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The Risk of Over-regulating the Energy Industry
Tweet Share on Facebook January 17, 2012 Comment (8)Michael Lynch is the president and director of global petroleum service at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
The energy industry experienced a variety of accidents and disasters last year, from the Macondo rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to the earthquake and tsunami that nearly destroyed the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan. Not surprisingly, this has increased scrutiny of other energy operations, and in particular has bolstered opposition to projects like the proposed Keystone oil pipeline expansion from Canada as well as the practice of hydraulic fracturing to produce oil and gas from shale deposits.
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Obama Administration Exaggerates Success in Oil and Gas Leases
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2012 Comment (1)This week, the Department of Interior lauded the administration's efforts to increase oil and gas leases on federal lands. Somehow they failed to mention that last year they set records for hardly issuing any leases at all. The omission wasn't lost on careful observers.
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New York Times Ethanol Subsidy Editorial Misleads
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2012 CommentPete Sepp is executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.
Leveraging the January 1st expiration of a three-decade-old federal "blender's tax credit" for ethanol, The New York Times editorial board called on Congress to "take a hatchet" to the oil and gas industry and expand federal programs aimed at bolstering wind, solar, and biofuel projects.
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The Many Problems with California's Energy Mandates
Tweet Share on Facebook January 10, 2012 Comment (3)Michael Lynch is the president and director of global petroleum service at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
On a recent speaking engagement in California, I committed a major faux pas. As an example of what I called "stupid energy policy" I referred to the mania over hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the late 1990s, when Ballard Power's announcement of a breakthrough lowering fuel cell costs led the auto industry to predict a commercial vehicle by 2005, with sales in the tens of thousands. In fact, it was clear that the technology was nowhere near being ready for consumer markets, and wouldn't be for decades, and the auto industry's inability to realize this remains an embarrassment.
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Ethanol Subsidies Are Gone, But Not Forgotten
Tweet Share on Facebook January 5, 2012 Comment (2)Daniel Kish is the senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research.
The 45-cents-per-gallon federal subsidy provided to ethanol blenders and the 54-cents-per-gallon tariff levied on foreign ethanol imports have come to be maligned as examples of government waste and protectionism. The fact that Congress has finally put an end to the ethanol welfare program is a step in the right direction. On December 31, 2011, the $6 billion per-year Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) was allowed to expire, and the ethanol import tariff was slashed from the books.
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Obama Should Rethink His Policies on Natural Gas and Keystone XL
Tweet Share on Facebook January 4, 2012 Comment (1)Michael Lynch is the president and director of global petroleum service at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
Amid saber-rattling in the Strait of Hormuz, pundits and policymakers are debating whether the U.S. should attack Iran. Just one country over, China announced this week its purchase of the remaining 40 percent stake in a Canadian oil sands project—once again expanding its reach in global energy sources.
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Keystone Pipeline Gives 2012 a Chance to Correct 2011’s Mistakes
Tweet Share on Facebook January 3, 2012 CommentPete Sepp is executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.
For millions of us, the New Year signifies a fresh start—a chance to embrace success and learn from failure. But here in the nation's capital, at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, elected officials risk carrying a long hangover from many of 2011's bungled fiscal and energy policies unless they review what went wrong and change course now.
