Our friends at the Institute for Energy Research have produced a video comparing the 1970s Arab oil embargo to the one liberals have imposed on America today. Each day Washington fails to act, American families and businesses continue to suffer. As this video demonstrates, it’s time to end the ban on energy exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and from shale in Western states. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYszPLIeg4[/youtube]
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 …
Twenty-five percent of America’s oil production and a significant amount of onshore refining capacity and pipeline infrastructure is located in the hurricane-prone central and western Gulf of Mexico — and much of it was in the path of Hurricane Gustav. Fortunately, unlike Katrina and Rita in 2005 and other past hurricanes, Gustav has not done significant damage to the energy infrastructure there. Prices and markets will be relatively unaffected. Nonetheless, the hurricane does underscore the benefits of geographic diversification in domestic oil production. The Atlantic, Pacific, and eastern Gulf of …
The Gang of 10. Sounds like something out of Westside Story. I keep waiting for Riff from the Jets to enter the picture somewhere, but it hasn’t happened yet. In reality, the Gang of 10 is a group of senators, 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans, leading the charge to combat high gas and energy prices. While the plan does suggest it will increase domestic supply, this is a bit misleading. Even worse, the majority of the plan focuses on the same tried and failed tax hikes, tax incentive gimmicks, and …
We’re willing to bet that no member of Congress is a regular reader of The Energy Journal, though perhaps some of them should be. It’s an academic journal on energy economics. But maybe leaders on Capitol Hill should start with something The Energy Journal decided not to publish: a paper finding that current prices for oil are influenced by expectations of future production. That’s actually a topic Congress is debating right now. In response to $4 per gallon gasoline, many Republicans want to allow more exploration and drilling for oil …
There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on as to who’s to blame for the extraordinarily high oil prices. The primary targets are big oil and speculators and both are unlikely to be true (see here for speculators and here for big oil). Another target, rising demands from rapidly developing countries like India and China, is beginning to be heard and has a great deal of truth to it. Yet another target, one that is hardly ever discussed, is the number of fuel subsidies overseas. Keith Bradsher of the New York …
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 …
As we wrote about in today’s Morning Bell, Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez poses an increasing threat to America. Heritage’s Ray Walser, a senior policy analyst for Latin America, explains in this new Heritage in Focus video. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsOA2GYRB-M[/youtube]
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 …
President Bush has done his part and now it will be up to Congress to do theirs. President Bush is lifting an executive order restricting offshore continental shelf drilling, an order put in place by George H.W. Bush in 1990. President Bush said in this speech, “The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.” The Heritage Foundation’s Ben Lieberman writes that OCS restrictions are a relic of the past; they were put in place to please environmentalists at a …
