Energy & Climate Policy News

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    • News

    House Probe Reveals Audit Detailing Climate Change Researcher’s ‘Double Dipping’

    Congressional investigators have obtained an internal audit from George Mason University that suggests that one of its professors—a major proponent of man-made climate change—mismanaged millions of dollars in taxpayer money by “double dipping” in violation of university policy. The professor, Jagadish Shukla, received $511,410 in combined compensation from George Mason University and his own taxpayer-funded…
    Kevin Mooney
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    • News

    State Lawmakers Fight Teaching Students Just One Side of Climate Change Debate

    West Virginia state lawmakers are digging in against new science education standards in public school curricula that reflect only one side of the climate change debate. The West Virginia House of Delegates voted 73-20 on Friday to delay implementation of  the standards, based on Next Generation Science Standards and originally set to go into effect…
    Leah Jessen
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    • Opinion

    The Inconvenient Facts the Media Ignore About Climate Change

    Americans in large numbers are turning off TV newscasts, canceling subscriptions to newspapers, and seeking other sources of news. Distrust of the national media has hit an all-time high. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 65 percent of Americans believe that the national news media have a negative effect on our country. According…
    Rep. Lamar Smith
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    • News

    What the Defeat of a Wind Energy Project Means for Harry Reid’s Hometown

    Grassroots conservationists and property rights activists in Nevada stand poised to secure an unprecedented legal victory over government-backed wind energy proponents that could reverberate across state lines. If they prevail, they will have handed a rare defeat to the U.S. Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid, in his hometown. A federal District Court judge ruled against…
    Kevin Mooney
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    • Opinion

    The Green Energy Goal That Is Condemning Many to Prolonged Poverty

    Poverty and energy poverty go hand in hand. It is estimated that three billion people still rely on solid fuel (firewood, cornstalks, etc.) for cooking, which, according to the World Health Organization, causes four million deaths per year from the indoor air pollution. Poverty and energy poverty go hand in hand. But instead of promoting electricity…
    David Kreutzer
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    • News

    US Bound by Climate Change Deal That Skirts Constitution, House Panel Told

    President Barack Obama bound the United States to an international agreement on climate change, but the administration’s decision to circumvent Congress to implement the deal has lawyers questioning its constitutionality. Despite legally binding elements in the Paris Protocol, which require Senate ratification, negotiators worded the deal in a manner that enables Obama to handle it…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • Opinion

    Lifting the Crude Oil Ban Shows America Is Open for Business

    The first shipment of American crude oil has reached European markets. This comes only a month after Congress took a big step toward a more sensible energy policy by terminating the crude oil export ban. The crude oil export ban, an antiquated and misguided regulation that dated back four decades, had tied the hands of oil…
    Katie Tubb
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    • Opinion

    California Joins the Effort to Persecute, Suppress Scientific Dissent on Climate Change

    California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in trying to prosecute ExxonMobil for supposedly lying to its shareholders and the public about climate change, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported that Harris is investigating what ExxonMobil “knew about global warming and what the company told investors.”…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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    • Opinion

    The Conservative Case Against Energy Subsidies

    It’s hard to take seriously an article with a contradictory title such as “The Conservative Case for Solar Subsidies.” The words “subsidies” and “conservative” do not belong in the same sentence together The words “subsidies” and “conservative” do not belong in the same sentence together when discussing energy policy, unless “eliminate” is in the mix….
    Nicolas Loris
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    • Opinion

    Foiled New Year’s Terror Attack Is 76th Islamist Plot in US Since 9/11

    Emanuel Lutchman was arrested Dec. 30 for his support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and his planned attack New Year’s Eve in Rochester, N.Y. Authorities said Lutchman, a resident of Rochester, planned to attack a local restaurant/bar armed only with a machete, knives, and supplies to take hostages. This marks the…
    Riley Walters
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    • News

    Republicans to Keep Trying to Block Obama’s International Climate Change Deal

    Republicans upset with President Barack Obama’s international climate change agreement remain committed to the few options they have to do something about it. “Honestly, I never feel helpless,” insisted Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., one of the leaders in the House opposing Obama’s climate change plans. “Whatever is going to happen today is going to happen…
    Josh Siegel
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    • Opinion

    5 Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Keep Subsidizing Wind And Solar Energy

    Proponents of energy subsides argue that they are necessary for any number of reasons, such as business certainty, to stimulate the economy, to preserve jobs, to combat global warming, to compete internationally, and the like. But in the long run, subsidies actually hurt the very industries they’re supposed to help by disincentivizing innovation and making…
    Katie Tubb
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    • Opinion

    Time to Be Frank: Linking Terrorism and Climate Change Is Ridiculous

    President Obama certainly knows how to use a red-hot news hook to highlight his agenda. This week, during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, he appeared to conflate climate change with terrorism. Coming hot on the heels of the ISIS massacres in the “City of Light,” that kind of rhetoric was bound…
    Peter Brookes
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    • Opinion

    John Kerry’s Surprising Comments on International Regulations and Climate Change

    Although he probably didn’t mean to, Secretary of State John Kerry made a compelling case for why the U.S. and other countries should not go down the path of shutting down coal-fired plants, raising energy prices and stunting economic growth to combat global warming. Speaking in Paris, Kerry said: The fact is that even if…
    Nicolas Loris
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    • Opinion

    Ending the Crude Oil Ban Already Has Bipartisan Support. GOP Doesn’t Need to Fight for It in Spending Debate.

    It’s deal-making time in Washington, and as end-of-the-year funding deadlines approach, lawmakers are scrambling to make sure their priorities and pet projects are funded. Policy riders—or statutory language that essentially puts policy parameters around the money Congress intends to spend—have long been an important part of the congressional spending process. A well-known rider, for example,…
    Rachel Bovard
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    • News

    Sen. Ted Cruz: ‘Global Warming Alarmists’ Ignore Scientific Data ‘Inconvenient’ to Climate Change Narrative

    Republican Sen. Ted Cruz convened a subcommittee hearing Tuesday to dispute the validity of research from climate “alarmists,” whose findings have become central to crafting environmental policy. Cruz used his opening remarks to detail the 2013 expedition where a ship of 74 people sent into Antarctica to research climate change got stuck in ice, forcing an…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • Opinion

    Paris Conference Leaders Want You to Think the Planet Is Facing a Climate Change Crisis. That’s Not True.

    PARIS—Leaders from around the world, including President Barack Obama, have been saying that the COP21, also known as the Paris climate conference, is the last best hope to save the planet from catastrophic warming. Evidence and observed data, however, suggest otherwise. History shows us that this isn’t the only time international leaders have cried that…
    Nicolas Loris
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    • Opinion

    Repealing These Two Regulations Could Save You 31 Cents per Gallon of Gas

    The repeal of two costly federal restrictions would lower the price of gas by 31 cents a gallon and save a typical American family $247 per year. One of the restrictions is the ethanol mandate. Officially known as the “Renewable Fuel Standard,” it requires that massive amounts of corn be processed into ethanol, which is…
    Salim Furth
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    • Opinion

    Liberalizing Crude Oil Exports Should Be a Given, Not Washington Horse Trading

    The United States is awash in crude oil and technology, which is allowing the oil industry to find more oil at less expense. Allowing exports of this oil would yield economic and national security benefits and remove an outdated barrier to the free market, helping to advance the cause of liberty in the U.S. According…
    Katie Tubb
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    • News

    Another Government-Backed Renewable Energy Giant Is Looking Unstable

    The ripple effects of the financially troubled Spain-based renewable energy giant Abengoa just slammed into its biofuel plants in the United States. Whether it’s a short-term setback or a signal of problems that run much deeper for the industry remains to be seen as Abengoa fights off the prospect of bankruptcy. According to reports in…
    Rob Nikolewski
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