In the Pipeline: 6/7/13

It’s nice to see they don’t think people are as stupid as the EPA does. Washington Post (6/6/13) reports: “As U.C. Berkeley’s Catherine Wolfram explains in an interesting new post, this “MPG illusion” could have huge implications for the auto market. Many people who are set on buying SUVs, say, appear to underrate the fuel savings that come from buying a slightly more efficient SUV. But as the example above shows, those gains are often quite large… It might turn out that one easy way to boost fuel economy doesn’t involve any new regulations or taxes at all — just a small tweak on a sticker.”

You can wave a carrot or a stick, but it’s still government control.Yahoo News (5/30/13) reports: “Pennsylvania environmental officials are offering $10 million worth of incentives to companies, government agencies and nonprofits for the purchase of cars or light trucks that run on natural gas or to convert lighter-weight vehicles that now use gasoline… The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection launched the program Wednesday in a bid to generate demand for natural gas vehicles. A drilling boom in Pennsylvania and other states in recent years has produced enormous quantities of cheap gas… The DEP grant program is open to nonprofit organizations, companies, local governments and local transportation agencies for natural gas vehicles weighing less than 14,000 pounds. The program also covers conversion or purchase of electric, propane or other alternative fuel vehicles of any size.”

Something is awfully wrong in a country when there is a debate about whether or not to use wildly expensive (and dirty) biofuels or affordable and efficient petroleum products. What’s worse is that these are the people who are supposed to be thinking strategically about national defense. PoliticoPro (6/7/13) reports: House lawmakers sparred Wednesday over the DoD’s clean energy initiatives during the debate over the National Defense Authorization Act… Led by Reps. Rob Wittman, Randy Forbes and Mike Conaway, Republicans pushed an amendment that would restrict the ability of the Defense Department to purchase or produce biofuels until sequestration is no longer in effect or when the price of biofuel equals the cost of conventional fuel… The amendment, sponsored by Conaway, revived last year’s fight over the Navy’s use of alternative energy, a charge that was led by Forbes. During last year’s debate, much of the language that would have limited the DoD’s ability to purchase biofuels was scrubbed from the defense bill’s final version.

Couple shy of a baker’s dozen: “11 Shocking Facts about the North Dakota Oil Boom”. The Fiscal Times (6/7/13) reports: “Oil production in North Dakota has increase more than 600 percent, going from 36 million barrels of oil in 2005, to 237 million in 2012. There are now 8,360 active wells in the state, producing 783,000 barrels of oil a day. The state has gone from the No. 8 oil-producing state to No. 2 in just seven years.”

It’s not enough to be willing to take a bullet. You have to be uncomfortable while waiting for it. Department of the Army (2/12/13) reports: “During air conditioning season, keep temperatures in the range of 78 degrees for occupied building and 85 degrees for unoccupied buildings. Air conditioning units that have thermostatic controls must be operated to comply with the authorized cooling temperatures. The DPW will maintain appropriate cooling temperatures for those systems controlled by the Energy Management Control System (EMCS).”

We don’t have a book review for you yet, but this looks like it’ll be an awesome read. PJ Media (5/29/13) reports: “Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle With Environmental Extremists and Why it Matters Today: Reagan deprived these extremists of the aura of inevitability, invincibility and infallibility with which they had been cloaked for almost two decades. Reagan denied them their moral high ground. When they said they spoke for the planet and the needs of all living things not human, he responded that he spoke for the dream of the American people and unborn generations to be free and prosperous… The future of freedom was also in play. And Reagan knew that a nation which develops abundant energy resources is a nation which prospers. Governments which impair energy production and instead use command economy solutions to prop up inefficiencies will suffer from high energy costs and higher unemployment.”

The team is still very much opposed to a carbon tax. Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to join our growing ranks.

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance / Institute for Energy Research
Myron Ebell, Freedom Action
Phil Kerpen, American Commitment
William O’Keefe, George C. Marshall Institute
Lawson Bader, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
Joe Bast, Heartland Institute
David Ridenour, National Center for Public Policy Research
Michael Needham, Heritage Action for America
Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Sabrina Schaeffer, Independent Women’s Forum
Barrett E. Kidner, Caesar Rodney Institute
George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom
Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government
Wayne Brough, FreedomWorks
Rich Collins, Positive Growth Alliance
Craig Richardson, American Tradition Institute