Energy 110, The 2nd America First Energy Conference (AFEC 2018), Louisiana, August 7

Heartland Institute will organize and sponsor again a big conference, the 2nd America First Energy Conference (AFEC 2018) in Hilton Riverside Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 7.

The 1st AFEC 2017 was also organized by Heartland and was held at JW Marriott Houston, Texas on November 9, 2017. I attended that successful conference, seems I was the only Asian in the big room and I have written some proceedings in my column in BusinessWorld last year,

US energy policies and implications in Asia and Philippines

October 31, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/us-energy-policies-implications-asia-philippines/

US energy trading and implications for Asia and Philippines

November 16, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/us-energy-trading-implications-asia-philippines/

The conference also inspired me to further comment on the irrationality of carbon tax, coal tax, other watermelon (green outside, red inside) policies. Like these,

The Habito carbon tax distortion

December 7, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/habito-carbon-tax-distortion/

Energy favoritism under TRAIN

December 19, 2017, http://bworldonline.com/energy-favoritism-train/.

Website of AFEC2018 is http://americafirstenergy.org/ 

The agenda looks exciting, from the website:

BREAKFAST KEYNOTE

Opening remarks by Heartland Institute President Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D., and a keynote address by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

PANEL 1A. THE FUTURE OF COAL, OIL, AND NATURAL GAS

President Donald Trump has unleashed an Energy Freedom agenda for America with the aim of making the United States the world’s leading energy power. There is a lot of positive news on that front, and these speakers will talk about the bright times ahead for the future of coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

PANEL 1B. CARBON TAXES, CAP & TRADE, AND OTHER BAD IDEAS

Carbon taxes and “cap and trade” schemes, are NOT market-based conservative ideas. They are distortions of the market — a ruse embraced by the environmental left to enact command-and-control policies over our use of energy and the economy as a whole.

PANEL 2A. FUELING FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY

America’s freedom and prosperity is literally fueled by this country’s abundant and affordable fossil fuels — coal, petroleum, and natural gas. We’re finally going after it in ways that will fire the engine of America’s economy and still protect the environment.

PANEL 2B. FIDUCIARY MALPRACTICE: THE ‘SUSTAINABLE’ INVESTMENT MOVEMENT

Environmental activists are gaining voting power to convince corporations and universities to divest from fossil fuel companies “to save the planet.” Not only is that not scientifically necessary, publicly traded companies and organizations that divest do a grave disservice to public pensions, ordinary investors, and the American economy. You want a worthy #resistance? Resist this.

PANEL 3. WHY CO2 EMISSIONS ARE NOT CREATING A CLIMATE CRISIS

Burning fossil fuels lifted humanity out of squalor and created modern society. It also adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is now more than 400 parts per million. But is human-generated CO2 causing a catastrophic climate crisis requiring wholesale conversion of the world’s energy systems? Short answer: No, as three scientists will explain.

LUNCH KEYNOTE

Two VIPs will give speeches at this lunch.

PANEL 4A. REINING IN THE REGULATORS

The Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act) requires legislative approval of regulations that cost the private sector more than a set amount. A federal version sets the bar at $100 million. This is an essential effort that will finally put unaccountable federal and state regulators back in their place.

4B. CAFE STANDARDS: WHY THEY NEED TO GO

TBA

PANEL 5A. CLIMATE LAWSUITS AGAINST ENERGY COMPANIES AND THE GOVERNMENT

Environmental activists are losing the public debate, so (naturally) they run to the courts to get judges to enact their radical agenda. From the “climate trial” in San Francisco, to the case to preserve the planet on behalf of “the children,” the litigation seem endless. What’s the status of these cases? And will they succeed?

PANEL 5B. REAL COLLUSION: RUSSIA AND THE GREEN MOVEMENT

You want to see real Russian Collusion? Look no further than the nexus between the Russian government and radical environmental activists in the United States, the UK, and Australia. The Russians have funneled millions to groups in the West to oppose energy exploration, especially fracking. This panel will expose this woefully underreported story.

PANEL 6. REFORMING EPA: LOTS OF PROGRESS, MORE TO DO

Three members of President Trump’s Transition Team for the Environmental Protection Agency evaluate the reform victories so far, and look ahead at what else needs to be done to reverse the overreach of the Obama administration. This is a moderated plenary discussion.

DINNER KEYNOTE

Two VIPs will give speeches.

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See also:

Energy 107, Avoiding brownouts due to gensets, not solar battery, March 22, 2018 

Energy 108, On mandatory solar roof in California, May 20, 2018 
Energy 109, Sudden decline in world oil prices, May 29, 2018

Business 360-32, Energy independence in Asia

* This is my article in Business 360 magazine in Kathmandu, Nepal, December 2015 issue.
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Energy Independence in Asia

Energy independence is a virtue that a country must pursue. And this independence can mean two things. One, independence from only one major energy source because if that resource would experience a major price hike or supply disruption, the economy can be endangered. And two, independence from only one major country supplier because if there is any political or economic tension and instability in that country, energy supply to the home country can also be endangered.

Here is a review of electricity production per country and what energy sources they come from.

Laos has14.9 bill. kWh production in 2014, but no data on distribution of energy sources. Brunei produced 3.9 bill. kWh in 2012, 99% of it from natural gas. And Cambodia produced 1.4 bill. kWh in 2012, 60% from oil, 36% from hydro.

Nepal has high dependence on hydro power. While this is a good thing as Nepal has lots of rivers and lakes, big and small, this can be dangerous too during severe winter and frozen water stays longer in the mountains, meaning longer power supply disruption.

Mongolia has high dependence on coal and this can produce some dangers in the future if the price of coal shoots up very high, although currently, coal prices remain low and stable. Brunei too has high dependence on natural gas, but this might be an exception to the risks mentioned above because Brunei is a major natural gas producer and exporter in Asia.

When I was in Nepal for one week in January 2015, the lack of electricity was among the most prominent issues that I observed. Many road intersections have no stoplights, all hotels have generator sets, many streets are dark at night, and so on.

In previous papers in this magazine over the past two years, this column has advocated the need to liberalize and deregulate the energy sector in Nepal and other countries in Asia. In particular:

Prioritize the liberalization and deregulation of the power generation sector, encourage more hydro power companies, big and  small, to come and build more dams, or expand power capacity in existing dams.

Second, allow other indigenous energy production like coal power if there is sufficient amount of coal that can be mined and extracted within Nepal.

Third, facilitate more power imports from India especially that India is building more coal plants now. Coal is generally cheap and supply from abroad is stable. This means the construction of more transmission lines and facilities from India to Nepal.

Fourth, deregulate power rates. Let those who can afford to pay higher electricity rates in exchange for more stable supply do so, whether imported from India or locally produced. This has been happening actually for many years now as the richer residential areas and big commercial centers have their own generator sets. Their willingness to pay higher rates in exchange for stable electricity supply is already there. Power rate deregulation will encourage faster construction of more power generation plants and transmission lines.

Fifth, privatize some power plants that produce more losses than revenues for the government, sell to private power companies in a competitive bidding. Privatization of course should be coupled with industry deregulation, to encourage competition among more players.

And finally, reduce the number of permits, bureaucracies, taxes and fees for companies putting up new power generation plants and transmission lines.  Invite and call in more power generation companies, more suppliers of large engines and turbines from many countries to enter Nepal.

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See also:

Business 360-28, FDIs in South and East Asia, August 22, 2015 

Business 360-29, Low oil prices and energy development in South Asia, October 25, 2015

Business 360-30, Freedom to trade in South and East Asia, October 29, 2015
Business 360-31, SAARC, RCEP and free trade, December 23, 2015

BWorld 29, Paris COP's emission cut targets vs. energy needs, December 06, 2015 

Energy 50, Cheap oil, natural gas and coal prices, December 15, 2015

Energy Econ 16: Electricity and Development

* This is my article in thelobbyist.biz last March 07, 2014.
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Energy is development. It is not possible to develop economically and socially if a country or economy has little electricity and hence, energy prices are high and there is frequent brown out.

In many economic literatures, growth in energy use is often used as proxy or “checking mechanism” for GDP growth as there is a generally one on one correspondence in energy use and real GDP growth.

A data from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is very interesting, below. Countries are grouped into three: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and others.

  

Some interesting notes here, that as of 2010: (a) China has 5x energy use than Japan; (b) Japan's energy use has almost flatlined over the past two decades; (c) Singapore has twice the energy use of HK; (d) Vietnam has overtaken the Philippines with 50 percent more energy use; (e) from 1990 to 2010, these countries have generally tripled (3x) their energy use: China, S. Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore; and (f) Vietnam has expanded almost 4x.

One possible explanation here is Kyotoism, the Kyoto Protocol (KP) of countries reducing if not backsliding carbon emission (indirectly, energy use) that is not too far from their 1990 levels. Japan, Hong Kong and Australia must have tried hard to obey the global ecological central planning while real socialists and central planners China and Vietnam have totally disobeyed the ecological targets. This is one reason why KP was abandoned. When it expired in December 2012, there was no succeeding binding agreement among countries and governments. Many developed countries do not want to de-industrialize, they do not want to have electricity black outs soon.

Growth in electricity consumption and energy use in Japan, HK, Australia and several other countries was due to more efficient energy use. For instance, by using only 50 kwh bulb to produce the same street light as a 200 kwh bulb, they could expand street lights 3x or 4x even without adding another power plant. Still, it is good to have more energy capacity while improving energy use efficiency.

Another interesting data from the same publication by ADB, HK and Singapore just keep modernizing and industrializing by relying almost 100% from imported energy for their power needs. HK gets it mainly from China (mainly nuclear, coal and natural gas) while Singapore gets it mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

There are at least three lessons for the Philippines from the above tables.

One, there is an urgent need to expand energy capacity, to have more power generation plants, in the Philippines as more businesses, more houses and schools, other economic activities, are demanding for more stable power supply and prices.

Two, “energy independence” sounds cool but HK and Singapore show no interest in such goal. They are almost 100 percent dependent on imported energy yet they seem to be not bothered. Aas long as they have the money, they can buy energy from anywhere.

Three, energy prices here must go down through more competition among more private energy producers. Also, government can share the burden by reducing the taxes, fees and royalties for energy projects.

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See also: 

Energy Econ 12: EPIRA, WESM, PSALM and DOE Bureaucracy, January 28, 2013 

Energy Econ 13: Universal Charges and Thin Power Reserves, February 13, 2014

Energy Econ 14: Power Rate Hike, Who Colluded?, February 22, 2014 

Energy Econ 15: Electricity Angsts, Presentation at UP Diliman, March 08, 2014