The Non-Energy Generating Department of Energy and the Smart Grid
- Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh
If you ask Americans what the Department of Energy does, the majority will tell you, they are tasked with generating electricity and other forms of energy. The real mission of the DOE is quite different.
The Department of Energy was formed after the oil crisis on August 8, 1977 by Jimmy Carter who signed The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977. It began operations on October 1, 1977. The DOE operates 34 science laboratories.
As part of the $789 billion economic stimulus package in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress provided DOE with an additional $38.3 billion for fiscal years 2009 and 2010, adding about 75 percent to Energy’s annual budgets. Most of the stimulus spending was in the form of grants and contracts.
According to their website, “The Department of Energy is the single largest Federal government supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total Federal funding for this vital area of national importance. It oversees, and is the principal Federal funding agency of, the Nation’s research programs in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy sciences. Such a diverse research portfolio supports tens of thousands of principal investigators, post-doctoral students, and graduate students who are tackling some of the most challenging scientific questions of our era.”
I would like to translate this into simpler English, the Department of Energy does not generate directly or indirectly one watt of electricity.
Under Science and Technology, the DOE spends our tax dollars, on pure research:
Research and Development
“DOE manages fundamental research programs in basic energy sciences, biological and environmental sciences, and computational science and is the Federal Government’s largest single provider of funds for materials and chemical sciences.”
Ensuring the supply of radio isotopes
“Radio Isotopes have become key agents in the diagnosis and effective treatment of various cancers, heart disease and other medical problems. DOE programs ensure the availability of an adequate supply of medical and research isotopes, which is essential to the Nation’s health care system.” Like most Americans, I was unaware that the DOE is concerned with our health and medical research.
Research in environmental sciences
“The Department conducts research in climate change, geophysics, genomics, life sciences, and science education, as well as scientific research in the areas of fossil energy and environmental science.” This is strange since EPA concerns itself with these very same issues.
A diverse research portfolio
“DOE sponsors research at universities located in 49 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. These efforts support tens of thousands of principal investigators, post-doctoral students, and graduate students who are tackling some of the most challenging scientific questions of our era.” This is fine, but is it the job of the Department of Energy to provide grant money for university research?
The DOE is interested in the “consequences of energy production, development, and use, investing in basic research on global climate change and environmental remediation.” I thought Al Gore’s global warming schemes had been debunked a long time ago. His Nobel Peace Prize for the bogus Power Point Presentation should have been rescinded.
Few people know that the DOE has founded and plays an important role in the Human Genome Project in 1986 and “invests in basic research on global climate change and environmental remediation.”
Microbe research “will play an important role in helping solve DOE’s mission challenges in energy production and environmental cleanup.” How is that possible to have a mission challenge of energy production when you are not producing one watt of electricity, you are just a bureaucrat headquartered in Washington, D.C.?
Carbon sequestration is another research mission of the DOE “to reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” The Department of Energy “strives to deliver fundamental knowledge of biological systems that can be used to address DOE needs in clean energy, carbon sequestration, and environmental cleanup.” How does the DOE have needs in clean energy, carbon sequestration, and environmental clean up? Is the EPA not tasked with environmental cleanup? Does the free market not decide the needs in energy? Now, all of a sudden, by fiat, the DOE is going to decide our needs (demand) for energy by forcing the installation of Smart Meters into our homes? Obviously, the DOE does not supply energy at all.
Personal surveillance device
Smart Meters are digital electricity consumption readers that are installed under the guise that the old ones are either cracked or not reading properly. Most people acquiesce, without realizing that they have just allowed the installation of a personal surveillance device.
This device will tell a distant data server to whom they do not have access, how many watts they consume, when they turn off and on every lamp in their home, how many computers they have, electric gadgets, when they sleep, when they are on vacation, when they are not home, their living pattern in general, basically a search of their life and home without a warrant.
The information recorded can and will be sold to anyone who is willing to pay. Pirates can intercept the wireless signal and constant data streaming from your home. The one-watt licensed by the FCC device will aid and abet the punishing of people for doing things in the privacy of their own homes, big brother watching all the time. Furthermore, electricity can be cut off from a remote location during peak usage time, middle of summer and middle of winter.
Tapping into someone’s home is illegal in all 50 states and federal territories. The DOE affiliates use “implied consent” when they change the meter. People should be aware and send notices that they do not wish to have their meters changed, the old ones work just fine.
The energy sources listed are wind, solar, renewables, oil, nuclear, natural gas, hydropower, hydrogen, geothermal, fusion, fossil fuels, electric power, coal, and bioenergy. Yet the DOE focus is on “clean fuel initiatives” none of which are cheap or cheaper than fossil fuels.
In modernizing our energy infrastructure, think Smart Grid, the focus is on our “planet’s environment.” Limiting environmental impact, “advances in wind, hydro and geothermal energy allow us to take advantage of clean, abundant energy.” Has anybody seen cheap and abundant energy coming from wind mills or geothermal? I do know that California is turning theirs off when winds are higher than 23 mph because they are so noisy, yet windmills work best in winds 30 mph and higher.
The DOE seems preoccupied with “establishing the safety, reliability, and efficiency of energy supplies in a global marketplace.” There seems to be almost an obsession with coordination with the global environment and Agenda 21 stewardship as if we already live under a one-world government of the United Nations.
Under Energy Efficiency, the DOE wants to protect the environment, reduce carbon emissions, and spread the wealth through the Weatherization Assistance Programby making the homes of “disadvantaged” more energy efficient. All of a sudden, the 47 percent of our population that pays no income taxes have become “disadvantaged” and are in dire need of assistance at every level possible at the expense of the tax-paying, hard-working middle class.
The DOE recommends that every American needs to learn how to make every dayEarth Day and save money and energy at home by using mercury-laden, energy-saving bulbs. It does not matter that it takes 30 minutes to dispose of such broken bulbs or that they explode from time to time, sending toxic mercury throughout the house, and requiring temporary evacuation of the premises. Thomas Edison would be turning over in his grave for the disservice they are doing to his incandescent bulb.
The DOE must protect the environment by disposing of nuclear waste properly, safely storing radioactive waste, and protecting the environment and the public. Should this not be the job of the EPA? Is this not a duplication and waste of taxpayer dollars?
The Department of Energy also provide prices and trends in areas such as petroleum, gasoline, 18-month forecast on oil, gas prices and supply, historical energy data from 1949-2004, and a primer on gasoline prices. All of this information can be obtained from other sources.
Under National Security, the DOE claims that it provides “cyber security protection, operations security, and prevents the spread of weapons of mass destruction.” I am sure, all of us can sleep better, knowing that the Department of Energy is in control of our national security.
Finally yet importantly, “the safety of our workers and the environmental responsibility to safeguard our natural surroundings are integrated management practices throughout DOE.” I may be mistaken but I thought that is why we had OSHA and the EPA.
The $29.5 billion DOE funding includes a 12 percent increase over the 2010 enacted levels. Clean energy, nuclear security, research and development are priority areas. “Savings are achieved through cuts to inefficient fossil energy programs.“New grid technologies and systems will help Smart Grid and improve energy transmission efficiency.”
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) was denied an application by the Maryland Public Service Commission on June 22, 2010 to deploy smart grid infrastructure because it is cost effective or serves the public interest. A customer surcharge would have appeared on the bill even before the infrastructure was in place. Nobody seemed to address the issue of invasion of personal liberty and the illegality of tapping into someone’s life without a warrant.
Ten states are leading the national effort to deploy the smart grid. They have been awarded 42 percent, or $1.9 billion, of the $4.5 billion earmarked for the smart grid in the stimulus named the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. According to Greentech Media Research, these states are “laying the groundwork for market development of the smart grid.”
- California ($303.4 million)
- Colorado ($24.1 million)
- Florida ($467.2 million)
- Massachusetts ($28.29 million)
- New Jersey ($212.4 million)
- New York ($232.2 million)
- North Carolina ($403.5 million)
- Ohio ($142.4 million)
- Pennsylvania ($466.3 million)
- Texas ($285.6 million)
About 5 percent of Americans were equipped with some form of smart grid technology by the end of 2009. That number was forecast to increase ten-fold over the next five years.
In accordance with the President’s agreement at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, fossil fuel tax subsidies will be phased out for fossil fuel producers so that we can “transition to a 21st century energy economy.”
DOE will “unleash a clean energy revolution” and “educate the next generation with 21st century skills and create a world-class workforce.” I thought we did have a world-class workforce, we just lack the jobs Obama promised. Would that energy economy involve involuntary black-outs since a lot of our electricity is produced with fossil fuels?
The Department of Energy is an arm of the federal government, run by career bureaucrats who march in synch with United Nation’s Agenda 21 goals of “sustainability,” does not produce any energy, subsidizes for profit university and laboratory research with our taxpayer dollars, and wants to implement smart grid technology in order to control 24/7 our daily lives. Is it a good idea to allow them into our homes to install Smart Meters?
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