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, [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

China’s economy is growing with dizzying speed, and the government is fueling the growth with plentiful energy. In fact, China’s electrification program and its ability to secure future oil supplies are second to none. By contrast, the U.S. economy is growing more slowly and its energy strategy is limiting that growth. The United States has [...]

Washington, DC – In response to today’s announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the Agency’s unelected bureaucrats will criminalize carbon in less than a year, Thomas J. Pyle, president of the nonpartisan Institute for Energy Research (IER) issued the following statement: “This regulation will increase the cost of doing business in America, period. [...]

Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu China has already made its choice.  China is spending about $9 billion a month on clean energy.  It is also investing $44 billion by 2012 and $88 billion by 2020 in Ultra High Voltage transmission lines.  These lines will allow China to transmit power from huge wind and solar farms [...]

Congress is considering various proposals to mandate energy efficiency improvements in appliances, air conditioners, heat pumps, dishwashers, clothes washers, and other items that use electricity. At first blush, it would appear that there is no downside to improving energy efficiency. After all, energy efficiency saves us money right? The problem is that energy efficiency is [...]

In January, the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) completed a two-and-a-half year study[i] of the technical, operational, and economic requirements for integrating 20 to 30 percent wind power into the electrical grid that serves more than 70 percent of the U.S. population. The portion of the U.S. covered in this study is [...]

The Obama Administration sold its $787 billion stimulus plan on the basis of improving the economy through investing in green energy and by doing so, increasing employment in the United States. But what is actually happening, particularly with wind and solar projects, is that the majority of the manufactured components are being built offshore in [...]

We do not understand why IER gets the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) so spun up. Maybe it’s because of our opposition to government subsidies. Maybe it’s because we don’t believe that government mandates forcing people to buy energy from expensive, inefficient sources is good for the economy. Or perhaps it is because of our [...]