In his time in office, President Obama has made some seriously bad proposals and decisions on energy policy, and Americans are paying the price, whether it’s in higher energy costs, wasted tax dollars, or in jobs that have been left on the table. For those who aren’t keeping track, we’ve compiled a list of the President’s ten worst energy policies: 1) Saying “NO” to Keystone XL: With oil prices going through the roof, the best way to drive down prices is to increase the supply of oil and it can be done … More
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Do bank robbers stimulate economic growth? If you employ the logic used by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to assess the impact of the stimulus bill’s renewable-energy subsidies, the answer would be “yes.” The NREL recently issued a report on the economic impact of the Section 1603 Treasury Grant Program funded in the stimulus bill of 2009. The bullet points claim that the subsidies created 75,000 jobs and $44 billion in economic output. The study uses an input-output table to trace the cascade of spending generated by the subsidies. … More
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Think fueling up your car at $4 a gallon is rough? How would you feel about paying more than $6.50? Add on top of that massive job losses and a drastic drop in U.S. economic productivity, and you’ll get the picture of what life in America would be like if oil stopped flowing from Saudi Arabia. It’s a scenario that’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Over the past year, the world has watched the Arab Spring spread across the Middle East, toppling regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and … More
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By Randal O’Toole
The Washington Post is somewhat of a bellwether of public opinion on high-speed rail. Back in 2009, when President Obama first proposed to build a high-speed rail network, Post editorial writers were all for it as a way of reducing congestion. Then in 2010, the paper published an op-ed by a National Geographic travel writer [...]
The Post: Not Even Loans for High-Speed Rail is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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The House Judiciary Committee, by a vote of 15–13, recently approved a proposed moratorium on new regulations in order to spur job creation. The Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act, introduced by Representative Tim Griffin (R–AR), would freeze all new “significant” regulations from being proposed or finalized until unemployment nationally falls at or below 6 percent. (The term significant primarily refers to regulations expected to cost the economy $100 million or more annually.) The moratorium would not apply to national security regulations, trade agreements, criminal law enforcement, or imminent threats to … More
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After budget-stricken Spain eliminated subsidies for new renewable energy this year, Germany is now following the example by making significant cuts to its solar subsidy program. Bloomberg reports: Incentives for solar units pushed capacity past government targets, prompting Merkel to cut subsidies even as she seeks to wean Germany off nuclear power and expand alternative-energy sources for Europe’s largest economy. The government argues that subsidies have driven up electricity prices for German consumers while propping up solar-panel prices for domestic manufacturers. Germany is, by far, not the ideal place for … More
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Energy Secretary Steven Chu may want the country to stop discussing the Solyndra scandal, but information continues to come to light that confirms the worst suspicions of the critics of DOE’s $535 million loan guarantee. According to a Treasury Department audit of the Solyndra loan, DOE pushed Treasury officials to expedite their review of the Solyndra loan so that Energy could put out a press release on schedule – just a few days before President Obama visited Solyndra’s California headquarters. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday: The Energy Department sent a draft press release to … More
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By David Boaz
Environmentalist groups and celebrities are celebrating “Earth Hour” Saturday night. They ask that you turn your lights out for an hour, to call attention to global warming. Folks at the Competitive Enterprise Institute suggest that “this sends the wrong message—to plunge us all into darkness as a rejection of technology and human achievement.” In fact, they [...]
Celebrate Human Achievement Saturday Night is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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In case you missed it, there was quite a performance in the U.S. Senate yesterday. Liberals put on an election-year show, with the personal encouragement of President Barack Obama, in which they attempted to impose higher taxes on the oil industry as punishment for their profits while gas prices are at an all-time high. The Senate rejected the bill 51-47. Despite certain defeat, liberals brought up the legislation in hopes of distracting the American people from the fact that President Obama is refusing to take steps that would help increase … More
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Congress is asking questions about a stimulus-backed electric vehicle company that received millions in taxpayer dollars even after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the company for insider trading. Ecotality, which manufactures charging stations for electric vehicles, was hit with an SEC subpoena in October 2010, a development first reported by Scribe. It had already received nearly $90 million in Energy Department grants as part of the stimulus package. Even after the SEC investigation started, it received another $26 million. The company was a poster child of … More
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