• New York Times, “Drilling Boom Revives Hopes for Natural Gas “: “HOUSTON — American natural gas production is rising at a clip not seen in half a century, pushing down prices of the fuel and reversing conventional wisdom that domestic gas fields were in irreversible decline.”

• Reuters, “First mass U.S. crossing for hydrogen cars completed“: “LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hydrogen fuel cell cars from nine automakers completed a 13-day cross-country trip this weekend, in the first such mass U.S. crossing for vehicles powered by a zero-emission technology still in its infancy.” The vehicles were trucked between Rolla, Mo., and Albuquerque because of the lack of hydrogen filling stations.

• Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire Blog, “Pelosi on Natural Gas: Fossil Fuel or Not?“: “On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, the speaker twice seemed to suggest that natural gas – an energy source she favors – is not a fossil fuel. …”I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels,” she said at one point. Natural gas “is cheap, abundant and clean compared to fossil fuels,” she said at another.

• Wall Street Journal, Environmental Capital Blog, “Texas Breeze: Landowners Call Wind Turbines Ugly; Court Says Too Bad“: “For now, wind power’s triumphant march in the U.S. can count on another legal smackdown of “NIMBYism,” after a Texas appeals court yesterday dismissed a suit by landowners upset with a big wind farm built by FPL Energy. Landowners decried the turbines’ noise and their spoiled sunsets—which the court agreed was a pity—but the appeals court couldn’t find grounds to rule against the power company.”

• Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, “ANWR Option“: “Sean Parnell, lieutenant governor and a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, proposed a land swap as a way of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ‘I propose a land swap of 2,000 acres of state land to the federal government in exchange for 2,000 acres of the coastal plain in ANWR into state hands,’ Parnell said at a press conference Tuesday in Fairbanks.”

 
• George Will, “Obama’s Economic Fairytale“: “Obama has also promised that “we will get 1 million 150-mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on our roads within six years.” What a tranquilizing verb “get” is. This senator, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, is going to get a huge, complex industry to produce, and is going to get a million consumers to buy, these cars. How? Almost certainly by federal financial incentives for both — billions of dollars of tax subsidies for automakers, and billions more to bribe customers to buy these cars they otherwise would spurn.”

The Wall Street Journal releases a poll in a story it headlines, “Voters Want Everything on Energy”

When asked whether expanding areas for drilling for oil off coastal states was a step in the right direction, 63% said it was, with 44% saying it would accomplish “a great deal.” Only 27% said that allowing more drilling off coastal states was a step in “the wrong direction.”

Asked about building more nuclear plants, 53% said it was a step in the right direction. Thirty-one percent said it was a step “in the wrong direction.”

“Voters are telling us they want everything,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican who conducts the poll with Democrat Peter D. Hart.

Everything except maybe this…

That’s the photo illustration the New York Post used with its story on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest musings on NYC’s energy future, “BREEZY DOES IT: BLOOMBERG“

“I think it would be a thing of beauty if, when Lady Liberty looks out on the horizon, she not only welcomes new immigrants but lights their way with a torch powered by an ocean wind farm,” the mayor said in the closing speech of the National Clean Energy Summit.

Bloomberg has been warning for months that Washington has its head in the sand when it comes to energy and that the nation needs a multipronged approach - everything from nuclear to geothermal initiatives - to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

“Perhaps companies will want to put wind farms atop our bridges and skyscrapers,” he said.

Albeit subject to spoofing, Bloomberg’s general arguments for a wide variety of energy sources were reasonable enough. But rather than making the case for wind turbines on bridges, perhaps his political capital could be spent more productively, such as in making the case for an extension of the Indian Point nuclear-power facility’s license that other New York politicians oppose on numerous fronts. Indian Point provides power to the subway system. You don’t want that to go dark, do you?

On Friday, we linked to an Oregonian story about health complaints from a few resident of eastern Oregon who live near wind turbines.  Time for a class-action lawsuit, eh, Sancho?

Now on Sunday, the New York Times puffed up the allegations from some northern New York residents about “Big Wind” throwing its money and muscle around, trying to land the windiest sites for development. Throw the inflammatory term “corruption” around — “In Rural New York, Windmills Can Bring Whiff of Corruption” — and you’ve got just a great story about the predations of a supposedly nice and clean industry.

Jeez, you just can’t win.*

The cartoon, by the way, comes courtesy The Chilling Effect, thechillingeffect.org, a blog that highlights the extremes and inanities of the global warming movement. Good news for good guys, they’ve joined forces with the Institute For Liberty, a free-market advocacy, non-profit group. Congrats!

* Which appears to be the point for some opponents — no new energy, anywhere.

In this week’s “Cool Stuff Being Made,” we blow where the wind takes us — Waymart, Pennsylvania, and the FPL Energy Wind Farm. As FPL Energy describes the facility in a fact sheet:

The Waymart Wind Energy Center became the largest commercial-scale wind farm in Pennsylvania when it began commercial operation in October 2003. The facility is an Exelon, Community Energy marketing partnership. It is owned and operated by FPL Energy, the largest generator of wind power in the United States.

Located along the ridge of Moosic Mountain in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, the 43 General Electric (GE) turbines can produce 64.5 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough electricity to power approximately 22,000 homes.

In our tour, FPL Energy’s community outreach manager, Mary Wells shows us the power plant and control center where the site’s 43 wind turbines are operated and gives us a look inside a nacel — where the business of generating electricity gets down.

Among Community Energy’s regional wind customers are the U.S. Army, Penn State University, Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., the National Geographic Society.

To the good people at PCN Cable Television, we say thanks for the underlying video. And thanks, too, to the NAM’s James Skelly, who every week edits the videos into a new format, full of company highlights and insights.