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  • Energy and Environment

    Provide energy and environmental solutions to keep America safe, free, and prosperous.

    Energy Department-Backed Company Under SEC Investigation

    In its push to get electric vehicles on the road, the Obama administration has partnered with a company in dire financial straits that is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading. San Francisco-based green technology company ECOtality received roughly $115 million in two separate Energy … More

    Year After Obama Lifted Drilling Ban, Pace of Permitting Is Worse

    The Obama administration is approving only 37 percent of the deepwater drilling plans submitted this year — a figure that falls below even last year’s low approval rate. It’s also taking federal bureaucrats an average of 115 days to approve the plans, nearly double the historical average. Greater New Orleans … More

    Solyndra to Auction Assets, But Taxpayers Won’t See a Dime

    As part of its bankruptcy proceedings, defunct solar company Solyndra will auction off thousands of items from its California production facility on Nov. 2 and 3. But taxpayers won’t see a dime of the proceeds, due to the Energy Department’s decision to subordinate taxpayers to Solyndra’s private financiers in repayment … More

    Government Backing for Solar Firms Remains an Economic Drag

    The economic damage inherent in federal backing for solar power companies extends beyond Solyndra-style bankruptcies, in which taxpayers pour money into unprofitable but politically popular ventures. Even where government-backed companies stay afloat, federal intervention directs resources to less productive and profitable activities. Some solar power companies based in California are … More

    Energy Production = Deficit Reduction

    Today, the House Natural Resources Committee released its list of recommendations to the deficit reduction super committee. Their recommendations would go a long way to increase revenue for the federal government without raising taxes. The recommendations include increasing energy exploration and production both onshore and offshore, which would increase economic … More

    Quality of Light, Quality of Life

    The soon-to-be-effective ban on traditional incandescent light bulbs creates more concerns than just the forceful shift of market shares; it also raises questions regarding individual freedom and even general well-being. Howard Brandston is a renowned lighting designer who has over 50 years of experience and an impressive project record: To … More

    Lack of Offshore Drilling Lease Sales Makes America’s Debt Problem Worse

    Offshore oil and gas leases produced $10 billion in federal revenue only a few years ago. Today that number is zero, a consequence of the Obama administration’s reaction to last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the resulting moratorium on production in the region. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) says … More

    Green Energy Backers Unwittingly Undermine Case for Federal ‘Investment’

    Democrats determined to shield the administration from accusations of political cronyism are unwittingly undermining the larger policy vision that they themselves have supported, and the president has championed: the so-called “green energy economy.” Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Diana Degette (D-CO), ranking Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its investigative sub-panel, … More

    Pollution Costs and GDP

    Instead of the intellectual vandalism that typifies too much of Paul Krugman’s writing, it would be more useful if he returned to writing about economics…with facts. In a recent column he says: So if you really believed in the logic of free markets, you’d be all in favor of pollution … More

    Morning Bell: Come Clean and Cut Funding

    What did the President know and when did he know it, goes the old Washington adage. Thus did the American people learn yesterday in separate but equally startling revelations that the Obama Administration knew more about two scandals than it has been revealing. The first is regarding the Operation Fast … More