Criticism of Employment Effects Estimates Another criticism made by Levi is that the estimated employment impacts in our study are invalid because more capital-intensive industries will be more heavily affected than labor-intensive industries by climate policy. As we make clear in our study, our figures for potential job losses are only order-of-magnitude estimates designed to [...]

by Andrew Chamberlain Chamberlain Economics, L.L.C Michael Levi at the Council on Foreign Relations argues for a naive view of state and local utility regulation. He argues for a world in which municipal regulators have the ability to force utility managers to act against their own economic interests, passing forward the full benefit of free [...]

Every year BP releases a Statistical Review of World Energy.[i] This report is greeted by energy experts as one of the best snapshots of the world energy situation. This year, however, the release of the report was overshadowed by BP’s struggle to stop the flow of oil from the Macondo well and to deal with [...]

Many claim that wind generation is beneficial because it reduces pollution emissions and does not emit carbon dioxide.  This isn’t necessarily the case. The following article explains a phenomena called cycling where the introduction of wind power into a generation system that uses carbon technologies to back-up the wind  actually reduces the energy efficiency of [...]

Abstract Various legislative and other proposals have promoted policies that would tax or place a price floor on petroleum-based transportation fuels such as gasoline because as President Obama stated in his recent address, “we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.”[1] Their object is to spur conservation and promote the [...]

Many Americans may be surprised to hear that former President George W. Bush addressed wind energy advocates at Big Wind’s annual conference in Dallas, Texas this week.  After all, throughout George W. Bush’s presidency, his ties to the oil and gas industry were a subject of scrutiny; he was widely derided for not funneling enough [...]

A few months ago we brought to your attention the cozy relationship between the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). This unique relationship between a taxpayer funded entity (NREL) and a special interest lobbying group (AWEA) came to our attention after NREL issued a [...]

Recently, the Department of Interior finalized changes to its onshore oil and gas leasing program. These changes are designed to slow down leasing on federal lands. Clearly, these changes ignore federal law and create a new extra-legal barrier to issuing new permits for energy development. This is not called for by federal law and it [...]

Washington, DC – With President Obama set to announce tougher fuel economy standards by way of executive order this morning, the Institute for Energy Research has compiled a list of simple, straight forward questions for the President to answer on this topic. Mr. President, according to your own Environmental Protection Agency, these standards will have [...]

Photo: Harry Hamburg/Associated Press Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman have finally released their cap-and-trade energy tax bill. Like the Kerry-Boxer energy tax bill and Waxman-Markey energy tax bill, this is shaping up to be incredibly costly and restrictive of Americans’ energy freedom. All cap-and-trade bills drive up the cost of energy and harm the [...]