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President Trump is reportedly meeting with the leaders of several U.S. oil producers today to discuss some sort of temporary relief for the industry from the sharp drop in oil prices caused by the drop in demand due to COVID-19 pandemic. Although it isn’t completely clear what the administration has in mind, there are rumors that one of the proposals under consideration is a temporary waiver of the Jones Act for transporting oil.

For those who are not familiar with it, the Jones Act is...

Today the Trump administration finalized the second half of its proposed rule to correct the overreach of the Obama administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations. The first half came last fall when the administration halted California’s ability to force fuel economy standards on the other 49 states. Today’s second half brings fuel economy mandates back to the real world of achievable improvements instead of the Obama administration’s backdoor electric vehicle...

As of Thursday, March 26, 2020, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. is nearing 70,000 and the global tally is approaching half a million. In an effort to stop the rapid increase in new cases and to keep hospitals within their capacities we have put much of our economic activity on pause. Twenty-two thousand people have died from COVID-19 already, the stock market has lost a third of its value, and unemployment claims have skyrocketed to record levels.

In response to the...

All last weekend, Democratic and Republican Senators huddled hour after hour hammering out a bipartisan deal to get financial relief to the individuals, companies and state and local governments affected by the widespread shutdowns in response to the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.  By Sunday evening, a deal had been reached to send checks directly to American citizens, provide billions in funding to hospitals, make billions in loans available to businesses small and large. While not...

A coalition of House Democrats, environmental advocacy groups, and renewable energy trade associations are looking to take advantage of the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by sneaking several renewable energy tax credits into an economic stimulus bill.

Let’s set aside for a moment the question of whether or not such stimulus packages are actually effective . The idea that renewable energy tax credits have anything to do with responding to the COVID-19 situation is, on its...

This week the Senate will hastily begin consideration of a broad energy package compiled by Senators Murkowski and Manchin, with language included in the bill compiled from around 50 existing pieces of legislation, according to the sponsors.  While claiming to be about promoting “innovation” the bill is more accurately seen as promoting bureaucracy. The completed package weighs in at more than 550 pages and mostly consists of shuffling bureaucrats and paper within already...

After many months of speculation, we have the text of the tax extenders package. As expected, the deal extends a host of small expired or expiring tax provisions from the last several years. On the energy front, however, taxpayers have mostly dodged a bullet. With the exception a 5-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit and a one-year extension of the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), the extenders deal does not include the host of expensive subsidies proposed by House Ways and Means...

Last week, following the grand tradition of Oprah whereby guests receive free gifts just for attending, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Mike Thompson, announced a draft bill dubbed the Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now Act (or GREEN Act).  But a better name for it would be the Everybody Gets a Car Act, or perhaps the No Green Lobbyist Left Behind Act.  Because just like an episode of Oprah’s favorite things, House Democrats are handing out free...

What is the fossil fuel divestment movement?

The fossil fuel divestment movement is a social activism campaign seeking to malign the natural gas, oil, and coal industries and pressure investors to withdraw their capital from such enterprises. Like the phrase “climate change denial,” the phrase “fossil fuel divestment” is used to convey to an uncritical audience that the social activism campaign is one of profound moral superiority to an evil alternative. The accusation of...

On Wednesday, President Trump appeared in Pittsburgh to discuss American energy policy and his commitment to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. Following the appearance, Pittsburg’s mayor, William Peduto, issued a press release that made several claims misrepresenting the reality of American energy policy and the current state of the energy industry in Pennsylvania. Two of those claims are worth addressing here.

Claim 1: "President Trump’s remarks on energy and the Paris...