April 3, 2024
Biden’s EPA Can Justify His New EV Rules Only by Cooking the Books
Before federal regulations are implemented, they must be justified with an extensive analysis of costs and effects. The new Environmental Protection Agency rule forcing a massive shift toward electric vehicles is no exception. Weighing in at 1,181 pages, it is accompanied by an additional 884 pages of “regulatory impact analysis.” The EPA analysis justifying this rule is…
March 6, 2024
Reality Is Forcing Biden to Roll Back His Electric Vehicle Mandate
In a development that can surprise no one, the Biden administration is reportedly planning to delay the schedule of its “multi-pollutant emissions standards” rule to force a massive shift to electric vehicles (EVs). The rule as currently proposed would force an EV market share of 67 percent for new cars and light-duty trucks by 2032, up from 7.6 percent…
March 6, 2024
The Electricity Central Planners Thwarted by Property Rights
The decades-long push for expansion of “renewable” electricity generation—wind and solar power in particular—always has been driven by a combination of religious fervor and the rent- and vote-seeking cynicism of businesses and politicians. Renewable electricity supposedly is “clean,” a stance that ignores the heavy-metal pollution, wildlife destruction, massive and unsightly land use, landfill issues, noise, flicker effects,…
February 29, 2024
Exxon Turns to the Courts to Fight Back Against Activist Shareholders
We’ve come a long way since the days of Harry Truman. In the modern Beltway, policymakers strive mightily to see to it that the buck stops somewhere else. Presidents blame Congress for failures to enact preferred policies. The House of Representatives blames the Senate, and vice versa, and both parties blame each other for failures to enact…
February 16, 2024
Energy Security Does Not Mean What Many Think
I am sufficiently old — and then some, distressingly — to remember 1973. Among the prominent memories of that year were the large international price increases for oil, the long lines at gasoline stations, the handwritten “NO GAS” signs, the five- or 10-gallon purchase limits, the utterly silly license plate odd-even system for determining who would…
February 14, 2024
The Beltway’s Energy Transition Relies on the Broken Window Fallacy
Suppose that a strong earthquake were to destroy a sizable part of a city. The rebuilding process would involve massive investment, procurement of materials and services, and employment. But can anyone believe that the local economy would be stronger than would have been the case had the earthquake never occurred? Obviously not. But in the timeless mindset of the…
February 13, 2024
A Lose-Lose Liquefied Natural Gas Pause
The Biden administration’s move to stop approving liquefied natural gas exports is a breathtaking decision to exacerbate climate change and air pollution, betray our allies, and kill clean energy investment. It is a rare, lose-lose policy with potentially catastrophic consequences for America’s geopolitical strength and for billions of people around the world. America’s growing liquefied natural gas exports are a…
February 12, 2024
The Biden Energy and Climate Policies in Broader Perspective
Say what you will about the myriad confusions and inconsistencies characterizing the overall Biden administration policy agenda, both foreign and domestic, it nonetheless is fair to describe its climate agenda as single-minded, particularly in the context of the intended “clean energy transition” away from conventional energy based upon fossil fuels. Underpinning much of this agenda is the effort to transform the electric power sector away…
January 25, 2024
The Looming Biden Climate Test for Natural-Gas Exports
Should you doubt the magnitude of the Biden administration’s ideological crusade against fossil fuels, merely consider the recent reports that the Department of Energy is considering the addition of a “climate test” criterion for approval of export facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG). This would be in addition to the politicized “public interest” analysis to which such proposals have been…
January 17, 2024
Pay Attention, America: Edmund Burke and the Folly of British Climate “Leadership”
“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” This timeless wisdom was articulated by Edmund Burke, a famous philosopher, member of the House of Commons for many years in the mid- and late 18th century, and often described as a “father of conservatism.” British energy policies since 2008 — the year that Parliament…