WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today visited Baltimore, Maryland, to announce a new, streamlined process for issuing offshore wind energy production permits. The announcement comes fresh off the heels of another offshore energy production visit to Louisiana, where he discussed, but did nothing to change, the Obama Administration’s stalled permitting process for offshore oil and gas production. Institute for Energy Research (IER) President Thomas J. Pyle released the following statement in response.
“Offshore of Louisiana, we have proven, affordable, reliable energy resources that provide thousands of Americans with high-paying jobs and contribute billions to the Federal treasury. Offshore of Maryland, some have proposed the development of an intermittent resource characterized by high costs, low reliability, and complete dependence on taxpayer subsidies. Yet for some reason, this Administration continues to favor the unreliable, expensive, and, to date, mostly mythical resource and punish the affordable, reliable, and always dependable resource.
“Salazar’s sad attempt to justify his permitorium on offshore oil and natural gas production is bad enough by itself. But to couple it in the same week with an announcement about streamlining the permitting process for an expensive, unreliable product that is only kept afloat through government, like wind power, is absurd.”
For a closer look at the efficacy of government subsidies for renewable energy in Spain, check out IER’s new video.
