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Energy makes modern society possible. It lights the night, heats our homes, powers our entertainment, and most importantly, it helps us conserve the ultimate non-renewable resource—time. Energy amplifies our ability to do work. Machines help autoworkers assemble cars, power tools help construction workers build our homes, gasoline-powered automobiles help us take care of [...]

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Last December, California released a draft low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) which calls for a 10.5 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of gasoline and a 10 percent reduction for diesel. Following California’s lead, representatives of 11 Northeastern states recently signed an agreement to pursue a region-wide low-carbon fuel standard.
The proponents of [...]

GREEN JOBS: Fact or Fiction?
An Assessment of the Literature
January 2009
By Robert Michaels and Robert P. Murphy

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Introduction and Executive Summary
I. Green Recovery, Center for American Progress
II. Job Opportunities for the Green Economy, Political Economy Research Institute
III. Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy, Global Insight
IV. Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, American Solar [...]

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The following comparison of Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s energy and environmental plans comes from the statements of their plans on their official web sites. The text first indicates what the respective plans say on each topic, and then provides IER’s analysis of each topic within the program.
Table of Contents

CAFE
Advanced Vehicle R&D
Electricity [...]

The first oil well in the U.S. was drilled in 1859. Do you know where?
Titusville, Pennsylvania. While historical records indicate that naturally occurring seeps of petroleum were collected and used for a variety of purposes as early as the 1600s, Colonel Edwin Drake was the first to devise a mechanical system to drill into underground [...]

by Robert P. Murphy
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated the use of corn-based ethanol in motor fuels. The recently enacted Energy Independence and Security Act accelerated this mandate to 9 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008 and 36 billion gallons in 2022. Recent spikes in [...]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote a letter to fellow G8 leaders voicing his concerns about higher food prices due to the rush towards the manufacturing of biofuels. He fears that replacing petroleum with biofuels is disrupting the global demand for food.
Mr Brown wrote: “There is growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the [...]

Engineer and inventor, Alfonz Viszolay, has been working with algae-based fuel production for the last few decades. Most recently he has deployed a prototype that will use CO2 emissions from a brewery operation to accelerate the growth of algae. The prototype will be used by Santa Fe Brewing Co.
(Source: New Mexico Business Weekly)