Products and Power

WASHINGTON DC (1/15/24) – Former Congressman Lee Zeldin will appear before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works this week to consider his nomination for EPA Administrator. This role will be critical in helping President Trump reshape U.S. energy policy and ending President Biden's EV mandates. We offer these seven suggested questions for Senators to consider asking Congressman Zeldin during his confirmation hearing:

1. A repeated theme in environmental policy has...

The Biden administration has a new ban on certain gas-fueled hot water heaters, impacting roughly 40% of new tankless water heaters and forcing consumers to pay an extra $450 for alternatives. The ban goes into effect on March 11, 2025 , for sales beginning in 2029. The ban severely limits consumers’ choices regarding their water heater purchases, often forcing Americans to ostensibly pay more for inferior products to help fulfill Biden’s climate agenda. Biden’s Department of Energy...

President Joe Biden is reportedly preparing an executive order to permanently ban new oil and natural gas leasing in parts of the outer continental shelf using a 72-year-old law that would exclude areas from any exploration or possible development. In the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act  (OCSLA), which governs offshore oil and gas development, Congress included a provision giving presidents wide discretion to exclude specific waters from leasing permanently. According to supporters of...

The Biden administration has moved to prevent oil, gas, and geothermal leasing for 20 years on 264,000 acres in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, responding to requests from Native American tribes and environmentalists. The ban, which would still allow mining, starts a 90-day public comment period, which will stretch into the first months of President Trump’s second term. The application, however,  prevents oil, gas, and geothermal exploration, development, and production on that land for two...

The Biden-Harris administration is halting new coal leases in the Powder River Basin, ensuring that the U.S. will cease coal production there after 2041. The Powder River Basin, located in northeast Wyoming and parts of southeast Montana, is the largest coal mining area in the country. It produces subbituminous coal, prized for its low sulfur content, which is primarily used in power generation. The region is responsible for supplying 40% of the nation’s thermal coal . The Bureau of Land...

President-Elect Trump has made it clear that he is not a supporter of offshore wind energy, a stance he reinforced during his interview  with Joe Rogan. Offshore wind, according to Trump, disrupts fishing zones, threatens wildlife such as birds and bats, damages large sections of the ocean floor, jeopardizes the North Atlantic Right Whale’s survival, and burdens Americans with high electricity costs that are unreliable—operating at less than half capacity. Wind power, he argues, requires...

The Northeast region of the United States includes the states of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, as well as the entirety of New England, which is made up of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  The Northeast is an important region for fossil fuel production especially for coal and natural gas, which replaced coal as the primary fuel used for electricity generation in the region.  Transporting fuel throughout...

President-elect Donald Trump recently named Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy and founder of the Bettering Human Lives Foundation, as his choice for head of the Department of Energy. Chris Wright sat down for a discussion on the role of energy production in lifting humans out of poverty with the policy team at our sister organization, the Institute for Energy Research on the Plugged In Podcast.* The full episode is available below.

Links:

• Donald Trump names fossil fuel executive...

The Biden-Harris administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a federal methane tax for oil and gas drilling operations, set to take effect next year. This rule is part of the broader Inflation Reduction Act , which was passed by Democrats and saw Vice President Harris casting the decisive vote. The new regulation imposes a fee on oil and gas producers who exceed a certain methane emission threshold by venting or flaring the gas rather than capturing it. While the...

The Biden-Harris administration has proposed tighter restrictions on oil and gas drilling on federal land across more than 6,500 square miles in the West to supposedly protect a declining bird species—the Greater Sage Grouse—chicken-sized birds known for an elaborate mating ritual. The Biden-Harris Interior Department aims to strengthen protections for the sage grouse beyond the 2015 measures set by the Obama-Biden administration . Those earlier protections limited development across...