Has BP Burned Energy Legislation?

By Eric Seidel, CEO

The Media Trainers®

Despite millions of gallons of crude gushing up from a BP site in the Gulf of Mexico, the US Senate sponsors insist now is the right time for an energy bill that includes offshore drilling.

The Lieberman, Kerry, Graham bill no longer has Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (GOP-SC) support. One of his reasons: the timing’s wrong thanks to the spill. But, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA) persist. Lieberman says now's the time and the votes are there.

So, what are they saying in the energy industry? Well, there’s some disagreement about the timing. American Electric Power is the biggest coal-burning utility in the country. While CEO Michael Morris likes the senate bill’s free allocated carbon credits provision (instead of cap & trade), he sees trouble due to the BP spill.

With or without the spill, though, Arch Coal Co. CEO Steven Leer presses the point that fossil fuels continue to play a dominant role in power production and will for a long time to come.

Only about 2% of today’s electricity is generated by renewables, according to Leer. It will be years, he says, before alternatives play a bigger role than coal, gas and oil. And oil, he adds, is not used much to generate power here in the states. He suggests the US should do the same as China and develop every fuel source.

Theft Via Copier

Careful what you run through a copying machine. Each copier has a hard drive that records copied documents. Buyers of used copiers might just be paying for access to your secrets. Watch this CBS News report.

He Said It

"News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising."

--Harry Evans, the former Editor of the Times of London