WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama held a press conference at the White House today during which he discussed the Keystone XL pipeline. Though he refused to take a stand on the proposed project, the president expressed concerns that Keystone would primarily benefit Canadian interests, not the American people. The president’s dismissive attitude toward cooperating with Canada on Keystone stands in stark contrast to his conciliatory approach with other world leaders. AEA President...
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An eye-catching headline at Bloomberg News is making the rounds: “Cheap Oil Jamming Rails Means Higher U.S. Power Bills.” The claim would be newsworthy if it had any basis in reality. Here’s how the article begins:

U.S. electricity costs are poised to reach the highest level since 1999 because railroads are too clogged to deliver enough coal to power plants. While the U.S. has the world’s biggest coal reserves, utilities are forecast by the government to end the year with the...

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Falling gasoline prices have led to heightened interest in jacking up gasoline taxes. As a CBS story put it: “If there ever was a perfect time to raise gas taxes, now would be it. Which is why it's no surprise that federal and state lawmakers are showing new interest.” Yet there is no economic or environmental reason that gas taxes make more sense now, compared to six months ago. The new push for a gas tax—especially those that are explicitly sold as setting a “floor” under the...
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that his administration will uphold its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. The decision ends years of stalling and speculation as to whether the governor would allow New Yorkers to enjoy the benefits of affordable energy. By banning hydraulic fracturing, Cuomo is squandering an opportunity for New York to join America’s energy boom. Parts of upstate New York sit atop the Marcellus shale formation, which contains vast supplies of...
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The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is out with new numbers measuring the geopolitical impact of America’s domestic energy boom. As the following chart shows, revenues from net oil exports for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are expected to decline by 14 percent in 2014 and 46 percent next year compared to 2013 levels. In 2015, OPEC countries (excluding Iran) will earn $375 billion less in net oil revenues than they did just two years ago, according...
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“No one would have predicted it. To the contrary, experts predicted the opposite. In 2008, the International Energy Agency was projecting U.S. production would decline or remain flat for decades. Prior to the recession, the price of oil peaked at nearly $150 a barrel, and with global demand rising, it looked like it would remain at an elevated level forevermore.” -Rich Lowry, National Review As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the...
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In addition to submitting our own formal comment on EPA’s proposed carbon dioxide emission rule for existing power plants, IER has co-signed a free market coalition comment written by Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). The CEI coalition comment finds EPA’s power plant rule to be, “illegitimate and unlawful.” The comment explains that the “implementation costs are likely much greater than EPA estimates. It will increase electricity prices and raises...
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Whether it's the costliest regulation in history or the coal-killing power plant rules (that Obama's law professor says raise "constitutional questions"), it's clear that the CIA isn't the only government agency engaged in torture. At least the CIA isn't torturing Americans.
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Does the UN think humans are a disease infecting the Earth? As Bloomberg reports:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stepped up his call for all nations rich and poor alike to fight global warming, seeking to break a dispute over which should move first to rein in fossil-fuel pollution. Speaking as senior ministers arrived at a United Nations gathering of envoys from 190 countries, Ban expressed alarm that the world isn’t moving quickly enough on the issue. “ Our planet has a fever...

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