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The Interior Department announced a proposal this week to designate 12.28 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as wilderness. In a White House video , President Obama claimed a wilderness designation would “make sure that this amazing wonder is preserved for future generations.” But it seems the federal government doesn’t even know the actual size of the “amazing wonder” it wants to preserve. The Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) lists at least three different...
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Energy In Depth released a new report Wednesday that questions the scientific data EPA uses to justify its proposed ozone rule—which could be the costliest regulation in U.S. history. One interesting finding in EID’s survey of the literature is that EPA’s ozone rule could actually increase asthma-related mortality, even though the agency cites reducing asthma attacks as one of the major benefits of the rule. As EID explains:

The EPA cites “asthma attacks” as one of its key...

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A forthcoming report claims that a foreign firm funding U.S. environmental groups opposed to America’s domestic energy boom is tied to a state-owned Russian oil company with a financial interest in halting U.S. energy production. As The Washington Free Beacon reports:

A shadowy Bermudan company that has funneled tens of millions of dollars to anti-fracking environmentalist groups in the United States is run by executives with deep ties to Russian oil interests and offshore money...

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Today, the Senate will vote on amendment #103 by Senator Flake, which would address duplication in the federal government concerning green building initiatives. The Senate should approve the amendment. In 2011, a report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) on duplication, overlap, and fragmentation found 94 different initiatives across 11 different federal agencies focused on fostering “green” building in the non-federal sector. GAO could not identify how much...
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This week the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) CEO Tom Kiernan published an op-ed at The Hill's Congress Blog titled "The State of the Wind Industry is Strong." We noticed that Mr. Kiernan's piece omitted several important points about the state of American wind energy, so we took it upon ourselves to make those additions for him, our edits in red.

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The state of the wind lobbying industry is strong

The strength of the U.S. wind industry is attracting the notice of a mirage...

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Sen. Cruz is proposing an amendment to the Keystone XL bill that will require that the Department of Energy to expedite all approvals for LNG export to any World Trade Organization (WTO) country. This would be a major improvement over the status quo. Currently the LNG export approval process is too slow and cumbersome. LNG exports require two different permits from the federal government. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reviews an application for an LNG export terminal and...
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More than half of U.S. states have established Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) requiring electric utilities to generate a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. These mandates raise energy costs by forcing households and businesses to use more wind and solar energy, which are more expensive and less reliable than traditional energy sources like nuclear, natural gas, coal, and hydro. Faced with these facts, some states are considering repealing or reforming...
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In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama emphasized the importance of infrastructure while at the same time making a not-so-subtle quip about the Keystone XL oil pipeline:

21^st century businesses need 21^st century infrastructure – modern ports, stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest internet. Democrats and Republicans used to agree on this. So let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline. Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could...

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Today the Senate is voting on an amendment offered by Sen. Durbin to increase the regulation of petroleum coke or “petcoke.” This is another example of the administration and its allies trying to drive up the cost of domestic energy production and domestic energy use. What is Petcoke? Like gasoline and diesel, petcoke is produced in oil refineries. Once viewed as a byproduct, petcoke is now an important internationally-trade commodity and is helping to grow many developing...
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