When he’s not busy picking “winners” like Solyndra, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has time to engage in original, peer-reviewed research. In a forthcoming paper, Chu and his co-authors argue that federal mandates for energy efficiency actually don’t increase prices for consumers, because the extra hoops force the producers to learn how to innovate. As usual, Chu’s views are at complete odds with basic economics. In a June 14 article for E&E titled “For energy efficiency,...
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Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal carried a prominent article  about accidental bird deaths caused by communications towers. According to the article, a whopping 6.8 million birds are accidentally killed by flying into these towers (the article did not specify if bird suicides were included or not). These 6.8 million birds are usually attacked – apparently without provocation - by these aggressive and belligerent towers under the cover of darkness by their illuminated red lights. As...
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  A recent report by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) makes the case that Americans should reject the Keystone XL pipeline because its construction would raise gasoline prices in the U.S. The NRDC report is based on absurd economic arguments and distorted analysis from another research group. Most ironic of all, NRDC has been a strong advocate of a government cap on carbon dioxide emissions, with the express purpose of raising the cost of fossil fuel energy. It’s therefore...
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  American refineries are closing and more closures are likely, often because of overly-burdensome regulation as well as lower gasoline demand. Several refineries in Pennsylvania are idle and possibly closing if no buyers come forward. The refining industry is one of the most highly regulated in the country and has been struggling for years to maintain minimal profit margins. In the face of even more regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who are, imposing...
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For Immediate Release May 24, 2012 WASHINGTON D.C. -- In advance of President Obama's campaign-year stop in the State of Iowa to tout his administration's support for wind energy handouts, AEA President Thomas Pyle released a letter to all Members of the 112th Congress opposing the administration's call for more deficit spending on renewable energy. "Decades of clamoring for subsidies and cash handouts by wind power proponents have done nothing to mature the industry into a viable...
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The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is touting a new study claiming that ethanol reduced gasoline prices by more than a dollar per gallon in 2011. As with similar studies in the past, the methodology used here to calculate this number rests on a basic fallacy in how they frame the question, which we’ll explain below. Beyond framing the question incorrectly, there is the obvious point that ethanol has lower energy content than conventional gasoline . If ethanol really were efficient, it...

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  A recent study by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) found that two most prominent regulations affecting fuel use in the United States—the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards—have competing requirements that will have a negative impact on the more than 120,000 convenience stores that sell motor fuel around the country, as well as the Americans that frequent them. Under the RFS, which was set by Congress in 2005 and...
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  Explaining the ANPR The Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2008 that it was well on its way to regulating at least 85 percent of the energy used in America in the name of global warming (nevermind the fact that global temperatures have inexplicably not increased since at least 2001).[1]  Because energy is an indispensable part of economic activity, if EPA’s plans go forward they will exercise some regulatory control over most of the American economy. The problems created by...
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One of the few booming sectors in the U.S. economy is oil and natural gas. Domestic development has been helped by high worldwide prices for crude, but the improvements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing—“fracking”—have also been very important. In a new report, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) estimate that the Eagle Ford shale alone generated $25 billion in economic activity in 2011 alone, in addition to creating over 47,000 jobs. These...

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