Blog

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...
Continue Reading...

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...
Continue Reading...

This letter originally appeared in The Hill's Congress Blog.

---

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...
Continue Reading...

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...
Continue Reading...

At the College of Marin, located a few miles north of San Francisco, it would be foolish to take a class in finance. Tesla is receiving $5.3 million in state and utility incentives to install a battery array on campus to save at most $150,000 a year. The Marin Independent Journal explains:

Tesla will get $5.3 million in state and utility incentives and rebates covering site preparation, installation of lithium-ion battery packs, a liquid thermal control system, and software commanded by a...

Continue Reading...

In an unexpected turn of events, the DC Circuit independently decided that the entire circuit court panel (11 judges) should hear the challenge to Obama’s carbon rule. The practical effect is that oral argument will delayed from June 2 until late September. For all intents and purposes, this is positive news for the challengers and should encourage states to safely put their pencils down if they haven’t already. Initially, both sides had viewed expedited review of the case positively....
Continue Reading...

In 1984, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that would fundamentally change the balance of power in American government by the Court giving wide deference to regulatory agencies in the interpretation of ambiguous statutes. In Chevron v. NRDC, the Court prescribed guidelines for administrative interpretation regarding vague or ambiguous statutes. The opinion states:

When a court reviews an agency's construction of the statute which it administers, it is confronted with two questions....

Continue Reading...

Litigation over the EPA’s carbon rule for power plants is continuing with oral arguments set for early June. In the meantime, several states have sought to codify the Supreme Court’s stay with a “stop work order” inserted into state appropriations bills. Last Friday, Kansas became the latest state to protect their residents. These bills are critical to protecting scarce state resources while legal uncertainty remains. Where possible, they should also be extended to cover utility...
Continue Reading...

On March 21st Apple announced new products, updated software, and doubled down on the claim that globally their facilities run on 93 percent renewable power. As IER reported last year, this just isn't so:

The “100 percent renewable” claim is misleading and disingenuous. As much as companies like Google and Apple love to tout their purchases of wind and solar power, it’s a good thing for their customers that the companies actually still run on reliable and affordable power from...

Continue Reading...

In March of last year, I had the privilege of traveling to northwest Colorado to film AEA’s “Eye of the Storm” video which chronicled the threats radical environment activists were making against the communities of Craig and Meeker. Thankfully, with your help, we were able to convince the federal government that the Colowyo mine should stay open . Unfortunately, the mine and these communities are under threat yet again. While in Craig and Meeker, Colorado, I was blown away by the...
Continue Reading...