A recent story in EnergyGuardian (sub. req'd) centered on Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-R.I.) support for the carbon “fee” bill introduced by his colleagues Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Fortunately, the newly-released NERA study gives us a quantitative estimate of how much their scheme would hurt the U.S. economy. The whole episode fulfills the warnings that many of us have been making during the carbon tax debate. Specifically, advocates of a carbon tax rely on a...

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A new study by NERA Economic Consulting, prepared for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), documents the economic dangers of a federal carbon tax. The study is very conservative in its assumptions (as I’ll explain below), giving the benefit of the doubt to the proponents of a carbon tax. Even so, there study reaches two conclusions: Either the US government sets a carbon tax low enough so that its economic impacts are simply bad, but not awful, in which case there are few...
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If you want to throw down fisticuffs, fine. Pyle’s got Jack Johnson and Tom O'Leary waiting for ya, right here. National Journal  (2/26/13) reports: “As passionate as these protests may be, the reality is that the oil in Alberta will go somewhere, and no amount of plastic zip ties -- made from refined petroleum products, I might add -- will change that. The price of Western Canada Select crude oil was $68.27 last Friday compared to $95.87 for West Texas Intermediate, and more than $110...
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All you have to do in the new economy is own a suit! Here’s how it works: All Americans will stop going to school and will pay a visit to the local портной when they turn 18. There, you will be armed with a suit. With this technology – free for all Americans – you will have the opportunity to meet with at least half of the Senate and 150 Congressmen (multiple times each, at that!). These wise old sages, who aren’t nearly as corrupt as everyone says they are, will look at your...
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  The new report from Joseph Mason, “Beyond the Congressional Budget Office,” explores the various ways that the CBO’s recent estimates vastly understate the economic activity and tax receipts that would be generated if the federal government merely got out of the way of the development of domestic oil and gas resources. In the present post, I’ll summarize some of Mason’s key findings, and then relate them to other proposals for easing the federal budget crunch. As we’ll see,...
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The people at IER sure do good work. They're pretty good looking, too. Join them and Neil Cavuto in Houston on May 9, 2013. 

  This should be obvious, but there is a strong correlation between per capita energy use and life expectancy. Roger Pielke Jr.  (2/14/13) reports: “The graph above shows energy use (expressed as kilograms of oil equivalent per capita) versus life expectancy at birth (expressed in years) for 151 countries in the World Bank Development indicators database that...
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Yikes… does anybody know a good shrink for this guy? Center for Industrial Progress (2/17/13) reports: "I approve of a blackout, I'm pro population control!"

  

Why we fight. Townhall  (2/14/13) reports: “Given our unsustainable national debt -- nearly $17 trillion and climbing -- America is said to be in decline, although we face no devastating plague, nuclear holocaust, or shortage of oil or food… Yet we don't talk confidently about capitalizing and expanding on our natural and...
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Congratulations to the caption contest winner... you know who you are. Your box of Whitman's Sampler is currently melting at the Postal Service, but should be delivered no later than March.   

  John Broder is a good reporter who was rude enough to point out that this particular king didn't have any clothes. NYTimes  (2/14/13) reports: “Elon Musk , the chief executive of Tesla Motors, has now responded in detail to the account of my test drive of his Model S electric car, using the...
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  A funny thing has happened in the fracking wars: All of a sudden, the interventionist groups who are usually fans of centralized power—such as having the federal government issue edicts on carbon emissions—all of a sudden have discovered the virtues of federalism. Specifically, they don’t want state governments limiting the ability of local governments to regulate or even put a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. For example, from this news story about a legal battle in upstate New...
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It can't be worse than what most University of Colorado students consume on a regular basis. Washington Times  (2/12/13) reports: “Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper went to unusually great lengths to learn firsthand the strides the oil and gas industry has made to minimize environmental harm from fracking... The first-term Democrat and former Denver mayor told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he actually drank a glass of fracking fluid produced by oilfield services giant Halliburton…...
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