Wind energy has been touted by environmentalists as clean and cheap. While it may be clean, it is far from cheap. A maze of government subsidies, mandates and crony capitalism deeply mask the true cost of wind energy production to make it extremely wasteful of citizens’ dollars. In the free market, wind energy would never be built without the massive government intervention it receives.
Ho Hum
Yesterday, the President traveled to Tennessee to discuss his “new” proposal for spurring on the economy and creating jobs. He proposes to lower the corporate tax rate and simplify the tax code by closing tax “loopholes.” Currently, the federal tax rate in the U.S. for corporations is 35%, one of the highest among industrialized nations. […]
What’s the Presidency For?”
On June 12, actor Robert Redford wrote an editorial in USA Today criticizing the president for taking little to no action with respect to global warming…oh pardon…climate change. Redford stated, “Clearly, the president understands the climate issue. But he owes more to future generations than his intellectual acknowledgement about the hardships they will face if […]
The ESPC Zone: Everyone Scores on Energy Efficiency
To the untrained ear, subjects like “Green this” and “LEED-certified that” might be expected to turn off the typical Republican, according to those who buy into the stereotype that those whose politics are right-of-center are disinterested in anything considered “environmentally conscious.” On the flip side, that same untrained ear might expect doctrinaire Democrats to balk at any profit-motivated business solution to significant government problems. But Reps. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) are managing to shred these paper tigers, without abandoning their respective ideological credentials. With a little help from their friends, Rep. Gardner and 11 more House Republicans have joined with Rep. Welch and 15 of his Democratic colleagues in forming the House Energy Savings Performance Caucus.
Light at the End of the Pipeline
At a time when the national debt exceeds $16.5 trillion, the unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, and the United States is searching for ways to reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East, it sure would be nice to have a project that assuages all three concerns at the same time. Such a project exists – it is called the Keystone Pipeline. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence of the positive impact that the pipeline would have on the American economy, as of March 7, 2013, the Obama Administration and the State Department had delayed making a decision to approve or reject the project for 1,630 days.
The Case Against Keystone XL Gets Weaker
Late Friday afternoon, right around when most people likely tuned out and stopped reading the news, the State Department released a report stating that the Keystone XL Pipeline would have little impact on climate change.
Weatherization—Money Continues to Pour
It has been three and a half years since Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the wasted money in this bill has taken its toll on taxpayers. President Obama and cheerleaders for the $838 billion stimulus promised it would be the antidote to a floundering economy, creating anywhere from “thousands and thousands” of jobs to 3.5 million jobs, depending upon which Obama administration spokesperson was making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Mandating the Hypothetical: EPA’s Cellulosic Biofuels Mandate
It is no secret that many federal regulations in the United States are ineffective and burdensome to the economy. However, the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirement for oil producers to purchase non-existent cellulosic biofuels may be the most absurd.
The Trouble with BLS’s Pliable Green Jobs Definition
In 2009, when Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus), economists and pundits alike scoffed at the Obama administration’s estimates of the number of jobs that the bill had “created or saved.” Greg Mankiw, Harvard economics professor and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, called the term “an act of political […]
Taxpayers Charged Billions to Anoint Green Car Manufacturing Winners
In an effort to alleviate the burden of rising gasoline prices on the economy and reduce vehicle emissions, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in 2007. The legislation ramped up fuel economy standards and encouraged the use of renewable fuels.