Senator Byron Dorgan (D–ND) told Greenwire (subscription required) that an energy efficiency bill that passed through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would be a necessary “first step” to more federal efforts to overhaul energy policy. The legislation, introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D–NH) and Rob Portman (R–OH), contains …
Slapping the word rural in front of a bunch of green subsidies does not mean they’re not subsidies. But that’s exactly what the Rural Energy Investment Act section of the Senate version of the farm bill legislation does. The legislation includes direct handouts and loan guarantees for advanced biofuels and …
In June 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama said, “If we continue to let our trade policy be dictated by special interests, then American workers will continue to be undermined, and public support for robust trade will continue to erode.” That’s exactly what’s happening with respect to energy trade. Special interests …
Reuters’s environment correspondent Alister Doyle provides even more fodder for why a carbon (energy) tax or the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation of greenhouse gas emissions is economically and environmentally foolish. Doyle writes: Scientists are struggling to explain a slowdown in climate change that has exposed gaps in their understanding …
In the interest of trying to make better choices for consumers, Congress has been determined to legislate efficiency mandates for American homes and businesses since the late 1970s. The latest and much-awaited efficiency legislation is being reintroduced in the Senate tomorrow, with a House companion bill coming as early as …
President Obama has been holding up the Keystone XL Pipeline. Could Congress go ahead and clear it for construction–and prevent environmental activists from tying the project in litigation if it gets the green light? That’s the question at tomorrow’s Energy and Commerce Committee Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing. The subcommittee …
If confirmed as the next Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary, Dr. Ernest Moniz will take over an agency that has increasingly injected itself into making investment decisions with taxpayer money that would be more efficiently made by the private sector. The Heritage Foundation disagrees with many of the policy recommendations …
It’s no secret that the White House, regardless of Administration, releases unpopular news on Friday afternoons. On the popular television drama West Wing, the fictional Bartlett Administration calls it “Take out the trash day.” We shouldn’t be too surprised that the Obama Administration released Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that …
Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) is receiving criticism for including two solar-generation projects in his budget plan as “failed” projects despite the fact that Mesquite Solar 1’s project in Phoenix is generating electricity and SolarReserve’s project is under construction and recently entered a contract to sell power to California’s largest utility. …
