Energy Dept. Spends $10 Million on Water Turbine to Power 25 Houses

Photo credit courtesy of NREL
The first underwater turbine to make use of tidal energy went live last week in Maine, supported by a $10 million investment by the Department of Energy.
The Ocean Renewable Power Company Maine’s Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Pilot Project received the Energy Department money to build, install, and operate the hydrokinetic energy conversion devices situated at the easternmost tip of the state.
The turbine, with a rated capacity of 180 kW, is expected to generate enough power for 25 to 30 homes.
The electricity produced by the tidal generation will be sold by Ocean Renewable Power Company to Maine’s utilities under a 20-year power purchase agreement, according to Boston.com. The initial price of 21.5 cents per kilowatt hour is almost double the current average price of 11.21 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity in Maine.
Heritage’s Nick Loris, a critic of government subsidies for energy sources, said Washington should stop propping up industries that happen to have good connections in Washington. “Taxpayer-funded programs do not create jobs; they shift them from one sector of the economy to another,” Loris recently wrote. “The opportunity cost of government spending is the lost labor and capital extracted from other sectors of the economy to artificially support the politically preferred ones. If underwater turbines are a good investment, companies shouldn’t need subsidies to build them.”
The power company plans to construct a network of as many as 20 of the seafloor-mounted underwater turbines to eventually produce electricity for approximately 1,200 homes:

The first tidal generator is expected to begin delivering electricity to the regional power grid in September, starting small, with just enough to power 25 homes. It is the product of several years and millions of dollars in investment by Ocean Renewable Power’s backers and the Department of Energy.
The Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project cost about $21 million, including research and development, design and fabrication of three turbine units, installation, and environmental monitoring. The systems capture the energy of the moving water, rotating a turbine that powers a generator.

According to Energy Department estimates released in the project’s impact statement, 53 new jobs are expected to be created over the course of the eight-year pilot period. In announcing the project’s culmination this summer, Energy Secretary Steven Chu put the figure slightly higher, at around 100 jobs “supported” by the project.
Generating energy from tidal forces is more predictable and reliable than other forms of renewable energy, especially wind turbines.
Paul Jacobson of the Electric Power Research Institute told Boston.com that predictability is crucial. “That’s highly valuable to the folks who have to manage the generation and transmission system,” he said. “To know how much power they can expect to get from a system over time is valuable.”
The Electric Power Research Institute is a recipient of approximately $1.5 million in Energy Department funding for a variety of ocean energy assessments, including ocean wave energy resource recoverability, fish injury and mortality, and available hydrokinetic energy from U.S. rivers.
The Energy Department believes the project represents the first step in promoting the development of tidal energy in the United States. Based on its own estimates from early 2012, the Energy Department projects that as much as 15 percent of the nation’s electricity could come from waves and tidal currents and up to one-third of the nation’s electricity demand could be generated along the coast, though it did not provide a specific plan on expanding the energy portfolio in the announcement.
The Energy Department has funded more than $87 million in marine and hydrokinetic projects since fiscal 2008, with more than 45 percent going to three states—Maine, Oregon, and Washington. Private industry received more than $49.4 million of the total, or 60 percent.
The Maine project’s $10 million award was the largest of the Energy Department’s Water Power Program projects.

A CLEAR PICTURE: UnskewedPolls.com

Well, this qualifies as interesting:

If you haven’t checked it out, please visit UnskewedPolls.com... Okay, so this website factors out the deliberate skewing that the Left is inserting in all the current national polls to give Barack Obama a lead over Mitt Romney when in reality Obama is trailing Romney and losing the election.

The corrupt, vintage media is running this propaganda for three reasons:

• Showing Obama in the lead causes a “bandwagon effect” where low-information voters think to themselves “Obama’s winning, and I like betting on winners, so I’ll vote for him too, I guess since the tee-vee told me I needed to”
• Eeyores in conservative ranks are a skittish, worrisome lot by nature and will seize on any poll with Obama in the lead to collapse onto the ground in tears, screaming “We’re DOOOOOOMED!” because they are gluttons for attention
• The Legion of Gloom (that band of Fifth Column writers at conservative sites and in the media) just loves running these polls with headlines like “Can Romney Still Win?” because Eeyores eat that garbage up like it’s McRib sandwiches, three for $5, and this succeeds in Eeyore-breeding (the process of creating new Eeyores by running nonstop poll-driven headlines that “Romney is losing! Doom is coming!”).

...Do you ever see headlines like this on TV or any of the Left’s sites?

• Can Obama still win? Considering he is polling far less than 50% in accurate samples that reflect current voter affiliation in this country, this is the question everyone should be asking right now… is there any way in Hell for Obama to win this, even with massive voter fraud? I think the answer to that is no. Too bad the jackasses on conservative sites fail to ask this question and instead love running “Can Romney still win?” instead.

• Will Obama Overcome? No, he won’t. Even here in Illinois, Obama’s ground game is week, he’s not paying out street money to thugs because he doesn’t have the funds available, and Democrats find nothing inspiring or motivational about his campaign...

• Does Obama Need A Shakeup? Yes, but it’s too late for that. Do you know that Obama staffers are sending out resumes for their next jobs, post-White House? David Axelrod long ago moved on to other things here in Chicago. He is minimally focused on Obama’s re-election campaign because he knows Obama won’t win... Axelrod left Obama after the 2010 midterms. He did not think he had until 2014 in the White House. THIS SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.

• Is Obama Losing? Hell to the Yes. His campaign sends out 5 or 6 emails a day begging for money. Not “asking”. BEGGING. I’ve never seen anything so desperate. I am surprised he has not dragged Sally Struthers out of her house of clutter and junk (she was recently outed as a major hoarder) to make commercials for him begging for money like those old “Feed the Children” spots in the 80s where she’d lay down guilt like it was molasses. Michelle Obama sent emails out asking people to skip their family’s dinners and donate the money to the campaign. Obama asked people to sell their things at yard sales or on Craigslist and give him the money. Sometimes the emails I get from Joe Biden asking me to have dinner with him seem so creepy I want to report him as a romantic stalker. It’s all SO STRANGE and so desperate.

Some of the comments are interesting:

• I live in deep blue Brookline, MA, and my Romney yard sign stands out like a sore thumb, but it hasn’t been stolen yet, and I haven’t seen a single Obama yard sign anywhere. Last time they were everywhere, and almost every other car had an Obama bumper sticker. There are some of those this time, but nowhere near as many.

• NC is considered gone for Obama. He’s still advertising here, but no campaign stops. He and Biden were in NC every fifteen minutes in 08, as were Palin and McCain. The closest campaign stops R/R are in VA. And where in VA? Nearer to DC, the blue strongholds. Want something far more reliable to indicate the state of the race – look at where they are campaigning.

• Here in Ohio, There are NO Obama signs except in front of the Union Halls. Even in the blue parts of the states such as Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati, there are few if any signs. College campuses same thing few if any signs. In the suburban & rural parts of the state, NONE. Personally, I think his approval rating in Ohio is about 40%. All the commercials Team Obama & MSM spin have been running in this state are just a waste of money. Voters in this state voted down Obamacare by 2 to 1 margin last November. .Why would they turn around & reelect him. As far as, the debates probably won’t matter in the end. Romney will win Ohio.

• ...to prove the point you are making about polls, I looked up the NJ Governor’s poll from 2009. The Real Clear Politics poll average had Chris Christie winning by a single point. He beat Jon Corzine by a whopping 6 points. Even Rasmussen, who is the most accurate, was off by 3 points... And if you scroll down, just a week to 10 days prior to election day some of the polls had Corzine up by 4 to 5 points.

Tell the media to kiss it.

CBS Doesn't Air Obama Admitting Mistakes in Campaign Ads

Tonight, CBS aired a 60 Minutes interview with President Obama. But curiously enough, the news magazine show did not air a clip of Obama admitting to interviewer Steve Kroft that some of his campaign ads contain mistakes and that some even "go overboard."
60 Minutes did, however, post the clip online:



CBS describes the clip this way: "President Obama says some of his campaign ads might 'go overboard' or contain mistakes, but most of them simply highlight the differences between him and Gov. Romney."
"Look, the fact-checkers have had problems with the ads on both sides," Kroft says to Obama in the unaired clip, "and say they've been misleading and in some cases just not true. Does that disturb you? I mean, some of them are your ads."
Obama responds: "Do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign, are there mistakes that are made, areas where there is no doubt somebody could dispute how we are presenting things? You know, that happens in politics."
Kroft responds: "Aren't the American entitled to the truth? Or a better version of it?"
"The truth of the matter is, most of the time we're having a vigorous debate about a vision for the country," Obama says. "And, you know, there's a lot at stake in this election. So is it going to be sharp sometimes? Absolutely. But will the American people ultimately have a good sense of where I want to take the country and where Gov. Romney takes the country? I think they will."

Indeed, it's a newsworthy admission, but one that didn't make it into the news magazine's final cut.

Obama Refers to Israel Concern Over Iran as 'Noise'

In an interview to air tonight on CBS's 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama will refer to Israel's concern over Iran's march toward a nuclear program as "noise." "When it comes to our national security decisions -- any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out -- any noise that's out there," Obama says,

 Here's the video and transcript:

STEVE KROFT: "How much pressure have you been getting from Prime Minister Netanyahu to make up your mind to use military force in Iran?"

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Well—look, I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu's insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon, because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel, and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race."

STEVE KROFT:  "You’re saying, you don't feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign to try and get you to change your policy and draw a line in the sand? You don’t feel any pressure?"

 PRESIDENT OBAMA: "When it comes to our national security decisions—any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out—any noise that's out there. Now I feel an obligation, not pressure but obligation, to make sure that we're in close consultation with the Israelis—on these issues. Because it affects them deeply. They're one of our closest allies in the region. And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence."

UPDATE: Romney press secretary Andrea Saul responds:

“Tonight on 60 Minutes, President Obama called Israel’s legitimate concern about the impact of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons ‘noise’ and referred to Israel as merely ‘one of our closest allies in the region.’ This is just the latest evidence of his chronic disregard for the security of our closest ally in the Middle East. Governor Romney's views stand in sharp contrast to the President's. Governor Romney strongly believes that Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East and that support for Israel is essential to extending freedom, peace and democracy throughout the region. As president, Governor Romney will restore and protect the close alliance between our nation and the state of Israel.”

 UPDATE: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the same word to describe Israel in an interview with the Washington Post, as Andrea Saul notes:

IGNATIUS: “I want to ask as my first question the one every citizen of the world would like to ask today: What is the chance of a war in Iran that would result from an Israeli attack on your nuclear facilities?”

AHMADINEJAD: “I have spoken about this topic at length, previously. We generally speaking do not take very seriously the issue of the Zionists and the possible dangers emanating from them. Of course they would love to find a way for their own salvation by making a lot of noise and to raise stakes in order to save themselves. But I do not believe they will succeed. Iran is also a very well recognized country and her defensive powers are very clear.”

AFP also reports that Obama will say that "he understands and agrees with Netanyahu's insistence that Iran not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons as this would threaten both countries, the world in general, and kick off an arms race."
But, as the article points out, Obama will not be meeting with Netanyahu this week during the United Nations General Assembly.
Romney, who also is interviewed on 60 Minutes tonight, will say, that Obama not meeting with Netanyahu "is a mistake and sends a message throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends and I think the exact opposite approach is what's necessary."