The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued a "study", Progress Denied: A "Study" on the potential economic impact of permitting challenges facing proposed energy projects, a part of their Project No Project initiative, which purports to show that failed energy projects cost the economy a $1.1 trillion short-term boost to the economy and creation of 1.9 million jobs annually.
The "study" says these energy projects (55% of which are NOT renewable energy projects) are being stalled, stopped, or outright killed nationwide due to “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) activism, a broken permitting process and a system that allows limitless challenges by opponents of development. So, in the Chamber's perfect world, the citizens who are directly affected by these projects, both financially and physically, would have absolutely no right to challenge these projects through legal means. The regulatory process would be a mere rubber stamp where challenge was not allowed to muck up the energy companies' plans for profit. It looks like it says "U.S." in front of their name, but their Utopian society sounds more like a third world dictatorship.
The "study" uses fuzzy math and fails to consider the economic costs of these projects to the locality. These dirty energy projects cost communities tax revenue, increased health care costs, lowered property values, increased costs for roads, emergency response and other infrastructure, and various other direct consequential costs to the locality. They also fail to mention that most of the jobs they claim these projects "create" are short-term, temporary jobs that often import workers from elsewhere. These temporary workers can and do go from project to project to project. Is each "job" counting the same worker multiple times at different projects as they move from job to job? "Studies" like these utilize all sorts of bogus "statistics" to inflate claims and cannot be taken seriously.
This summary claims that failed projects "impair private investment," and this article about the study looks at 6 failed projects in Maryland, two of which are transmission line projects (PATH and MAPP). These transmission projects are funded by electric ratepayers in 13 states and D.C. The "private investment" loans for these projects net an average return of about 10%. The power companies who own these projects earn a return as high as 14.3% on their investment equity. Don't you wish you could get that kind of return on your money? And who finances those huge returns, in addition to the eventual entire cost of the transmission project? Ratepayers. Is the cost of these projects to the ratepayers in the form of higher electric bills included in the Chamber's "study"? No, of course not!
So, what's in it for the Chamber to prepare and promote such a bogus "study"? Payoffs from energy companies, such as PATH partners American Electric Power and FirstEnergy, who paid various Chambers of Commerce $47,100 in the year 2009 alone. A large portion of this amount consisted of a $26,000 payoff to the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and a $15,745 payoff to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, which were intended to coerce them to support the PATH project. This "corporate stewardship" was then subsequently recovered from ratepayers. That's right, the payoffs to the Chamber made by AEP and FE were added to your electric bill!
You know what the Chamber should do with their "study"? Print it on toilet paper because that's the only way it's ever going to be useful.
The "study" says these energy projects (55% of which are NOT renewable energy projects) are being stalled, stopped, or outright killed nationwide due to “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) activism, a broken permitting process and a system that allows limitless challenges by opponents of development. So, in the Chamber's perfect world, the citizens who are directly affected by these projects, both financially and physically, would have absolutely no right to challenge these projects through legal means. The regulatory process would be a mere rubber stamp where challenge was not allowed to muck up the energy companies' plans for profit. It looks like it says "U.S." in front of their name, but their Utopian society sounds more like a third world dictatorship.
The "study" uses fuzzy math and fails to consider the economic costs of these projects to the locality. These dirty energy projects cost communities tax revenue, increased health care costs, lowered property values, increased costs for roads, emergency response and other infrastructure, and various other direct consequential costs to the locality. They also fail to mention that most of the jobs they claim these projects "create" are short-term, temporary jobs that often import workers from elsewhere. These temporary workers can and do go from project to project to project. Is each "job" counting the same worker multiple times at different projects as they move from job to job? "Studies" like these utilize all sorts of bogus "statistics" to inflate claims and cannot be taken seriously.
This summary claims that failed projects "impair private investment," and this article about the study looks at 6 failed projects in Maryland, two of which are transmission line projects (PATH and MAPP). These transmission projects are funded by electric ratepayers in 13 states and D.C. The "private investment" loans for these projects net an average return of about 10%. The power companies who own these projects earn a return as high as 14.3% on their investment equity. Don't you wish you could get that kind of return on your money? And who finances those huge returns, in addition to the eventual entire cost of the transmission project? Ratepayers. Is the cost of these projects to the ratepayers in the form of higher electric bills included in the Chamber's "study"? No, of course not!
So, what's in it for the Chamber to prepare and promote such a bogus "study"? Payoffs from energy companies, such as PATH partners American Electric Power and FirstEnergy, who paid various Chambers of Commerce $47,100 in the year 2009 alone. A large portion of this amount consisted of a $26,000 payoff to the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and a $15,745 payoff to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, which were intended to coerce them to support the PATH project. This "corporate stewardship" was then subsequently recovered from ratepayers. That's right, the payoffs to the Chamber made by AEP and FE were added to your electric bill!
You know what the Chamber should do with their "study"? Print it on toilet paper because that's the only way it's ever going to be useful.
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