Emissions Standards

In an op-ed for the Des Moines Register , presidential candidate Martin O’Malley claims that his “administration would call for 100 percent of our energy to come from renewable sources by 2050.” The former Governor of Maryland and long-shot Democratic hopeful stated “as president, I would use my executive power on day one to declare the transition to a clean energy future the number one priority of our federal government.” O’Malley’s statement amounts to an empty campaign...
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The Obama administration is pursuing an aggressive plan of closing existing power plants and providing large subsidies of wind and solar electricity generation. Because of the administration’s regulations, 90 gigawatts (GW) of coal-generated power are projected to close. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tells us that power bills will go down as a result of its regulations, but a new report by the Institute for Energy Research shows why electricity rates will only skyrocket under...
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The Environmental Protection Agency claims its proposed climate rule will drastically improve public health and save lives, but that claim is questionable. EPA has a track record of overestimating and double counting benefits, cherry picking data, misrepresenting studies, and ignoring the negative health impacts associated with poverty. Here are 10 ways the Obama administration is exploiting dubious research to push radical climate change policies.

1. Latest science casts doubt on EPA’s...

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called “Clean Power Plan” will impose severe economic burdens on Black and Hispanic families, according to a new study from the National Black Chamber of Commerce . Rising electric rates and job losses expected under the EPA’s rule will have a disproportionate impact on poor people and minorities, who spend a higher share of their household budgets on energy. NBCC’s study shows that EPA’s agenda will inflict the most pain on those who...
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One way to tell if someone is lying is if they tend to excessively repeat words and phrases. As a case study, the Environmental Protection Agency can’t stop saying the word “flexible.” The EPA uses it to describe its so-called “Clean Power Plan” forcing states to impose strict carbon dioxide reductions, with some variation of the word appearing 163 times in the proposed rule. The gist of the claim is that “each state will have the flexibility to select the measure or combination...
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pursuing an aggressive regulatory agenda so sprawling that at least two of its major regulations seem to conflict with one another, undermining the agency’s stated goals. EPA has proposed severe reductions in ground-level ozone levels, but complying with that rule could hamper states’ ability to comply with the EPA’s so-called “Clean Power Plan.” EPA’s ozone limits would likely restrict natural gas production in key shale gas...
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Nearly 40,000 fitness enthusiasts enjoyed Pittsburgh’s annual marathon last month, with dozens of professional athletes and runners as old as 85 participating in the weekend-long event. Despite the marathon’s ranking as one of the best in the world due to its scenic routes and ideal conditions for distance running, the American Lung Association gave the city an “F” for its allegedly filthy air in its recently released 2015 “State of the Air ” report. Pittsburgh’s air has...
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Coal-fired electricity generators that once powered 5.5 million homes have closed permanently, according to a recent announcement from the Columbus, Ohio-based electric utility American Electric Power (AEP). The 5,588 megawatts (MW) of coal capacity located across Appalachia and the Midwest are the latest casualties in the continued assault on affordable, reliable power by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Obama. Specifically, AEP’s announcement says the utility...
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Recently, two organizations  sympathetic to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon dioxide restriction on existing power plants published separate papers detailing options for states to comply with the new rule. The papers are certainly illuminating, but perhaps not in the way the authors intended—both reinforce how costly, convoluted, and unworkable EPA’s proposal is. They also confirm critics’ worst fears: that the proposed rule pressures states to impose by...
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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman published an opinion piece this week titled, “Germany, the Green Superpower.” In the piece, Friedman lauds the country’s effort to transition from coal to renewable energy sources like wind and solar—known as Energiewende—as a success:

“…what the Germans have done in converting almost 30 percent of their electric grid to solar and wind energy from near zero in about 15 years has been a great contribution to the stability of our planet...

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