Shalers,

The EnergyBiz Leadrship Forum was put together well. The focus of the conference tackled the effects of the Obama stimulus package on the power industry, as well as the short- and long-term consequences of the energy and economic crises. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was a little disappointed that CNG was not directly tackled in depth. It seemed that every other energy aspect was covered except CNG. This absence is probably explained when one looks at the current administration's energy goals and policy preferences. CNG didn’t make it into the stimulus bill unlike renewables and the Obama industry has made it fairly obvious that CNG is not an initial priority as evidenced by the addition of “hydrocarbon” taxes and the removal of existing tax deductions to certain E&Ps.

Even T. Boone Pickens, in our question and answer session with him, was “surprised” by these proposals and thought that it was a bad idea to “kick” the producers “while they are down.”

Watch the video…

Call me lazy, but why reinvent the wheel. Below are 2 different perspectives on the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum. One by Warren Causey a writer for Energy Central, and the other by Martin Rosenberg, the moderator for many of the discussions.

Rosenberg’s WRITE UP. READ IT.

“Sven Thesen, one of the top execs at Better Place, kept flashing pictures of his two lovely daughters during his keynote, saying he and his compatriots want to make the earth a Better Place by ending our reliance on dirty oil for transport. Their scheme is to dot the landscape with battery changing stations.
Charles Phillips, president of Oracle, told us about what his company can do to help manage the avalanche of information that the energy revolution will spawn in the years ahead. "Energy is our next frontier," he said.

Several speakers at our concluding policy panel said that the American public has no idea that their electric bill could climb 40 to 100 percent in the near future as a result of cap and trade legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions. And several warned that if they are not careful, utilities may become the loathed tax collectors of a cash hungry federal bureaucracy.
Jacques Besnainou of Areva, in response to my questioning, said yes, indeed, the French have solved the nuclear waste issue to the satisfaction of their very French public, and they are willing to sent their insights to us as a gift - call it a 21st century Statue of Energy Liberty.
John Anderson of ELCON said if we do not watch it, rising energy prices could strangle American manufacturers, already on the ropes.
Susan Story, the president of Gulf Power, spoke passionately about the importance of upgrading math and science education for our future work force - our children.
Dan Reicher, Google's top energy guy, said that give people information about their energy use and they will use it.

John Bates, of Nuclear Innovation North America, said that the silver lining from the recession/depression is the fall in commodity prices which suddenly makes proposed new nuclear plants less expensive.
For dreamers of clean coal, Mike Mudd, the CEO of the FutureGen Alliance, threw out some cold water by pointing out that it will take 30 percent of the energy of a given coal-fired plant to power sequestration of its carbon dioxide. Speaking of FutureGen, one of our speakers, Rep. Bart Gordon, head of the U.S. House science and technology committee, made national news this week when he pointed out that the Bush Department of Energy cooked the books when it derailed FutureGen last year because of rising costs. Those cost increases were not as large as the Bush team alleged, Gordon has disclosed.”

Causey’s WRITE UP. READ IT.

“One of the constant themes of the conference was that energy prices for average consumers are going to go up sharply in the next couple of years as the Obama Administration and the huge Democrat majority in Congress embrace the most radical of environmentalist positions including Cap and Trade—probably with all allowances auctioned. Even Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, admitted when I interviewed him that prices will be going up, though he wouldn’t guess at a percentage. I heard numbers everywhere from 15 percent to more than 100 percent for the projected increase in electric rates.

All this is based upon dubious “consensus science” and computer modeling claiming that CO2 is causing an unnatural Global Warming. “Consensus science” isn’t science, it is politics and politics from the far-left and radical environmentalists. I still don’t understand their motivation for this political movement, unless it was just to get into power. That they have accomplished.”

###