According to statistics from the Energy Information Administration (EIA),  there were few new coal-fired plants constructed in the past several decades.  This is owed mainly to environmental opposition and the resulting legal and regulatory challenges, and the construction of natural gas units and, recently, wind turbines. But that trend may be changing somewhat. In 2009, [...]

China became the world’s largest energy consumer in 2009, surpassing the United States, which held the title for more than 100 years, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).[i] The recession took a toll on U.S. industrial output, adding to a decline in total energy consumption that was almost 5 percent below 2008 levels.[ii] The [...]

The Department of Energy’s independent statistical agency is forecasting that the Obama Administration’s drilling moratorium will reduce domestic oil production. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the drilling moratorium will reduce crude oil production by an average of about 31,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2010 and about 82,000 b/d in 2011.[i] Recently domestic [...]

A new survey released today by the American Energy Alliance (AEA) found that 77 percent of registered voters oppose efforts in Congress to tax American companies twice on income earned abroad. The poll also found that 3 out of 4 Americans agree that our energy companies should be allowed to continue offshore exploration for energy [...]

The Obama Administration’s moratorium on deepwater exploration and development will cost America 12,000 jobs and approximately $2.1 billion over the first six-months according to a new study by Joseph R. Mason of Louisiana State University. These costs are completely independent of the costs caused by the oil spill and cleanup. These are the costs of [...]

In the electricity-generation market of 2009, coal generation had only a 44 .6 percent share, 3.6 percentage points lower than in 2008 and the lowest level since 1978 when it represented 44.2 percent of the market. Hydroelectric power, wind energy, and natural gas picked up most of the market share coal lost in 2009.[i] Higher [...]

Henry Waxman (D-Hollywood), Photo by Flickr user Public Citizen The House Energy & Commerce Committee (E&C) — chaired by Representative Henry Waxman (D- Hollywood) — continues to work overtime to make energy harder to produce, more expensive, more imported and more rare. Using the tragic Gulf spill as justification, the committee unanimously passed the “Blowout [...]

Europe has implemented Feed-In Tariffs. Shouldn’t We Learn from their Experience? Europe’s feed-in tariffs have led to higher electricity prices without having positive impacts on emissions reductions, employment, energy security, or technological innovation. In Spain, the feed-in tariff has helped create a rate deficit so great that it imperils the sustainability of Spain’s electricity system. [...]

Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Continues Killing Jobs in the Gulf The Obama Administration’s offshore moratorium is already sending jobs overseas. Last week, Diamond Offshore announced that it was sending the Ocean Endeavor rig from the Gulf of Mexico to Egypt. This week it announced that it was pulling the Ocean Confidence out of the Gulf of [...]

The White House has launched a coordinated PR campaign to argue that it is not anti-business. That is a difficult argument to make when we look at the Administration’s record on energy. Time after time the Administration has acted to make it more difficult to produce energy domestically and they are actively seeking to make [...]