Free Republic

The Obama Environmental Protection Agency just condemned to death an entire U.S. industry - a legal and scientific horror story that congressional Republicans failed miserably to prevent. The EPA’s newly proposed greenhouse gas emission standards for coal-fired power plants will be finalized by the Obama administration, win or lose, after the November election. Though the proposed standards leave alone existing coal-fired power plants, they effectively prohibit the construction of new plants by establishing an impossible-to-meet emissions standard. But don’t get the idea that the EPA threw the coal industry a bone by omitting existing coal-fired plants, as the agency has...

Panic buying broke out at petrol stations throughout the country today as ministers were accused of spreading fear by telling motorists to stock up on fuel in case of a strike by tanker drivers. Some filling stations ran out and others began rationing petrol and diesel after ministers’ warnings of a major disruption to fuel supplies. Tanker drivers from the Unite trade union have voted for industrial action, raising the prospect of a strike that could affect supplies to 90 per cent of fuel stations. No date has been set for a strike, but ministers suggested that action could begin...

State Representative George Darany would like to give every Michigan resident making $100,000 or less a state subsidy to help cover the cost of gas. Darany, a Democrat from Dearborn, introduced House Bill 5476 in March. According to Michigan Votes, the bill would “give individuals with annual incomes below $50,000 a per-vehicle fuel subsidy of $100, payable in the form of a ‘refundable’ state income tax credit. A $75 per vehicle subsidy could be claimed by those with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000, and a $50 per vehicle subsidy for incomes between $75,000 and $100,000.” Gas paid by their fellow...

It's the political cure-all for high gas prices: Drill here, drill now. But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, math and history show. A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production by The Associated Press shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump. If more domestic oil drilling worked as politicians say, you'd now be paying about $2 a gallon for gasoline. Instead, you're paying the highest prices ever for March. Political...

Obama's first big energy-policy speech was to the United Nations in 2009 when he boldly told the entire world that it had to get off of fossil fuels because: "the threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing." "Rising sea levels threaten every coastline," blah, blah, blah, but to the true believers, it was lines from a psalm: More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent. More frequent drought and crop failures breed hunger and conflict. All the largest emitters of greenhouse gas pollution [must] act together. Wind turbines and solar panels and batteries for...

Republicans have in recent weeks waged an all-out blitz against President Barack Obama over the issue of gas prices, but the political benefit could prove fleeting, if and when fuel prices decline. The steady rise in gas prices this spring provides Republicans with their most immediate example of the pocketbook fleecing suffered by voters, prompting the party to pounce. While some indicators point toward a tentative economic recovery -- which could be to the president’s political benefit -- the lost income associated with higher gas prices has led the GOP’s presidential contenders and leaders in Congress to complain that it’s...

In the past three years the number of oil rigs in America quadrupled to 1,272. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney didn’t hesitate to boast , “Oil and gas production in the United States has risen every year since the president’s been in office. Oil production is now higher than it’s been in eight years.” President Barack Obama pushes the same message: “Now, we absolutely need safe, responsible oil production here in America. That’s why under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years.” This is true. But it has...

All three candidates joined Tommy Tucker on WWL Radio in New Orleans this morning and discussed the topic of erosion in Louisiana affecting the nation’s energy supply. Governor Mitt Romney admitted to not being “sufficiently briefed” on the issue. Like Romney, Senator Santorum also admitted to not being familiar with the issue. Newt, on the other hand, responded to the same question from Tucker by outlining a two point plan for maintaining and revitalizing Louisiana’s offshore drilling and energy industry, admitting it is an issue on which he has been “briefed again and again.” Additionally, Newt gave a speech today...

Enough is enough! Do a 'google' search on Obama & gas prices and you'll see a slew of articles from Reuters, AP, ane other news media that universally claim fault with republicans while holding Obama blameless. They are shamelessly promoting and aiding Obama's PR campaign to distort the truth. For one, there's no secret that Democrats have opposed drilling oil domestically whether it is offshore, ANWR, etc. Al Gore called for $5.00 a gallon over a decade ago, Chu called for $8.00, and the left openly calls for extremely high energy prices to FORCE us to quit using fossil fuels....

Trying to deflect responsibility for his anti-fossil fuel policies, President Obama took the offensive against Republicans by saying, "Lately, we've heard a lot of professional politicians -- a lot of the folks who, you know, are running for a certain office, who shall go unnamed -- they've been talking down new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power. They dismiss solar power. They make jokes about biofuels." Clearly, rising gasoline prices and falling poll numbers are forcing Obama to bend the truth. Marketplace realities, not Republicans, are responsible for the failures of the President's alternative energy agenda. Sadly, the joke...

President Bush lifted an executive order banning offshore oil drilling on Monday and urged Congress to follow suit. Citing the high prices Americans are paying at the pump, Bush said from the White House Rose Garden that allowing offshore oil drilling is "one of the most important steps we can take" to reduce that burden. However, the move is largely symbolic as there is also a federal law banning offshore drilling. "This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil reserves is action from the U.S. Congress," Bush said

Despite his change of the U.S. economy into a hope-less version of Europe’s, President Barack Obama, the self-proclaimed fourth greatest president ever, could still be reelected. Go figure. That may say more about us than it does him. But despite economic woes, joblessness, so many people out of work for so long they quit looking, soaring debt and deficits and the looming threat of even worse on the horizon (ObamaCare), the likable but arrogant president could emerge victorious in November. Unless…

Pond scum stinks. And so do the Obama administration's enormous, taxpayer-funded "investments" in politically connected biofuel companies. While the president embarks on a green rehabilitation tour this week to quell growing public outrage about big green boondoggles, the White House continues to cultivate a cozy algae racket. Obama's promotion of algae as a fuel source at a campaign speech in Miami last month caught the nation's attention. But algae companies have been banking on administration support from Day One. In December 2008, when the White House announced the nomination of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the CEO of Florida-based biofuels startup...

The world is on track for around four degrees Celsius of global warming under current carbon emissions trends, says the EU’s chief climate negotiator, a trajectory that some scientists say risks a planetary mass extinction event. "When you look at the global emissions, with the current pledges which are on the table … we are probably heading towards 3.8 or 4.2 degrees [warming],” said Artur Runge-Metzger, speaking at a roundtable hosted in Brussels by the Institut français des relations internationales on 14 March. The EU official then asked US and Japanese officials at the roundtable: “Are you making preparations in...

In almost every energy speech, President Obama makes this statement: "We've got 2 percent of the world oil reserves. We use 20 percent." But there's more to those numbers than meet the eye. "It's accurate but extremely misleading," says Dan Kish of Institute for Energy Research, which is supported by the industry. "What he is talking about is oil we already have found." Misleading, he argues, because the president is pointing to "proven" reserves, which is some 21 billion barrels, but the U.S. is sitting on vast reserves of untapped energy that are far greater.

President Obama’s most recent green energy fixation—algae—may suffer from the accusations of cronyism that have plagued his broader effort to promote non-fossil fuel energy sources through massive federal subsidies. Solazyme, a San Francisco-based firm that specializes in the plant matter, has received more than $25 million in federal grants and contracts as part of Obama administration’s controversial stimulus package, and is poised to receive millions more as part of the president’s recent efforts to promote green biofuels such as algae. The firm employs a former member of the Obama-Biden transition team who, according to one online bio, “played a key...

Majority Democrats proposed a one-year cap Monday on the state's escalating wholesale fuel tax -- but set it to expire one day before one of the largest fuel tax increases in state history is set to kick in. ... Republican legislative leaders, who have been advocating a cap on the state’s most volatile levy on gasoline for several months, agreed to support the proposal, but criticized Democrats for including an expiration date. At New Haven harbor, the single-largest fuel importing site in Connecticut, the wholesale price of gasoline stood Monday at $3.18 per gallon, according to the Independent Connecticut Petroleum...

Iran may impose a blockade on oil exports that threaten the world’s economies as a reaction to new unprecedented sanctions, says its former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian. Belgium’s Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which handles most international bank transfers, has eliminated Iran from its services. The move is a “direct result of international and multilateral action to intensify financial sanctions against Iran," said SWIFT CEO Lazaro Campos. The embargo on Iran took effect Saturday and reduces Iran’s ability to use a secure network to receive payments. It also will affect Iranians wanting to receive money from relatives outside...

Yes, of course, presidents have no direct control over gas prices. But the American people know something about this president and his disdain for oil. The "fuel of the past," he contemptuously calls it. To the American worker who doesn't commute by government motorcade and is getting fleeced every week at the pump, oil seems very much a fuel of the present — and of the foreseeable future. President Barack Obama incessantly claims energy open-mindedness, insisting that his policy is "all of the above." Except, of course, for drilling • off the Mid-Atlantic coast (as Virginia, for example, wants), •...