Energy Policy
June 19, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I sometimes wonder what would happen to Hollywood if their political inclinations were actually put into practice. Not many people would be able to drive to the theater to take in their latest films. How would that work out for them? This speculation was prompted by our pal Tom Pyle at the Institute for Energy Research, who writes this morning at RealClearEnergy about the colossally dishonest Gasland II, Josh Fox’s
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June 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Commenter David Hill reminded us yesterday of Steve Martin’s excitement about new phone books (one of my favorite scenes, too), but my seriously analogous moment comes this week every year when BP releases it Annual Statistical Review of World Energy. For a data maven like me, it’s a total geekfest. (“The new BP Review is out! The new BP review is out!”) Since BP makes its data available on downloadable
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June 16, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Obama can’t vote “present” on the Keystone pipeline forever, though he can probably string it out a while longer. He won’t want to punt it to the next president, though, because it might be a Republican who will approve it on Day One. Maybe Obama could just propose an alternate route through Guantanamo, since Gitmo is going to need a new use soon, right? Last month I predicted: What Obama
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June 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Our pal Mark Perry put out the first chart here today, showing that the recent growth in oil production in the United States is the largest in the nation’s history. Some time I’m going to have to go back and collate all of the “peak oil” pronouncements from just a few years ago that U.S. oil production was destined to decline, full stop. Instead, as Mark puts it, “Welcome to
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June 3, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Every now and then I get asked to be on panels about the future of energy where you’re supposed to embrace the path of the True and the Beautiful by predicting the brilliant energy prospects of lima bean curd, unicorn flop sweat, dilithium nanoparticulates, or something—anything except the hydrocarbons we use today. I typically like to have fun by saying the future of energy is—coal. Never fails to provoke outrage.
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May 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Leaders of the 27 European Union countries met yesterday to discuss energy issues. The meeting, as described by AFP, represents a turning point in European energy policy. Europe’s leaders are ready to join the shale oil and gas revolution to avoid being left behind economically: EU leaders agreed Wednesday to face up to the challenge posed by the shale oil and gas revolution which has slashed US energy prices, undercutting
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May 23, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’ve had occasion to write before about my enviro-dissident pals Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland (here, here, here, and here, and also in National Review), describing them on one occasion as “my existentially-challenged progressive pals.” Well, now they’ve really done it: a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal on why environmentalists should support nuclear power. Along the way, they really deliver some well-deserved smack
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May 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker
I have always been skeptical of electric vehicles, mostly because of my perception that electric car makers are more interested in subsisting on government subsidies than in competing on a level playing field for my business. So I was intrigued when I got an email this morning from Jeff Evanson, Tesla Motors’ Vice-President of investor relations. Evanson, a long-time Power Line reader, pointed out that the company raised over $1
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May 8, 2013 — Steven Hayward
If you want to understand how the United States is suddenly eating everyone’s lunch when it comes to energy, see the chart below, from the Financial Times. No wonder Europe is getting off its duff and trying to move forward with plans to expand its own shale natural gas potential. Not coincidentally, cheap natural gas is starting to prompt several states to back off of their renewable portfolio standards that
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May 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sometimes the really important news is obscured by layers of transient trivia. Actually, that is usually the case. The most important things that happen on any given day are rarely noted. This one at least made the news: the North Dakota/Montana natural gas bonanza is at least twice as large as previously estimated: The sea of oil and natural gas underneath North Dakota is far larger than first thought. There
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April 26, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Just in time for the Weekly Winston comes the fabulous news that the Bank of England has decided to put Churchill on the five-pound note. Now, can we please put Reagan on the twenty, or something? Speaking of Winnie, who according to legend (surely apocryphal) was the inspiration for A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, loyal Power Line reader RS sends along this adaptation of Milne to remind us of why
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April 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Have left-liberals killed liberal education? I’ve come to think so, and recent developments at Vassar and Bowdoin help confirm my fear. The indispensable Stanley Kurtz is on top of both stories. At Vassar, the subject of this post, he reports on attempts to block a speech by Alex Epstein, a proponent and defender of America’s conventional energy industries. Epstein was invited to speak by Vassar’s Moderate, Independent, Conservative Alliance (MICA).
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April 11, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Robert Redford is, among other deplorable things, an opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline. But comes now Alison Redford, who is no relation, but something more important: she is the premier of the Canadian province of Alberta. And she told the Washington Post yesterday that if the Obama administration rejects the Keystone XL pipeline, it would be a significant thorn in Canadian-U.S. relations. This is fairly tough talk from a nation
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March 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sure, that’s an optimistic question to ask. But following the election, fissures have appeared in the Left’s coalition, and frustration is mounting. Here are a couple of examples. First, an email that MoveOn.org sent out yesterday on gun control. The email is long, so I will excerpt it: Subject: Argh! Dear MoveOn member, This is the nightmare scenario: “Reid guts Senate gun control bill.”1 “Tuesday’s developments are a major win
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March 15, 2013 — Steven Hayward
If you have nineteen minutes–and if you don’t, you should find a way to get them–sit back and take in this video of Matt Ridley by our friends at ReasonTV. Here Ridley explains his “greening earth” hypothesis–why many environmental conditions are getting better around the world–so long as we don’t keep doing stupid things like growing food for biofuel. (Among his other stunners in this presentation is the factoid that
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March 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Two days ago Tom Friedman weighed in urging further civil disobedience to block the Keystone Pipeline. The title of the column is ironically apt: “No to Keystone; Yes to Crazy.” Apparently Friedman is in competition with Paul Krugman to be the most egregiously wrong NY Times columnist, which is rather like a contest between Hitler and Stalin to see who is the worst tyrant—a contest impossible to judge since they
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March 3, 2013 — Steven Hayward
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the fruit-juice vegan energy set. Where to begin? How about Japan, which went through the entirely predictable cycle with regard to its nuclear power in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster of two years ago. You can follow the cycle in the hilarious New York Times headlines: Japan Sets Policy to Phase Out Nuclear Power Plants by 2040 (Sept. 12, 2012) Then,
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