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For those of you scoring at home, Mitch used to be chief of staff to Senator McConnell and once upon a time ran the NRSC.  So maybe we might get some sort of pushback against the Obama Administration’s attempts to make sure that:  1) people have to pay more (a lot more) for cars; 2) automobile fleet turnover is consequently retarded (delaying all the environmental benefits that come with turnover; and 3) more people die in highway crashes than would have otherwise E&E News (8/9/11)...
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Real brave of you NYT to come out and say America can save money by raising taxes on oil and gas companies.How about we stop jerking energy producers around on a short leash and let them go back to work. New York Times (8/7/11) reports: If the Republicans are truly determined to slash the budget and end government waste, they will start with two obvious and long overdue cuts: ending the web of tax breaks enjoyed by the rolling-in-dough oil industry and terminating the ethanol subsidy....
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President Obama figured out how to drive down the price of gasoline by lowering demand. The downside? His policies have wiped out an entire year of wealth creation Fuel Fix  (8/5/11) reports: Oil prices extended sharp losses, falling to near $85 a barrel today in Asia amid expectations a slowing global economy will weaken demand for crude…Benchmark oil for September delivery was down $1.31 to $85.32 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile...
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Everybody's Out To Get Me!  IHS/CERA's Wrong!  Everybody's Wrong!  All the people in the Gulf are wrong!  I'm a lawyer!  Oil and gas engineers don't know anything!  Those jobless people are just faking it! Fuel Fix (8/2/11) reports: The United States’ top offshore drilling regulator is calling out one of the nation’s top energy research firms, accusing IHS CERA of issuing a biased and “fundamentally flawed” report that suggested Gulf drilling projects were caught in a...
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Environmental groups, eager to increase the price of energy for Americans, urge NJ Governor Christie to ban fracking New Jersey News (8/1/11) reports: Twenty-four environmental organizations submitted a letter to Gov. Chris Christie on Monday asking him to sign legislation prohibiting the use of hydraulic fracturing for the purpose of natural gas exploration or production in New Jersey…The Legislature approved the proposal (S-2576/A-3313) by a large majority on June 29 and sent it to...
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IER’s Dank Kish schools Center for American Progress on energy policy and also provides a psychological diagnosis of their behavior Washington Examiner (8/1/11) reports: Reading the latest ravings of the Center for American Progress (CAP, but increasingly recognized as the Center for Reversing American Progress) is akin to a family being forced at holiday to listen to the crazy old Uncle George repeat the same old complaints about some injustice he suffered when everyone knows what he...
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — the tale of two states and their use of natural gas Wall Street Journal (7/26/11) reports: Politicians wringing their hands over how to create more jobs might study the shale boom along the New York and Pennsylvania border. It's a case study in one state embracing economic opportunity, while the other has let environmental politics trump development…The Marcellus shale formation—65 million acres running through Ohio, West Virginia,...
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Billionaire Bloomberg fights against affordable coal as Bill Gates admits only rich can afford the alternative energy Wall Street Journal (7/22/11) reports: [Chris] Anderson: When you look at the big picture [for the future of energy], where should we be focusing besides nuclear? On massive solar plants in the desert? On middle-size stuff for office roofs? Or is there a reinvention that could be done right in the home?...Gates: If you're going for cuteness, the stuff in the home is the place...
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What else do you want us to do for you Mr. President on the Keystone XL oil pipeline? Read your horoscope? The Hill (7/20/11) reports: The House in the coming weeks is expected to consider legislation that would require the Obama administration to decide by Nov. 1 whether to approve the expansion of a TransCanada oil pipeline to the U.S…H.R. 1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act, was just listed on the House Rules Committee website as an "active" bill, although no action is...
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My math is always a little shaky, but it you carry the one . . . you still wind up about a million short of the President’s “goal” of 1 million electric vehicles by whenever Los Angeles Times (7/19/11) reports: When it comes to sales of electric vehicles, Nissan's Leaf is charging ahead…Nissan Motor Co. has sold 4,134 of the battery-powered electric cars this year. General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet, by comparison, has sold 2,745 of its Volt car, which is technically a plug-in hybrid...
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