General Motors is halting production of the poorly selling Chevy Volt to accommodate a redesigned Chevy Impala. The impending four-week shutdown of the electric car represents yet another setback following news of disappointing sales for the second year in a row: General Motors Co. (GM), the largest U.S. automaker, is …
Reading President Obama’s latest Executive Order (EO) on industrial energy efficiency, one would think American companies were not interested in saving money and gaining a competitive advantage: While our manufacturing facilities have made progress in becoming more energy efficient over the past several decades, there is an opportunity to accelerate …
The Financial Times reports that “U.S. farmers are heading for their most profitable year on record despite the worst drought in half a century as high grain prices and payouts from a federal crop insurance program compensate for a smaller harvest.” Higher profits are great—when they come from real market …
It’s difficult to believe that less than a year ago, proponents of expanding the natural gas industry insisted that it needed federal subsidies. But at least one prominent advocate is now singing a different tune. Back in December, billionaire T. Boone Pickens wrote in Politico: The problem is that there …
Imagine your son or daughter aspiring to be a government crony instead of an engineer or business owner. That nightmare scenario plays out in a new video by Crony Chronicles, a website that fights cronyism. In the video, kids who might otherwise have become doctors and architects aspire instead to …
This past year, the USDA produced a couple of lengthy research reports (here and here) concluding what others have also documented: The federal government’s drive to increase ethanol use has created an environmentally hazardous production cycle in the name of renewable energy that is neither affordable nor clean. The Renewable …
The U.S. Export-Import Bank inked a $2 billion clean-energy loan offer with South Africa to help fund the country’s green-energy push and drum up sales for America’s renewable industry, according to an announcement made last week. The 18-year loans will target wind, solar and thermal power in particular, said Fred …
In the midst of one of the most severe droughts on record, Washington’s ethanol mandate is making the corn shortage even worse. Markets have responded quickly and flexibly to the drought where they can, but some corn buyers are sidelined by the rigid government ethanol mandate. Corn prices are skyrocketing, …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has doled out millions of dollars in subsidies to farms on which farming isn’t actually taking place, according a new report from government watchdogs. Billions more have gone towards supporting farms that don’t grow the crops for which they’re being subsidized. USDA gave nearly $3 …
