A new study put out by the Western States Petroleum Association concludes that California’s statewide cap-and-trade plan, known as AB32, would raise gasoline prices and shut down refineries. The study, performed by the Boston Consulting Group, affirms basic economics by realizing that government regulations will raise the cost of business and necessarily impact retail prices and jobs. This is a welcome dose of common sense in a sea of rhetoric arguing that climate change regulations...
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  Click here to Take Action and write your Congressman. America is blessed with abundant and affordable energy resources, and we need to increase energy production to grow our economy and create more jobs. Unnecessary red tape, inefficient permitting processes and lack of access to federal lands have made American energy production more expensive for consumers and businesses, especially on federal lands and waters.  In fact, the Congressional Research Service reported that 96% of the...
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  WASHINGTON DC -- The Institute for Energy Research, in a joint venture with The Heritage Foundation, released today a video telling the story of economic freedom, energy abundance, and job creation that are happening in North Dakota's oil-rich Bakken shale formation. "A Fracking Miracle" provides first-person narratives of lives transformed, record employment, and economies bolstered by sensible state regulation, private land ownership, and safe drilling technologies. "North Dakota is...
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  WASHINGTON D.C. — The American Energy Alliance released a video today exposing the failure of renewable energy mandates that raise the cost of producing and consuming transportation fuels in the United States. The "Phantom Fuels"video tells the story of cellulosic biofuel, a plant-based fuel source that is not commercially available despite federal law requiring refiners to blend 8.65 million gallons of it this year. Failure to blend the non-existent biofuel cost refiners $6.8 million...
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  When he’s not busy picking “winners” like Solyndra, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has time to engage in original, peer-reviewed research. In a forthcoming paper, Chu and his co-authors argue that federal mandates for energy efficiency actually don’t increase prices for consumers, because the extra hoops force the producers to learn how to innovate. As usual, Chu’s views are at complete odds with basic economics. In a June 14 article for E&E titled “For energy efficiency,...
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Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal carried a prominent article  about accidental bird deaths caused by communications towers. According to the article, a whopping 6.8 million birds are accidentally killed by flying into these towers (the article did not specify if bird suicides were included or not). These 6.8 million birds are usually attacked – apparently without provocation - by these aggressive and belligerent towers under the cover of darkness by their illuminated red lights. As...
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  A recent report by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) makes the case that Americans should reject the Keystone XL pipeline because its construction would raise gasoline prices in the U.S. The NRDC report is based on absurd economic arguments and distorted analysis from another research group. Most ironic of all, NRDC has been a strong advocate of a government cap on carbon dioxide emissions, with the express purpose of raising the cost of fossil fuel energy. It’s therefore...
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  American refineries are closing and more closures are likely, often because of overly-burdensome regulation as well as lower gasoline demand. Several refineries in Pennsylvania are idle and possibly closing if no buyers come forward. The refining industry is one of the most highly regulated in the country and has been struggling for years to maintain minimal profit margins. In the face of even more regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who are, imposing...
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For Immediate Release May 24, 2012 WASHINGTON D.C. -- In advance of President Obama's campaign-year stop in the State of Iowa to tout his administration's support for wind energy handouts, AEA President Thomas Pyle released a letter to all Members of the 112th Congress opposing the administration's call for more deficit spending on renewable energy. "Decades of clamoring for subsidies and cash handouts by wind power proponents have done nothing to mature the industry into a viable...
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