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Off-CycleKerry Wants Senate to Come Back in Lame Duck to Pass Carbon CriminalizationMeasure It Didn't Have Stomach to Pass When It Counted. Bloomberg (7/23) reports, "U.S. Senator John Kerry said Democrats may take up hiscomprehensive climate-change bill in a lame-duck session after the Novemberelections, while calling on President Barack Obama to escalate his advocacy forthe measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday introduced a morelimited energy bill that doesn't include a cap...

NewAEA Report on Severe Economic Consequences of Obama Offshore Ban Gets PriorityPlacement of Drudge Report - 20 Million Folks Visit that Joint Each Day. E&P Magazine (7/19)reports, "The presidential offshore drilling moratorium will cost approximatelyUS $2.1 billion in economic loss to the states along the Gulf of Mexico (GoM)in first six months, according to a recently released paper. "The Economic Costof a Moratorium on the Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration to the Gulf Region" waswritten...

Hot off thePress:  New AEA Study Finds that ObamaOffshore Moratorium to Cost $2.8 Billion. Politico MorningEnergy (7/19) has the scoop, " Lookfor the oil industry and friends to tout a study coming out today by LouisianaState University financial expert Joseph R. Mason. Mason's paper, "The EconomicCost of a Moratorium on Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration to the Gulf Region,"concludes that the U.S. will see a loss of about $2.8 billion in economicactivity - $2.1 billion of which will come from...

"BrownDog" Democrats Giving White House Heartburn on Carbon Criminalization. Politico (7/16)reports, "President Barack Obama's next big legislative priority - acomprehensive energy and climate bill - sits in limbo in no small part becauseof wavering senators from his own party. About a dozen Democrats - from theGreat Plains, Midwest, Appalachia and the South - continue to resist the ideaof putting a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. And despite months of legwork bythe president's Senate...

Game-Changer:Chair of Obama Spill Commission Changes His Mind on Need for Offshore Ban AfterVisiting Gulf Coast - "It's Not Clear to Me Why It Should Take So Long." NYTimes (7/13) reports, "Three weeks ago, William K. Reilly, the newly namedco-chairman of the presidential commission appointed to investigate the BP oilspill, said he thought the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in theGulf of Mexico was necessary - and maybe even too short. He said in aninterview with The Times that...

InToo Deep: Salazar "Shocks" Oil Spill Commission By Asking Panel for AssuranceHe's Doing the Right Thing in Shilling for Obama Offshore Ban - Rebuke CameQuick. WallStreet Journal (7/12) reports, "The really odd moment came when InteriorSecretary Ken Salazar said in a statement that he was looking to the commissionfor information that could inform the administration's position on haltingdeepwater drilling. Salazar's statement stunned the commission's twoco-chairmen, William K. Reilly and Bob...

WSJEditorial Draws on IER Research to Expose Obama Spill Commission for What ItReally Is: A Few Activists, a Few Hacks, Every One of ‘Em a Dilettante. WallStreet Journal (7/9) editorializes, "As for the rest of the President'scommission, the Institute for EnergyResearch has compiled a summary of their views on oil exploration:"Offshore drilling is a needless risk," said Ms. Beinecke in 2008."We should be redoubling our efforts to get off oil," said fellowcommission member Donald Boesch in...

Poll Released This Week - Oversampled withDemocratic Voters - Finds 70 Percent of Respondents Oppose National Energy TaxBeing Debated by Congress. E&E News (7/7, subs. req'd) reports, "Voters areoverwhelmingly opposed to any policy they perceive as increasing taxes onenergy and have little interest in seeing climate legislation become a reality,according to a poll released today by a conservative-leaning think tank. The pollfound that roughly 70 percent of voters opposed such a policy, while...

Pyle:Independence Day a Reminder of How Thoroughly Dependent We Are On Others forthe Energy We Need to Survive - Thanks in No Small Part to Our Government. IER president Thomas J. Pyle writes (7/6) forthe Daily Caller,"Happy Dependence Day! This weekend, we celebrated our nation's most importantholiday-the birth of this great country and the freedoms and liberty itprovides us.  But while we celebratedour independence as a nation, we continue to face increasing and alarmingdependence in our...

Authorof New Study Commissioned by IER - Which Finds Kerry-Lieberman Leads toHemorrhaging of 5.1 Million Jobs - Takes on Entire Blogosphere One Greenie At aTime. Andrew Chamberlain writes(7/3) for PajamasMedia ,"President Obama has repeatedly told Americans he has three main policypriorities - rewriting health care, overhauling the financial system, andimposing a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He met hisfirst goal and he's closer than ever on the second; time is...