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President Biden is depleting the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is currently at its lowest level in 37 years. On July 26, 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy announced an emergency sale from the reserve of up to 20 million barrels, which will go through the end of October, just prior to the mid-term election in November. And, along with that announcement, Goldman Sachs revised its forecast for gasoline prices upward to $5 a gallon  by the end of the year. Previously, its price...

Europe’s move toward decarbonization 30 years ago has resulted in skyrocketing energy prices, the need for severe conservation, possible rationing that could shut down entire industrial sectors and likely future blackouts. It is the result of the continent moving to unreliable and intermittent renewable energy before it was ready to replace fossil fuels and being overly dependent on Russia for natural gas—the backup fuel to renewables. European countries have closed coal and nuclear...

A federal judge reinstated a moratorium on coal leasing  from federal lands that had been implemented during the Obama administration and was lifted under President Donald Trump. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Brian Morris requires government officials to conduct a new environmental review prior to resuming coal sales from federal lands. According to the judge, the government’s previous review of the program had not adequately considered the impacts of climate change from coal’s...

Senator Manchin said that Democratic leaders had “committed to advancing a suite of commonsense permitting reforms this fall that will ensure all energy infrastructure, from transmission to pipelines and export facilities, can be efficiently and responsibly built.” With that promise, Manchin agreed to the “Inflation Reduction Act” that recently passed the Senate along party lines. But since then, 47 of his fellow Democratic Senators rejected a permit streamlining measure. The  Senate...

The American Energy Alliance urges all members to oppose H.R. 5376, the 2022 budget resolution reconciliation legislation.

The reconciliation package is filled with new taxes and spending that are bad policy at any time, but especially dangerous at a time of high inflation and with the economy tipping into recession. As multiple independent analyses show, this legislation will not reduce inflation despite the title adopted by its proponents. More government spending, more subsidies, and...

According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school , “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” championed by Senator Manchin and Senator Schumer likely would not reduce inflation at all. The study, from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, estimates the proposed bill would cause inflation to ‘very slightly’ rise until 2024 then possibly decline after that. Overall, the researchers indicate that there is “low confidence that the legislation will have any impact on inflation.”...

The Manchin/Schumer ”Inflation Reduction Act“ keeps and extends the $7,500 tax credit on electric vehicles  and removes the numerical cap but there are a number of stipulations related to obtaining the full credit, one of which is where the battery materials are made. To qualify for $3,750 of the credit, an increasing share of a vehicle’s battery minerals such as lithium and nickel must be extracted or processed in the United States or in a country with which the United States has a...

The American Energy Alliance urges all Senators to support S.J. Res. 55, the Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval for the Council on Environmental Quality revisions to implementation rules for the National Environmental Policy Act.

Construction of infrastructure of all types takes far too long, and costs far too much, in the United States. One of the primary reasons for this excessive time and expense is the tangled mess of the NEPA review process. This costly and lengthy...

The Federal government has already spent well over $100 billion on renewable credits for electricity production since their enactment three decades ago, and the “Inflation Reduction Act” will cost taxpayers another $98 billion . The proposed bill is full of incentives for renewable energy technologies, chief among an extension of wind and solar tax credits significantly increasing subsidies for them, provided additional criteria are met during construction. It also offers new tax credits...

Last week, the day before the latest GDP data release showed the US economy tipped into recession in the first half of 2022, Senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer announced a deal on a legislative package to be passed through the budget reconciliation process. That process allows the Senate to pass certain types of legislation with a simple majority vote, meaning that Democrats alone can pass partisan priorities. This deal represents an about-face from Manchin, given that just a couple of...