Oil & Energy News
Reports on oil drilling, pipelines, and energy policy debates. Conservative analysis and commentary included from The Daily Signal.
-
opinion
It’s Time to Lift the Ban on Exporting Crude Oil
The House of Representatives recently voted to the lift a decades-long ban on exporting crude oil. Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate would do the same. Lifting the ban would generate more jobs for Americans, supply the United States and the world with more affordable energy, and provide important geopolitical benefits for Washington and its… -
opinion
Report: New EPA Rules Could Raise Energy Prices in 47 States
Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan say the new regulation will cost up to $292 billion and potentially raise electricity prices in 47 states. “States should be braced to pay higher costs,” said Laura Sheehan, senior vice president for communications for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “Consumers only lose in the Clean… -
opinion
Why Democrats Are Wrong to Use the Crude Oil Export Ban as a Bargaining Tactic
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has passed a bill to lift America’s decades-long ban on crude oil. Three Democrats joined all of the Republicans in passing the bill out of committee, 31-19. The bill now goes to the full House for passage. The White House opposes the bill, with spokesman Josh Earnest saying: This… -
news
Lowest Gas Prices for Labor Day Weekend in 11 Years
Good news for those loading up the Tahoe to get out of town this Labor Day weekend: Gas prices are at a record low. The national average for gasoline prices dropped to $2.44 on Thursday, according to gas-pricing site GasBuddy.com. Friday’s national average sits at $2.42 per gallon. This marks the lowest price at the… -
opinion
Three Things Americans Should Know About the Stock Market Turmoil
It’s too early to know if the stock market drop is just one of the periodic corrections by which the market reallocates capital to more profitable uses, or the start of a more dramatic contraction signaling a long-term decline. In any case, if the roller coaster ride of the last few days goes on much… -
opinion
Why Wind Energy Is Not Going to Meet All Our Energy Needs
The Department of Energy released its annual Wind Technologies Market Report last week, and the headline is roughly the same as years past: wind is great…and getting greater, but it needs more federal subsidies. In fact, the Department of Energy and the wind industry have all but acknowledged the long-term un-competitiveness of wind. The DOE’s… -
opinion
Why Young “Conservatives” for Energy Reform Aren’t What They Seem
Earlier this year, the Young Conservatives for Energy Reform (YCER) co-hosted a “National Security and Energy Independence Reception” on Capitol Hill with the American Wind Energy Association. Four guest speakers, including two current senators, shared one thing: a desire to see continued government subsidization and favoritism in the energy markets. At last week’s annual Young… -
opinion
Free Enterprise Returns to Mexican Oil
After 80 years of exclusive state control, Mexico is finally liberalizing its oil industry. On July 15, the Mexican government began auctioning several shallow water oil blocks on the Gulf coast to investors, both domestic and foreign. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has made economic structural reform one of his primary objectives and these first… -
opinion
Supreme Court Decision a Loss for Unelected Bureaucrats Trying to Drive Up Energy Costs
The Supreme Court handed a victory to Americans concerned with unelected bureaucrats driving up energy costs by overturning a costly regulation that lacks any meaningful environmental benefit. With more regulations with similar high costs and meaningless direct benefits, now Congress and the states must step up to reject overzealous regulators—not rely on the courts. The… -
opinion
Oil Spill Was Bad, but It Is No Reason to Abandon Petroleum
No doubt, the recent oil pipeline spill in California is a real mess, but it isn’t the end of the world or a reason to end use of petroleum. In fact, oil spills are not even the worst source of water pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency notes: “In the 2000 National Water Quality Inventory, states… -
news
House GOP Leader: Gas Tax Hike Not ‘Viable’ to Fund Highways
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tells The Daily Signal that a short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund is the likely solution before the measure expires by the end of the month. “We’re trying to find a bipartisan ‘pay for,’” McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a sit-down interview. “We might have to do a short-term one… -
opinion
The Death of the Green Energy Movement
The green energy movement in America is dead. May it rest in peace. No, a majority of American energy over the next 20 years is not going to come from windmills and solar panels. One important lesson to be learned from the green energy fad's rapid and expensive demise is that central planning doesn’t work…. -
opinion
Oil Production Is Up 53% Since 2010, But It’s Declining on Federal Lands. Here’s Why.
Thanks to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling methods perfected at the end of last decade, production of crude oil in the United States has skyrocketed. This chart shows the swift takeoff in crude oil production. U.S. oil production is up 53 percent since 2010, but the increase has occurred almost entirely on non-federal lands. Production… -
opinion
New Report: Energy Department’s Loans, Loans Guarantees Costing Taxpayers $2.21 Billion
Despite many politicians hailing green energy programs as a success, taxpayers are likely to take a $2.21 billion hit for the Department of Energy’s loan and loan guarantee programs, according to a new government study. If that weren’t bad enough, though, these taxpayer-backed programs have far-reaching, unseen costs to the American economy. A recently published… -
opinion
Media, Environmentalists Were Wrong: How the Gulf Coast Roared Back After Oil Spill
Five years ago this week a blowout of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig 40 miles from the Gulf Coast tragically claimed 11 lives and spilled 3 million barrels of oil from the damaged wellhead into the Gulf. It’s hard to forget the video images of thick oil day after day gushing into the region’s waters…. -
opinion
Quadrennial Energy Review: A Plan to Buy Off the States
The Obama Administration has revealed “the nation’s first ever Quadrennial Energy Review” (QER)—a first ever merely because the energy plans of past Administrations were titled “National Energy Plans” or “National Energy Strategies.” Although the QER promises jobs and economic growth, the review is largely a series of recommendations to buy off states to go along… -
opinion
Group That Inspired Charlie Hebdo, Fort Hood Attacks Stands to Benefit From Yemen Turmoil
Yemen has been engulfed in an intensifying civil war that has weakened U.S. counterterrorism efforts, created a vacuum of power in which al-Qaeda’s regional franchise can flourish and boosted Iranian influence in a strategic corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, an American ally, has fled the country. The Houthi rebel… -
news
Why This Economist Wants Government to Stop Wasting Money on Alternative Energy
On Tuesday, a House Science subcommittee held an oversight hearing on the Department of Energy. The Heritage Foundation’s Nick Loris was on hand to testify that the agency continues to waste taxpayer dollars funding alternative forms of energy. Loris, the Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow, argues the government’s focus should be to fund basic research… -
opinion
How Removing Crude Oil Export Ban Would Promote Economic Freedom
Thursday’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on America’s crude oil export policies will focus largely on the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports enacted in response to the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries embargoes levied on the United States and other countries in the 1970s. But at the heart of the matter is… -
opinion
Lifting This Ban Could Reduce Gas Prices
Yet again, the push is on to lift the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil. Yet again, opponents claim this would be a disaster … that prices would climb, availability would be threatened and the strategic advantages of holding onto our oil would be discarded. But what Americans need to understand is that lifting the…