's such a comfort that Sununu and his ilk are becoming less and less relevant and being pushed farther and farther from decision-making. Yes, there's a small cadre of zealots who love their Beaver Cleaver thinking but they're becoming cartoons, not statesmen.
The biggest "Other Side of the Story" that John should have mentioned, is the E.P.A. deliberate rejection of the Keystone Oil Pipeline from Canada. That is the biggest cause of the loss of thousands of jobs and of oil and gasoline prices DOUBLING during the Obama administration.
Also actions like that are seen by America's enemies, especially IRAN as a green light to build more bombs and missiles, paid for by Iran's oil sales. If America didn't buy Middle east oil and if it exported oil, Iran's nuclear program could be put out of business.
The EPA is just as great a threat to America, israel, and the Free World as is Islamist countries.
Methinks John Sununu has earned a well-deserved vacation. Perhaps he could spend a week or so swimming in the Gulf of Mexico learning first hand how unregulated industry does not operate in a vacuum while residual oil is involuntarily applied to his body.
Thank you, John Sununu. There are many other sectors of private endeavor in which government has seized control to the detriment of our society. Bravo to the Globe for letting this side of the story be told.
The Department of Defense is one of the biggest proponents of clean fuels and green technology. That should tell you all you need to know about the future of energy in our country. And unicorn tears? Really, John? Solar, wind, geothermal, solar thermal, tidal energy and more are real and happening and can power the globe without destroying the environment.
The best fuel of all, however doesn't produce megawatts, but "negawatts," and that is energy efficiency, which has been recognized by the DOE and McKinsey as the most effective means of reducing the effects of climate change. Energy efficiency should be the largest part of any national energy policy, and investing in making our buildings, homes and transportation more efficient can grow our economy for decades.
Read http://greentechadvocates.com/2012/12/05/the-efficiency-singularity-is-near/. This is happening now.
I'll represent the environment this morning. John, May a unicorn put it's horn straight up your oily patoot. Shame on the Globe for allowing this nonsense. Have a great day!
Wiser heads have seen the long view and realize oil, even local oil, is finite. Importation of oil has cause many of the foriegn policy problems we have today and will have in the future. So we have gone down some blind alleys in the pursuit of energy independance. The effort has to be made. The repuiblican do-nothing mantra is a big reason the party is on the way out. Everyone with a brain has seen examples and results of the "back to the future" doctrine of the GOP.
The good news is really that people like Sununu are becoming irrelevant.
Of course he neglected to mention that Obama's iniatives already allowed the US to reduce oil imports by 10% in 2010 and 2011, saving millions of barrels of oil.
Those that truly care about the long-term future understand that big oil is subsidized with billions of tax dollars, supplemented by about $1.6 trillion in infrastructure spending, and not including related costs of climate change and health issues related to burning fossil fuels.
And then there's the effort to reduce government that Sununu's party has been pushing, with all their efforts to eliminate the EPA because the companies will "self regulate." Remember who had to jump in after the BP oil spill? By contrast, wind and solar energy spills require little cleanup, and we don't have to import either wind or sunshine.
BTW - and no surprise here - according to SOURCEWATCH, while Sununu was in the Senate (2003-2009)
"John E. Sununu has received $104,600 in oil contributions during the 110th congress. $76,000 of those dollars were from industry PACS. In total, Sununu has accepted $239,180 from oil companies since 2000, which makes him one of the top recipients of oil money in the United States Senate." and he "voted in favor of big oil companies on 75% of important oil-related bills."
If he were speaking this nonsense, it would be fun to watch the oil industry's hands moving his mouth the antiquated positions that will only lead to our irrelevance in just a couple of decades. Not that we'd ever want to copy China, but that is one country that understands both the ultimate demise of fossil fuels and the incredible importance of alternative energy, and they have almost four times the population the US does. "Globe Columnist" doesn't seem like a position worth striving for if this is the foolishness that passes for thought.
I suppose Sununu might have a little more credibility were he not bought and paid for by the oil industry. What I found troubling in this article was that he crows so joyfully at the failures of other businesses. Success of green technology and success of petroleum technology are not mutually exclusive, nor is it in our national interest to favor one over the other, rather, fostering success of both is far more beneficial.
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Another good reason to vote DEMOCRATE!
I beg your pardon...DEMOCRAT!
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Why does the globe have this guy doing editorials? This guy is a moron!!
Another day, another oily corporate shill appears in the Globe...
Senator Sununu, please tell us that you don't get paid for this frackish bilge that you serve up so often. BTW, do you want them fracking for oil near your aquifer in New Hampshire? Nevertheless, there is an endless supply of fossil fuel that was generated in the last 10,000 years since the world was created. We'll never run out. Right on both accounts, correct?, just like global warming is a myth, right?
A policy where oil companies get billions for searching for new sources or new ways of extracting is also an energy policy. How did that fare, Mr. Sununu?
Also the "Clean Energy" lovers conveniently IGNORE that there are countries out there that have BOMBS, like Hezbollah, Hamas, North Korea, Syria, and Iran. Syria has Sarin gas, North Korea continues to test nukes, with only mild protests from the Obama Administration. And of course, NONE from the Green Energy crowd.
And then there is Iran, who LAUGHS at the Obama administration by not only producing enriched uranium, but PLUTONIUM. Besides killing people these BOMBS cause HEAT and Global WARMING, AIR POLLUTION, and kill rare birds and other species.
If there is radiactive fallout from a Plutonium explosion, there will be no place to hide.
John H. Sununu, who died early last year, was a New Hampshire Governor and White house Chief of Staff under George W. Bush.
This Sununu, John E., was elected Senator from New Hampshire in 2003, largely based on his father's name, as you can imagine. After six years, disappointed New Hampshire voters had had enough and he lost his re-election bid by seven points.
As you can tell, he's not an intellectual giant, or a competent columnist, but he might maie a nice next-door neighbor.
Former NH Governor John H Sununu is NOT dead!.. He was a Romney attack dog during the last campaign, coming out with such memorable statements as
“I wish this president would learn how to be an American.”
“He didn’t want to prepare for this debate. He’s lazy and disengaged.”
“He spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something.”
" Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama."
And then he questioned whether Obama had developed a "southern drawl" in "southern Indonesia," or "is it just as phony as his jaunt when he runs up and down Marine One."
Clearly he's still alive, and just as irrelevant as his son.
Tell you what, John. Why don't you pack a bag and take world-wide tour and see if you can find an un-regulated Libertarian utopia somewhere? We need to see an example of whether or not your crackpot theories of economic Darwinism actually actually work. Face it, John- unregulated markets are like playing tennis without a net.
I see a number of comments to effect that the Globe shouldn't waste space on this man's opinions. Au contraire! We need conservatives like him and Jeffy to remind people that there are a lot of wrong-headed ideologues over there on the far right. If it weren't for these two columnists, we might forced to read the Hair-oiled, or watch Fixed News, or even listien to Lush Rambo on hate radio to learn the awful truth.