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 [...]

Inefficient, Unreliable, and Expensive, but Energy Nonetheless WASHINGTON, DC—Institute for Energy Research (IER) president Thomas J. Pyle today released the following statement in response to Secretary of the Interior Salazar’s approval of the Cape Wind project. “It is promising to see that Secretary Salazar has, for this first time in his tenure as Interior Secretary, [...]

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 [...]

The Manteo Prospect off the shore of North Carolina is an exploration target estimated to contain as much as five trillion cubic feet of natural gas (TCF), [1] potentially the largest domestic find of conventional natural gas since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay in 1968.[2] For comparison sake, Independence Hub in the Gulf of Mexico can access [...]

Photo: Flickr user afsart WASHINGTON – Citing the intransigence of Mother Earth and the increasingly irreconcilable differences between the dictates of U.S. energy policy and the ethereal realities of the celestial universe, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) announced today a first-of-its-kind legal effort that, in cooperation with the Sierra Club and the American Wind [...]

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 [...]

The so-called $787 billion “stimulus” package is creating some “green jobs” — this we’re certain. Unfortunately, though, many of these taxpayer-supported jobs are not in the United States. In fact, a billion hard-earned (and borrowed) U.S. tax dollars are being directed to create jobs in China, of all places. Some stimulus, huh? And at the [...]