Biofuels Not So Enviro-Friendly
Switching from fossil fuels to allegedly cleaner fuels may not be as good for the environment as advertised says the United Kingdom’s Times. Similar to the renewable fuels mandate in the United States,...
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Living Longer in a Warming World
Indur Goklany was involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as an author, U.S. delegate and reviewer since before its inception. His focuses are climate change and economic...
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EPA Changing the Rules as They Go
Congress isn’t the only entity that knows how to pick winners and losers for energy sources and technologies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing its best to follow suit by imposing new...
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Ten Don’ts for Our Government on Gas Prices
As gas prices in the United States continue to soar, policymakers in Washington are eager to point fingers and offer solutions. Most of the ideas are not new, and some are certainly much better than...
View ArticleGovernment Shouldn’t Decide What Cars Run On
With gas prices hovering at $4 per gallon, politicians are trying to sell quick fixes that will inevitably end up hurting consumers. The latest attempt is an open fuel standard that would require a...
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Navy Buys Biofuels for $15 Per Gallon From Stimulus-Linked Firm
A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15...
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On Energy Policy, Navy Secretary Is Either Dishonest or Misinformed
In response to a congressional inquiry regarding a Navy purchase of expensive biofuels, Secretary Ray Mabus made numerous claims that are either factually incorrect or misleading regarding federal...
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Military Biofoolishness
Though the military has an impressive record for developing technologies to meet its frequently unique requirements, adopting biofuels is unlikely to help meet any mission other than earning political...
View ArticleBiomassive Energy Subsidies in Farm Bill
The farm bill, which passed in the Senate yesterday, has little to do with farming and a lot to do with handouts. Energy subsidies? The farm bill’s full of ‘em, particularly in the Title IX energy...
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Federal Advisory Committee Members Land Millions in Taxpayer Backing
Members of a federal advisory committee on the adoption of biofuels have seen millions in taxpayer dollars steered to their companies while sitting on the committee, Scribe reports in today’s...
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Great Green Fleece: Air Force Spends $59 Per Gallon for Biofuel
The U.S. Air Force spent $59 per gallon on biofuels for a demonstration last month intended to show the promise of the alternative energy source. That’s more than double what the U.S. Navy spent as...
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Navy Pushes Biofuel Fleet Despite Concerns About Damage to Equipment
The U.S. military is touting biofuels as a way to sever itself from diesel and other fossil fuels. While the high cost of biofuel purchases is a major roadblock to the Navy’s “Green Fleet” plans, as...
View ArticleMore Obama Donors Benefit From USDA’s Latest Loan Guarantee
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a large loan guarantee to a biofuel company whose investors donated handsome sums to the Obama campaign. Some of them have even visited the White House to...
View ArticleCongress Should Permanently Waive the Ethanol Mandate
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected a proposal from a number of governors and federal legislators to partially waive the Renewable Fuels Standard, which mandates the...
View ArticleEthanol: List of Mandate’s Victims Keeps Growing
Bring a rancher, a motorcyclist, a governor, a poultry producer, a gas station manager, and a restaurant owner together around a table, and they probably wouldn’t have much in common regarding their...
View ArticleEPA Gives Green Light for California’s Costly Car Program
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a waiver to the state of California to move forward with its Advanced Clean Cars Program. The EPA waiver allows California to implement even...
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Court Strikes Down EPA Biofuel Mandate
Photo credit: Newscom The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot impose a mandate for a non-existent product and then punish companies for failing to use said non-existent product, the U.S. Court...
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Morning Bell: Obama’s Bogus State of the Union Promises
Tonight, the American people will be watching President Obama’s fifth State of the Union address. How has he done on his promises over the past four years? Take a look at some of the promises Obama...
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Obama Has NOT Doubled the Nation’s Fuel Economy
Photo credit: Newscom President Obama’s State of the Union speech last night was full of good intentions, bad policy, and suspect claims. He said, for example, that “We have doubled the distance our...
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Farm Bill Wastes More Taxpayer Money on Green Subsidies
Design Pics / Dave Reede/Dave Reede/Newscom Slapping the word rural in front of a bunch of green subsidies does not mean they’re not subsidies. But that’s exactly what the Rural Energy Investment Act...
View ArticleSpeaker Boehner: What’s “Free Market” About the Farm Bill?
The latest House action on the $1 trillion farm bill comes straight from the playbook “Do as I Say, Not as I Do.” House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) says: “I am a proud advocate for free markets and...
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Renewable Fuels: Raze the Maize Mandate
Ethanol plant in Turner County, South Dakota (Newscom) Senators John Barrasso (R–WY), Mark Pryor (D–AR), and Pat Toomey (R–PA) introduced a bill today to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)....
View ArticleEliminate Advanced Manufacturing and Alternative Fuel Programs
There are sound market ideas that address issues of high energy prices. Throwing money at corporations is not one of them. The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations released its report...
View ArticleEnergy Budget Cuts Are Attack on Subsidies, Not Science
House Members who are proposing cuts to the Department of Energy (DOE) budget are facing bogus criticism that the cuts are an attack on science. The reality is that the cuts are attacks on subsidies...
View ArticleGreat Green Fleet = Big Red Ink
It seems that Washington has a mandate, subsidy, or loan program for every bad idea. Today’s example is military biofuels. Just this spring, the Defense Department issued another multimillion-dollar...
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“Great Green Fleet” Not So Great After All
Charlie Houser/U.S. Navy/Newscom When it comes to funding the military, costly biofuel experiments should not interfere with U.S. security interests. However, that’s exactly what’s happening right now...
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As Navy Fleet Shrinks, Obama Administration Diverts Funds to Biofuels
Newscom Navy Secretary Ray Mabus continued to push for his “green fleet” this week, yet again championing an initiative that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars while providing no benefit to the Navy....
View ArticleBaucus Continues Losing Streak with Energy Tax Reform Draft
Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus (D–MT) released a draft bill to reform the way the tax code treats energy. This latest draft reform plan misses the mark, just like his earlier...
View ArticleSubsidies and Mandates for Biofuel Don’t Provide Enough Stability?
With the Senate considering extending a package of tax credits that expired at the end of 2013, six Senators have banded together to call on Congress to re-up the expired biofuel credits. In...
View ArticleHits and Misses in the House FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act
The House Armed Services Committee recently finished marking up this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As Members of Congress consider the bill, there are many critical pieces they...
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