PUBLICATIONS BY Ben Lieberman
Research
Commentary
Media Appearances
2008 Research
November 24, 2008
The True Costs of EPA Global Warming Regulation
By Ben Lieberman
(Backgrounder #2213)
The EPA's Clean Air Act is ill suited to address global warming, which would almost certainly unleash a costly and impractical regulatory scheme that would ensnare all manner of vehicles as well as a million or more businesses, buildings, and farms. Heritage's economic analysis estimates a nearly $7 trillion cumulative decline in GDP by 2029 from such regulations, and up to 3 million lost manufacturing jobs.
October 17, 2008
Falling Oil Prices: Useful Lessons from the Slump at the Pump
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #2106)
Last summer’s record-breaking oil and gasoline prices received plenty of attention in Washington and sparked a host of proposed responses from Congress. However, the real lessons are to be learned by studying the dramatic drop in prices since then.
September 19, 2008
Lower Home Heating Bills by Increasing Domestic Energy Supplies
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #2067)
Gasoline prices have fallen a bit since hitting $4.00 a gallon last summer, but America’s total energy bill is going to increase in the months ahead as we enter the home heating season. Beyond federal assistance programs to help the poor with their high energy bills, Washington can and should do more to bring prices down by removing the restrictions on domestic energy production.
September 08, 2008
The Gang of 10's Energy Bill: Just More Bad Energy Ideas
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #2052)
On Friday, September 5 the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its employment estimates for August 2008. Government data shows that employers continued to shed jobs for the eighth consecutive month, while the unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent, a five-year high. The manufacturing sector experienced particularly large job losses, mostly in automobile manufacturers. Temporary employment services also experienced large job losses. Given such statistics, economic concerns are understandably weighing on the minds of many Americans. However, these economic concerns must be considered in the proper context.
August 08, 2008
Congressional Moratorium on Offshore Drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf Should Be Allowed to Expire
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #2016)
Congressional restrictions are the only thing standing between 19 billion barrels of additional domestic oil and the citizens who need it. If Congress does not act to renew these outdated, anti-energy, and anti-consumer restrictions, these areas will be opened to exploration and drilling beginning on October 1. Some are calling this Energy Freedom Day, and it would be a welcome and long overdue step toward dealing with high gasoline prices.
July 28, 2008
Energy Policy: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes of the '70s
By Ben Lieberman and Nicholas D. Loris
(WebMemo #2004)
America is currently facing energy challenges reminiscent of the 1970s. Unfortunately, rising gas prices have policymakers repeating the mistakes from that decade-mistakes that took a bad situation and made it worse.
July 14, 2008
Lifting the Offshore Drilling Ban: A Positive Step in the Fight against High Energy Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1990)
The President took a positive step today by rescinding the executive moratorium on exploration and production in American waters. However, Congress still needs to act in order to make this oil available.
July 11, 2008
EPA Should Not Ignore Congress on Global Warming Restrictions
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1987)
The proposed regulations in the ANPR would result a vast expansion of the EPA's power, giving it unprecedented regulatory oversight into all sectors of the economy.
June 26, 2008
More Energy Supplies, Not More Taxes and Regulations, Are What We Need
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1969)
Congress should be opening up energy resources instead of looking for scapegoats.
June 26, 2008
Addressing the Global Food Crisis
By Brett D. Schaefer, Ben Lieberman, and Brian M. Riedl
(Backgrounder #2151)
Measures to deal with the food crisis should include eliminating the artificial demand created by ethanol and other biofuel mandates, making food assistance more effective and efficient, eliminating agricultural trade barriers and subsidies worldwide, loosening restrictions on exploiting U.S. oil and gas reserves, and encouraging the development of genetically modified crops that are better suited to Africa and other famine-prone regions.
June 19, 2008
Opening America's Waters to Energy Production: A Positive Step in the Fight Against High Energy Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1963)
Washington, D.C., must do something about the increasing price of gasoline, now topping $4.00 per gallon. One important step would be to tap our own supplies of oil. Yet for decades, overlapping congressional and presidential restrictions on drilling for energy in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) have stood in the way of lower prices for oil and natural gas.
June 09, 2008
The Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 Will Only Increase Gas Prices and Energy Costs
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1950)
ood energy policy is easy to distinguish from bad energy policy: Good policy leads to more supplies of affordable energy and bad policy leads to less. A few recently proposed bills, such as the American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S. 2973), introduced by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), and the Affordable Fuel for Consumers Act of 2008 (H.R. 6009), introduced by Representative Phil English (R-PA), seek to free up domestic energy supplies by undoing past constraints , including eliminating restrictions on domestic oil production. Unfortunately for consumers, the energy bill on the fast track right now is the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 (S. 3044), introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), which repeats the mistakes of the past by adding constraints that will discourage domestic energy supplies, including:
June 02, 2008
The Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Act: A Solution Worse Than the Problem
By Ben Lieberman
(Backgrounder #2140)
America's Climate Security Act of 2007 requires significant emissions reductions before the technologies capable of achieving them affordably are available. The science points away from a need to act precipitously and impose such a dramatic slowing of the economy in such a tight timeframe, Lieberman–Warner, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, cap and trade, economic costs, Climate Security Act, carbon dioxide emissions, Kyoto Protocol, climate change, emissions caps, emissions freeze
May 30, 2008
Five Myths About the Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Legislation
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1940)
On June 2, the United States Senate will begin debate on America’s Climate Security Act (S. 2191), sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). The Lieberman–Warner bill (LW) would restrict energy use to combat global warming.
May 22, 2008
Effect of the Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Legislation on States
By William W. Beach, Ben Lieberman, David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D., and Nicolas D. Loris
(WebMemo #1930)
Workers and families in the United States may be wondering how climate change legislation before Congress will affect their income, their jobs, and the cost of energy. Members of Congress are considering a number of bills designed to address climate change.
May 19, 2008
The Good and Bad Approaches to Affordable Energy Policy
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1927)
Good energy policy is easy to distinguish from bad energy policy: Good policy leads to more supplies of affordable energy, and bad policy leads to less. The recently rejected American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S. 2958), sponsored by Senator Mitch McConnell R–KY), sought for the most part to make it easier to access domestic energy supplies by undoing past constraints, including restrictions on domestic oil production.
May 15, 2008
Time to Repeal the Ethanol Mandate
By Ben Lieberman and Nicolas Loris
(WebMemo #1925)
Though intended to help consumers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the ethanol mandate has done just the opposite, contributing to high food and gas prices with little environmental benefit. Representative Jeff Flake (R–AZ) has introduced H.R. 5911, the Remove Incentives for Producing Ethanol Act of 2008, which would eliminate the mandate and other benefits for ethanol, and other measures may soon be introduced.
May 12, 2008
The Economic Costs of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Legislation
By William W. Beach, David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D., Ben Lieberman, and Nicolas D. Loris
(Center for Data Analysis Report #08-02)
The Lieberman-Warner climate change bill is, in many respects, an unprecedented proposal. Its limits on CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions would impose significant costs on virtually the entire American economy, and complicated tariff rules, dependent on evaluating the GHG restrictions of all trading partners, add another unknowable dimension to the costs, fueling the overall uncertainty.
May 02, 2008
Ethanol and Other Biofuels: A Global Warming Solution Worse Than the Problem
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1912)
There are risks to global warming policy as well as risks to global warming, and although the former could be costlier than the latter, they are often neglected in climate change debate.
April 18, 2008
Both Bad and Good in Bush's Climate Change Speech
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1897)
President George W. Bush, in a speech delivered at the White House on Wednesday, April 16, suggested that he will support federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions. This appears to be a reversal after seven years of opposition to mandatory controls on energy in the name of fighting climate change. Indeed, some worried that the speech would announce a final-year capitulation on the issue.
April 02, 2008
Time for Second Thoughts on the Ethanol Mandate
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1879)
The federal renewable fuels mandate is an unfolding failure, and more Members of Congress are taking notice.
March 28, 2008
The EPA's Prudent Response to Massachusetts v. EPA
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1870)
The EPA has taken the best course of action on the question of regulating carbon dioxide emissions.
February 26, 2008
EPA Should Not Increase the Ozone Regulation Burden
By Nick Loris and Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1827)
The EPA's proposal would hurt the economy and offers only marginal health benefits at best.
February 21, 2008
EPA Should Avoid Regulating Carbon Dioxide Emissions
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1822)
An "endangerment finding" would spark many measures with the potential to harm the U.S. economy and intrude on citizens' daily activities.
February 14, 2008
The 2008 House Energy Tax Bill: Repeating Past Mistakes
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1816)
By taxing successful energy sources and subsidizing failed ones, the House bill would raise prices for consumers and reduce energy security.
February 06, 2008
The EU's Climate Change Package: Not a Model to Be Copied
By Sally McNamara and Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1800)
The United States should follow a pro-market approach that avoids mandatory targets and focuses on technological development.
January 25, 2008
Don't List the Polar Bear Under the Endangered Species Act
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1781)
Listing the polar bear as a threatened species would harm the economy and possibly the bears as well.
January 15, 2008
Don't Tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, But Tap Elsewhere
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1774)
To address high gas prices, Congress should reduce restrictions on domestic oil production.
2007 Research
December 21, 2007
The U.S. Must Be Resolute to Avoid Harmful Consequences of the Bali Global Warming Conference
By Brett D. Schaefer and Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1759)
The U.S. should remain adamant in its opposition to binding emissions caps and insist that any agreement be flexible and focus on solutions that do not unduly constrain economic growth.
December 18, 2007
House Energy Bill Promises Higher Prices, More Deaths, and Big Subsidies for Unproven Technologies
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1752)
The House's bill would drive up costs for consumers and businesses, decrease auto safety, and, at best, marginally benefit the environment.
December 12, 2007
Energy Bill Tax Title Promises More Pain at the Pump
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1736)
The pending energy bill would increase taxes on the energy sources America relies upon, namely oil and natural gas, in order to subsidize alternatives with a spotty track record.
December 06, 2007
Beware of Cap and Trade Climate Bills
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1723)
S. 2191 would likely increase energy costs and do considerably more economic harm than environmental good.
December 05, 2007
The Compromise Energy Bill: Harmful Regulation, Not Affordable Energy
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1721)
Costlier vehicles running on costlier fuels, and a boost in electric bills: This is Congress's solution to the nation’s energy challenges.
October 11, 2007
Global Climate-Change Bills Before Congress
By Ben Lieberman and William W. Beach
(Backgrounder #2075)
Climate legislation can take two forms: expanding existing measures that mandate alternative energy sources or reduce energy consumption and imposing cap-and-trade restrictions on emissions from fossil fuels. Both approaches seek to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. Given the large cost, it is important that Congress avoid enacting legislation that does more harm than global warming itself.
September 24, 2007
The Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change: A Badly Needed Alternative to the Kyoto Protocol
By Ben Lieberman and Brett D. Schaefer
(WebMemo #1636)
Focusing on voluntary reductions and technological innovation is a more promising strategy to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
August 01, 2007
The House Energy Bill: As Anti-Energy As the Senate Version
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1581)
The House energy bill repeats past mistakes and will likely lead to lower domestic energy supplies and higher costs over the long term.
July 09, 2007
No Energy in the House Energy Bill
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1542)
By further restricting domestic production, the House energy bill would raise prices for consumers and may even increase dependence on foreign producers.
June 21, 2007
Senate Energy Bill Tax Title Hikes Taxes and Promises Higher Prices for Consumers
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1519)
Raising taxes on what works and heaping subsidies on what does not was bad energy tax policy in the past and will not do any better this time around.
June 13, 2007
S. 1419: Bad News for Any Energy Consumer
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1506)
Almost every bad energy policy idea circulating in Washington has found a home in the 2007 energy bill. If this misguided measure becomes law, the American people can expect few, if any, tangible benefits, but can count on higher energy prices and other hardships.
June 01, 2007
The G-8 Summit: President Bush Must Stand Firm on Global Warming
By Sally McNamara and Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1481)
The Administration should actively reject entreaties from fellow G-8 nations to agree to growth-sapping controls on energy use and instead continue its successful model in favor of economic development.
May 23, 2007
Gasoline Price Gouging Laws Will Not Benefit Consumers
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1469)
According to the FTC and past experience, price-gouging laws are likely to do more harm than good, possibly raising prices at the pump.
May 08, 2007
Beware of Anti-Consumer Energy Bills On Tap in Congress
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1447)
Though far less dangerous than a comprehensive global warming bill, Congress's latest energy proposals are problematic enough to justify serious concern.
April 16, 2007
Discussing Global Warming in the Security Council: Premature and a Distraction from More Pressing Crises
By Brett Schaefer and Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1425)
The projected threats of global warming do not rise to the level of Security Council consideration.
March 28, 2007
The Ethanol Mandate Should Not Be Expanded
By Ben Lieberman
(Backgrounder #2020)
Creating a 35 billion gallon ethanol mandate in the hope that technological breakthroughs will help to meet it is not responsible policy. Instead of trying to pick alternative energy winners and losers, Congress and the Administration should seriously consider repealing the ethanol mandate instead of expanding it and eliminate tariff and regulatory barriers to ethanol imports.
March 26, 2007
$6.00 Per Gallon Gas: Not High Enough To Fight Global Warming?
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1408)
Those who support legislative efforts like increased gas taxes to combat global warming should come clean to the American people about their proposals' likely impacts on Americans' wallets.
March 21, 2007
Frequently Asked Questions About Global Warming
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1403)
Is the release of carbon dioxide a significant factor relative to natural temperature variability, what are likely consequences of warming, and what should be done about it?
February 07, 2007
Don't Rush To Judgment on U.N.'s IPCC Global Warming Summary
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1351)
Caution is warranted in drawing policy conclusions based on this summary, as the full scientific debate over the IPCC report has not begun.
January 23, 2007
State of the Union 2007: A Counterproductive Energy Policy
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1323)
The President’s energy policy has drifted towards the same troubling approach Americans saw during the Carter Administration.
January 17, 2007
Memo to Speaker Pelosi: H.R. 6 Risks Making Energy More Expensive
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1315)
H.R. 6 will, at best, do nothing to reduce gasoline prices and could actually increase them over the long term.
2006 Research
December 12, 2006
Interior's Energy Inventory: Abundant Domestic Supplies Off-Limits
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1285)
Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas lie in U.S. territories. Bad federal policy keeps most of it off-limits to Americans.
December 04, 2006
The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006: One Small Step for Energy Supply
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1273)
The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 is a small, worthwhile step toward expanding domestic energy production.
September 27, 2006
Declining Energy Prices No Reason for Complacency
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1225)
The short-term easing off of prices does not take the pressure off Congress to open ANWR and expand offshore drilling.
August 10, 2006
American-Made Energy from ANWR at a Modest Cost
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1192)
New legislation would open ANWR.
July 25, 2006
The Senate Should Adopt a Comprehensive Approach to Deepwater Oil and Natural Gas
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1173)
While opening Lease Sale area 181 to energy production would be a positive step, the Senate should consider the House's bolder approach.
July 25, 2006
Time to Remove Barriers to Boosting Oil Refining Capacity
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1174)
If it is serious about reducing Americans' pain at the pump, the Senate should streamline federal regulation of refineries.
June 28, 2006
The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006: State Control, Increased Supply, and Lower Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1140)
Congress passed a 1,700-page energy bill last year and has since introduced hundreds of additional energy bills. Unfortunately, most of these measures will not bring down oil and natural gas prices. In contrast, the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006 (DOER Act, H.R. 4761), would expand domestic offshore oil and natural gas production and is a strong step towards more affordable and stable energy supplies.
June 20, 2006
End Restrictions on Domestic Offshore Energy Production
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1135)
The United States is the only nation in the world that has placed a substantial amount of its oil and natural gas potential off-limits. This includes restrictions on drilling in most of the nation's offshore areas. Despite current high oil and natural gas prices, these longstanding offshore drilling bans remain in place. Congress should revise this policy, for the benefit of the American consumer and American economy. "The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006" (H.R. 4761) seeks to do just that.
June 12, 2006
The FTC's Primer on Price Gouging
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1120)
With the high price of gasoline today, Members of Congress are scrambling for policies that could lower prices and demonstrate that they are doing everything they can to address the issue.
June 05, 2006
Congress Should Streamline Regulatory Impediments to Refinery Expansions
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1112)
High oil prices, currently triple the average of the 1990s, are the main cause of today's high gasoline prices. But they are not the only cause. The cost of refining oil into gasoline has also risen, due in part to unnecessarily costly and onerous federal refinery regulations. One pending bill, The Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act (H.R. 5254), takes steps to streamline the regulatory process. Reining in refinery regulations should lead to increased refining capacity and thus lower prices.
May 24, 2006
Congress Should Let ANWR's Oil Flow to U.S. Customers
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1094)
Congress should open a small part of Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration and drilling. H.R. 5429, the "American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act," provides Congress with the opportunity to take this important and overdue pro-energy step.
May 18, 2006
Congress Should Expand Offshore Energy Production
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1086)
Most of America's offshore areas are off-limits to oil and natural gas drilling, despite years of tight energy supplies and high prices for oil and gas. But a number of bills, including a pro-drilling amendment to the pending Interior appropriations bill, seek to open up some of these restricted areas and increase domestic oil and gas production. These are long-overdue steps.
May 12, 2006
Lift Tariffs on Foreign Ethanol
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1074)
The ethanol mandate is a bad idea. Tariffs that drive up the price of ethanol make it worse.
May 04, 2006
Avoiding Backfires at the Pump: How to Handling High Gas Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1058)
There are good and bad ideas for dealing with high gas prices.
May 03, 2006
One Good Idea and One Bad Idea for Dealing with $3.00 Gas
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1055)
The House votes on two bills that deal with gas prices.
April 28, 2006
How the Energy Bill Boosted Prices at the Pump
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1053)
The 2005 energy bill has contributed to rising gas prices.
April 07, 2006
The Right and Wrong Way for Washington To Address High Gasoline Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1033)
Expand supplies and cut regulation to improve energy markets and prices.
March 20, 2006
Correcting Mistakes of the 1990s Should Top the Energy Agenda for 2006
By Ben Lieberman
(Backgrounder #1921)
The energy policy mistakes of the 1990s largely remain in place. The nation is still not using its available oil and natural gas resources, and Washington continues to hamper the energy sector with a host of costly and unnecessary regulatory requirements. Congress can and should correct these mistakes to alleviate the high cost of energy for 2006 and beyond.
March 14, 2006
A Positive Step In Easing the Natural Gas Crunch
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1015)
The solution is simple: tap the Gulf's massive reserves.
March 01, 2006
Raising Taxes on Oil Companies Is No Way To Reduce Gas Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #1004)
A new implementation of a bad idea.
January 31, 2006
State of the Union 2006: Dusting Off the Old Energy Policy
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #979)
Subsidies, grants, government-directed research and development. This sounds much too familiar.
January 30, 2006
Opening ANWR Should Be in the State of the Union Address
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #973)
It's the best energy measure the President could put forward.
2005 Research
November 15, 2005
Windfall Profits of Doom
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #918)
Criticizing big oil companies and their big profits is very popular in Congress right now. Even some normally free-market Republicans have tried to outdo the Democrats in anti-industry rhetoric, and bills have been introduced proposing ways to punish the major oil companies.
November 07, 2005
Time To Pull the Plug on Federally Subsidized Electricity
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #910)
Congress has finally started looking for places to cut spending but so far has left alone federal expenditures on energy. However, the government wastes billions on unnecessary energy-related spending that should be on the table. As a start, Congress should stop subsidizing 25 percent of the nation's electricity.
November 02, 2005
The Environmental Disaster That Wasn't
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #907)
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not cause any major offshore oil spills despite striking America's biggest oil producing region.
October 25, 2005
The Gas PRICE Act: A Modest Step Forward in the Post-Katrina Energy Debate
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #895)
Opponents say the bill would roll back environmental protections. They're wrong.
September 29, 2005
More Domestic Energy: The Right Response to Katrina and Rita
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #868)
Increased production and refining capacity are both crucial to reducing the volatility of energy prices in the years ahead.
September 23, 2005
Improving the Endangered Species Act: Balancing the Needs of Landowners and Endangered Wildlife
By Nancy Marano and Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #861)
A close look at the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005.
September 02, 2005
No Easy Answers For Post-Katrina Gas Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #831)
The short term solution is to waive regulations; long term, Congress should focus on supply.
September 01, 2005
A Bad Response To Post-Katrina Gas Prices
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #827)
Capping the price of gas will cause shortages--even allowing 'price-gouging' is a better solution.
July 29, 2005
The Bad Tax Bill Within the Bad Energy Bill
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #811)
The energy bill's tax provisions tax provisions are a collection of old ideas that have never worked, new ideas unlikely to work, and a lot of pork for the energy industry.
July 08, 2005
A Great G8, If the World Ditches Kyoto
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #789)
Moving beyond Kyoto could ease third world poverty.
June 20, 2005
Kyoto Lite: A Potential Deal Breaker in the Senate Energy Bill
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #768)
Will the Senate turn the energy bill into an anti-energy bill?
May 31, 2005
Will the Energy Bill Get Better or Worse?
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #751)
The ball is in the Senate's court.
April 15, 2005
The Good and Bad of the Energy Bill
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #724)
The energy bill is getting older, but it isn't getting any better. Congressional debate over energy legislation has dragged on since 2001 and is starting up again in the 109th Congress.
April 08, 2005
Keep Ethanol Out of The Energy Bill
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #713)
If Congress wants to make energy less expensive, ethanol is a bad solution.
April 06, 2005
A Responsible Way to Reconcile the House and Senate Budget Resolutions
By Brian M. Riedl, William W. Beach, Nina Owcharenko, Ben Lieberman, and David C. John
(Backgrounder #1842)
Although the House and Senate budget resolutions do not include deep spending cuts, it is important that lawmakers begin the reform process. The best budget plan would expand pro-growth tax relief and begin to rein in spending in areas such as Medicaid and farm subsidies. Such actions could lay the groundwork for larger reforms next year.
March 17, 2005
Opening ANWR: Long Overdue
By Ben Lieberman
(WebMemo #692)
Opening ANWR would boost domestic oil supplies and seshow that the U.S. is serious about addressing its future energy needs.
2008 Commentary
October 29, 2008
Slump at the Pump no Reason for Complacency
By Ben Lieberman
Seeing a sharp drop in gasoline prices -- over a dollar per gallon off summer highs -- is one rare piece of good news these days for consumers. But now is not the time to hit the brakes and rest easy, because Washington still needs to do some things to ensure more affordable pump prices.
October 06, 2008
Bringing Alaskan Energy To The White House Race
By Ben Lieberman
It’s understandable that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin emphasized energy issues during the vice-presidential debate. Her state is sitting on a lot of it — potentially 30 billion barrels.
September 29, 2008
Heat's rightly on for coastal drilling
By Ben Lieberman
Gasoline prices have dropped a little since hitting $4 a gallon, but America’s total energy bill is going to increase as we enter the home heating season.
August 19, 2008
Washington running dry on a gas price fix
By Ben Lieberman
If only drivers could avoid high gasoline prices as easily as Congress has avoided doing anything about them.
Gas has dipped below $4 a gallon for the first time in months, but prices are still uncomfortably high and likely will stay that way through November. Thus, the pain at the pump will remain a big election issue. But now that members of Congress have gone home for the August recess and are asking voters to re-elect them, they'll have to explain why the single best energy idea _ expanding domestic oil production _ isn't even on the agenda.
August 15, 2008
Environmental Activists, Not Oil Companies, Blocking Domestic Drilling
By Ben Lieberman
It’s true: Hundreds of promising oil leases on federal lands are being stonewalled, contributing to lower supplies and higher prices at the pump. But the blame lies not with the oil companies, but with environmental activists.
July 21, 2008
Uphill battle on drilling
By Ben Lieberman
With only six months left in office, President Bush has finally repealed presidential restrictions on oil drilling in American waters. Now it's Congress' turn to do the same and start bringing more domestic energy online.
July 08, 2008
No drilling? No excuses
By Ben Lieberman
With gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and no relief in sight, it makes perfect sense to open some of America's extensive off-limits areas to oil drilling. Yet the Democratic Congress refuses to budge, citing a number of weak excuses. Among them:
June 09, 2008
Save the Earth, Sacrifice American Workers?
By Ben Lieberman
It may be time to put American workers on the endangered-species list. For nearly 40 years, the environmental movement has all but declared war on high-wage, blue-collar jobs, with considerable success. Now, a proposed global-warming bill called the America's Climate Security Act would finish off many of the remaining ones. Green activists and regulators have sent many such working men and women to the unemployment line, or to lower-wage service-sector jobs.
June 09, 2008
Oil: Open Up Federal Lands
By Ben Lieberman
The more we look for oil and natural gas in the United States, the more we find. If only we were allowed to go and get it.
June 03, 2008
Five myths about the Lieberman-Warner global-warming legislation
By Ben Lieberman
This week, the Senate debates America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191), sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.) and John Warner (R., Va). The Lieberman-Warner bill (LW) would restrict energy use to combat global warming. Like global warming itself, the bill has undergone considerable hype and little hard-nosed analysis. Several myths need to be dispelled.
May 26, 2008
$3.80 gasoline too low? Washington thinks so
By Ben Lieberman
Millions of vacationers will pay record prices for gasoline as they hit the roads this Memorial Day weekend, and only those who've been in the sun too long would like to see prices climb even higher. Yet several members of Congress seem determined to guarantee that they will.
May 05, 2008
High Gas Prices: Fuel for Thought
By Ben Lieberman
When it comes to soaring gasoline prices, we need a federal government that does less.
2007 Commentary
December 29, 2007
Washington's big energy bill
By Ben Lieberman
More expensive cars running on more expensive fuels, plus a boost in food prices -- believe it or not, that's Washington's latest answer to America's energy woes.
December 29, 2007
Copy of Washington's big energy bill
By Ben Lieberman
More expensive cars running on more expensive fuels, plus a boost in food prices -- believe it or not, that's Washington's latest answer to America's energy woes.
December 22, 2007
Energy Policy That Should Have Been Flushed
By Ben Lieberman
Want to see what's wrong with the newly enacted energy bill? Just take a look at your toilet.
September 29, 2007
Whole New World?
By Ben Lieberman
Global warming is a complex issue to figure out, but one thing about it is actually quite simple — discerning which side dominates the debate right now. For the past year, those who view global warming as a crisis justifying a major federal response have had just about everything going in their favor.
September 14, 2007
Ozone: The Hole Truth
By Ben Lieberman
Environmentalists have made numerous apocalyptic predictions over the past several decades, virtually none of which has come to pass. Yet each time, the greens and their political allies proclaim victory, arguing that their preventive prescriptions averted disaster.
July 24, 2007
Untapped oil supplies
By Ben Lieberman
Has the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries infiltrated Congress? If so, that sure would explain the latest energy bill.
June 21, 2007
Energy bill disastrous for the consumer
By Ben Lieberman
Like the idea of paying more for less? If a certain piece of legislation now before Congress becomes law, we might have no choice.
June 20, 2007
False Advertising in the Senate Energy Bill
By Ben Lieberman
Like the idea of paying more for less? If a certain piece of legislation now before Congress becomes law, we might have no choice.
June 06, 2007
Warming: U.S. can't fall for cap-and-trade risks
By Sally McNamara and Ben Lieberman
At the forthcoming Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, America will face intense pressure to agree to a post-Kyoto deal on climate change that includes far-reaching mandatory targets to cut carbon emissions.
May 19, 2007
Anguish at the pump
By Ben Lieberman
Another spring, another jump in gasoline prices, and another round of ineptitude from Washington.
April 10, 2007
Gasoline at $6 vs. warming?
By Ben Lieberman
It's hard to say which is scarier -- apocalyptic global warming scenarios or the economic impact of some of the proposals designed to prevent them.
A recent European Environment Agency (EEA) study reported greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles continue rising due to increased driving, despite heavy fuel taxes that boost prices there above $6 per gallon. Even with gas prices more than twofold that in the U.S., Europe falls short of its global-warming goals.
February 19, 2007
NO: It would result in higher gas prices, but no benefit for bears
By Ben Lieberman
Exxon used to encourage motorists to "put a tiger in your tank." Well, soon polar bears could force drivers to shell out even more money for gasoline.
2006 Commentary
November 14, 2006
Fixing the energy crunch
By Ben Lieberman
There was plenty of discussion about that at the recent Energy Summit 2006, hosted by the Louisiana State University Center for Energy Studies. But whether or not Louisiana experiences another Katrina, participants in the two-day seminar agreed plenty of challenges face the nation's energy infrastructure.
September 30, 2006
Gas Prices Are Down, But Energy Policy Still Needs Reform
By Ben Lieberman
Prices had moved in only one direction -- up -- since January, from $2.20 per gallon to more than $3 by July. But since mid-August, they have been falling by more than a penny per day, and the fast decline is likely to continue.
August 31, 2006
Katrina & the punch at the pump
By Ben Lieberman
Lost amid the anniversary articles about Hurricane Katrina is how we’ve dealt with the energy fallout. We’ve had a year to get used to $3-per-gallon gasoline and to come to grips with the vulnerability of our energy supplies. What have we learned?
July 31, 2006
Making pain at the pump worse
By Ben Lieberman
Washington has embraced an alternative to $3-a-gallon gasoline -- $4-a-gallon ethanol.
That's the cost of this federally mandated fuel additive, when you take everything into account. Ethanol, produced mostly from Midwestern corn, currently wholesales for more than $3 a gallon.
July 27, 2006
Feds make pain at the pump worse
By Ben Lieberman
Washington has embraced an alternative to $3-a-gallon gasoline -- $4-a-gallon ethanol.
That's the cost of this federally mandated fuel additive, when you take everything into account. Ethanol, produced mostly from Midwestern corn, currently wholesales for more than $3 a gallon.
July 17, 2006
Momentum building for offshore energy exploration
By Ben Lieberman
It's interesting what $3-a-gallon gasoline will do to Americans' views on energy exploration. In 1990, when President George H.W. Bush issued a presidential directive that prohibited energy exploration off the Atlantic, Pacific and Alaskan coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the environmental movement cheered and few objected. We could afford to be magnanimous. Energy prices were a third of their current level, the prospect of finding more seemed open-ended, and China and India were placing little demand on the world market.
July 01, 2006
Lift harmful limits on offshore drilling
By Ben Lieberman
Why would the most powerful economy in the world leave so much of its own energy sources untapped? Alone among countries, the United States has placed a substantial amount of its oil and natural gas potential off limits. Other countries drill just off our shores. But U.S. firms face restrictions on drilling in most offshore areas, even as American drivers face sharply higher prices at the gas pump.
June 27, 2006
Is anti-gouging anti-consumer?
By Ben Lieberman
Congress wants the Federal Trade Commission to go after oil companies for price gouging on gasoline. But the FTC doesn't think it's a good idea.
June 06, 2006
Let The Ethanol Imports Flow: Congress should do drivers a favor and end tariffs and other roadblocks
By Ben Lieberman
The federal government has done much to boost the U.S. ethanol industry and is largely responsible for the growing use of this costly fuel additive. Now, Congress should do something for America's drivers by ending tariffs that limit imports of cheaper ethanol that could help lower pump prices.
June 01, 2006
An energy lesson from Cuba
By Ben Lieberman
An unlikely political figure is willing to fight for lower gas prices. His name: Fidel Castro.
He's working with foreign investors, including China, to find oil off the Cuban coast, close to American waters.
May 04, 2006
Ethanol Requirements: No tanks
By Ben Lieberman
It seems like an easy fix.
Oil prices have hit record highs. Ethanol, a gasoline additive, can both stretch our supplies of oil and ease air pollution. And best of all, it's a corn-based product. Although America imports nearly two-thirds of its oil, it grows all the corn it needs and more.
April 27, 2006
Why there's a "Jump at the Pump"
By Ben Lieberman
Worse, much of the recent increase could have been avoided.
Prices often rise as we head into May and stay elevated throughout the summer.
April 06, 2006
Paying more at the pump -- needlessly
By Ben Lieberman
Imagine this: New York state mandates that milk must be enriched with Vitamin A. Next door, Pennsylvania mandates milk contain no extra Vitamin A, but extra Vitamin D. Nearby Vermont mandates extra Vitamin A, no extra Vitamin D and extra Vitamin B. What would happen to the price of milk in these three states?
It'd go through the roof.
March 31, 2006
Easing the natural-gas crunch
By Ben Lieberman
High gasoline prices have grabbed headlines over the past year, but the bigger story is natural gas. The rise in natural-gas prices has been considerably greater and imposes serious burdens on consumers and industries that use natural gas. Yet domestic gas production has been flat, largely due to legal and political constraints on drilling.
March 17, 2006
U.S. regulations big part of high gas prices
By Ben Lieberman
It isn't an anniversary to celebrate, but Chicago passed the one-year mark of gasoline above $2 per gallon. And, thanks in part to our federal government, another year at this level is a real possibility.
January 10, 2006
2006: Cheaper at the Pump?
By Ben Lieberman
2005 was a very expensive year for gasoline. And thanks to Washington, 2006 could be even worse. The feds did not waste any time, with two costly gasoline requirements having taken effect on January 1st. That's right. The year has already begun with two new regulations that will raise the price at the pump.
2005 Commentary
October 30, 2005
A Season To Give Thanks -- For Falling Gas Prices
By Ben Lieberman
Few vacationers paying $3 per gallon on their way to the beach last Labor Day could have imagined gas prices dropping 80 cents by the time they headed out to Grandma's for Thanksgiving. But it has happened, and if trends continue, the national average could dip below $2 per gallon before Christmas...
October 14, 2005
Making Energy More Affordable, Less Volatile
By Ben Lieberman
From an energy standpoint, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita delivered the worst one-two punch America has ever experienced. But it did not have to be so bad.
September 12, 2005
Price-Fixing on Gasoline: Control Yourself
By Ben Lieberman
Recent gasoline-price spikes have given new meaning to the phrase "pain at the pump."
September 06, 2005
The Post-Katrina Jump at the Pump -- Unavoidable?
By Ben Lieberman
Under any set of circumstances, Hurricane Katrina would have had a noticeable impact at the pump. However, by hitting America's single largest oil and refining region at a time of already-tight supplies and the high prices, the effects have been amplified.
July 28, 2005
Can We Afford the Energy Bill ?
By Ben Lieberman
It's bad enough that the energy bill now working its way through Congress may cost taxpayers close to $36 billion over the next five years. Worse, it actually contains provisions that would increase the cost of energy in the years ahead.
April 15, 2005
Is Washington Treating Us Like Chumps At The Pumps?
By Ben Lieberman
Gasoline is already more than $2.20 per gallon and climbing, and we're still months away from the high-demand summer vacation season. So why has the U.S. Senate introduced two bills that would raise prices even further?
