It's good to get out the whetstone and sharpen the sword.  And while the fight is never won or lost on the study field, this is where we like to begin the battle. IER  (2/5/13) reports: “This paper illustrates that Congress has chosen to evaluate only one small piece of the economic effect of opening federal tracts to oil and gas leasing. By ignoring the investment phase, the CBO — upon the instruction of Congress — substantially underestimates the economic effects of current policy...
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  During the debate to retain the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) last year, wind advocates offered a variety of spurious claims in an intense lobbying effort to keep the favorable tax treatment. In one case, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) warned that new wind installations would decline precipitously if Congress allowed the PTC to lapse. If this argument is correct, it would stand to reason that the one-year extension and expansion of the PTC included in the fiscal cliff...
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A government owned stadium, powered by a heavily regulated electricity infrastructure, all pushed hurriedly towards unreliable, taxpayer funded green energy? What could go wrong? DOE  (2/3/13) reports: “To make this the greenest Super Bowl, the New Orleans Host Committee has partnered with fans and the community to offset energy use across the major Super Bowl venues. The exterior of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome features more than 26,000 LED lights on 96 full-color graphic display panels,...
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  A recent article in the Washington Post proclaims that U.S. oil imports are falling to their lowest level since 1987. The decrease in imports is a combination of two things, Americans using less oil because of an economic downturn and increased domestic production. The increase in domestic production can be attributed to the increased usage of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and directional drilling to unlock oil from the many, vast shale formations the United States is blessed...
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We needed to let this ripen for a day.  Its awesomeness originally overwhelmed us. Forbes (1/30/13) reports: “The EPA's Lisa Jackson: The Worst Head of the Worst Regulatory Agency, Ever… President Obama and his minions seem to think that freedom is a four-letter word.  His administration has imposed an array of intrusive, nanny-state, financial, environmental and consumer-product regulations that will cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars.”   The good news is that this...
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We’re not entirely cynical, because Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy are still real. Consumer Energy Report  (1/29/13) reports: "I don’t ride a unicorn to work because unicorns don’t exist… But imagine the following scenario. A number of companies claim that they are developing unicorns, and in 3 years they will be commercially available. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thinks ‘Hey, this is a great idea. It would be a more environmentally friendly method of transport....
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What will it take for people to realize that electricity isn’t generated by a bunch of wizards and fairy tales at Hogwarts? Washington Times  (1/27/13) reports: “Environmental Protection Agency regulations are snuffing out another power plant, Chase Power announced Wednesday, killing its $3 billion Corpus Christi, Texas, coal project and 3,900 prospective jobs… ‘Chase Power … has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking alternative investors as part...
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It's not a question of enough, pal.  It's a zero sum game – somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made; it's simply transferred from one perception to another. Phoenix Business Journal ( 1/19/13) reports: “Salt River Project is evaluating a plan put forward by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would require as much as $1.1 billion in emission upgrades at the Navajo Generating Station… The coal-fired power plant near Page is owned by a consortium of...
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People who have watched environmental policy debates soon learn that the alarmist interventionists—the ones claiming that the government needs to act quickly in order to prevent catastrophe—are not afraid to throw around terrifying statistics that are absurd on their face. In a different forum, I walked through this phenomenon when it came to proposed regulations of mercury emissions from power plants. Susan Dudley, of George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center,...
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What the hell, it's only money, right? Daily Caller  (1/24/13) reports: “California has been a leader in Renewable Energy production, in part due to federal and state level policies that provide incentives for producers of renewable power. However, a new report found that California’s Energy policies will raise state power rates and associated costs by nearly 33 percent… The report by the free-market Pacific Research Institute specifically focuses on the additional costs imposed by a...
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