Rick Perry talks Keystone XL, fracking in Decorah, Iowa

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry faced tough questions and even direct criticism from voters attending a December 18, 2011 town hall meeting in Decorah, Iowa, after he claimed that there is no proof tying groundwater pollution to hydraulic fracking.

The Texas Governor dedicated around ten minutes of the nearly hour-long event to energy issues, arguably his topic of choice on the campaign trail.

Perry began with his usual attack on the EPA, and called for the job of environmental regulation to be transferred to the states:

Rick Perry: I didn’t get around to tellin’ ya about the John Deer and the new engine that they're – the federal government has new emissions standards on this new engine that John Deer is building and its on the nitrogen oxide level. 

And I will tell you that I understand about environmental protections and I’m going to tell you just a quick story about Texas in a second and how EPA’s come in and tried to take over what we’re doing in our state and we’ve cleaned up our air more than any other state in the nation.

But the cost to that tractor is going to be $20,000 a copy.

You’re going to have to pay that and I would suggest to you that the air – I mean the difference in the quality of the air that that tractor is going to make is going to be miniscule at best. 

And the people of Iowa know better how to keep their air clean and to make sure their water is clear and drinkable than some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.

And so these regulations, whether they’re bank regulations or they’re environmental regulations, they are strangling this country. 

I’ll pull every regulation that has gone forward since ’08 and test it for this simple fact: Does it kill jobs or does it create jobs?

And if it kills jobs, we’re going to get rid of them. 

We have the ability in our states to protect our environment.

And, as I shared with you, we cleaned up our air more than any other state in the nation.

Nitrogen oxide levels were down by 58% in the decade that we just finished. 

It’s our people. It’s our air. 

Why would we spoil that with the sensibilities in the state.

Next, Perry fielded two softball questions about the Keystone XL oil pipeline:

Voter: Yeah, on the oil pipeline from Canada tar sands down to Texas for exporting gas and oil versus exporting through British Columbia, Seattle.

What’s your pros and cons of that pipeline proposal?

Rick Perry: I’ve had some pretty lengthy conversations with both the Canadians and the governors that represent the states where that pipeline will go. 

Not all of them, but some pretty lengthy conversations.

I have been a proponent of that pipeline.

Energy independence should be a goal for this country.

That’s the reason when I talked about I’m an all of the above energy person.

I don’t think we should shut out any type of legitimate energy source.

I’m not for giving those tax credits, but I am for developing them and removing the regulatory hurdles. 

And what we’ve got today – that oil is going to go one of two directions. 

It’s either going to go West and the Chinese will buy it or it will go south for the United States consumption.

Every barrel of oil that goes south is one barrel of oil that we will not have to import from foreign countries, and in some cases foreign countries that are hostile to this country.

I mean, I look forward to the day when we can tell Mr. Hugo Chavez, “No thank you, we don’t need any Venezuelan oil.”

None.

But that pipeline creates a lot of jobs, and I’m talking about in the development of the pipeline.

I’m talking about in the building of the pipeline.

I don’t agree that the President should veto this bill.

He should let this pipeline occur.

And I know he’s being pressured by those on the radical environmental side of the aisle that want him to not build this pipeline.

This pipeline has been studied for at least three years.

The information that I have on it, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m an absolute expert, but the information is that it is one of the safest pipelines if not the safest pipeline that’s ever been built.

And there are already pipelines that go across the Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska, which the bone of contention that they’re making.

So this pipeline needs to be built. We need to be looking for every source of energy.

I want to wrap up, one more thing about energy and then I’m coming to you sir.

The federal lands and waters that we have hands off right now for exploration should be opened up.

Only 8% of the proven reserves on our federal lands – and I understand there are places in our federal parks where we’re not going to be exploring. 

I mean, we’re not going to be going into the Everglades.

We’re not going into Yellowstone.

But we’ve got millions of acres of federal lands with proven reserves on them that need to be opened up so that we can safely produce those resources. 

And I would use a substantial amount if not all of that revenue coming into the federal government to help pay down the debt.

Voter: What do you expect to see happen to our local gas and also national gas prices on gasoline if that pipeline goes through?

Rick Perry: I don’t think you’ll see a big change, would be my instinct, until the infrastructure built.

Here’s what I think occurs when that pipeline is built, because then there’s confidence.

People will feel substantially more secure that this supply of oil in this case is going to have – is going to be coming.

We have found sources of energy that we had no idea that we have ten years ago.

I’m sure all of us have heard the stories a decade ago that we have found all of the petroleum products that there are.

They’ve all been found.

You know, we may be able to improve some secondary tertiary recovery to get it all out, but we’ve found it all.

And then we find these huge natural gas deposits that people didn’t know were there.

Frankly, we don’t know what’s under Iowa. 

The technology hadn’t been developed yet maybe.

That Iowa may be sitting on top of huge reserves of natural gas or oil that people haven’t found yet.

So my point is that the way to drive those prices down – and for American citizens that are on fixed income, I think one of the most important thinks that we could do as a country is to expand our energy exploration and our energy industry, whether it’s corn based with ethanol, or whether it’s gas, or with solar or wind.

Because once you get that huge amount of energy, you can drive down the cost of that energy.

Gasoline, electricity, the manufacturing costs, the costs of living can go down in this country if we will apply our energy resources that we have.

We’ve got 300 years worth of energy in this country.

Perry fell out of stride when confronted with a question about the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracking:

Voter: In reference to the natural gas, you talked about how there’s a huge natural gas deposit, it’s been proven that that technology to extract that energy has polluted groundwater.

Rick Perry: No ma’am.

Voter: Yes sir, it has.

Rick Perry: No ma’am.

We can have this conversation, but you cannot show me one place where there is a proven, not one, where there is a proven pollution of groundwater by hydraulic fracking.

Voices of other voters in the room: That’s false! That’s just false sir.

Rick Perry: Bring me the paper.

Show me the paper.

I’m just telling you – this whole – I am truly offended that the American public would be hoodwinked by stories that do not scientifically hold up.

If that was true it would be on the front page of every newspaper.

It would be on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News.

Everybody would be running that story.

We have be using hydraulic fracturing in my home state for years, and this is a fear tactic that the left is using and the environmental community is using to absolutely, excuse the pun, but does not hold water.

Voters again: That’s not true.

Rick Perry: Bring me the evidence.

And once you do that, you show it to me and I’ll be the first to say, “You’ve got a point.”

It didn’t take long for someone to step up to the plate and respond to Perry’s challenge. Within 24 hours, CBS News had posted a story covering the exchange, complete with link to a December 8, 2011 story bearing the headline “EPA suspects fracking linked to pollution”. That story covered an EPA study that, while still in draft form, links fracking to groundwater pollution.

C-Span has complete video of Rick Perry's town hall meeting in Decorah, Iowa.

Photo of Rick Perry by Ed Schipul via Wikipedia Commons

Rick Perry: Texas #1 for wind power

It turns out Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry isn’t strictly an oil man. Perry embraced wind power during his October 28, 2011 interview with the Manchester, New Hampshire based Union Leader:

And I’m kind of an all of the above fellow. Texas is now the number wind energy producing state. You know that people think, “Oh, Texas. Yeah, it’s easy to be governor of Texas. You’ve got oil and natural gas.” We’ve only had 2 percent increase in our oil and gas production in the last decade.

As Governor of Texas, Perry has been a big advocate of wind power. Here he is announcing an $8.4 million investment in wind energy research and development on July 26, 2010: 

Transcript:

This is a big day for Texas Tech for Texas and for everyone who dreams of energy independence.

As we pursue that goal, which is so essential to our nation's economic health and security people sometimes ask me, what's the best energy strategy for Texas?

Is it wind? Solar? Biomass? Clean coal? Next generation nuclear?

My answer is four simple words: "all of the above."

That's exactly the strategy we're pursuing in Texas, and it's working which shouldn't surprise anyone because Texas knows energy.

So I am here today to announce a groundbreaking partnership between the public and private sector that will continue our state's reign as America's energy producer.

Since the first gusher at Spindletop, Texas has powered the nation.

Thanks to a new generation of hard-working visionaries, Texas is leading the way in renewable energy as well.

Since this room is full of experts, I'll spare you a lengthy discussion of wind energy's benefits but I do want to mention a few highlights of our state's success.

I'm proud that we lead the nation in installed wind generation capacity, because it took some serious work to reach first place.

Of course, there's no shortage of wind in Texas, but it took a lot of bold entrepreneurs to make it a significant source of our power.

Partnered with some of the brightest minds in the energy business from the public and private sector and the experts at world-class universities like Texas Tech these folks have achieved remarkable success in a relatively short time.

Way back in 2005, I signed legislation that set some lofty goals 5,880 megawatts of renewable production capacity by 2015 and 10,000 megawatts by 2025. 

In true Texas style, we've already hit those marks and are building out capacity faster than any other U.S. state.

In just the last three years, about half of the 10,000-plus megawatts of renewable energy that is providing power to our energy grids...came online.

This effort and the accompanying $18 billion in investment have helped us meet our state's energy needs while helping to lower electricity prices for all Texans.

The work continues as we add wind capacity and work to connect these wind farms to the grid and our major cities.

That's a daunting task on its own but Texans don't back down from a challenge particularly one that means so much to our future.
That future includes the expanding energy needs of a population that grows by about 1,000 people per day and an economy that has already added more than 166,000 new jobs this year more jobs than any other state.

Fortunately, this new partnership between the National Institute for Sustainable Energy and the National Wind Resource Center will strengthen our position as America's wind power leader and keep us moving toward energy independence.

This partnership will help speed the integration of our massive wind resources with our power grid and set standards other states can follow in pursuit of our success.

The regional support for this partnership is unprecedented with communities spanning over 80,000 square miles from Dumas to San Angelo and Abilene to Odessa.

This partnership also represents unparalleled education and training opportunities for our future energy workforce. Texas Tech is home to the nation's first PhD in Wind Technology and Texas State Technical College established the first wind technician certification in the state.

This partnership is based on exceptional collaborations merging the resources and expertise of universities up and down the U.S. wind corridor with wind industry experts from all over the globe and key international wind associations.

The state of Texas is also onboard, investing $8 million through our Emerging Technology Fund which was created to accelerate ideas formed in our universities into the marketplace.

Since its founding, the ETF has invested nearly $154 million in 111 early-stage companies throughout Texas and leveraged an additional $161 million in university and industry investments.

With this research superiority investment, this partnership will take renewable energy research and commercialization to the next level while attracting additional investment from the private sector.

The result of all this hard work, collaboration and investment is a "game changing" model for industry in Texas and across the nation.

As this project reaches critical mass, I am confident it will draw even more bright minds yield a better-trained energy workforce and keep Texas moving forward as America's energy leader.

Congratulations on this initiative and Godspeed.

May God bless you, and, through you, may He continue to bless the Great State of Texas.

Rick Perry: Eliminate the Department of Energy

Rick Perry named the Department of Energy as one of the federal government agencies he thought could be axed while responding to a voter's question at a Town Hall Meeting held in Hampton, NH on October 1, 2011.

Video and transcript of Perry's remarks:

The other one is the Department of Energy. They’ve never created one bit of energy the best I can tell.

Our energy industry has to be freed up from the over regulations. We need to have a domestic energy policy that is for America to be independent on our own energy within 8 years. I signed a document last night…

It can be done. We have a record of doing away with agencies of government, consolidating them. And that’s one of the things that has to happen. And you can’t be afraid that - you know -the bureaucrats are going to fight ya’ – they are. But put your armor on and go to work.