On December 1, 2015, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) published a report, “The Sun Should Set on Solar Socialism.” The report reviewed the history of federal energy subsidies, particularly the dramatic increase in funding following the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Between 2004 and 2015, tax expenditures for alternative electricity generation cost $13.7 billion, according to the Internal Revenue Service; meanwhile, the University of California at Berkeley Energy Institute at Haas Business School stated that total tax expenditures for the four largest clean energy tax credits had cost more than $18 billion since 2006.
Obama’s Clean Power Plan: All Pain, No gain
During a January 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, then-Senator Barack Obama remarked that under his ideal energy plan, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” He further noted that by capping greenhouse gasses, producers of energies like coal would need to make vast changes and, “that will cost money. They will pass that money onto consumers.”
Senator Reid Out, Yucca Mountain In?
On March 27, 2015, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that he will not seek reelection in 2016. Supporters of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository hope that the exit of one of its most powerful opponents will breathe new life into the long-stalled project.
114th Congress: The New Sheriff(s) in Town (Senate edition)
In the last 60 years, since Republicans relinquished their Senate majority to the Democrats on January 3, 1955, the Grand Old Party has controlled the United States Senate for only 16 years (plus four months*), and they shared control with the House of Representatives for only 10 of those years, as well as the aforementioned four months. Looking back even further to 1933, the GOP held the Senate for only an additional four years, all shared with the House. This January, as a result of the 2014 “wave” election, the Republicans once again control both chambers.
DOE Doublespeak: The “Profit” in Solar Energy Loan Programs?
George Orwell would feel vindicated. As he wrote in his blistering essay, “Politics and the English Language” (1946), “…[the English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts… In our time, political speech and writing are largely the […]
A Glimmer of Hope at Yucca Mountain
On October 16, 2014, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report 3, which confirmed what unbiased observers have long known: the facility meets the government’s long-term regulatory and safety requirements as a nuclear-waste repository. Progress on opening Yucca has continually stalled due to a variety of factors, but chief among them has been the opposition of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has used his position of power to thwart efforts to open the site. Now that the Republican Party has captured the majority in the Senate, common sense may finally win the day.
When it Comes to Ending the Federal Helium Reserve, Congress Is Full of Hot Air
Turn back the clocks to 1914, when the U.S. government considered using blimps as military aircraft. It was the beginning of World War 1, and helium, a nonrenewable resource extracted from natural gas first discovered by French astronomer Pierre Janssen in 1868, had become a hot commodity. As the second-most-abundant element in the universe after hydrogen, the Navy was also attracted to the possibility of using this lighter-than-air gas in military weaponry and devices.
Obamaloans: The Bank of ACORN
After the public humiliation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in late 2009 and its subsequent dissolution (at least at the national level) by early 2010, one might have thought that the national shakedown group was dead and buried. But like a decapitated hydra, another beastly head has already taken its […]
What’s the Word? WRDA!
“WRDA,” a legislative acronym pronounced “word-uh” in Beltway speak and not to be confused with Cameo’s 1986 hip-hop hit, “Word Up,” refers to the Water Resources Development Act, the authorization of water-related infrastructure projects, including dams, locks, and other navigational and flood control projects pertaining to the nation’s inland waterways. The last WRDA bill to […]
Revive the Yucca Mountain Project
On August 13, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that the Obama administration must resume consideration of Yucca Mountain as a repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. The ruling was the latest event in the quest to resolve the decades-old battle over where the country should store its roughly 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste.