In the Pipeline

A coalition of environmental groups has filed a legal petition with the federal government to evaluate how the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) contributes to climate change and to begin phasing the 800-mile line out of existence. The government first authorized  the pipeline right-of-way across federal land in the 1970s and the pipeline has been operating successfully since then. Environmentalists opposed the pipeline in the 1970’s, arguing it would disrupt caribou and cause other...

Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its power plant rule and, in most cases, has made it more restrictive than what it proposed last year , incorporating comments from environmentalists rather than addressing concerns about the impacts on consumers and the utilities who serve them. EPA’s power plant rule targets electricity from coal and natural gas, which together make up about 60 percent of the electricity generation in the United States while providing firm...

The Biden administration will allow consumers to get up to $7,500 on tax credits for electric vehicles containing Chinese graphite through 2026–a two-year extension, making it easier for car manufacturers to make and sell vehicles eligible for the tax credit. The Treasury Department published final rules governing the tax credits, which are designed to encourage EV production and push supply chains for minerals and batteries into the United States. Democrats in Congress expanded  EV tax...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic politicians have urged President Biden to declare climate change, which Biden calls an existential threat, a national emergency. According to Bloomberg’s sources , that means that Biden could impose a draconian crackdown on fossil fuels, including suspending offshore drilling, restricting exports of oil and LNG, and ‘throttling’ the industry’s ability to transport its production via pipelines, ships and rail.  Industry experts...

A made-in-China electric vehicle will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer offering power and efficiency similar to the Tesla Model Y, with sticker price of about $8,000 less. The $35,000 window sticker of Volvo’s compact SUV (the EX30 )–a five-seater electric SUV that will have a 275-mile driving range and a five-second 0-60 mile-per-hour time–will provide a more affordable electric vehicle to U.S. markets. Volvo is the Swedish luxury brand owned by China’s Geely. The competitive...

Biden’s policies of forcing electric vehicles on the American public and domestic auto manufacturers through regulations and standards is playing into China’s hands. China, with few oil and gas resources of its own, has found electric vehicles to be a way to dominate the world’s auto market. China achieved number one ranking in EV sales last year. As with other commodities, Chinese companies have an operating edge on EV production with cheap energy and labor, operational efficiencies...

On April 15, Biden’s Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) finalized a new rule requiring federal offshore oil and natural gas leaseholders to provide an estimated $6.9 billion in additional financial assurances to cover offshore decommissioning costs. The goal of the financial assurances is to limit the number of abandoned wells in the Gulf of Mexico’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and  to address concerns related to aging OCS infrastructure, property...

The Biden administration is expected to block an agency of the State of Alaska’s application to build a 211-mile road through northwestern Alaska to reach an area long known for its mineral richness. The road-building project is proposed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) and is needed to access major copper and zinc deposits needed for Biden’s “clean energy” transition , including transmission lines, wind turbines and photovoltaic cells. Biden’s...

President Biden’s administration worries about gas prices reaching or exceeding $4 a gallon—a price where the electorate looks for an alternative to the incumbency in a Presidential election. Last time, gas prices were that high was before the 2022 mid-term elections when President Biden released billions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, leaving it at its lowest level in 40 years. Since that alternative has largely been diminished with few barrels bought back to...