Recently in Government Category

International humanitarian organization Oxfam America commends the U.S. Congress for making disclosure of payments from oil and mining companies to governments around the world a legal requirement. Included as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed by the House and Senate, this historic measure will increase financial transparency in the oil, gas, and mining industry and help reduce the corruption, mismanagement, and conflict that are too often associated with natural resource extraction booms.

"Congress has made an unprecedented commitment to financial transparency and good governance in a sector that not only affects American wallets, but also some of the most vulnerable communities around the world," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. "Secrecy of oil, gas and mining company payments to governments fosters government corruption and violent conflict in resource-rich countries that are home to more than half of the world's poorest people. Instability in these regions poses a long-term threat to national security, foreign policy, and economic interests in the United States."

The language included in the financial services reform measure was based on the Energy Security through Transparency Act (S. 1700), a bipartisan Senate bill championed by Senators Lugar (R-IN) and Cardin (D-MD). The new law creates a low-cost, uniform transparency method for oil, gas, and mining companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and covers more than 90 percent of internationally operating oil companies and many of the top international mining companies. Companies will be required to publicly disclose payments for the extraction of oil, gas, and minerals on a country-by-country and project basis as part of financial statements that are already required by the SEC. This not only includes American companies but also many foreign companies, such as Shell and BP, as well as companies from emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia.

"This provision is a critical part of the increased transparency and corporate responsibility that we are striving to achieve in the financial industry. Given the catastrophic events in the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies, in particular, should well understand that secrecy fosters instability, corruption and greater risk," said Senator Cardin. "We now have the tools to help people in resource-rich countries hold their leaders accountable for the money made from their oil, gas and minerals."  

"Too often, oil money intended for a nation's poor ends up lining the pockets of the rich or is squandered on showcase projects instead of productive investments," said Senator Lugar when he spoke in favor of the measure when it was offered as an amendment to the Senate financial reform bill in late May. (The Cardin-Lugar amendment was co-sponsored by Senators Durbin (D-IL), Schumer (D-NY), Feingold (D-WI), Merkley (D-OR), and Johnson (D-SD).) He added:  "This 'resource curse' affects us as well as producing countries. It exacerbates global poverty which can be a seedbed for terrorism, it empowers autocrats and dictators, and it can crimp world petroleum supplies by breeding instability."

"We applaud Senators Cardin and Lugar for spearheading this effort in the Senate that will both level the playing field for oil, gas, and mining companies and help citizens hold their governments accountable for using revenues for economic development and poverty reduction. We also thank Senator Leahy for offering the measure during the House-Senate conference process and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank for his early leadership on transparency in the oil and mining industries and for his support for this measure that demonstrates U.S. commitment to transparent business practices and accountable governance," said Offenheiser.

"Passing this law sets up an international standard for the public disclosure of natural resource revenue information, but its effectiveness will be determined by strict implementation by lawmakers and development of effective implementing regulations by the SEC. Companies should heed the call for transparency so citizens of resource-rich countries can begin to use this information to hold their governments accountable for using revenues to address essential services like healthcare, education, and job creation."

Oxfam America calls on the SEC to quickly undertake its rule-making process to implement this important measure as Congress intended. "Oxfam America and its allies in the Publish What You Pay campaign will be closely following the rule-making process to ensure this groundbreaking disclosure measure is quickly put in place," said Offenheiser.

Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in more than 100 countries, Oxfam saves lives, helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. Oxfam America is an affiliate of the international confederation Oxfam.

A late-night vote Thursday by the Ohio House demonstrates Ohio's bipartisan commitment to bringing clean energy, job creation and greater investment in local communities vying for renewable energy projects.

Sub Senate Bill 232 passed the House by a vote of 91-7 and the Senate concurred shortly after passage by a vote of 27-5 with a final reconciled bill headed to Gov. Ted Strickland's desk before summer recess, according to the grassroots coalition Wind and Solar Jobs for Ohio.

"With this vote, Ohio public officials have positioned the State to create and protect thousands of local Ohio manufacturing, construction, operations and maintenance jobs in the wind industry," said Brad Lystra, manager, economic development partnerships for the American Wind Energy Association.

The bipartisan effort and passage of Sub Senate Bill 232 was critical to bringing Ohio's tax structure for wind development sites in line with surrounding states as developers finalize decisions on which projects to prioritize to leverage expiring federal stimulus funding.

Lystra applauded the bipartisan spirit and the leadership of Sen. Chris Widener (R-Springfield) who championed Senate Bill 232, Gov. Ted Strickland, and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Tom Leston (D-Warren) for working together to advance Ohio's clean energy future.

"By eliminating this tax disadvantage, Ohio lawmakers have strengthened the renewable market and secured millions in new tax revenue for local communities," Lystra said. "Additionally, Ohio's struggling manufacturing industry will get a significant boost from wind turbine component part orders and position itself to see even greater investments from wind and solar manufacturers looking to expand into new markets and supply chains."

Wind and Solar Jobs for Ohio is a coalition of businesses and organizations that support the adoption of a competitive tax structure for wind and solar projects in Ohio. For more information on the coalition and the specifics of the seven proposed wind farms for Ohio, visit www.windandsolarjobsforohio.com.

Attorney General Jerry Brown and Assemblymember Nancy Skinner Introduce AB 2514 to Make the Smart Grid a Reality with California Becoming Leader in Clean, Cost-Effective Energy Storage

Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-14), Chair, Committee on Natural Resources, working in partnership with California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., has introduced AB 2514 (available here) - new legislation that will create a smarter, cleaner electric grid, increase the use of renewable energy, provide Californians with significant savings by avoiding costly new power plants and transmission lines, and reduce air pollution. This transformative legislation will also create thousands of permanent new green-collar jobs.  

AB 2514 will achieve these benefits by closing the gap between the United States and other nations in investments and deployments of energy storage, a booming "green" industry that represents a significant economic development opportunity for California.

By mandating that utilities incorporate energy storage capacity - 2.25% of daytime peak demand for power by 2014 and 5% of peak demand by 2020 - the bill will provide much-needed lower electricity costs to consumers. Greater use of energy storage will provide the State with a cleaner and less costly alternative to the high costs of generating and supplying primarily fossil fuel-based power for only part-time daytime peak demand for power.

"Energy storage is the future -- it's a fast-growing clean technology industry that will save the state money and reduce pollution," said Attorney General Jerry Brown, the bill's sponsor.  "What's even better is that this new technology could create 8,500 new jobs in California during the next decade."

"We applaud Assemblymember Skinner and Attorney General Brown's leadership in introducing this essential legislation.  This bill will put California at the forefront of a growing global market that will spur economic development.   Given major advances in energy storage, the industry is now ready to provide high-technology, affordable, reliable products for California's utilities and consumers," noted Janice Lin, Director of the California Energy Storage Alliance.

Currently, California uses fossil fuel-burning backup power plants, as well as coal-fired power imported from other states, to help meet its relentlessly growing demand for daytime peak power.  This is costly, inefficient and harmful to California's air quality.  Wider scale deployment of clean, cost-effective energy storage will enable California to reduce pollution from greenhouse gases and smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) by reducing the need for fossil fuel-based peaking power plants and imported coal-fired power.  Further, energy storage will increase the value and use of intermittent renewable power such as wind and solar, which often relies on fossil fuel-based backup power.  However, California is lagging behind other states in energy storage deployment.  AB 2514 is available at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_2501-2550/ab_2514_bill_20100219_introduced.pdf

Cost-effective and commercially ready energy storage is a key part of the newly emerging smart grid that will transform California's electricity grid into a modern, clean, sophisticated network fully integrating renewable and distributed power sources.  Modern energy storage technologies, some in existence for decades and covering a wide range of sizes, power capacity, and discharge durations, include mechanical, chemical and thermal processes for storing energy for use at a later time.  Energy storage has attracted significant investment capital and federal stimulus funding, with recently announced projects representing nearly 1,000 megawatts of new capacity.  This will more than double the current installed capacity of energy storage.

The California Energy Storage Alliance is an association of companies committed to the rapid expansion of energy storage to promote growth of renewable energy and a more reliable and secure electric system. Its members include a diverse group of companies ranging from electro-mechanical, electro-thermal and electro-chemical storage companies to system integrators and renewable energy component manufacturers and developers.  (www.storagealliance.org).

SOURCE CESA (California Energy Storage Alliance)

Low cost energy abundance is possible for the United States but is being blocked by environmental extremists in the Obama Administration according to a new article by Jon Basil Utley just posted at Reason Magazine on-line: http://www.reason.com/news/show/136265.html .

Jon Utley is The American Conservative associate publisher, and a former foreign correspondent for Knight Ridder newspapers.

In "Alaska Oil Abundance Versus Washington's Wasted Billions: The case for new oil drilling in Alaska and off America's coasts," Utley explains that 80% of American oil consumption comes from imports, costing some $300 to $400 billion yearly. "They wreck our trade balance, subsidize many of our enemies, and add to our already mountainous foreign debt," Utley says.

While analysts are forecasting $100 dollar-a-barrel oil within a year, the Obama Administration continues to block offshore drilling (even though it was approved by Congress last year) and wants to raise taxes on the oil companies, Utley says.

"New oil drilling in Alaska and off America's coasts would create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars in real tax revenue for Washington," Utley writes in the article. "Compare that to government spending to create jobs, which costs some $200,000 per job."

Solar power, Utley says "involves billions of dollars in costly subsidies which add to the ballooning budget and trade deficits" while wind power will cost the taxpayers $10 billion. "Ethanol was similarly hyped by Washington -- another gigantic boondoggle with severely damaging consequences for food prices and tens of billions of dollars of wasted resources."

"Major technological breakthroughs make vast new oil production possible -- once Washington permits it," Utley says. Natural gas is "already abundant and promises to stay cheap into the foreseeable future. . . . there exists tremendous potential for natural gas in auto and truck engines. . .many trucks, buses, and taxis could easily be converted to run on natural gas, costing less than a dollar a gallon."

"Research drilling has made vast new oil production possible," Utley says. "Horizontal drilling allows wells to reach into oil reserves as never before and to produce far more oil from each field. . . .a traditional vertical well might expose 200 to 300 feet of reservoir rock [while] a new well using multiple horizontal sections can expose over 20,000 feet of reservoir rock."

"The Obama Administration is a prisoner of its 'base,' which includes extreme environmentalists doing all they can to delay and handicap new oil and gas drilling. If just a fraction of the $700 billion stimulus bill was spent on subsidizing natural gas fueling facilities at interstate truck stops, America could use more of its natural gas to avoid tens of billions of dollars of oil imports," Utley said.

See the entire article at Reason Magazine on-line: http://www.reason.com/news/show/136265.html

SOURCE Reason Magazine On-line