Federal authorities have ruled that the drinking water in Dimock, Pennsylvania, which some claimed had been contaminated by nearby natural gas drilling efforts, is safe to drink. The statement lends some factual weight to a political debate wrought with emotion and more than the occasional doom-and-gloom proclamation. Dimock has become a lightning rod in the fight against the natural gas extraction technique hydraulic fracturing. Anti-natural gas activists have used the town in a years-long campaign to prevent the practice, which they insist contaminates drinking water supplies. But the Environmental Protection …
This week, President Obama is again set to make a pitch for his latest plan to stimulate the economy, but meanwhile he is turning his back on projects that would put tens or even hundreds of thousands of Americans to work. And he’s doing it all to appease his left-wing, environmentalist base at the expense of domestic energy production. Heritage’s Rob Bluey reported last week on a new finding by a New Orleans-based group that the Obama administration is approving just 35 percent of the oil drilling plans for the …
First, it was 20,000 jobs the Obama Administration delayed by punting a decision to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada into the United States. Multiply that number by 10 and you have the amount of jobs the President is putting on hold by delaying a mineral lease sale in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest for oil and gas drilling. This decision kills jobs and denies Americans access to affordable energy. The Washington Examiner reports that Wayne National Forest already has 1,300 …
Canada exports almost all of its energy to the United States, but because of resistance from the Obama Administration to approving the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, that could soon change. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told President Obama that as the U.S. delays, Canada will begin diversifying by shipping its oil to Asian markets. Harper said of the delay: This highlights why Canada must increase its efforts to ensure it can supply its energy outside the U.S. and into Asia in particular. Canada will step up its efforts …
If Americans needed any further proof that the Obama Administration is one of the most political on record, or that, for all the recent demagoguing, it really cares only about re-election, not about job creation, then you need look no further than its cynical Keystone XL oil pipeline decision last week. Over the last several months, radical environmentalists along with Hollywood celebrity activists descended on the White House in protest, urging President Barack Obama to block the construction of the $7 billion pipeline that would bring in more than 700,000 barrels …
The Obama Administration announced it would delay the construction of the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline that would bring in more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf coast. What this delay really means is that President Obama is putting off an important election year decision in which two of his largest supporters—labor unions and environmentalists—are split on the issue. This tactic allows the decision to be delayed until after the 2012 elections. More importantly, this means a delay in access to easy …
Yesterday, the Department of Interior released its new five-year offshore drilling plan. Unfortunately, the program is far less expansive when it comes to opening areas to access, exploration, and drilling than it should be. The plan schedules 15 possible lease sales in the 2012–2017 time horizon—10 in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, two in the central Gulf, and three off the coast of Alaska. More glaring, however, is the areas that are still off-limits. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts, areas the Obama Administration once considered opening, remain closed …
As goes Williston, North Dakota, so goes the nation? That’s probably not a phrase you’ve heard before, but if we opened access to our domestic energy sources, Williston could be the poster child for jumpstarting economic growth in many areas of the country. In fact, the state of North Dakota has been the poster child for what can happen when we unleash free enterprise and allow states to develop and commercialize their resources. North Dakota is drilling at record pace, with oil production doubling from 2008 to 2010. MSNBC’s Brian …
If clean-energy means “low-carbon” (a definition to which I object), then the U.S. is way, way ahead of China in the clean-energy race. If it means low-everything-else, we are still way, way ahead, since China has a pathetic record on controlling genuine pollution. Getting hung up on commoditized solar-panel or wind-turbine production ignores the phenomenal increase in coal-generated power in China—an increase that swamps that country’s installed wind and solar production. From parity with the U.S. around 2005, China’s CO2 emissions will grow to roughly double America’s in 2012. Here’s …
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 activity and generate revenue but also increase the money coming into the government through more royalties, lease sales, and rent fees. The committee also calls for increasing access to natural resources on federal lands and selling or transferring land away …
