And so it begins: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he’s scrapping the lease of dozens of parcels of federal land for oil and gas drilling in Utah’s redrock country. Salazar on Wednesday ordered the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, not to cash checks from winning bidders for the parcels at issue in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.” As the head of the Department of Interior, Salazar will face a number of challenges and will also be presented with opportunities to expand energy exploration …
Enjoying the $1.67-a-gallon gas for your holiday travels? Well, enjoy it while you can because the guys President-elect Obama is appointing in key positions want gas prices to be much higher. Let’s start with his Secretary of Energy, Dr Steven Chu. From our friends at the National Taxpayers Union: Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” Here is the original WSJ source. Chu has also been quoted saying, “Coal is my worst nightmare.” For Department of the Interior, Obama …
There are three big issues in This Week in Washington. Last week the House passed a sham energy bill that does not give states an incentive to allow off-shore drilling. That bill can possibly come before the Senate this week. Also coming before the Sentate is Majority Leader Reid’s (D-NV) Omnibus bill that failed to pass the Senate in July. This bill contains over 100 bills that could cost the taxpayers millions. Lastly, Heritage’s Brett Schaefer wrote that the UN’s responsibilities are to help maintain international peace and Bush and …
The two big issues in Washington this week are drilling and bailing out the automakers. Drill, baby, drill. For years, Congress has banned oil and natural gas drilling on most of America’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Less than two weeks ago, the Republican convention erupted with chants of “Drill, Baby, Drill.” In a recent Quinnipiac poll, 62% of likely voters support “drilling for new oil supplies in currently protected areas off shore.” James Gattuso and Nick Loris of The Heritage Foundation have written that the federal government should put the …
Drilling and Defense Spending are the two big issues this week in Washington. For years, Congress has banned oil and natural gas drilling on most of America’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). On Oct. 1, that ban, along with one that forbids the extraction and development of oil shale in the Mountain West, will expire. For the past two years, The Heritage Foundation has sought to make the case that America’s global responsibilities call for an adequate defense budget to train, equip, and modernize an all-volunteer force capable of meeting the …
Heritage’s James Sherk says the employment estimates for August are being affected by the collapse of the housing bubble and the high cost of energy. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1%, a five-year high, primarily the result of large job losses among automobile manufacturers. He talked about the August employment numbers this afternoon on CNBC. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk3wcVHyugQ[/youtube] Sherk says there are a couple steps Congress could take immediately to help American workers with these pocketbook issues: To get the economy back on its feet, Congress needs to address energy and food …
Congressman John Boehner of Ohio is set to introduce The American Energy Act, which will most importantly increase America’s energy supplies. The bill calls for leasing regulations for offshore natural gas by 2010, removing restrictions for outer continental shelf drilling, and opening up sections of ANWR for drilling. As The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst Ben Lieberman has been arguing this even when gas prices were around $1 a gallon. More energy supplies, not more taxes and regulations, are what this country needs. It’s economics 101: expanding supply is the …
The American Petroleum Institute just released its Energy IQ Survey that you can access here. The survey, which also comes in a printable PDF form, asks a series of questions that Americans will find both informative and surprising. It’s easy to see that rising gas prices are hurting American households. Karen Campbell, the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Analyst in macroeconomics, found that if prices continue to rise at an accelerated pace over the course of a year, • Total employment would decrease by 586,000 jobs, • Disposable personal income would decrease …
When companies want to drill or even just explore for valuable minerals and resources, the industry is destroying valuable American soil. On the other hand, when solar panels are proposed to cover the earth, it’s simply considered barren, worthless desert. At least that’s the logic coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., senior attorney for the National Resource Defense Counsel. He said on Monday on Larry King Live: “We have the Scientific American just published a report that shows in 19 percent of the most barren desert lands in the desert Southwest, we …
Writing in the Modesto Bee, Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) reports: “Listening to constituents this Memorial Day, the issue most on their minds was the price of gasoline.” Judging from the Senate’s desperate effort to “do something” about gas prices this week, we’re guessing most congressmen heard the exact same things from their constituents. Liberals in the Senate trotted out the same grab bag of meaningless measures for their energy bill this week: windfall profits taxes on oil companies, increased taxes for domestic oil producers, and lawsuits against OPEC. The Los …
