Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times EDT): 4:20 p.m. Donald Trump is telling Iowans that one of his campaign goals is to "make America grow again." Speaking at a rally Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump touted his plans to boost economic growth and help American farmers, including his proposal to lower the tax rate on family farms to 15 percent....

Energy: The EPA’s proposal to increase the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline is a trifecta of regulatory abuse. It will do nothing for the environment, it will do nothing for energy security, and it could wreck millions of car engines

every time I fill up my car, I suspect all the different octane gasoline are exactly the same, 91 octane. The only difference is what it is called (eg. gold) and the price. Gas company puts in the same octane gas, with a little advertising, gets more money by calling it gold or premium plus. It is all marketing. Unsuspecting driver feels better buying higher price gas for their beloved car. Any one likes to comment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to increase the amount of ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply. But the volumes proposed Wednesday under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) still fall under targets written into the 2007 law that created the program. That ended up angering both the ethanol industry, which wants more of its product to be mandated, and the oil industry, which wants the program rolled back. The agency plans to mandate that 18.8 billion gallons of biofuels be blended into the country’s gasoline and diesel supply next year. Of that amount, 14.8 billion gallons can...

Returning to this quote from Kevin Williamson's well-known article from National Review: The manufacturing numbers -- and the entire gloriously complex tale of globalization -- go in fits and starts: a little improvement here, a little improvement there, and a radically better world in raw material terms (and let's not sniff at those) every couple of decades. Go back and read the novels of the 1980s or watch The Brady Bunch... ...the cost of butter was not a major financial concern for well-to-do families in the 1980s, or now. But another of Williamson's points needs to be addressed: the...

Renewable energy advocates like to point out that the cost of renewable fuels, like solar power, have dropped substantially in the last few years. The cost of solar power for instance has fallen by more than two-thirds since 2009. Yet for all the excitement about renewable power, the reality is that the entire energy sector has essentially been in a state of deflation for the last decade. The notable drop in oil prices over the last two years aside, costs of producing oil both in the U.S. and in many parts of the world have fallen dramatically. The phase out...

Just one day after the DOJ unveiled its had indicted Chesapeake Founder and former CEO Aubrey McClendon on federal charges of conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases, moments ago the Oklahoma Police announced that he was found dead in a car accident, when while traveling in a 2013 Chevy Tahoe at a high rate of speed he crashed while driving on a two-lane highway and was engulfed in flames. FORMER CHESAPEAKE CEO MCCLENDON DEAD AFTER CAR ACCIDENT: CNBCOKLAHOMA CITY POLICE SAY AUBREY MCCLENDON DEADMCCLENDON WAS GOING FASTER THAN SPEED LIMIT: POLICEMCCLENDON WAS ALONE IN 2013 CHEVY...

Congressman Rep. Steve King (R-IA) 79% appeared on Breitbart News Daily Tuesday morning to support Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 97% in today’s crucial primary elections and to warn that the GOP Establishment is determined to punish Trump and Cruz supporters, and they could even tacitly get behind Hillary Clinton as someone “they can do business with” if Cruz or Trump wins the nomination.

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.expressnews.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Cruz-is-big-oil-s-new-crush-as-donors-cool-to-6843524.php

Sylvania is up next from San Diego. Hi, Sylvania. Glad you waited. You're up next on the EIB Network. CALLER: Hi, Rush. I was a big Trumpster from the get-go. The way he caught my attention was when he started saying "make America great again" and we're going to "win" again. For me that was the keyword, winning, because I was absolutely exhausted and tired of losing seven years. I wanted to win. So I was with Donald Trump from the beginning. But then also Ted Cruz kind of started getting my attention. And I was thinking and looking at...

Saudis, Russia Agree to Freeze Oil Output; Iran Still Resists by Reuters Feb 16 2016, 9:34 am ET Top oil exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed on Tuesday to freeze output levels but said the deal was contingent on other producers joining in - a major sticking point with Iran absent from the talks and determined to raise production. The Saudi, Russian, Qatari and Venezuelan oil ministers announced the proposal after a previously undisclosed meeting in Doha. It could become the first joint OPEC and non-OPEC deal in 15 years, aimed at tackling a growing oversupply of crude and helping...

Wood Mackenzie's report, cited by the energy news service Platts, said about 3.4 million barrels' worth of oil a day was not profitable below $35 a barrel. According to the International Energy Agency, the world's supply is 97.07 million barrels a day. While today's oil prices are below this threshold, the report suggests the price at which US shale and other producers would be forced out of the market is lower than previously thought. As Platts writes, "For many producers, being cash negative is not enough of an incentive to shut down fields as restarting flow can be costly and...

Ted Cruz's critics are wasting no time hitting him in South Carolina. American Future Fund, a conservative group that spent heavily against Cruz in Iowa, will begin airing a TV commercial in South Carolina that labels Cruz as "weak" on national security — a damaging label in military-heavy South Carolina. The spot ties Cruz to Bernie Sanders, the liberal insurgent who’s gaining momentum in the Democratic primary, and President Barack Obama. "Ted Cruz talks tough on national security. But look at his record. Cruz voted with Bernie Sanders against defense spending," the ad says. "Cruz sided with Obama to weaken...

Remittances sent home by Mexicans working outside the country surpassed petroleum revenues in 2015 for the first time. There was a 4.75% increase in money sent from abroad, most of which comes from the U.S., to total US $24.8 billion last year, up from $23.6 billion in 2014, said the Bank of Mexico. An important factor in the increase in remittances is the jobs created by economic recovery in the U.S. Some 11 million Mexicans are believed to be living in the U.S. and many work in construction. Remittances, 97% of which are sent electronically, averaged $292 last year. We...

America's Future Fund, a political action committee that opposed Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa, has purchased $1.5 million in negative advertising against Cruz that will run on television in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 20th South Carolina primary. The ad, "Weak," attempts to discredit Cruz's national security bona fides in a state with a heavy military and veteran population. America's Future Fund is run by GOP establishment operative Nick Ryan. As CR's Rob Eno wrote in "Why The Establishment Fears Cruz More Than Trump": "Ryan is a longstanding force in Iowa politics, allied with the moderate Governor Branstad....

No excerpt from Bloomberg allowed, story here.

Pointing to the effects of "horrible" super-PACs, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday said America needs to come up with a solution to keep big money out of politics. "Well, I think you need it, because I think PACs are a horrible thing," Trump said on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked if he would pursue campaign finance reform. The billionaire businessman, who said he is self-financing his campaign, said the wall separating super-PACs and candidates running for public office is illusory. "First of all, everyone's dealing with their PAC. You know, it's supposed to be like this...

...U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv The U.S. Embassy in Israel is currently in Tel Aviv. Cruz wants to move it to Jerusalem, Israel's "once and eternal" capital.Commerce DepartmentIn a piece for the National Review, Cruz said shuttering the department would "close the congressional cookie jar" and promote free trade.Education DepartmentAnother standard line from Cruz: "U.S. Department of Education, which should be abolished." Cruz is a states' rights guy -- he wrote his college thesis on the 10th Amendment -- and wants to give control of schools to states or localities....Energy DepartmentCruz has said the country needs an "energy renaissance." .......

If Donald Trump is the Tony Soprano of American politics, Ted Cruz is a less-affable version of Mr. Haney from Green Acres (Ok - not quite, but sort of! Do feel free to say, H&R readers, which movie character is a better fit with Cruz). But the only thing cleverer than Cruz's impression of Inigo Montoya in Princess Bride (and not the least because it irritates Billy Crystal and the insufferably self-righteous Mandy Patinkin so much) is the campaign strategy he devised in Iowa to defeat the ethanol cartel and win the primary, I note in my column at The...

If Texas Sen. Ted Cruz does nothing else in the 2016 Republican primary, he's at least done this - he has laid low the ethanol lobby. The once-sacrosanct Renewable Fuel Standards, which mandate the use of dirty, inefficient ethanol in our gasoline, are no longer invulnerable. "The ethanol lobby is a paper tiger, and Ted Cruz just tore it to shreds," wrote Tim Carney for the Washington Examiner. "Cruz, the country's most famous enemy of the federal ethanol mandate, just won Iowa, winning more votes than any person in the history of the caucuses. Cruz thus busted the myth that...