President Obama’s politically intoned decision to reject TransCanada’s permit application to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries sent a clear message that special interest demands are of more importance than more energy and much-needed job creation. Building the pipeline would bring over 700,000 barrels of oil per day and directly create 20,000 truly shovel-ready jobs. The Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates that current pipeline operations and the addition of the Keystone XL pipeline would create 179,000 American jobs by 2035. Since TransCanada and Nebraska politicians have …
Last week, Representative Ed Markey (D–CA) sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu questioning whether exporting natural gas would benefit American businesses and consumers. He wrote, “I am worried that exporting America’s natural gas would raise energy costs for American consumers, reduce the global competitiveness of U.S. businesses, make us more dependent on foreign sources of energy, and slow our transition away from fossil fuels.” Natural gas prices have been consistently low in the United States for the past two years but much higher abroad. If the price …
Americans started the week with a rude awakening — crude oil prices are up $3.80, or 3.8 percent, to $102.63 per barrel in New York today, according to the Associated Press. But despite the jump in oil prices, President Barack Obama is still sitting on his hands when it comes to exploring domestic energy resources. The AP reports on the higher oil prices: Prices climbed as soon as exchanges opened for the first day of 2012 trading. Commodity prices tend to rise at the beginning of January as investors start …
The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, providing passage for some 15.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, amounting to one third of the world’s seaborne oil shipments. In a word, it is a 34-mile-wide chokepoint, making Iran’s threat this week to shut down the strait all the more serious for the global community. The Iranian regime’s provocative warnings came on Tuesday from Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi who threatened to close the strait if Iran faces sanctions for its nuclear ambitions. And …
The Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to refineries in Texas and give a major boost to the U.S. economy, is the hot-button issue when it comes to the payroll tax cut package. The legislation says that the President should issue a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline 60 days after enactment of the legislation unless the President finds that the project is not in the national interest. Representatives Henry Waxman (D–CA) and Ed Markey (D–MA) told Politico that …
A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15 per gallon, or about four times the market price of conventional jet fuel. The Institute for Energy Research unearthed the purchase in a recent post on its website: Last week, the Navy signed a contract with two biofuel companies to purchase 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels at $12 million to assist in President Obama’s goal to …
The year 2012 marks a monumental yet depressing milestone for the wind energy industry: 20 years of tax credits. The federal renewable energy production tax credit, which allows wind producers to take a 30 percent investment tax credit or receive a 2.2-cents-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit, has been around since 1992. The tax credit expires at the end of 2012, and the wind energy advocates are already ramping up their efforts to include an extension in any end-of-the-year must-pass legislation. It’s time to let this wasteful, unnecessary subsidy run out. The …
Another day, another new subsidy for renewable energy. This time it’s a feed-in tariff, as Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA) recently inserted language supporting feed-in tariffs into the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Feed-in tariffs subsidize renewable energy by forcing utilities to purchase renewable energy at fixed, above-market prices. The extra cost is then passed to the consumers. Feed-in tariffs are simply another subsidy that props up a selected industry and damages the economy, industry, and consumers. As of 2010, more than two dozen European countries had implemented feed-in tariffs, …
This past April, when Members of Congress introduced the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NATGAS) Act that provides preferential tax treatment to subsidize the production, use, and purchase of natural-gas vehicles, the propane industry asked, “What about us?” Well, someone was listening, because a little over a month later Representatives John Carter (R–TX) and Dan Boren (D–OK) introduced the Propane Gas Act of 2011, which would provide a five-year extension for targeted tax credits for propane as a motor fuel, propane-powered vehicles, and propane autogas—propane converted to fuel …
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman clarified his position on how policymakers should deal with climate change. In a speech Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation he said, “There’s not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies.” Even if there were a consensus that there is global warming, and it’s man-made, then the United States might still choose not to take unilateral action, he added. Premature political action, he noted, could jeopardize economic recovery for a potentially ineffectual attempt to tackle the issue. “The scientific community owes us more,” …
