Energy

Nah.

Getting out of the Paris Agreement was just the first step on the road to a realist global energy policy.

With the president once again managing to divert attention from a sensible policy to a vulgar tweet, you might not have noticed that this past week has been “Energy Week.” The immediate result has been a lot of speeches, including one by Harold Hamm, the Trump-supporting oil-and-gas man who played…

There are two great weapons Vladimir Putin uses to leverage the West and push his foreign policy. One is nuclear weapons, and the other is natural gas. Thanks to the American energy revolution, Russia’s control of the European energy market is slipping, and may wind up gone altogether.

1) As many liberal commentators have eagerly pointed out, coal is a dying industry, and it makes no sense to prop up a dying industry. The issue, however, isn't whether Trump's pulling out of the Paris Agreement is propping it up so much as refusing to kill the industry prematurely. About a third…

A large swath of the population—mostly on the left—thinks the American coal industry is dead or dying. But another large portion of the population—mostly on the right—thinks the coal industry is primed for a comeback.

One of President Donald Trump's most urgent policy priorities is to cut taxes for businesses and workers. It's a promise that Republicans must fulfill if they want to restore American prosperity. But the tax plan—which one of us, Moore, helped write—has a $2 trillion to $4 trillion revenue…

Saudis, Russia, shale. That is all ye need to know in order to understand the oil market. The Saudis lead the OPEC oil cartel, Russia is their largest potential fellow traveler, and the Permian Basin in the Southwest is the oil-rich shale that stands between the other two and $100 per barrel oil.

Saudis, Russia, shale. That is all ye need to know in order to understand the oil market. The Saudis lead the OPEC oil cartel, Russia is their largest potential fellow traveler, and the Permian Basin in the Southwest is the oil-rich shale that stands between the other two and $100 per barrel oil.

A large swath of the population—mostly on the left—thinks the American coal industry is dead or dying. But another large portion of the population—mostly on the right—thinks the coal industry is primed for a comeback.

One of President Donald Trump’s most urgent policy priorities is to cut taxes for businesses and workers. It's a promise that Republicans must fulfill if they want to restore American prosperity. But the tax plan—which one of us, Moore, helped write—has a $2 trillion to $4 trillion revenue…

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, President Donald Trump tied his loosening of energy restrictions with the greater goal of "[putting] the regulation industry… out of business."

The electric power system makes our modern, mobile, information-age economy possible. But it is organized in much the same way it was in 1884, when Thomas Edison created the first system of power plants to light up homes and businesses in lower Manhattan. By way of comparison, the iPhone, which is…

Like duck targets at a carnival game, the next round of presidential candidates is already lining up. And, maybe because of Donald Trump's success, they are all playing a risky game of over-the-top, leftist one-upmanship. The show is fun to watch, but the unbearable threat of their taxes,…

A New York Times report on the eve of Rick Perry's confirmation hearing for Secretary of Energy Wednesday alleged that the former Texas governor had only recently discovered that the job largely involves nuclear issues. But Perry acknowledged in 2014 that the Department of Energy is responsible for…

On Tuesday, President Obama announced a ban on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas within several areas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Liberals and the environmental left have gone into a tizzy over the selection of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt as Donald Trump's pick to head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Writing at National Journal, Josh Kraushaar suggests Democrats' far-left policies on energy and the environment have been a problem for the party at the ballot box. There are even some Democratic politicos, Kraushaar reports, who are discussing pulling back from the party's hard line on energy…

For weeks, protesters in the thousands have been have been playing a tense waiting game with police on the banks of the Missouri River an hour south of Bismarck, North Dakota. The protesters gained a partial victory on Sunday, when Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army's assistant secretary for civil works,…

In advancing public policy, you expect the person who holds the moral high ground to win. The battle is who's able to conquer that high ground and keep it. Unfortunately, the moral high ground is often a matter of perspective, and the political right has been cast far too readily as the villain by…

Greenville, Alabama, is a small city of about 8,000 right off I-65, south of Montgomery. It's best known for Bates House of Turkey, a popular lunch stop on the way down to the white-sand beaches of the Gulf Coast. It's also an important stop on the map for Tesla owners.

Greenville, Alabama, is a small city of about 8,000 right off I-65, south of Montgomery. It’s best known for Bates House of Turkey, a popular lunch stop on the way down to the white-sand beaches of the Gulf Coast. It's also an important stop on the map for Tesla owners.

“If you think you can stop me," Edison said softly, "go ahead and try. But you'll have to do it in the dark."

Philadelphia

At a meeting of the National Association of Science Writers in New York in 1954, the chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission laid out his vision for a nuclear-powered future. Famines would be the stuff of history, Lewis Strauss said; people would “travel effortlessly over the seas and under…

The Obama administration did not brief top lawmakers about key details of an $8.6 million purchase of nuclear material from Iran for months after announcing the sale in April, according to interviews with multiple members of Congress.

The presence of a climate justice warrior who zip-tied himself to the White House fence and President Obama's "climate czar" on the Democrats' platform drafting committee has the party poised for a progressive shift on energy policy.

The U.S. government is forecasting that the world's coal consumption will increase almost 15 percent in the coming decades, despite new regulations that will slow the industry significantly stateside.

Almost 40 years ago, the last “green" president, Jimmy Carter, went on national TV and glumly told the nation from the Oval Office: "We could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade."

With the Senate dedicating a fair amount of floor time to the Energy Policy Modernization Act, Republican senators are taking the opportunity to shine a light on bad practices in the energy economy through the amendment process.

Donald Trump framed his unqualified support of ethanol Tuesday as an act of political independence — this, before a gathering of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit, less than two weeks away from the state's caucus.

A new group called the Energy Equality Coalition launched on Thursday. The group's goal is to "end taxpayer subsidies and ensure a level playing field for middle-class American energy consumers."

Hillary Clinton may be low-energy. In an interview last night with NBC's Seth Meyers, Clinton admitted that the campaign "is incredibly demanding and exhausting."

In a post debate interview with CNN, Jeb Bush was obviously frustrated (though he denied it):

Some new findings on how conservative voters think about energy issues from a bevvy of top-tier GOP pollsters ought to be required reading for the eventual Republican presidential nominee. While the new polls, commissioned by the ClearPath Foundation, offer some intuitive political messaging advice…

‘It was $5, right?” I was at a convenience store in northern Missouri, filling up with gas, and the guy next to me was checking his gas budget with the lady in the passenger seat of his car. He was driving what might be the last K-car on the road. He noticed that I had overheard their conversation…

The economic recovery is barely worthy of the name, and there is evidence that inequality in America is increasing. Ignoring the first rule of statistics—correlation is not causation—progressives see this as a new reason to expand government. Reduce inequality and the growth rate will increase. 

The late great comedian Milton Berle, when introduced to an enthusiastically applauding audience, would hold up his left hand in a modest gesture as if to say thank you but that’s enough, and with his right hand held at waist level encouraged the audience to even wilder applause. President Obama…

The sun is a stubborn on-again-off-again partner in our solar energy relationship. With no way to store excess solar energy, solar homes are forced to return shamefacedly to the electrical grid each evening, not to mention in moments of cloud cover and/or rain.

Conservatives of America, unite. You have nothing to lose but regulations and subsidies. Hark. Listen up. Pay attention. And if there is any other cliché that might get your attention, pencil it in.

A new report by the American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, details adverse economic consequences of the Keystone XL pipeline's delay. The report highlights billions of dollars in untapped economic activity, and the over $1 trillion the U.S. has paid other countries for oil. It also…

Do you want to know how to beat the stock market? In 46 of America’s 50 largest cities, installing a fully financed, typical-sized, residential solar power system will do just that, according to a Department of Energy-backed study released earlier this year. In other words, by investing in solar…

The original corn laws put tariffs on imported grain in an effort to help domestic producers.  That was nearly two centuries ago, in England, and the experiment is taught as an example of bad economic policy. But people never learn and in this country, today, we have the renewable fuel mandates…

Iowa took umbrage, last week, over something an operative for Scott Walker said.  Or, to be precise, something she once tweeted.  For her indiscretion, Liz Mair was forced to resign from Walker’s political action committee. Walker is not yet an officially declared candidate for president but that…

Former Texas governor Rick Perry responded to news that the Obama administration is instituting new regulations on hydraulic fracturing.

In his annual statement marking the Persian new year, President Obama said he believes that Iran and the U.S. “should be able” to resolve the dispute over the mullahs’ nuclear program “peacefully, with diplomacy.”

To hear administration officials tell it, the "fourth quarter" of the Obama presidency will be focused on economic growth and what the president calls “middle-class economics.” Brian Deese, senior advisor to the president on climate and energy, emphasized this at a Friday breakfast with reporters…

We are in a war with Saudi Arabia—and losing. The Saudis aim to regain substantial control of our oil supply by driving from the industry many of our shale-oil-producing frackers who have reduced the power conveyed to the kingdom’s rulers by the underground ocean of oil on which their palaces sit.…

The ZeroHedge headline nails it:

Reason for good cheer.  The Wall Street Journal reports that:

Thanks to (mostly) fracking you can not only drive to work for less than before, you may now be writing a smaller check to cover the mortgage.  As the Wall Street Journal reports:

As if the plunging price of oil were not enough to doom the market for electric and hybrid automobiles, there is this from ABC News:

Bloomberg reports that:

The Wall Street Journal reports that:

While the nation was focused on the mid-term elections Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies regarding U.S.-China relations. As he often does, Kerry brought up the subject of climate change, which he asserted is happening "faster…

Laura Barron-Lopez of the The Hill is reporting that:

Anyone who doubts that the deployment of the technologies we have come to call fracking constitutes a revolution should consider this. U.S. oil production has soared by 70 percent in the past six years. American refineries have cut in half their imports from the OPEC cartel, setting off a scramble…

Seems Canada is tired of waiting – and waiting – for a decision on the Keystone pipeline and has come up with an alternate plan for moving the oil to market.  As Bloomberg reports:

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has mocked President Obama's foreign policy of not doing stupid stuff. She has publicly undermined her former boss's Syria policy. But there's one issue where she won't voice an opinion: whether the Keystone XL pipeline should be built.

On September 23 in New York, the president will have an opportunity to score a political victory and advance an important part of his agenda. No, not at some Park Avenue fundraiser, although he might squeeze one in, but at Climate Summit 2014, a meeting of heads of state convened by U.N. secretary…

Lamar Alexander, the two-term Republican senator from Tennessee, is in a strong position to win reelection this November. But only if he can get through his August 7 primary.

Jeanna Smialek and Shobhana Chandra at Bloomberg report that:

EPA chief Gina McCarthy agreed with Bill Maher on Friday that the Obama administration is engaged in a war on coal:

When the EPA released its new rules aimed to get the nation on the road carbon free (sort of) energy generation, the news was plainly bad for coal. No surprise there.  The prospects for renewables – solar, wind, hydro, etc. – were enormously enhanced by the plan. This was also unsurprising.  But…

The Obama administration will roll out a plan, today, for fixing the climate, having already fixed foreign policy and the economy. As Wendy Koch of USA Today reports:

The fracking euphoria had to end. For three reasons. First, the claims for its benefits were wildly exaggerated, ensuring eventual disappointment as even a cheerful reality could not meet the imaginings of the pro-fossil-fuel gang. Second, environmental groups were not going to sit idly by, their…

It is an uncomfortable fact that several European countries depend on Russia for energy and the situation in Ukraine has jeopardized that arrangement. Today, as Vanessa Mock of the Wall Street Journal reports:

The news that the administration would like kept quiet, and which it therefore announced in the afternoon, on Good Friday is that it has:

Nobody loved Shai Agassi and his company, Better Place, more than Tom Friedman. Friedman dedicated two slobbering, wide-eyed, wet-kiss columns to Agassi's Better Place in 2008. You can read them here and here. 

Democratic senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is in a tough reelection battle because of her support for Obamacare. So its not surprising her latest TV ad focuses on the one high-profile fight she's had with the Obama administration, over oil and gas exploration. The 60-second spot features people…

The Keystone pipeline has been studied longer than just about anything this side of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  And, still, the administration continues to weigh its merits.  The stall is making certain members of the political class uncomfortable.  As Laura Barron-Lopez of the Hill reports, several…

Travelling from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, to Mostar, a city almost midway toward Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast, one drives through a stunningly-beautiful landscape of mountains, forests, and rivers. On a recent trip, however, I observed a surprising sight: four gas stations…

America is a fracking cornucopia of crude oil, independent of the rapacious OPEC cartel. And has an inexhaustible supply of natural gas, putting us in a position to become a major exporter able to use its gas reserves as a geopolitical weapon. Take that, King Abdullah and Vladimir Putin. Too good…

In the early days of the Obama administration, “smart power” was all the rage—and not just on the foreign policy scene. In April 2009, National Public Radio reported how one Allentown, Pennsylvania, mother was saving more than a hundred dollars each month on her electric bill. Tammy Yeakel’s power…

Curtis Williams, of Oil & Gas Journal, reports that former Energy Secretary Steven Chu had this to say about the Keystone pipeline project:

The Keystone Pipeline, which has been studied for more than five years, will be studied some more.  A State Department study was generally thought to be the conclusive and it has now been delivered. But we are told by the White House chief of staff, Denis McDonough, that there is more studying to…

There is something about the energy business that is conducive to the creation of myths. So Roger Sant, a long-time and highly respected participant in the energy policy game and in the industries that energy legislation and regulation affect, told a group of Houston oil men recently. Energy myths…

In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canada's foreign minister, John Baird put things plainly:

Although CO2 is considered a "greenhouse gas" that contributes to climate change, if the Energy Department (DOE) finds partners to capitalize on the research of one of its laboratories, someday cars might run on sunshine.  Technically, cars would run on the product of sunlight, CO2, and water using…

The past two weeks have been filled with stories of government offices, agencies, services, workers, monuments, websites, memorials, and parks that have been closed, suspended, furloughed, and even barricaded.  Perhaps the most notorious of the actions taken has been the barricading of the open-air…

Craftsbury, Vt.

It's not often officials from the nation’s largest business lobby and an AFL-CIO-affiliated union speak to one another, let alone work together. But last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and North America’s Building Trades Unions held a joint press conference on Capitol Hill in support of the…

Democratic senator Heidi Heitkamp "is ready to take on President Obama over the long-delayed approval for the Keystone XL Pipeline — and she predicts her side will prevail," according to USA Today.

To write about the D.C. Circuit this week is to join a much broader discussion about the court's role in American law and policy. Jonathan Adler recently wrote about the court at Volokh.com, expanding upon a piece he wrote for the Environmental Law Institute's Environmental Forum. Michael Greve has…

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports today that sales of fossil fuels produced on federal and Indian land continue to decline, dropping 4 percent in fiscal year 2012.  The slide continues a decade-long trend that accelerated in 2010, as the chart accompanying the report shows:

Even if you're Warren Buffett--billionaire investor, founder of Berkshire Hathaway, and Democratic donor--it helps to have friends in high places. Through his holding company MidAmerican Energy, Buffett is currently atttempting to purchase NV Energy, a Nevada-based energy firm, and he's getting…

The momentum to restrict Iranian oil exports has stalled, and it is time for Congress to eschew a more gradualist approach and mandate zero oil exports with zero waivers. This, along with more concrete military pressure, could increase the otherwise slim chances for success in expected new talks…

Remember the Keystone pipeline  Well, if you had forgotten about it, no matter. There has still been no decision on whether or not to go ahead with construction. This, in spite of the fact that:

Yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa, President Obama talked about bringing energy and power to the continent of Africa. Today, President Obama is expected to reveal that part of his Africa energy plan involves a soccer ball that carries an electric generator inside.

President Obama used his Saturday morning radio address to rally support for the energy/climate change initiative he announced earlier in the week.  This is the plan whereby we can have it all.  No more coal, more expensive electricity, better weather, and a more robust economy.  One wonders why it…

One day after the president declared war on coal and committed his administration to making electricity – and, thus, just about everything else – more expensive, the 1st quarter GDP growth figures were revised down from a tepid 2.4 percent to an anemic 1.8 percent.

In President Obama's climate change speech set for later today, he'll reportedly say that the Keystone pipeline shouldn't be built if it hurts the environment.

While Daniel P. Schrag, White House climate adviser, tells the New York Times that "a war on coal is exactly what's needed," so far the Obama administration has been a boon for U.S. coal exports.  Last week, the Department of Energy reported that coal exports have more than doubled during President…

Can American workers “cut it” in today’s labor market? Not according to an anonymous aide for Marco Rubio, who was recently quoted by Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker making the case for the Senate’s immigration reform bill.

One price, however, has recently spiked dramatically according to this Bloomberg headline

Ex-energy secretary Steven Chu is still praising Solyndra-style loans. He did it most recently in an interview with San Francisco Chronicle.

The Cold War is now so over that it might as well be grouped with the ancient ice ages, but there is one echo rolling across Europe from East to West: the Russian attempt to dominate the natural gas market on the European continent. As the energy sector accounts for 25 percent of Russia’s economy,…

The day after his inauguration on December 1, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto joined with leaders of the country’s two main opposition parties to sign the “Pact for Mexico,” a joint pledge to pursue dozens of domestic reforms in areas such as education, telecommunications, and energy. At the…

Mark Drajem of Bloomberg reports that “U.S. crude oil production in the fourth quarter will exceed imports for the first time since 1995, as booming fields in North Dakota and Texas put the nation on track to surpass a quarter-century output record.”

Mark J. Perry of AEI tweeted:

With the next round of international talks on Iran’s nuclear program scheduled for February 26, the United States needs to understand Iran’s negotiating strategy. Recent Iranian tactics suggest a seemingly contradictory approach: simultaneously slowing down and speeding up their nuclear program.…

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is leaving and in parting, writes this about his time in office and the green energy investments his department made:

Last week, in a blog post titled, "Super Bowl City Leads on Energy Efficient Forefront," the Energy Department touted the Superdome's lights. The Superdome, in New Orleans, is hosting tonight's Super Bowl, where a power outage stopped play for more than half an hour.

A "Green Inaugural Ball" has been scheduled to celebrate President Barack Obama's second inauguration, according to an invitation of the event. The ball will be held January 20, the day of Obama's second inauguration, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C.

The FDA is raising hackles over the equivalent of an espresso shot in a bottle: the popular 5-Hour Energy drink that has billions of dollars in sales over the past decade.

Yoko Ono, the wife of the late John Lennon, and Sean Lennon, the son of Yoko and the famed member of the Beatles, teamed up to send a message to New York governor Andrew Cuomo: "Imagine There's No Fracking..."

In response to news that China-based investor Wanxiang Group Corp would be investing in the federally back A123 battery company, Senator John Thune said, “President Obama's energy policy has been a win-win for China and a lose-lose for the American taxpayer.”

The AAA has joined the side of the crackpots resisting the burning of food in internal combustion engines:

Mitt Romney's campaign has a new television ad directed at voters in Pennsylvania. The ad juxtaposes Barack Obama's record and rhetoric on the coal industry with Romney's plan.

At last night’s debate, President Obama said gas prices were under two dollars per gallon when he took office because the “economy was on the verge of collapse.” And that if Mitt Romney were elected he “could bring down gas prices, because with his policies we might be back in the same mess.”

In 2008, Barack Obama promised to cut federal spending, cut wasteful programs, reform Medicare and Social Security, and create "5 million new jobs" in a "new energy economy." At Buzzfeed, Andrew Kaczynski has four videos of Obama making those promises at the town hall debate in 2008. Here, for…

According to Bloomberg, the heavily subsidized battery maker, A 123, has filed for bankruptcy protection, making it the latest in a long line of green failures that have produced very little renewable energy and very heavy losses for the American taxpayer.  Been good for the bankruptcy lawyers,…

We are entering an age of energy abundance. Or not. In keeping with the great tradition of economics, dubbed by Thomas Carlyle the dismal science, let me raise a cautionary note. What God has showered upon us, politicians can make unavailable. Not only because they have to balance our need for…

Yesterday, at a rally in Wisconsin, a combative Obama characterized Romney's comments at the debate this way:

Charleston, W. Va.

On Monday, the Romney campaign trumpeted a plan to change the campaign's direction and "reinforce more specifics" on policy. THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a copy of a memo from GOP political veteran David Smick, addressed to the Romney campaign, with advice on how to "revamp" the television ad…

With just 50 days until the presidential election, the Romney team says it plans to reorient the campaign toward communicating more policy details regarding tax policy, energy policy, and foreign policy.

President Obama, who is in California for campaign events, fundraised from key Solyndra figures last night. Via the pool report: 

Slow growth here and in China—as well as a recession in Europe—is reducing demand for oil. Inventories in the U.S. are at a 22-year high. The Federal Reserve Board’s QEs that pumped paper money into the economy and drove up the nominal price of oil have come to an end. And the twelve OPEC oil…

Mitt Romney's latest web ad targets President Obama's inability to create jobs, the failures of the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program, and "contracts steered to ‘friends & family.'" Watch here:

The Obama administration announced today plans for lease sales for "available all unleased areas in the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including 7,276 blocks on about 38.6 million acres," according to a Department of Interior press release.

Steve Hayes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News: 

The chairman of First Solar, a company that's been in the recipient of the Department of Energy money, admitted this morning at a House hearing that his company has more jobs overseas than in America:

Now that President Obama's reelection team wants to include coal on the agenda, it's worth remembering that Obama himself warned in 2008 that his policies would bankrupt anyone who started a coal power plant. Here he is in 2008, speaking with the San Francisco Chronicle:

After a disappointing showing in West Virginia, where President Obama received only 59 percent of the vote against a prison inmate in the Democratic primary, the president's reelection team decided to highlight the importance of coal (or clean coal, to be exact) on its website. (West Virginia is a…

President Obama's reelection team released a campaign ad this morning that features this graphic, touting the supposed "jobs created by President Obama's clean energy initiatives."

"Independent agencies" occupy an odd corner of American government. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Labor Relations Board, Federal Communications Commission, and others are nominally "independent" of the president's control—usually thanks to limits on the president's power to…

The 411,618 square foot Solyndra building in Fremont, California has been put on the market:

According to an AP story, President Obama, who is feeling the pressure on gasoline prices, has a plan for action which comes down to the usual, instinctive reaction of those in political power who find themselves frustrated by events in the real world. Namely ... prosecute somebody. Or threaten to,…

Reuters reports: 

It is no easy thing to peer through the fog of recent economic data. Confidence that the economic recovery would accelerate ran into a not-so-good job report Friday. To the chagrin of the president’s reelection campaign team, only 121,000 workers were added to private sector payrolls in March, far…

Mitt Romney's latest campaign ad says that President Obama's "attack machine" is "spending millions to sling mud, err oil at" the Republican candidate "because in the five states where Obama is attacking Romney, gas prices have roughly doubled."

President Obama today attacked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his close ties to oil companies. 

It’s been more than three years since Barack Obama was elected on a pledge to “transform” America. Two of the industries in his sights were health care and energy. Whether he will get to realize his vision of a government-managed health care system depends now on the Supreme Court, which will…

The Massachusetts state Republican party has a new ad highlighting Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's opposition to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. "Keystone Pipeline Means Thousands More Jobs and Cheaper Gas," the text of the ad reads. "Yet, Warren Opposes It." Watch the…

Gallup finds that an overwhelming 57 percent of American adults believe "the U.S. Government Should Approve of the Keystone XL Pipeline."

President Obama's secretary of energy, Steven Chu, is a smart guy. But in these two clips, from a hearing on the Hill yesterday, Rep. Jim Jordan seems to get the better of the cabinet member:

Charles Krauthammer, writing in the Washington Post:

The Energy Information Administration—a federal agency—just released a report titled, "Sales of Fossil Fuels Produced on Federal and Indian Lands, FY 2003 Through FY 2011." The Institute for Energy Research summarizes the report's major findings:

Taken at a gas station within walking distance of the White House:

An anti-Occupy Wall Street movement (who call themselves  "Occupy Occupy D.C.") protested bird killing wind turbines today at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. The group gathered "to highlight the threat that wind, a celebrated alternative energy source, poses to the American bird community,"…

CNN reports:

Speaking at the University of Miami on February 23, Obama again revealed his remarkable gift for oratory. He denied any responsibility for the rising gas prices and instead took the credit for dramatically increased domestic oil production. This took real artifice. Even as a candidate Obama…

Ross Douthat: "What Mitt Lost While He Won"

Nate Silver: "The G.O.P.’s Fuzzy Delegate Math"

Politico: "Worry over Mitt Romney sparks talk of Tampa"

Buzzfeed: "Romney, Eyeing Blowout, Keeps Foot To Newt's Neck"

On Monday, the European Union is expected to decide to boycott Iranian oil. If it does—nothing is ever certain when EU policymakers gather, least of all a firm decision—Iran says it will close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil moves to market. That country’s navy…

Is Barack Obama pinning the blame for his failure to approve the Keystone XL pipeline on Hillary Clinton? Look at this White House statement from yesterday (emphasis mine): 

Politico: "New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey to retire, sources say"

We all spend so much time trying to make sense of the daily data deluge—retail sales, jobs, exports, deficits, political polling—that we often overlook more durable shifts in the underlying economy. Two are worth considering.

American energy policy is increasingly defined in terms of what is prohibited, not what is promoted. Coal, nuclear, and natural “shale” gas all have been hampered by the current administration. And the last three weeks have offered two more examples of how America’s byzantine energy laws and policy…

Washington Post: No health care rationing here. Move along.

The American, the online magazine of the American Enterprise Institute, has an article that's an absolute must read on the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Obama's decision to postpone a decision on building it until after the next election has been in the news a lot lately, but precious little of that…

The Washington Post reports on newly released emails that reveal "the Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections"

Speaker John Boehner and Alberta premier Alison Redford met yesterday to discuss the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project--and how President Obama has delayed his decision on the pipeline until after next year's election. As the speaker's office explains:

On October 12, Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy. The move took most of America by surprise—​

The White House is just now getting around to seriously addressing the Solyndra scandal:

Even as problems grow for Solyndra, the solar energy manufacturing firm that got a hefty stimulus-backed loan before going bankrupt earlier this month, the Department of Energy continues to issue large loans to companies. The Los Angeles Times reports on a newly approved loan of $1.2 billion to the…

Well, this is awkward. Despite $535 million in government loans and the White House touting Solyndra as an example of how the $800 billion stimulus bill was helping create jobs, everyone in the following video is now unemployed:

By now just about everyone has jumped on board the natural gas bandwagon (see “The Gas Revolution,” April 18, 2011). Its newfound abundance inside the four corners of the United States is proving to be a disruptive factor in the nation’s energy mix. Cheap natural gas adds to the pressure on…

In Western Europe, Fukushima’s power reactor disaster has produced a loud round of anti-nuclear power reactions. Germany says it will phase out atomic power by 2022, and the Swiss insist they will shutter their reactor fleet by 2034. Earlier this month, the Italian public rebuked Prime Minister…

In a little noticed letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, dated May 9, three House members and four senators wrote, “As strong supporters of the Baltic States in Congress, we were troubled to learn that Russia intends to build a nuclear power plant within 50 kilometers of the Lithuanian…

At last night's debate, one audience member raised the issue of energy infrastructure:

In today's Wall Street Journal Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz discuss a novel approach to sanctions on Iran:

Longview, Washington—When an Australian shipping company named Millennium Bulk Terminals announced plans last November to open a coal export terminal in this port city of 36,000, few predicted any trouble. Millennium quickly bought the site on which the terminal would be located, a property on the…

Hope and Change: "85% of New College Grads Move Back in with Mom and Dad"

There have been a lot of bad and self-serving arguments made against offshore oil drilling, but after the House of Representatives passed a bill permitting offshore drilling in Virginia today, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., may have taken craven opportunism to new heights: 

The way Alyssa Kent described the work of her school’s environmental group, Campus Greens, was almost quaint. “We’re building a garden, and we’re going to supply the lettuce that we grow to the school cafeteria,” said Kent, a junior at Wells College in Aurora, New York. “And we’re about to start a…

Ron Paul's in.

Just before 10 p.m. on April 20, 2010, disaster struck the giant Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Crew members aboard the rig were in the final hours of attempting to secure a “nightmare well” about a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico for temporary closure and later production. Undetected, a large quantity…

When Andrew Liveris took over as CEO of Dow Chemical at the end of 2004, the company was in the midst of a wrenching reorganization that saw it shed 7,000 jobs​—​14 percent of its workforce​—​and close 23 older chemical plants in this country. Looking ahead to a new product cycle in a fast-growing…

At a breakfast with reporters this morning, Energy secretary Steven Chu spoke about the Obama administration’s dedication to researching and developing alternative sources of energy. Chu referred at one point to advances in electric vehicle batteries as a point of promising federally funded…

NATO agrees to oversee no-fly zone.

Anyone who’s been to a gas station recently knows the feeling. There you are, about to refuel, when you see the price of regular gasoline: about $3.52 per gallon, up 77 cents since 2010. Your pulse quickens. Your stomach sinks. Because this is not a dream. The days of $4.00-a-gallon gas are about…

The disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and the upheavals in the Middle East are the sort of events that send economists back to their forecasters’ drawing boards. As usual, there is a tendency to confuse the long-run and the short-run, and to blame developments that were due to…

That headline should be the policy mantra of sensible politicians. Unfortunately, President Obama believes he has to do something to get prices down lest he pay a terrible price at the polls. Equally unfortunate, Republicans are using high gas prices as a stick with which to beat the president.

Some 60 percent of Americans want to see more offshore oil production according to the latest Gallup poll. That's up 10 percent from last May. And that's not all:

The Charlotte Observer notes that the DNC have struck quite a deal to host their convention next year:

"Why Is PBS Linking to Fake Biographies of Conservatives?"

Eight years ago, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was wrestling with the fact that America did not have a comprehensive energy policy.

Beijing

The age of the electric car is here. Everyone says so. There it is emblazoned on the cover of the latest Wired magazine: “The age of the electric car is here. CHARGE!” In the New York Times, Thomas Friedman laments that the Chinese are embracing the electric car while America (sigh) is again…

Given Americans’ increasing anxiety over made-in-Washington socialism, it’s a wonder that the nuclear power industry has escaped scrutiny for so long. The federal government socializes the risk of investing in nuclear power while pri-vatizing profits. This same formula drove the frenzied…

With the collapse of cap and trade in the Senate and the prospects dim for a measly renewable-energy mandate for electric utilities in a lame duck session, the dreams and schemes of the climate campaign and energy reformers have hit the wall. As long as oil prices remain moderate and gasoline…

At a Washington, D.C. event earlier this week, Gulf State residents feeling neglected by policies that punish workers in the oil and gas sector sent Congress a simple message: “My Job Matters.” A new amendment put forward by Democratic Senator Max Baucus and added ironically enough to a small…

In July 1994, Michael Barone raised the possibility that the Republicans might capture the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Sixteen years later, Barone is revisiting his methodology and seeing what it may portend for November 2, 2010. As you probably already know, things do…