Renewable Fuel Standard

Those of us involved in policy debates over the energy sector know that it is hardly a fair fight. The people advocating greater government intervention routinely use phrases such as “clean energy,” “green energy,” “greenhouse gas pollution,” and other such loaded terms. It’s difficult to have a rational discussion about carbon taxes or chemical plant regulation when the debate is cast between those who are for and against “clean energy,” for example.

As yet another example...

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A bipartisan trio of Senators, including John Barrasso (R-WY), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Pat Toomey (R-PA), introduced legislation last week in the hopes of repealing the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in place since 2005. Under that legislation and subsequent revisions, 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels are required to be blended into the country’s transportation fuels by 2022.

Advocates of the RFS say that the policy protects the environment by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and...

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Recent industry-wide solar panel defects are causing an uncomfortable stir amongst renewable energy advocates and investors.[1] That is, except for one Jenya Meydbray, co-founder and CEO of PV Evolution Labs. Meydbray claims that recent solar panel failures are run-of-the-mill quality control speed bumps of the kind all industries face when manufacturing and testing products. Yet, the fact that many of these ventures have inevitably received public support is cause for concern, and calls...
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The ironic thing in the debate over carbon policies is that opponents of massive new federal taxes and regulations don’t need to go to obscure websites or ideological Think Tanks to get their talking points. On the contrary, those of us who are very wary of giving the government more power over the entire energy sector (and hence economy itself) just need to quote verbatim from the supporters of such policies. For example, the White House recently updated its estimate of the “social...
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In a new study, the Heritage Foundation estimates that recent proposals to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the United States would be a cure worse than the disease. In particular, by the year 2100 the cumulative net damages to the world economy could exceed an astonishing $100 trillion, and in not a single year do the benefits exceed the costs. The Heritage analysis is based on a new approach to gauging the economic impacts from climate change. As the report explains:

A recent paper by...

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Tesla Motors repayed a $465 million dollar loan from the federal government yesterday, nine years ahead of schedule. While being touted as a major success for the future of renewable energy and Zero Emissions Vehicles in particular, the truth behind Tesla’s façade of success is worrisome. The company’s first profitable quarter demonstrates the difficulty of finding real success in an unproven market. Critics have raved about Tesla and its offerings. By any standard, their cars would...
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  The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert recently published a comment entitled “Lines in the Sand ,” arguing that President Obama should not approve the Keystone XL pipeline because of the climate impacts of using oil. Kolbert’s argument is flawed for multiple reasons including the fact that she fails to consider the actual climate impact and the reality that even if the oil is not shipped to the U.S., it will be used anyway—obviating any climate impact of not building the pipeline....
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Ethanol advocates delight in touting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as an “American Success Story.” Yet several years after its passage, some in Congress are finally realizing that the RFS stands not as a central-planning success story but as a symbol of misguided government mandates. The RFS requires refiners to blend ever-growing amounts of ethanol into gasoline every year with the goal of blending 36 billion gallons by 2022. To comply with the law, refiners must either blend the...
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The George C. Marshall Institute has released a new study from James DeLong outlining what it refers to as “the five circles of Carbon Tax Hell.” The study is very readable and concise (only 34 pages of main text), yet at the same time offers a comprehensive survey of the main problems with a carbon tax. Although DeLong uses colorful metaphors (such as “Carbon Tax Hell”), even so he wades into technical subtleties in the policy debate, and does a good job breaking them down for the...

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A recent Bloomberg article underscores the government distortions in the fuel and food sectors. The piece discusses the rising price of ethanol because of expected supply problems:

Ethanol’s discount to gasoline narrowed to a four-month low on speculation that the slowest pace of corn planting since 1986 will make it difficult to replenish supplies. The price difference, or spread, shrank 3.75 cents to 21.9 cents a gallon. The Agriculture Department said in a report yesterday that 5...

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