This week has been a bad week for President Obama’s policies in the courts. The Supreme Court handed a defeat to President Obama over his immigration plan and a district court struck down his administration’s unlawful attempt for the Bureau of Land Management to regulate hydraulic fracturing. The court’s hydraulic fracturing opinion was straightforward and simple. The court explained to the Obama administration that they cannot do anything they want, but only what they have been...
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As the FY 2017 appropriations season rolls along, both Chambers have begun consideration of their respective Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bills. These bills cover a range of agencies and funds, including the Department of Interior (and its various bureaus), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Many of these agencies are responsible for regulations that govern various aspects of energy, natural resource...

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On April 11^th, Chris Mooney and Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post wrote that the Paris Climate agreement could enter into effect earlier than many think. But now, more than two months after their article, only 17 countries which represent only 0.04 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have officially ratified the Paris agreement. In the PR campaign for the run-up to the signing ceremony for the Paris agreement, it sounded like more countries would quickly move to...
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Recently the Institute for Energy Research explained how Paul Krugman either does not understand climate science and economics or is deliberately misleading his readers. In that piece, Robert Murphy explains that studies encapsulating the consensus science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contradict Krugman’s claims . In that piece we wanted to focus on the climate claims, but in doing so we failed to debunk a claim about energy. In that piece, Krugman wrote, “Solar and...
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Truly great films have a way of transcending time and place, and certain characters and scenes have a way of popping up in our memories years after we see them. One such character is the warrant-wielding EPA lawyer Walter Peck from the 1984 film Ghostbusters, a character so despised that the actor playing him was allegedly harassed in public on more than one occasion. Indeed, Peck shined with such a brilliant, bothersome presence that each new run-in I have with a pointy-headed bureaucrat...
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"We applaud Majority Whip Scalise, the House Leadership, and all those who voted in favor of this resolution for taking a stand against a national energy tax that would drive up energy costs for American families. "We send our elected officials to Washington with the expectation that they will support policies that strengthen our...

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This week, the House will take up two resolutions pushing back on policies slated to increase the price of energy. H.Con.Res. 89, introduced by Rep. Scalise, expresses the sense of Congress that a federal carbon tax would be detrimental to the economy. H.Con.Res 112 , sponsored by Rep. Boustany, similarly disapproves of the Obama administration’s plan to levy a $10.25 per barrel tax on oil. Both resolutions mark an important opportunity for Congress to take a stand for affordable and...
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This letter originally appeared in The Hill's Congress Blog.

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As early as this week, Members of the House of Representatives will face a very simple choice: support a tax that will make everyday life harder for their constituents, or take a stand for the American people and reject any new energy taxes. That’s the choice offered by a resolution from Majority Whip Steve Scalise, which opposes any carbon tax proposals and expresses the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be...
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A recent Utility Dive article examines how the wind industry might cope without the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), which is designated to expire in five years. The wind PTC is a subsidy that pays wind producers a significant sum just for producing wind energy. The Institute for Energy Research (IER) has outlined the ill effects of this subsidy here . In the Utility Dive Article, incoming American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) board chair and current president of Vestas Americas, Chris...
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"The NACAA, which has received millions of dollars in grants from the EPA, is clearly acting as a proxy for the agency. Following the Supreme Court's stay, the EPA is barred from...

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