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Alec Baldwin and Fracking Opponents Need to Check the Facts
Tweet Share on Facebook July 30, 2012 CommentMichael Lynch is the president and director of global petroleum service at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
Alec Baldwin has now joined the antifracking crowd with a piece in the Huffington Post that describes an antifracking event hosting, among others, Josh Fox, who made the widely debunked pseudo-documentary Gasland. He states that the industry refused to attend or "participate," but it's not clear if they would have been allowed any serious forum.
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Congress Must Pass the No More Solyndras Act
Tweet Share on Facebook July 27, 2012 CommentDaniel Kish is senior vice president at the Institute for Energy Research.
Heavily subsidized solar manufacturing company Solyndra imploded last September after wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars, and more companies that received money from the same $16 billion government program have followed suit. Now Congress is trying to fix the mistakes it made by creating the loan guarantee program in the first place with the No More Solyndras Act, which was approved by a House Committee on Energy and Commerce subpanel on Wednesday.
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U.S. Department of Energy Outlook Ignores Major Developments
Tweet Share on Facebook July 26, 2012 CommentGregg Laskoski is a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com
When people who follow the oil industry try to look ahead, most of us, I think it's safe to say, do so with vision that is often predicated on (and perhaps impaired) by powerful assumptions. Commentary on where oil and gasoline prices may be going is easy to find, but what's difficult is finding credibility that emerges from conviction and that can only materialize when we have proof that our assumptions are correct.
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Crunch Time for Obama, Congress to Act on Keystone XL Pipeline
Tweet Share on Facebook July 25, 2012 CommentPete Sepp is executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.
It's summertime in Washington, when many a politician's thoughts turn to Congress's August recess and the prospects of glad-handing constituents (not to mention sauntering on the re-election trail) back home. They will find that President Barack Obama has already trodden heavily on such a path, perhaps even in their own states. Yet, as much as they might prefer politicking to policymaking, officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue can't afford to overlook energy-related developments that will sharply affect the future of taxpayers, consumers, and workers. One such development resurfaced just a few days ago.
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Natural Gas Could Be the Cheap Power of the Future
Tweet Share on Facebook July 19, 2012 CommentMichael Lynch is the president and director of global petroleum service at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
In my last column, I argued that the preference often shown for renewables in developing countries reflected bias and is illogical, promoting an expensive solution for the energy impoverished. Now, let’s consider a promising approach that is becoming more attractive every day: natural gas-fired turbines.
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The Navy's Use of Biofuels is Inefficient and Costly
Tweet Share on Facebook July 19, 2012 CommentThomas Pyle is the president of the Institute for Energy Research.
This week, the Navy embarked on a costly and pointless exercise—using "advanced" biofuels that cost $26 per galon in some naval exercises. At a time when the federal budget and military budgets are tight, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus claims that it is important to spend millions of dollars on an exotic biofuel to "enhance our national security." That is ridiculous. Spending $26 a gallon on exotic biofuel does not "enhance natural security" as it reduces our security by wasting taxpayer's dollars on yet another renewable boondoggle and diverts funds from necessary readiness.
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Don't Be Surprised by Rising Gas Prices
Tweet Share on Facebook July 18, 2012 CommentPatrick DeHaan is a senior analyst at gasbuddy.com.
The U.S. national average gasoline price has begun heating up (after declining into early July) after oil prices rebounded from seasonal lows. Blame sudden optimism in the economy, blame Europe, you can blame whomever you like—but oil prices have seemingly bottomed out in late June before rebounding slightly, normal behavior after shedding over 20 percent of its value since peaking in April.
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Solar Power Fails to Turn the Lights On
Tweet Share on Facebook July 12, 2012 CommentMichael Lynch is the president and director of global petroleum service at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
There is an ongoing debate about the apparently contradictory goals of controlling carbon emissions and alleviating energy poverty, with the developed world focused on the former, and the developing world the latter. Many NGOs have weighed in by proposing the provision of low-carbon emission technologies like solar power for the energy poor, criticizing efforts to expand electric power grids as a failed strategy. Unfortunately, the arguments are rarely straightforward and often misleading.
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Serious Energy Policy Suffers in Political 'Silly Season'
Tweet Share on Facebook July 11, 2012 CommentPete Sepp is executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.
In recent times, the mid-summer of any presidential election has meant one unfortunate thing: Though the conventional season doesn't change, the political "silly season" starts to get underway. It is a time when elected officials, who often seek opportunities to demagogue issues for their own gain anyway, become almost manic in their one-upping activities. And energy consumers pay a price.
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How Fuel Economy Standards Hurt Government Revenue
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2012 CommentGregg Laskoski is a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.
When Congress passed the $105 billion Surface Transportation Extension Act in June, its first major transportation bill since 2005, it secured funding for the Highway Trust Fund, the critical key funding source that reimburses states for spending on roads, bridges, mass transit, and other transportation projects. That measure was essential to pay for hundreds if not thousands of badly needed infrastructure improvements.
