In dueling votes last month, U.S. senators took a stand either for or against a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. Although symbolic, the votes separated those who want to impose yet another tax on American consumers from those who understand that more taxes mean less prosperity. By a vote of 53-46 , the Senate expressed support for Sen. Roy Blunt's amendment to ensure that any future carbon tax bill would require 60 votes to pass. On the other hand, the Senate overwhelmingly rejected Sen....
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Cheers to ending “misery and vice” Malthusianism.  Bjorn is right on some things, wrong on others, but mostly we couldn't resist his headline: "What I'd like to see this Earth Day: More fracking". The Globe  (4/22/13) reports: “Year after year, we are treated to a message of environmental doom and gloom and admonitions on Earth Day. On the back of this sentiment in wealthy countries, governments have invested billions of dollars in inefficient, feel-good policies – such as...
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My very strong suspicion is that half of everything they sell is made with petroleum products. And everything they sell is transported with petroleum products. I also suspect that they are really, really inane. Politico  (4/15/13) reports: “APPAREL COMPANY PATAGONIA ORGANIZING AGAINST KEYSTONE: The gear, clothing and apparel company Patagonia is blasting the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in a new email to customers. ‘Tar sands oil in the Keystone XL pipeline will cross more than 1,000...
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Let me explain how this works. Washington Gas agrees to buy wind power in an amount equal to the amount Union Station uses each year. They charge ratepayers more. The generators get a federal subsidy (about 1/4 of the total price) from taxpayers and get to generate power even when no one wants it. States in which the power is generated get to say they are meeting their portfolio mandates. Union Station gets the PR bump. Who pays for all this? You do, sucker. E&ENews  (4/12/13) reports: “A...
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WASHINGTON D.C. -- AEA President Thomas Pyle released the following statement in response to today's decision by the Internal Revenue Service to establish a loose definition for the wind Production Tax Credit's qualifying language. According to the new IRS guidelines, wind projects can receive 10 years of taxpayer-funded subsidies by committing as little as 5 percent of the costs by Jan. 1, 2014. "The Internal Revenue Service has twice in one month tilted the tax code to the benefit of wind...
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You know it's bad when... Columbia Journalism Review  (4/12/13) reports: “Journalists and the GOP called for more transparency at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week, as Gina McCarthy, the Obama administration's pick to succeed Lisa Jackson as head of the agency, entered congressional confirmation hearings… The day before McCarthy, who now heads the EPA's air pollution division, faced off with the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, a group of Republicans...
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WASHINGTON D.C. -- American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle was joined today by eight other free market organizations in a joint letter to governors of 21 U.S. states that do not force their citizens to purchase unaffordable, intermittent electricity from renewable sources. The letter urges these governors to oppose any further extension of the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) that unfairly forces their states to subsidize such mandates in other states. The coalition chose to send the...
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Lately an argument has broken out over the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and whether it drives up gasoline prices. The recent controversy was sparked by a WSJ article discussing the shocking fact that Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits—which are one way of complying with the federal standard—had shot up in prices from about 7 cents in January to more than $1 in March. The WSJ article argued that—duh!—massively increasing a cost component would drive up gas prices. In...
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Thank goodness we have the money to spend on this sort of thing. I mean, it doesn’t seem ridiculous or pointless at all. The Hill (4/11/13) reports: “President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget calls for using a satellite designed to track climate change that was originally pushed by former Vice President Gore… Obama proposed Wednesday spending nearly $35 million in his 2014 budget to refurbish a satellite, nicknamed GoreSat by critics, that’s been sitting in storage after it was shelved...
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WASHINGTON D.C. -- AEA President Thomas Pyle was cited in an E&E News Greenwire article today on the energy provisions in President Obama's FY2014 budget proposal. Pyle's comments target President Obama's continued pursuit of discriminatory energy policies: Clean energy favored, fossil fuel programs cut under fiscal 2014 budget E&E News, Greenwire By Nick Juliano, Hannah Northey and Katherine Ling, E&E Reporters 4/10/2013 President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget request would boost funding...
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