Federal Money for Alternative Energy Projects Drying Up -- Not a Bakken Story

Link here. The linked article looks like a news article, but reads like an op-ed piece. An op-ed piece that might have been written by the wind energy industry, or more specifically the backers of Cape Wind.  More on that later.

My hunch is that Congress will extend grants and/or credits for renewable energy projects on a case-by-case basis (earmarks). They have already done so with ethanol subsidies in the tax bill that is being considered (to the tune of 45 cents/gallon of ethanol and a mandate that a certain amount of ethanol be produced every year).

However, the uncertainty of federal funding makes it more difficult for developers to move ahead with their projects; banks and venture capitalists less willing to loan / partner if federal funding uncertain.

Of note in this article is the Cape Wind off-shore / off Boston wind turbine program, which after ten (10) years finally has all permits and can start building. Cape Wind has a confirmed contract for 50% of electricity produced by the project, and is (desperately?) looking for customer(s) for the other 50%.

The Cape Wind project, which appears close to becoming the first offshore wind farm in the United States, will rely on government loans to make up at least some of the $2 billion it needs to get started, according to people briefed on the matter.

At the top I mentioned this linked article looks like a news article but reads like an op-ed piece. Examples abound. Here are two; first:

It does not help the financing outlook that renewable energy has been snubbed repeatedly during this session of Congress, while old-line energy, including nuclear energy, still gets significant government subsidies.

Comment: Nuclear energy is not exactly "old-line." It is state-of-the-art, highly sophisticated, extremely expensive to build, and regulations are such, funding is the least of the problem.

Second example:

The end of the tax breaks are likely to result in the loss of about 15,000 jobs, according to industry estimates. 

Comment: the 15,000 figure may be a bogus number. The year 2009 was a banner year -- the best year ever -- for wind energy, but, in fact, jobs related to wind energy actually decreased.

Comment: jobs? Jobs? You wanna talk about jobs? Talk about all the jobs that were lost and are still lost due to moratoria on drilling off-shore on the west coast; drilling off-shore on the east coast; drilling off-shore Alaska; and, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Now add in the "slow-rolling" of granting or honoring Federal land in Utah and other western states.

I was happy to see that it was acknowledged that solar energy is not an answer.

Solar energy provides less than 1 percent of all the energy in the world, but accounts for around 50 percent of government renewable energy financing. The problem, [one analyst] argued, is that the government is backing technologies that are too expensive or inefficient to be widely adopted.

Thus, when you get down to it, we're talking wind energy, I guess. And possibly coal-powered automobiles.