Products and Power

When it comes to green energy subsidies, the Obama administration has a habit of throwing good money after bad. The latest example comes from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which recently announced an additional $50 million in funding for electric vehicle technology as part of President Obama’s quixotic pledge to “become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.” The latest infusion of taxpayer funds is part of DOE’s “ Electric Vehicle...
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Last month, the Obama administration published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that will effectively ban new coal-fired power plants. This greenhouse gas emission mandate on new power plants represents the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s plan to bankrupt the coal industry—and with it one of America’s most affordable, abundant, reliable energy sources. A bipartisan coalition in Congress, however, is fighting back. The Electricity Security and Affordability Act (H.R....
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Yesterday, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) submitted a public comment on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program for 2014. IER commends EPA for proposing to reduce the total renewable fuel mandate for this year, but explains that EPA does not go far enough. Furthermore, EPA has once again proposed an unrealistic cellulosic biofuel mandate. As IER explains:

EPA’s reduction from 16.55 billion gallons to 15.21 billion gallons as the...

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it will “reconsider” last year’s unrealistic cellulosic biofuel mandate in light of the industry’s inability to meet production targets. In a letter to the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy admitted that expected production at a crucial cellulosic facility did not match reality:

We believe that KiOR's August 8, 2013, announcement of reduced anticipated production in 2013, which...

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Two more biodiesel companies have been accused of fraud less than two weeks before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will likely soon finalize regulations mandating how much biodiesel must be blended into gasoline this year. According to the Associated Press, the two companies are accused of generating fake ethanol credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), and selling them for $37 million:

Federal prosecutors say a 63-year-old Las Vegas man and a 64-year-old...

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Reality is starting to set in for President Obama’s plans to radically alter the energy economy. On Sunday, 60 Minutes, which had previously been a cheerleader for subsidized “green” energy, ran a piece titled “The Cleantech Crash.” Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal ran a story which shows that trucks and SUVs are driving increases in auto sales, not green cars as Obama envisioned. President Obama’s highly-subsidized green energy economy is just not happening. Since 2009, the...
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On the sixth anniversary of the expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in 2007, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) issued a “celebratory” document explaining why they were so thrilled with the mandates on American refiners. The funny thing is, we don’t need to consult outside sources to see what’s wrong with the RFS or the claims of its proponents; we need only highlight certain parts of the RFA’s own release. As the RFA’s document itself puts it, the expanded...
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Working through the auspices of the Regulatory Studies Program of the Mercatus Center, I have recently published a public comment on the Department of Energy’s proposed energy efficiency standards for residential furnace fans. Truly interested readers can follow the link and read the (brief) comment in its entirety, but in the present post I want to highlight some of the gaping holes in the government’s cost/benefit analysis to (attempt to) justify the regulation. The two takeaway...
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has accused another biofuel company of generating and selling fraudulent Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), marking the fourth case of RIN fraud since the federal ethanol mandate was passed in 2005. A RIN is a string of numbers used for identification when the ethanol industry produces a gallon of ethanol. Refiners acquire RINs as proof of purchase when they buy ethanol from producers, as required by federal law. These RINs—a creation of...
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United States oil production has passed yet another milestone, reaching its highest level in 25 years. According to the EIA, the oil industry produced 8.075 million barrels per day in the first week of December, the most since October of 1988. This increase in production is largely occurring on state and private lands and has been a rare bright spot for an otherwise struggling economy. Technological strides in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have made it possible and economical...
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