Glenn Beck Program June 21, 2011

In studio audience.

 

Pseudo Green

• On October 5^th, the Energy Secretary made an announcement that the White House would have solar and hot water panels installed.
• It has been 259 days since this announcement.
• Glenn showed a new photo of the White House.  No solar or water heating panels were seen.

Fundraising Frenzy

• The President spoke yesterday at a fundraiser.
• This is the 30^th fundraiser of the year for the President.
• At this point in his term, President Bush had held three fundraisers.
• The official transcript of the speech read, in part…

“Over the last 15 months we’ve created 2.1 million private sector jobs. [Laughter]”

-         Also –

“We have begun the process of changing how we think about energy in this country.”

• Glenn notes that the source of electricity and the companies that produce it are now treated like enemies by the administration.

Another Big Oil Investigation

• The FCC has launched another investigation into big oil.

“Examining whether oil companies, refiners or traders have manipulated crude-oil markets.”

• Glenn notes that they are doing this despite the fact that they have zero evidence to support those charges.
• Glenn suggests they look for a printing press that is printing extra dollars so that oil, which is sold for dollars, would be raised in price to match those extra dollars.
• Also, they could find an out of control government agency that is going out of it’s way to shut down coal plants like the EPA is. 

-         Their new, stricter regulations have already caused one of the country’s largest power companies, the American Electric Power to close at least five plants that will cost hundreds of jobs and $6 billion to upgrade the plants.

-         Another power plant in San Antonio will be closed as well…

“It was a decision really driven by expectations that we’re going to face more challenging environmental regulations…”

·        An executive at that plan expects more plant closures to follow suit.

Texas

·        Is creating 50% of all new jobs in the country.

·        The population is booming.

·        Power plants are struggling to keep up.

·        Has 19 coal fired power plants, more than any other state.

Coal

• Is used to generate about half the electricity created in America.
• Glenn challenges environmentalists to cut their electricity usage by half and lead by example.
• He also notes that electric cars would mostly be powered by coal fired power plants.
• It is the largest domestically produced source of energy.

US Primary Energy Sources

• Petroleum            36.7%
• Natural Gas            25.1%
• Coal                 21.2%
• Nuclear              5.5%
• Renewable        8.2%

Petrobras

• Is Brazil’s largest oil company.
• The President went to Brazil and told them he wants us to be their largest customer.
• George Soros owns a million shares of stock in Petrobras.

Guests

• Bob Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, a coal company in Ohio
• Deneen Berilli, Fellow with Project 21
• Tom Berilli, Sr Fellow, National center for Public Policy Research
• Jack Gerard, President, American Petroleum Institute
• Ken Anderson, CEO Tri-State Generation and Transmission (electricity coop)
• Joe Petrowski, CEO Gulf Oil

(Comments have been grouped by guest, not in the order in which they were addressed.)

Murray

• Studies indicate that what they have done so far will cost America 1,440,000 jobs by 2020.
• $184 billion increase in additional electricity rates by 2020.
• Coal mining jobs number around 3,100.  But universities say they also yield 37,000 additional jobs nationally.
• Exports of coal are at record levels.
• China is building a new 500-megawatt coal fired plant every week.
• Comparative Costs (Per Kilowatt Hour)
• Coal            4 cents
• Solar             22 cents
• Gas (Natural) 9 – 10 cents
• Taxpayer subsidies for wind and solar $24 per kilowatt hour

Gerard

• The petroleum industry employs 9.2 million people.
• We can create an additional one million jobs tapping domestic sources of oil.
• Oil and gas companies get zero subsidies.
• They (the administration) have identified five companies that they want to deny recovery costs associated with the production of energy.
• We are using the fracking process now. 
• It’s regulated by the EPA.
• It’s safe.
• We’ve created 57,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania and West Virginia last year alone.

Anderson

• Why not improve existing technology sources like coal.
• People need to know the long-term cost of alternative energy schemes.

Deneen Berilli

• The Obama administration has a command and control energy policy.
• He wants to destroy fossil fuel industry by regulation and restricting supply while propping up renewables.

Tom Berilli

• President Obama is a community activist.
• Jeffery Immelt has been CEO of GE for 10 years.
• The stock price has gone from $40 per share to $18 today.
• They have had to settle with the SEC twice, one for cooking the books.
• GE and several other large companies (e.g., Dupont) worked with Obama to pass Cap and Trade in the House.
• Glenn noted that this was similar to the way FDR dealt with tire companies during the Depression. 
• He got five big companies together and allowed them to set the rules. 
• Smaller firms could not comply and survive, ultimately going out of business.
• Progressive CEOs are as dangerous as progressive politicians.
• www.bigbusinesswatch.org has a list of companies selling out America.

Petrowski

• There are 165,000 gas stations in the US.
• 58% are owned by single site operators.
• 75% are small businesses that own less than 5 units.