It’s always tough to get a new business off the ground. It has proved extraordinarily tough for renewable energy companies, despite all the subsidies. Congress could help. It could allow renewable energy companies to organize as Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). Of course, that would require liberalizing current legal requirements and qualifications for MLPs. MLPs…

Earth Day — celebrated by few, propagandized by many. The late Senator Gaylord Nelson founded the event in 1970 out of “concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air.” Back then, Earth Day was widely observed by participating in environmental clean-up projects — clearing streams of trash and debris, planting trees and so on. Unfortunately, that…

This would be great, as dependence on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil is creating geopolitical liabilities and commitments which may be more difficult to manage, particularly when Congress is unwisely cutting military budgets. The U.S. may become a net Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) exporter before it becomes a crude exporter. However, while red-white-and-blue crude exports…

Say you were a politician and there was a clean and abundant domestic energy source — one that has the potential to create jobs and revitalize local economies. Would you do more to encourage it? Silly question, you may be thinking. Why wouldn’t you do more to encourage it? Well, this scenario is more than hypothetical. I’m talking about natural gas, which is proving in…

In his second inaugural address, President Obama pledged that the United States “will respond to the threat of climate change” and will take the lead for other countries to follow suit. This commitment is a willful rejection of reality. Congress has been unwilling to address climate change unilaterally through legislation. Multilateral attempts become more futile each…

Maybe the wolf should have skipped the granny disguise and just scarfed down Little Red Riding Hood in the woods. It couldn’t have worked out any worse for him. That appears to be the logic of carbon-tax cabal in Washington. The latest triad of bills — Lieberman-Warner, Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer — all died once their “cap-and-trade” costumes were pulled off to reveal…

The battle over coal has spread from where it is mined or burned to generate electricity to the possible points from which it could be exported. Last April, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber sent a letter to the Secretary of the Army “to request that a federal agency prepare a programmatic and comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)… to look at the unprecedented…

For the first time since its 1988 debut in the vice presidential debate between Lloyd Benson and Dan Quayle, climate change—or global warming as it was then known—was entirely ignored during the national debates. In an April interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama indicated that he expected it would be a campaign issue and that he would “… be very clear in voicing…

A proposed Michigan ballot initiative that would require the state to generate 25 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025 has pitted out-of-state environmentalist groups against the local businesses that will bear the brunt of the economic burdens the measure would impose. Proposal 3 would amend the state's constitution to incorporate the "25…

“If it moves, tax it if it keeps moving, regulate it and if it stops moving, subsidize it.” President Ronald Reagan’s axiom about how Washington deals with the economy accurately describes the current administration’s approach to energy production. The United States has the world’s largest reserves of traditional fuels, and our energy sector is booming. Domestic…

Just outside San Antonio, at the intersection of Look 1604 and Highway 151, the discovery of a single, dime-sized, translucent, subterranean spider has brought a $15 million traffic reduction project to a dead stop. Unfortunately for area motorists, the Bracken Cave meshweaver is one of over 1,400 species regulated under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). …

The problem with subsidizing wind and solar power is that subsidies don't make these unaffordable energy sources affordable, they just change who pays. Taxpayers foot a large part of the bill, instead of the producers and consumers of wind and solar power. And the costs that imposes on the economy aren't justified by any of the supposed benefits of these energy sources. …

Dismal jobs reports and high unemployment continue to weigh down the U.S. economy, but there are a few bright spots. Most notable among them: energy production, particularly the shale oil and shale gas revolution. The technological one-two punch of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has created a remarkable energy boom and created hundreds of thousands of…

The Environmental Protection Agency received another well-warranted slap on the hand last week. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA had overstepped its authority in its latest attempt to regulate emissions that cross state lines. As one of the judges succinctly put it, “[W]e conclude that the EPA has transgressed statutory boundaries.” This is…

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) this week offered to buy Calgary-based Nexen Inc. for US$15-billion. Nexen’s board is recommending the bid to shareholders. If completed, this would be the single-largest acquisition that Chinese companies have made in the outward investment splurge that started in 2005. It raises a series of issues for American policymakers to…