On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard the third day of oral arguments for and against Obamacare’s individual mandate. The day’s discussion mostly revolved around the issue of severability: is the mandate so closely tied with the rest of the law that the court cannot strike it down without invalidating the rest of Obamacare? Make sure you check out the day’s preview from Heritage’s Todd Gaziano, and make sure you stay tuned for his roundup of the day’s events. For now, here is full audio and a transcript of today’s oral …
Congress is asking questions about a stimulus-backed electric vehicle company that received millions in taxpayer dollars even after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the company for insider trading. Ecotality, which manufactures charging stations for electric vehicles, was hit with an SEC subpoena in October 2010, a development first reported by Scribe. It had already received nearly $90 million in Energy Department grants as part of the stimulus package. Even after the SEC investigation started, it received another $26 million. The company was a poster child of …
In response to a congressional inquiry regarding a Navy purchase of expensive biofuels, Secretary Ray Mabus made numerous claims that are either factually incorrect or misleading regarding federal energy policy and the nation’s oil reserves. Mabus was responding to concerns raised by Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Mike Conaway (R-TX) regarding a Navy purchase of 450,000 gallons of biofuels – the largest-ever federal purchase of such fuel – at $15 per gallon. That is more than three times the price of conventional diesel fuel. The company providing the fuel, Solazyme, …
Obamacare saw its second day at the Supreme Court today. Heritage staff will have in-depth analysis of the day’s events later today (read our preview here). For now, here is audio and a full transcript of today’s two hours of arguments. Full audio of Obamacare at the Supreme Court, day two SCOTUS Transcript
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a subpoena against electric vehicle company ECOtality in October of 2010, requesting documents relating to its investigation into insider trading by some of the company’s top executives. The name of at least one of those individuals has now been revealed. ECOtality is a poster child for the administration’s push to put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. President Obama specifically cited the company in his 2011 State of the Union address, while Ted Karner, president of subsidiary ECOtality North America, looked …
Thirty-two members of the House of Representatives have asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove a factually inaccurate environmentalist documentary from the list of featured films at a State Department event showcasing “contemporary American society and culture.” The documentary, Gasland, spread hysteria about the natural gas mining technique hydraulic fracturing, using numerous factual misstatements, exaggerations, and misrepresentations. Its inclusion in State’s event was first reported by Scribe last month. The 32 House members accuse State of pursuing a “radical environmental agenda,” as evinced by its inclusion of Gasland in …
The White House announced on Wednesday that it would expedite the approval process for the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, but the company building the pipeline says the move will do nothing to speed its construction. President Obama looked to use the stunt as a way to counter critics who say he has stymied the development of fossil fuels even as gas prices are at record highs. But as Heritage’s Nick Loris noted Wednesday, you can’t expedite a project by rejecting it. If the president were concerned with …
“I’m not really anti-union, I’m pro-worker,” Rep. Tim Scott insists. A freshman Republican from South Carolina’s first congressional district, Scott has staked out a strong position in favor of workplace democracy and union accountability. That hasn’t earned him much support from union leaders, who consider him “the anti-union legislator in America, especially in the South,” he told the Heritage Foundation in our latest In the Green Room interview. But rank-and-file members are open to his views, Scott said. But Scott noted that even his bill, the Employee Rights Act, which …
In a landmark decision for property rights law, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that alleged violations of the Clean Water Act are not precluded from judicial review. The decision will allow an Idaho couple to challenge a ruling from the Environmental Protection Agency that sought to fine the couple up to $75,000 per day for a supposed CWA violation. The case involved an Idaho couple, Chantell and Michael Sackett, who were hit with massive fines for a construction project on their property, which the EPA deemed “wetlands” as …
According to a new report on President Obama’s stimulus package and its effect on the economy, the amount of stimulus money that went to each state was correlated with the number of Democrats in each state’s congressional delegation. The data is revealed in a new book by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and John R. Lott Jr., a prominent conservative academic. The book, titled Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future, contains this chart showing the correlation: The …
