Oil & Energy News
Reports on oil drilling, pipelines, and energy policy debates. Conservative analysis and commentary included from The Daily Signal.
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news
Energy Department’s National Lab Logs Over $160 Million in Questioned Costs
A Department of Energy lab in Illinois logged over $160 million in questioned costs due to lost invoices, excessive reimbursements, and holiday pay, according to a recent audit by the agency’s inspector general. The audit examined costs incurred in 2018 by Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the contractor that operates the Fermi National Accelerator Lab near Batavia,… -
news
Pizzeria Owner Calls Out NYC’s Ban on Coal- and Wood-Burning Ovens
NEW YORK, N.Y.—New York City has set its sights on a cultural establishment that embodies an emblematic tradition in the Big Apple: pizzerias. Specifically, restaurateurs who make pizza using coal- and wood-burning ovens installed before 2016. Earlier this year, New York City announced a rule mandating that such ovens be fitted with expensive scrubbers designed… -
opinion
UK’s Keen Grasp of Obvious: 2030 Mandate on Electric Vehicles Is Unachievable
LONDON—British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, after first announcing a mandate requiring all fossil-fueled vehicles sold in the U.K. after 2030 to be electric, succumbed to pressure from the Conservative Party and within his own government and announced Wednesday a delay until 2035. His goal remains net zero by 2050. Sunak’s goal continues to be based… -
opinion
UAW Strike Over Green Energy Agenda Threatens Liberals’ Coalition
The big economic news at the end of last week was the start of a strike by the United Auto Workers union against all three major U.S. automakers. This is the first strike against President Joe Biden’s green agenda, pitting two parts of the traditional Democratic coalition against each other—the environmentalists against the blue-collar workers. Or… -
opinion
Woke Duke Energy Jacks Up Electric Rates to Pay for ESG, Zero Carbon Mandates
Duke Energy has thrown consumers under the proverbial (electric) bus to make their operations carbon neutral by 2050. As a result, electricity prices in North Carolina may increase by 19% over the next three years. The company’s president, Lynn Good, receives more than $20 million annually in compensation financed in part by ensuring that consumers lower… -
opinion
UK’s Onshore Wind Scheme Could Backfire, With Far More Potent Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Shortly after naming Claire Coutinho as secretary of state for energy security and net zero on Aug. 31, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a plan to accelerate the approval process for onshore wind projects. Previously, a 2015 ruling allowed a single complaint within a community to halt an onshore wind program and fully stopped… -
opinion
Joe Biden’s Knockout Punch for American Energy Independence
Just last month, President Joe Biden took a major swipe at America’s energy independence when he declared nearly a million acres of uranium-rich land outside of Grand Canyon National Park off limits to energy development. Turns out that was just the setup jab. The knockout punch is on its way. According to reports, Biden wants… -
opinion
Biden’s Incoherent Energy Policy Continues
President Joe Biden says he wants a carbon-free future for the United States and acknowledges that to realize that future, nuclear energy is essential. Judging by the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of taxpayer dollars that Biden is throwing at his version of “green energy,” combined with a willingness to strangle consumer choice, his… -
news
Hawaiian Grid Operator Focused on Promoting Green Energy Instead of Wildfire Preparedness
Hawaiian Electric, the utility company whose power line reportedly played a role in the Hawaiian fires, appears to have focused on green energy development while neglecting to adhere to its own assessment that it needed to increase the safety of its existing infrastructure, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The company concluded that it needed… -
news
‘UNMITIGATED DISASTER’ Lawmakers Call for School Choice After Students Soil Themselves Stuck on Buses for 6 Hours
A dozen Kentucky legislators are calling for a complete overhaul in state education after a transportation nightmare on the first day of school stranded hundreds of Louisville students on buses until almost 10 p.m. Wednesday. Relying on the controversial computer program AlphaRoute to remap already lengthy bus routes for the school district’s short-staffed bus team,… -
news
Oil Innovator Notes Importance of Energy Independence to National Security
Harold Hamm, a pioneer in the oil and gas industry, notes the importance of energy independence to national security, especially as it relates to China and Russia. “It should be obvious now with this last example how important our national security is, and energy independence gives us that, and we can’t fritter that away,” Hamm… -
opinion
Electric Vehicles: Costly Virtue Signaling Forced on America by Left
The Left likes to treat skeptics of electrical cars as if they were Luddites. Truth is, making an existing product less efficient, but more expensive, doesn’t really meet the definition of innovation. Even the purported amenities and technological advances EV makers like to brag about in their ads have been a regular feature of gas-powered… -
opinion
How Proposed EPA Electric Vehicle Rule Would Compromise Auto Safety
A proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule that “would limit tailpipe emissions so that in order to comply, auto companies would have to sell 60% of new vehicles as electric by 2030” would adversely affect the safety of cars. So says Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment. (The Daily… -
opinion
‘Good Guy With Gun’ Swept Under Rug by Las Vegas Police
A good guy with a gun apparently stopped an active shooter in Las Vegas on Friday, almost certainly saving lives after a helmeted man opened fire with a rifle in a building lobby. But you probably didn’t hear about it. Why not? Normally, this type of defensive gun use would garner significant media attention and… -
news
Good Guy With a Gun? Las Vegas Police Secretive About Shooting at High Rise
Las Vegas police are withholding details about what looks like a classic “good guy with a gun” scenario in which someone carrying a firearm prevents what could have turned into a mass shooting. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department won’t identify anyone involved in an incident Friday in which a helmet-wearing man with what appeared… -
opinion
Michigan’s Proposed ‘Green Energy’ Policy Threatens to Slam the Door on Manufacturing Renaissance
Michigan is on the rise once again. When we think manufacturing, we think Michigan. As one of America’s leading manufacturing states, it stands in the top third for economic outlook among all the United States, and it’s leading America’s industrial renaissance. Unfortunately, some Michigan lawmakers are pursuing a series of so-called green legislative efforts that… -
opinion
Debunking Another Misleading Green Energy Study
A popular talking point among green energy evangelists is that gas, oil, and coal are, in large part, successful because they are highly subsidized. Wind and solar, so the argument goes, would win in a fair fight, but, alas, the playing field is far from fair. But the supposed data they are drawing on to… -
news
Liberal City Exempts Celebrity Chef’s Restaurant From Gas Stove Ban
Palo Alto, California, administrators have exempted a celebrity chef’s restaurant from the city’s sweeping gas stove ban. Jose Andres’ newly planned restaurant, Zaytinya, is one of the latest Simon Property Group buildings that received project approval in 2019, including for a a gas line, which the restaurant relies on, according to Palo Alto Online. The plan, however,… -
opinion
Latest Appliance Energy-Efficiency Mandate Equals Fewer Consumer Choices, Dirtier Dishes
How many energy-efficiency mandates are too many? The correct answer is zero. But for the Biden administration, it might be infinity, because the Department of Energy just announced yet another round of efficiency mandates for consumer appliances. The move is just one in a string of similar regulations targeting everything from gas stoves to vending… -
opinion
Biden’s Expensive, Unrealistic Push for Electric Vehicles
President Joe Biden’s latest push for electric vehicles is reminiscent of a soliloquy by Don Quixote: short on facts, long on rhetoric, and filled with unrealistic expectations. Sadly, though, Biden’s policy mistakes are moving beyond fiction to a reality that confines consumers to cars that are unaffordable and unwanted. Like Don Quixote tilting at harmless windmills…