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Washington, DC – The American Energy Alliance (AEA) continues its efforts to keep leaders accountable for their energy policies with a new radio spot, “Two Senators.”  AEA’s latest ads will run starting today in South Carolina.

AEA President Thomas Pyle issued the following statement:

“Our continued education efforts are driven by a simple truth:  more production from resources owned by the American people – on and offshore — means lower energy prices for American families and businesses.  We will keep working to educate voters, government officials, and other stakeholders until everyone understands this fundamental fact.

“In South Carolina, this issue is marked by an unfortunate divergence between their two United States Senators.  Senator DeMint is a tireless champion for more domestic energy, lower energy prices, and more jobs here at home.  Senator Graham decided to collaborate with those who will restrict our domestic energy resources.

“I am confident that the citizens of South Carolina, given the choice, would prefer to use the energy resources they own rather than rely on thugs like Hugo Chavez.  I hope Senator Graham comes to that same realization.”

Listen to the ad

Script of the “Two Senators” follows:

“It’s a tale of two United States Senators.

As our families struggle with rising energy prices Senator Jim DeMint fought hard to lift the ban on offshore exploration and production.

Senator Lindsey Graham took a different approach—supporting a deal that permanently locks up more than 75% of the United States energy rich Outer Continental Shelf.

Senator DeMint’s plan for additional exploration means lower energy costs for our families, more jobs for our economy and greater security for our nation.

Senator Graham’s misguided plan will have little effect on energy prices and only benefit corrupt oil rich nations, like Venezuela and Nigeria.

How can two Senators from the same state, representing the same people have such differing views?”

The text of the ad follows

“It’s a tale of two United States Senators.

As our families struggle with rising energy prices Senator Jim DeMint fought hard to lift the ban on offshore exploration and production.”

“Senator Lindsey Graham took a different approach—supporting a deal that permanently locks up more than 75% of the United States energy rich Outer Continental Shelf.”

“Senator DeMint’s plan for additional exploration means lower energy costs for our families, more jobs for our economy and greater security for our nation.”

“Senator Graham’s misguided plan will have little effect on energy prices and only benefit corrupt oil rich nations, like Venezuela and Nigeria.”

“How can two Senators from the same state, representing the same people have such differing views?

Call Senator Graham at 864-250-1417 and tell him to follow Senator DeMint’s lead and support energy policies that benefit South Carolina families.”

Read the whole fact sheet here

Alliance Continues American Energy Advocacy Campaign with New Ad

Washington, D.C.

– The American Energy Alliance (AEA) continues its efforts to keep leaders accountable for their energy policies with a new radio spot, “Keep Fighting.”  AEA’s latest ad will start running today in Mississippi.

AEA President Thomas Pyle issued the following statement:

“Our continued education efforts are driven by a simple but powerful idea; more production from resources owned by the American people – on and offshore — means lower energy prices for American families and businesses.  We will keep working to educate voters, government officials, and other stakeholders until everyone understands this fundamental fact.

“Frankly, I am shocked that even now some of our elected leaders continue to obstruct policies that will reduce energy prices, reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy from unstable regions, employ thousands of Americans in good paying jobs, and put more money into the budgets of American families and individuals, all because they are shackled to a failed ideology.”

“At the same time, it is appropriate to recognize those who support the right policies for American consumers.  That’s why we are urging voters in Mississippi to encourage their Senators to keep fighting for American energy production.”

Script of the ad “Keep Fighting” follows:

“They say change is coming, but tough economic times still lie ahead for many Mississippi families.

Thankfully, Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran fought to lift the ban on offshore energy exploration and production.
And today, gas prices are falling, providing needed relief to our families.

But some in Congress want to reinstate the ban and stop offshore exploration before it even starts.  And others want to increase energy taxes, eliminating good Mississippi jobs and sending prices soaring again.  That’s not the kind of change Mississippi needs.

Call Senator Wicker at (601) 965-4644 and Senator Cochran at (601) 965-4459.  Thank them for working to lower gas prices by lifting the offshore energy ban and tell them to fight against job killing new energy taxes.”

You can listen to this ad by clicking here:  Keep Fighting Ad

You can view the fact sheet for this a by clicking here: Keep Fighting Fact Sheet

The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is a recently formed not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for free-market energy and environmental policies.  It is affiliated with the Institute for Energy Research (IER), another not-for-profit – founded in 1989 – that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.  Both AEA and IER maintain that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.

The text of the ad follows

They say change is coming, but tough economic times still lie ahead for many Mississippi families.

Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran fought to lift the ban on offshore energy exploration and production.

And today, gas prices are falling, providing needed relief to our families.

But some in Congress want to reinstate the ban and stop offshore exploration before it even starts.

And others want to increase energy taxes, eliminating good Mississippi jobs and sending prices soaring again.

That’s not the kind of change Mississippi needs.

Call Senator Wicker at (601) 965-4644 and Senator Cochran at (601) 965-4459.

Thank them for working to lower gas prices by lifting the offshore energy ban and tell them to fight against job killing new energy taxes.

DISCLAIMER: Paid for by the American Energy Alliance, which is responsible for the content of this ad.  w-w-w dot American energy alliance dot org.  Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Read the whole fact sheet here

By ANDREW P. MORRIS

Two cheers – but not three – for John McCain’s energy plan.

Like Obama’s, McCain’s plan is filled with the vague generalities about “energy independence” and reducing carbon emissions. And we need to remember that whichever team wins the election will have to negotiate energy policy with a Democratic-controlled Congress dominated by ideologues like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Nonetheless, the McCain plan has two important virtues.

The first is that the McCain plan focuses on increasing domestic production from all forms of energy.

For our economy to grow and produce more jobs, goods, services and wealth for all Americans, we need reliable energy available at a reasonable price. To get that, we need to provide incentives to energy producers to do more.

McCain’s plan focuses on encouraging energy production, while Obama offers only limited support for boosting domestic production of oil and natural gas. Worse, Obama wants to increase taxes on energy companies, a sure path to reducing domestic energy production and raising costs.

Taking advantage of America’s most abundant energy resources – coal, oil and natural gas – and eliminating road blocks to further development of nuclear power are crucial parts of meeting our future energy needs. Expanding oil and natural gas production by eliminating bans on offshore drilling as McCain proposes would provide access to the equivalent of 30 years of our oil imports from Saudi Arabia and enough natural gas to fuel Americans’ natural gas furnaces for 17 years.

Similarly, McCain’s plan recognizes the vital importance of coal, which we use to produce half our electricity, to America’s energy future. We are frequently called the “Saudi Arabia” of coal because we have 29 percent of world coal reserves. By contrast, the Obama campaign has sent at best conflicting signals on coal. Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was caught on tape at a rally saying that there would be “no coal plants here in America” while the campaign’s official position is support for subsidies for technology to make coal plants cleaner. McCain’s acknowledgement of coal’s importance is a powerful reason to prefer it to the ambiguity of the Obama position.

McCain also endorses increased nuclear energy production, a subject on which Obama waffles. Nuclear power plants take a long time to build, in part because of inconsistent and time consuming regulatory requirements.

Given the Democratic Party leadership’s longstanding antipathy toward nuclear power, McCain’s commitment to streamline the regulatory process to boost nuclear power is more credible.

The second crucial distinction is that a McCain administration would include Sarah Palin, who has more significant policy experience in energy than any member of a national ticket since Jimmy Carter, once a nuclear engineer.

In Alaska, Palin chaired the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, an important state agency that regulates oil and gas production. She currently chairs the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a coalition of state governments concerned with energy.

As governor Palin stood up to Big Oil and pushed through a significant reform of Alaska’s energy taxes and unsnarled a major pipeline deal blocked by special interest wrangling. Palin’s energy accomplishments would position a McCain administration to deliver on its initiatives.

McCain’s plan is far from perfect, which is why I can manage only two cheers for it. But McCain’s emphasis on providing incentives for increasing domestic production and choice of a running mate who has successfully carried through energy initiatives contrast favorably with the Obama-Biden plan’s vague promises and reliance on government efforts to dictate energy technologies.
Andrew P. Morriss is H. Ross & Helen Workman professor of law and business at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Readers may write to him at UI College of Law, 504 East Pennsylvania Avenue, Champaig

According to Bloomberg.com:

Barack Obama will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that can be regulated should he win the presidential election on Nov. 4, opening the way for new rules on greenhouse gas emissions.

The Democratic senator from Illinois will tell the Environmental Protection Agency that it may use the 1990 Clean Air Act to set emissions limits on power plants and manufacturers, his energy adviser, Jason Grumet, said in an interview. President George W. Bush declined to curb CO2 emissions under the law even after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the government may do so.

The American Energy Alliance has grave reservations about regulating greenhouse gas under the Clean Air Act. Using this Clean Air Act in this way will entail grave economic costs and make America less economically competitive. We believe the Clean Air Act is not the appropriate tool for regulating greenhouse gases.

To send comments to EPA on this issue, the American Energy Alliance has created a model comment to send to EPA here .

Proposed rulemaking on greenhouse gas regulation an economic train wreck in the making

Washington, D.C. – Today the American Energy Alliance (AEA) launched a new online initiative to alert voters about the economic perils associated with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) effort to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.  Known as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) , the EPA’s proposed regulatory framework would make energy scarce and even more expensive, further eroding an already fragile economy.  AEA is launching Stop the EPA to help avert this economic disaster.

“The Clean Air Act was designed to protect and enhance the quality of the air we breathe, not to suck the oxygen out of the U.S. economy,” said Thomas Pyle, president of AEA.  But when you consider the extreme scope and extent of this regulatory proposal, that’s exactly what would happen if it were enacted.  No other country in the world would even consider inflicting so much harm and hardship on itself, but that’s precisely what is happening in Washington today.

In 2007, the Supreme Court rendered an opinion in Massachusetts v. EPA which found that greenhouse gases could be classified as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.  It also directed the agency to determine whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.  It was a decision that, according to one dissenting Supreme Court justice, could eventually lead to the regulation of everything “from Frisbees to flatulence.”

Indeed, EPA’s response was a voluminous 500+ page Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) that outlines the myriad of activities, industries, businesses, and commercial goods and services that could fall victim to a heavy-handed scheme to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.  The EPA is currently soliciting comments on its proposal.

“By attempting to regulate the production and virtually all known uses of energy – the lifeblood of our economy – the EPA has constructed a depression-inducing Trojan Horse that could find itself into every factory, family room, small business and backyard in America,” Pyle continued.  “Regulating personal consumption of oxygen is perhaps the only thing that could be more perverse, especially given the state of our economy and the rising costs of energy today.  It’s imperative for consumers to educate themselves on this issue and take action by issuing their comments to the EPA itself.”

EPA’s plan is so sweeping it could include regulate the fuel economy of lawnmowers, the design of tractor trailer mirrors and airplane wingtips, and even the shape of automobiles.  It could also lead to energy restrictions on over one million buildings including hospitals, churches, office buildings, and stadiums.

Key Definitions for putting the ANPR in Perspective

Carbon: A naturally abundant nonmetallic element that occurs in many inorganic and in all organic compounds, exists freely as graphite and diamond and as a constituent of coal, limestone, and petroleum, and is capable of chemical self-bonding to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically, and commercially important molecules.

Carbon Dioxide: A colorless, odorless, incombustible gas that is present in the atmosphere and is formed when any fuel containing carbon is burned. It is breathed out of an animal’s lungs during respiration, is produced by the decay of organic matter, and is used by plants in photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is also used in refrigeration, inert atmospheres, fire extinguishers, carbonated drinks, and more.

About the American Energy Alliance: The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is a recently formed not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for free-market energy and environmental policies.  It is affiliated with the Institute for Energy Research (IER) , another not-for-profit – founded in 1989 – that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.  Both AEA and IER maintain that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.

Take Action at AEA Online:
www.americanenergyalliance.org/stoptheepa.