PrairiePundit

 Rick Perry: As President Joe Biden embarks on his trip to the Middle East , he is leaving behind obvious domestic challenges as it relates to the ongoing energy crisis our country is facing. The White House is long overdue for a visit with Saudi Arabia. After all, the Kingdom is a strategic partner of the United States on many fronts, not least of which is our combined leadership in curtailing rampant global energy inflation. However, the Biden administration doggedly denies the leaders of the two largest oil producers will discuss options for increasing production. Regardless of the trip’s outcome, it remains painfully clear to Americans struggling to fill their gas tanks, that our leaders would rather first look abroad for solutions to the current energy crisis rather than removing barriers to American energy development. Just recently, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm hosted oil and gas executives in a closed-door meeting to discuss the record-high fuel prices. Unsurprisingl...

 Rick Perry: Last week marked a new devastating milestone for millions of Americans — gas prices have more than doubled since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. And if that wasn’t enough, last week, we reached yet another difficult milestone — the national average of gas is now $5 per gallon for the first time in U.S. history. "Milestone" is really the wrong word. The current energy disaster is better described as a "millstone" around the neck of the American economy, who are now struggling to meet their most basic needs. Unfortunately, Biden has refused to budge from the war on American energy that got us here. Even worse: he appears to be doubling down on it. Early in his campaign, then-candidate Biden made the rapid end of fossil fuels a top priority. And he has consistently matched this with action, from canceling critical infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline and preventing new oil and gas drilling on federal lands to depriving th...

Fox News: Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry warned Tuesday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that the coronavirus pandemic has brought the United States' once-thriving oil and energy sector to the verge of a "massive collapse." Sweeping restrictions on work and travel have brought industrial activity to a near- standstill. Perry explained that fewer cars on the road and fewer flights in the air translate to a major decrease in demand for oil, which is bad news for America's energy producers. "Our capacity is full and the Saudis are flooding this market with cheap oil," Perry told host Tucker Carlson. "I'm telling you, we are on the verge of a massive collapse of an industry that we worked awfully hard over the course of the last three or four years to build up to the number one oil and gas producing country in the world, giving Americans some affordable energy resources. "It's a driver of a massive amount of our American econom...

Bloomberg/Fuel Fix: Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry won’t comply with impeachment investigators’ demand for documents related to his role in the Trump administration’s interactions with Ukraine, the department told lawmakers Friday, according to a person familiar with the agency’s letter. Perry plans plans to resign this year. Three House committees said in an Oct. 10 letter they subpoenaed the documents to help determine whether Perry played a role in “conveying or reinforcing the president’s stark message” to Ukraine’s president about a possible investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Friday was the deaadline they set to turn over the documents. ... The Democrats have failed to vote on an impeachment resolution and therefore the demand letters are invalid.

Thomas Lifson: Die-hard Trump haters continue to maintain that the President of the United States is in thrall to, or maybe being blackmailed by Russia’s President Putin. As a corollary, they still push the notion that Russia will corrupt the 2020 presidential election, so that if and when Trump wins, they will deny him legitimacy. The crashing and burning of the Mueller effort to prove this thesis means nothing to the deluded dead-enders. But the stupidity of this charge is refuted by the power play President Trump’s Secretary of Energy Rick Perry carried out over the holiday weekend. Via  Reuters : “We’re helping Poland to reduce its dependence on Russian gas,” U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a news conference in Warsaw after meeting officials from Poland and Ukraine. The Polish government official responsible for energy infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, said Poland, which has increased purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States in recent years, ...

Washington Examiner: Energy Secretary Rick Perry warned Thursday that a polar vortex descending on the U.S. in the first half of March will be a major test for the nation's electricity grid from Montana all the way to his home state of Texas. "This is going to be a really deep, deep polar vortex all the way to my home state that will put a massive test upon our ability to deliver an energy supply to keep our citizens safe," Perry said at a press conference. The National Weather Service on Thursday forecast low temperatures from the upper plain states to Arkansas and northern Texas, March 6 to 10. Perry was explaining the Trump administration's support for an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy, which includes keeping an adequate number of "baseload" power plants operational to stop a major energy disruption. "Baseload" is an industry term that is used to refer to any power plant that can supply 24-hour energy, seven days a week. ...

Fuel Fix: Texas Sen. John Cornyn introduced legislation Thursday that would extend authority over the cybersecurity of oil and natural gas pipelines, as well as liquefied natural gas facilities, to the Secretary of Energy. Under the bill, the Department of Energy would coordinate recovery efforts from physical and cyber attacks against the U.S. energy sector, as well aiding companies in improving their in-house security. "Foreign adversaries are trying to infiltrate our critical energy infrastructure, and it's imperative that we're prepared for potential attacks on our energy systems," Cornyn, a Republican and one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's top lieutenants, said in a statement. "This legislation will enhance the Department of Energy's ability to ensure our country's oil and natural gas pipelines are secure in more ways than one." Authority over pipeline security now largely resides with the Transportation Security Adminis...

AP: Poland’s main gas company signed a long-term contract Thursday to receive deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States as part of a larger effort to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. The state company PGNiG signed the 24-year deal with American supplier Cheniere during a ceremony in Warsaw attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Polish President Andrzej Duda. “This is a sign across Europe that this is how your energy security will be developed, your energy sources diversified,” Perry said before the deal was signed. He and Polish Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski also signed an agreement to confirm long-term cooperation on energy security, which Perry said indicated America’s “pro-Poland and pro-Europe” approach to developing diverse sources of energy. “We are prepared to be a competitive, reliable and transparent” partner, he said. Perry is visiting several countries in central and eastern Europe to expand energy partnerships in the reg...

Washington Examiner: Energy Secretary Rick Perry worked this week to cement a new partnership with Central European countries to push more U.S. natural gas into the European Union, while countering Russian energy dominance there. Perry announced, in a tweet Wednesday, the creation of the U.S.-led "Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation" at the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest, Romania. The partnership will help enable the nations of Central Europe to "work together to meet collective challenges while charting their own energy futures," he said. Perry closed the meeting with a speech that discussed "cutting dependence on Russia and the importance of diversifying energy sources," the Energy Department said in a readout from the summit. Perry also met with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss energy security. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette also held talks earlier this week with State Secretary Walt...

Daily Caller: The former Texas governor and now Secretary of Energy was notorious for pushing what was called the Texas model of governance of low taxes and low regulation.

Fuel Fix: Energy Secretary Rick Perry has signed a deal with the Saudi Arabian government to allow its ministry of energy to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Energy on technologies designed to reduce the carbon dioxide output of fossil fuels. The Department of Energy said Monday the memorandum of understanding between the two countries would extend to carbon capture, chemical looping and oxy-combustion, as well as, "the energy-water nexus." "This MOU outlines a future alliance not only in supercritical carbon dioxide, but also in a range of clean fossil fuels and carbon management opportunities," Perry said in a statement. "Together through the development of clean energy technologies our two countries can lead the world in promoting economic growth and energy production in an environmentally responsible way." ... This is an effort that is in both countries' interest.  The US is a world leader in energy consumption and the Saudis are a world ...

Fuel Fix: At appearances in Houston this week, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said it makes sense for the United States, Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, in part because of the enormous new supply of U.S. oil and gas locked in once-inaccessible shale rocks. Asked whether renegotiating NAFTA – a thorny and potentially yearlong process that the Trump Administration began this summer – would affect energy trade between the three countries, Perry said the renegotiation was a "good process; it's a healthy process." "Fifteen years ago, they told us we found all the oil and gas there was to find and that the days of being able to develop oil and gas were over with," Perry said, "Well, that's not the case. So does it make sense to sit down with our colleagues in Canada and Mexico to renegotiate a new North America Free Trade Agreement? Yes, I think it does." ... "Our friends in Mexico and Canada are pretty good...

Resurgent: In not-so-shocking news, the professional and credentialed Left is once again attacking a conservative as a fool and beclowning themselves in the process. Their target this time? Former Texas governor and current Energy Secretary Rick Perry. In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd and Axios’ Jim VandeHei, Perry made a comment that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault. The media, predictably, pounced on his comments as an opportunity to mock, belittle, and attack him. ... Here’s Perry’s full statement: “I just got back from Africa, I’m going to finish up with this, because I think I heard say there are people dying. Let me tell you where people are dying, it’s in Africa, because of the lack of energy they have there,” said Perry. “And it’s going to take fossil fuels to push power out into those villages in Africa, where a young girl told me to my face, ‘one of the reasons that electricity is so important to me is not only because I’m going...

Washington Examiner: Energy Secretary Rick Perry has a vision for developing fully mobile, hot tub-sized nuclear power plants that could become the latest piece in the Energy Department's innovation and grid resiliency push. Perry brought up the idea while addressing a National Clean Energy Week conference late last month. He used it as an example of what the Trump administration means when it talks about energy "innovation" as part of its energy dominance agenda. Perry called them "small modular reactors." But the version of the technology he described would function more like a nuclear battery than a conventional, water-cooled nuclear power plant. He envisioned them being used for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. The nuclear batteries would be piled into the cargo hold of a C-130 military transport plane, the kind Perry used to fly in the Air Force, and flown to the disaster zone to re-energize the island's wiped-out grid, he explained. The situation i...

Bloomberg: Energy Secretary Rick Perry is among the candidates being considered to replace John Kelly at the Department of Homeland Security, according to three people familiar with the deliberations. Kelly became White House chief of staff on Monday, and President Donald Trump has not made a decision about who should succeed him as Homeland Security secretary. White House officials are considering others for the position, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing a personnel matter. It’s not clear Perry even wants the job. "Secretary Perry is focused on the important mission of the Department of Energy. He’s honored to be mentioned, but he loves what he’s doing," said Robert Haus, director of public affairs at the department. Some administration officials are advocating Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, who was considered for the Homeland Security job before Trump nominated Kelly. ... Both Perry and McCaul have strong credential...

Ross McKitrick: In the fight between Rick Perry and climate scientists — He’s winning ... But the meteorological society leapt to condemn Perry for a cautious response to an awkward question. Perry could not reasonably have agreed with the interviewer since the concept of a “control knob” for the Earth’s temperature wasn’t defined. Doubling CO2 might, according to models, cause a few degrees of warming. Doubling the size of the sun would burn up the planet. Doubling cloud cover might trigger an ice age. So which is the “primary control knob”? The meteorological society letter ignored the odd wording of the question, misrepresented Perry’s response and then summarily declared their position on climate “indisputable.” Perry’s cautious answer, by contrast, was perfectly reasonable in the context of a confusing question in a fast-moving TV interview. Furthermore, Seitter’s letter invites skepticism. It pronounces confidently on causes of global warming “in recent decades” even thoug...

The Hill: When Energy Secretary Rick Perry requested a study of electric grid reliability, wind and solar energy lobbyists were predictably alarmed. Perry wanted to know how federal policies were shaping wholesale electricity markets and whether public policies were responsible for forcing the premature retirement of baseload power plants. The government has long had a role in the electric power industry, so asking for a survey of its effects should not be controversial. The reason for the alarm? The request mentioned government mandates and subsidies, which have driven wind and solar energy's growth, as possible drivers of reliability concerns. The industry lobbyists are right to be sensitive. Despite constantly touting the rapidly falling cost of wind and solar, industry growth over the next decade depends on mandates and subsidies. ... While low natural gas prices due to fracking have figured into the closure of coal fired power plants, a rise in regulatory compliance co...

Austin American-Statesman: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been added to a core group within the National Security Council in a shakeup of members announced on Wednesday. Perry, the secretary of energy , was one of several officials added to the principals committee, the primary group of policy-makers for national security. Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, was removed from the principals committee. ... I suspect that this move was done because of the potential of a nuclear attack by North Korea which would probably lead to a nuclear response from the US.  The Energy Department which Perry heads is responsible for nuclear weapons. Most of the media have focused on the Steve Bannon being taken off the NSC post.  I think they are letting their animosity toward Bannon keep them from seeing the real importance of moving Perry into the position. The Washington Post focused its story on Bannon too, but down below that is this story: W...

Washington Examiner: The Senate on Thursday confirmed former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to be President Trump's energy secretary. Perry was approved by a vote of 62-37, with several Democrats from energy-dependent states supporting his bid, including Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. There was none of the political wrangling that surrounded the appointment of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump's head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who was confirmed ahead of the President's Day recess. ... Perry is an excellent choice for this cabinet position.  He has a record of supporting energy projects and restraining government spending.

Daily Caller: Journalists are accusing The New York Times of publishing a bogus hit piece on former Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday, with some going so far as to say the report is a made up pile of “garbage.” New York Times reporters David Sanger and Coral Davenport claim in the story that Perry didn’t know his position as energy secretary in the new administration would entail safeguarding the nuclear arsenal. Their report is based on one quote from a former Trump transition official — who has already told The Daily Caller his words were taken out of context — and ignores publicly available evidence refuting its claims. “‘Learning Curve’ as Rick Perry pursues a Job he Initially Misunderstood,” the headline reads, asserting Perry initially “believed” he was taking on a role as ambassador for the oil and gas industry, only to learn later he would be in charge of the nuclear arsenal. The out-of-context quote the story is based on doesn’t appear until the fourth paragraph. ...