Price Point

Easy
High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation.

On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. (New York Times, 1/23/2014)

Whenever Liberals want to justify a kooky idea, they point to Europe where it has usually already been adopted...and is failing (witness: socialized medicine, confiscatory taxes, unlimited welfare state benefits, unchecked immigration, and "renewable" energy). So, taking a cue from Europe, will Liberals now back off on their moonbat energy policies? No, they will claim that the policies work...and point to Europe!


No Need
What we didn't need was to destroy the market for the many in order to give aid to the few. (John Goodman, Wall Street Journal, 1/23/2014)

This is precisely the (brilliant) point that RedStateVT made several months back in one of our many posts deconstructing the Liberal argument for Obamacare. Loyal readers will recall that we peeled back the talking point that Obamacare was essential because "millions" were without insurance. In fact, millions of the uninsured were voluntarily uninsured. The remaining pool amounted to 10% or (very probably) less. Hence, Obama, Pelosi and Reid blew up the American healthcare system in order to deal with a problem affecting less than 10% of the entire population. 

As Goodman notes, it did not have to be done that way. 


Windy
No one's really listening to the president now. He has been for five years a nonstop wind-up talk machine. Most of it has been facile, bland, the same rounded words and rounded sentiments, the same soft accusations and excuses. I see him enjoying the sound of his voice as the network newsman leans forward eagerly, intently, nodding at the pearls, enacting interest, for this is the president and he is the anchorman and surely something important is being said with two such important men engaged. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 1/23/2014)

Noonan makes a point that we suspect at least a handful of Democrats might agree with in private: people are just tired of listening to Obama's speeches. He gives too many and they are filled with the same old same old. 

We stopped listening to the State of the Union speeches long ago. They are simply ridiculous and it is embarrassing to watch grown men and women jump to their feet every time the Presidential Pavlovian bell is rung. More money for education!!! Raise the minimum wage!!! Rebuild the infrastructure!!!

Vast Proportion

Unclaimed
And it has claimed the political career of an ambitious cabinet minister, Chris Huhne, a Liberal Democrat who resigned his position as energy and climate change secretary in Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government and his parliamentary seat.  (NYT, 2/16/2013)

Britain has a Secretary of Climate Change? Don't tell Liberals in the U.S.!


Watching The Detectives
Sandwiched between two doctors’ offices at a roadside plaza here is the headquarters of a small team of veteran Republican investigators, operating almost as a private detective squad, who since late last year have had a determined goal: bringing down Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. (NYT, 2/16/2013)

"Inquiry on Senator Started with a Partisan Push" is the headline. Yes, in the end they found some icky stuff on Menendez, but the real story - the Times tell us - is that the inquiry was initiated by Republicans. Never mind that Democrats sent plane loads of lawyers up to Alaska to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin. The Times - you might also remember - is the same newspaper that encouraged readers to pour through the very same Sarah Palin's e-mails and report anything interesting that they find.


Alemanical
German politicians decided it would be nice if 35% of the country's electricity came from renewables by 2020. German politicians, after Fukushima, decided it would be nice to phase out the country's nuclear plants. German politicians decided factories should be protected from any increase in electricity prices. In their home districts, politicians thought "factory" should be extended to cover any large and influential employer.

Now the green future has arrived and German voters are in revolt over rising power prices. "Fuel poverty" has become a buzz term as thousands have been shut off for nonpayment of bills. Politicians have begun trying to claw back subsidies from companies that say the subsidies are the only reason they're in business. A scandal seems to emerge weekly over some big-name company illicitly benefiting from subsidized electricity rates. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, 2/15/2013)

There is a line of thinking among conservatives depressed about the re-election of Obama and the further implementation of his Liberal agenda that says not to worry, Liberal policies are flawed and they will implode. Be it the rising cost estimates for Obamacare, the moribund domestic economy or worsening relations with Russia, there is plenty of evidence to support this position. 

Meanwhile, the German example shows Vermonters what their energy future will be:

The Shumlin administration wants 75 percent of the state’s power to come from renewables by 2032. Electricity from Hydro-Quebec would account for 40 percent of that total. (Vtdigger.org, 5/3/2012)