Mark Perry, American Enterprise Institute On Earth Day, according to various advocates, events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment. As we observe the annual environmental event on Sunday of this week, it might be a good time to appreciate the fact that Americans get most of their plentiful, affordable energy directly from the Earth's natural environment in the form of fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and petroleum.It's largely those energy sources from the natural environment that fuel our vehicles and airplanes; heat, cool, and light our homes and businesses; and... | | Trump, a major friend to the fossil fuels industry, took OPEC to task on Friday for the recent surge in oil prices. The price has climbed toward $70 in recent weeks, the highest in more than three years. "Looks like OPEC is at it again," Trump tweeted. "Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!"Trump is right that OPEC, the Saudi-led cartel, has orchestrated higher prices, as it's known to do. And millions of American voters will probably share the president's outrage if gasoline prices soar as a result. | | It should come as no surprise how the man who is boldly redirecting the EPA a once rogue agency that operated far beyond its constitutional authority is now the subject of routine attacks from liberal news outlets and activists who want him fired. Scott Pruitt has taken his job as EPA Administrator seriously and has done more to reinstate the EPA's true, core mission than any of his modern-day predecessors.Pruitt's sharp focus is correct to restore contaminated lands, safeguard our nation's air and water, and do so by respecting real science rather than the ideologically driven... | | On Tuesday, just off a pedestrian mall that would normally be home to busking contortionists and firebreathers, local officials ushered in a new era of climate change litigation.Representatives of two Colorado counties and the city of Boulder announced a lawsuit against two oil companies at a rally before nearly 100 citizens. The counties - Boulder and San Miguel - said heavy floods, fires and heat waves were becoming too expensive for local governments to pay for themselves, and that those who caused the damage should be responsible for the costs. | | What is the best form of defense? There is a reason why the Climate Industrial Complex is targeting EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.It recognizes that the return to energy sanity is the Trump administration's greatest accomplishment. It ended the previous administration's war on coal. President Trump has freed the United States from the unilateral decarbonization ratchet of the Paris Agreement. Administrator Pruitt is rolling back the Clean Power Plan.That explains the motive behind the coordinated attempt to force Pruitt out. | | For once, California is exporting a trend I feel qualified to assess. Coastal cities and counties across the Golden State are banding together to sue the super-major oil and gas companies for the alleged future damages of climate change. If Maine cities were ever approached to join the suits as plaintiffs, they should not. Despite the surface appeal of lawsuits in the name of the environment, such suits have the potential to cause more harm than good.I observed firsthand how powerful public class-action lawsuits can be. As attorney general of Maine from 1995 to 2001, I joined with state... | | Oil market participants and analysts will be intently watching the Trump Administration over the next month. May 12 is the deadline for the U.S. President to decide to waive sanctions on Iran as part of the nuclear deal that global powers reached with Iran in 2015, allowing Tehran to resume oil exports and regain part of its market share.The re-imposition of sanctions on Iran's oil is not 100-percent certain, although the probability is high, various analysts say. The potential loss of Iran's oil exports varies from zero to 1 million bpd, according to investment banks and analysts.Iranian... | | The lawsuit brought by the city and county against two energy companies reminds me of the line from Macbeth: "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Has the city staff nothing better to pursue than this quixotic stunt, like address the $4 million projected budget shortfall, for example?What naif would believe "there will 'only be nominal costs' to the local governments, which have devoted salaried staff time to work on the case . . ."? Are we to understand that salaried staff are paid nominally? | | Every time you save a photo to the cloud, buy something on Amazon, open a Google doc or stream a movie, you're probably pulling electricity from a wind turbine in Texas or a solar farm in Virginia.In fact, your clicks and taps may have helped build them. Since 2008, renewable energy has gone from 9% to 18% of the U.S. energy mix, according to the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. A big part of that shift stems from tech companies' rapid buildout of cloud storage centers and a move to burnish their public image by vowing they'll run these centers on sources like wind and solar. | | After several years without an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the world experienced a spike in 2017 even though many governments had promised to cut their emissions.Some NGOs, including 350.org and DivestInvest, promote divestment from the fossil fuel sector as a way to reduce carbon emissions. Furthermore, some investors like Quebec's Caisse Depot and The New York City Pension Funds have announced that they plan to reduce their fossil fuel investments or divest totally from the sector.This movement is also part of private and governmental efforts to connect the financial... | | The House Natural Resources Committee is conducting an ongoing examination of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA). President Richard Nixon signed NEPA, often hailed as the Magna Carta of environmental law, to great fanfare in 1970. The legislation contains two key provisions. Section 101 sets out in broad terms Congress's continuing policy to require federal, state, and local governments to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony for the benefit of present and future generations. The law envisions the... | | Divestment is moving inland. Over the last several years, cities on both coasts, including Seattle, Minneapolis, and San Francisco have discussed divesting their city funds from fossil fuels. Some California municipalities and the city of New York have gone even further, starting lawsuits against major energy companies, bringing forth a lawsuit against several major oil companies for global warming damages. Now, for the first time, the lawsuits have left the coast and reached the mountains. On Tuesday afternoon, Boulder, Colorado became the first landlocked city to sue over damages they... | | Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in Economics, wrote a bestseller called Thinking, Fast & Slow. The book describes System 1 thinking, which is fast and automatic, and System 2 thinking, which is slow and deliberate. This framework can be used to understand two of today's most prominent energy experts: David G. Victor and Vaclav Smil.Vaclav Smil is perhaps the world's premier thinker on all things energy, and when it comes to the pace of upcoming energy transitions his thinking is slow. By contrast, David G. Victor is in the fast camp. Victor recently published a policy... | | Local officials in Colorado will announce litigation Tuesday against large oil companies over the effects of climate change, according to a report in the Boulder Daily Camera and a source familiar with the plan.The litigation from Boulder and San Miguel Counties and the city of Boulder signals that the current spate of climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies is moving beyond high-profile cases in California and New York, which have focused largely on damages from sea-level rise. | | President Trump's top adviser for energy and environment policy is stepping down.Michael Catanzaro, who has headed domestic energy and environment issues at the White House's National Economic Council (NEC), plans to leave next week and return to CGCN Group, the law and lobbying firm where he previously worked.The White House confirmed the move Tuesday, which was first reported by Greenwire. Catanzaro has worked at the White House since February 2017. | | Amid a forest of judicial appointments and other Trump administration confirmation votes, lawmakers pushing a bipartisan energy and natural resources bill in the Senate are still taking whacks in hope of moving legislation or parts of it before the end of this Congress.The bill would represent the first major energy policy update in a decade, with provisions to bolster cybersecurity, speed up permits for energy infrastructure and promote energy efficiency. It could represent a rare opportunity for energy-state lawmakers to bring home some policy victories ahead of the midterm... | | The electricity industry is fighting for more access to increasingly valuable airwaves that it needs to keep the lights on and run and recharge the increasing amount of devices and tech toys tied to the Internet.The industry has renewed its 20-year battle for the government to recognize its need for equal access to the radio frequency bandwidth in the electromagnetic spectrum, as energy management requires more machine-to-machine communication between customers and electricity providers.For example, power grid operators need to be able to communicate with rooftop solar arrays to send signals... | | |
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