America needs an energy policy that promotes environmental sustainability and economic growth. Yet many Members of Congress and the Administration are promoting policies and promulgating regulations that centralize power in Washington. Read More.
Automakers would be required to double current fleet-wide fuel economy by 2025 under regulations proposed last week by the Obama Administration. Advocates contend that this crackdown on the internal combustion engine would reduce Americans’ “dependence on oil” and cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. Whether the… Read more
Abstract: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a report showing that the EPA did not comply with federal data guidelines when providing its technical support document (TSD) for the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding.” The EPA used the TSD to… Read more
David Kreutzer discusses climate change. … Read more
President Obama and his congressional allies’ domestic climate change agenda—“cap and trade”—failed in the last Congress due to extensive opposition to its costly regulations and barriers to growth. Having failed to enact draconian climate change legislation domestically, however, President Obama has quietly shifted some of these efforts overseas by funneling… Read more
Conservatives Pushing Massive Cuts to Federal Spending Congress appears to be on the verge of historic cuts to federal spending.They’re part of the debate over a long-term Continuing Resolution… Read more
Abstract: The recent spate of global warming lawsuits is an attempt to circumvent the political process and implement public policy by judicial fiat. Unable to advance their policies through Congress, global warming activists have turned to the judiciary to implement their agenda. Although this… Read more
Abstract: The only consensus over the threat of climate change that seems to exist these days is that there is no consensus. The much-heralded 2007 United Nations report on greenhouse gas emissions has served as a catalyst for lawmakers to burden traditional energy sources with regulations in favor of so-called… Read more
Abstract: Proposed legislation would offer financial incentives to increase the population density of communities in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. However, the available evidence, which is admittedly limited, indicates that such “smart growth” policies are misguided, producing minimal results… Read more
In 2007, Congress passed an energy bill that placed stringent efficiency requirements on ordinary incandescent bulbs in an attempt to phase them out beginning in 2012 and have them completely gone by 2014. The goal of the program is to replace incandescent bulbs with more expensive but more energy-efficient bulbs,… Read more
The election of President Obama, coupled with increases in the margins of control held by Democrats in both the House and the Senate, made sweeping climate legislation seem like a sure thing. And the House did go on to pass the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. However, ensuing voter… Read more
In addition to the devastating economic effects of cap and trade, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733)—introduced by Senators John Kerry (D–MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I–CT)—would likely lead to the same conditions that caused the housing bubble of a few years ago. It… Read more
There is little doubt that legislative measures designed to address global warming would greatly burden the agricultural sector. Farming is energy intensive, and cap-and-trade bills--namely the House Waxman-Markey bill, which passed in June, and the Boxer-Kerry bill pending in the Senate--are… Read more
With Congress unable to pass cap-and-trade legislation as easily as some Members hoped, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with its own set of global warming regulations. The EPA’s endangerment finding, which took effect January 14, gives the EPA authority under section 202(a) of the… Read more
Global-warming skeptics were hit with numerous setbacks over the past few years - from a major 2007 U.N. report that seemingly confirmed the warming crisis, to Al Gore's popularization of this gloomy message through his book and Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." And let's not forget… Read more
Executive Summary On April 20, 2010, the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a massive, continuing release of underground oil. Washington must develop a comprehensive response to the crisis that mitigates damage,… Read more
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that had proponents of the bill claiming Americans could save the planet for just $175 per household. That was the figure CBO estimated cap and trade would cost households… Read more
The United Nations' first significant global warming meeting since last December’s Copenhagen summit just wrapped up in Bonn, with no progress toward a new international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. This meeting was supposed to help lay the groundwork for an agreement at the next major conference scheduled for… Read more
The clear political failure of the Lieberman-Warner bill last spring shows that support for global-warming legislation wanes considerably when the extraordinary costs are compared to the almost insignificant benefits.[1] In response, those pushing restrictions on carbon dioxide (CO2) have tried to repackage global-warming legislation as jobs bills. As appealing as the repackaging… Read more
The policy analysis reported in this paper refers to a version of Waxman-Markey that was heavily revised in committee hearings. For analysis that reflects the post-committee version of Waxman-Markey, readers should refer to Heritage Foundation WebMemo, No. 2450 "Son of Waxman-Markey: More Politics for a More Costly Bill." Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA)… Read more
President Obama recently used the Gulf oil spill to stress the need for Congress to pass cap and trade, specifically the bill introduced by Senators John Kerry (D–MA) and Joe Lieberman (I–CT) after much delay. The 987-page American Power Act (APA) aims to reduce 2005 levels of carbon dioxide (CO2)… Read more
A week cannot go by without a news report trumpeting China’s growing economic influence. The PRC’s economic performance can exceed even high expectations, bringing near-constant commentary about a new Chinese model for the world, often referred to as a “Beijing Consensus.” There are many flaws in the notion of using… Read more
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman clarified his position on how policymakers should deal with climate change. In a speech...… Read more
[caption id="attachment_85672" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon...… Read more
Another round of leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climatic Research Unit have surfaced, once...… Read more
Scribe has reported extensively on the tendency of large government spending projects to reward the politically...… Read more
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. Senator...… Read more
In a scenario best-saved for a science-fiction novel, two scientists from Penn State and another scientist from NASA...… Read more
In late July, the Department of Education held a reading event as part of it’s “Let’s read! Let’s move!” initiative....… Read more
On Sunday, the government of Australia announced that it will implement a US$24.74 per-metric-ton tax on carbon...… Read more
“People, who do not believe in man-made global warming, are so beyond the pale of reasonable human discourse, that the...… Read more
Common sense prevailed this morning when the Supreme Court dismissed a frivolous and novel global “warming” lawsuit. If...… Read more
Director, Center for Data Analysis
Senior Research Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy, The Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies
Research Fellow in Energy Economics and Climate Change
Policy Analyst
Research Fellow, Nuclear Energy Policy