The Foundry

Archive for the ‘Energy and Environment’ Category

• Chevy Volt: Cheap at Half the Price

  Posted July 29th, 2010 at 12:30pm in Energy and Environment, Enterprise and Free Markets, Ongoing Priorities with 1 comments

  You can buy a lot of car for $41,000. A BMW. A Mustang GT convertible. Even a Mercedes. Or you could shell out for a brand-spanking-new electric-powered Chevy Volt and do your part to “save the environment.” Government-owned General Motors is counting on the government to encourage you to do the latter. According to a New [...] More

• Gulf Spill Update: Local Businesses Fight Obama Oil Ban

  Posted July 28th, 2010 at 5:00pm in Energy and Environment with 2 comments

  A drilling moratorium aimed at big oil is a drilling moratorium aimed at local oil as well. That’s the message being sent by the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in Lafayette, Louisiana as they revive the “Energy Division” from several years of dormancy. Why now? According to The Daily Advertiser, “challenges from [...] More

• Coal an Alternative Fuel? Yes, According to Reid’s New Energy Bill

  Posted July 28th, 2010 at 4:00pm in Energy and Environment with 2 comments

  As many predicted, Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) new energy bill contains neither a cap-and-trade program nor a renewable electricity standard (RES). But in a complete change of direction, the bill has made coal, the nemesis of the cap and trade/RES crowd, an alternative fuel. So now, to the list of politically correct alternatives such [...] More

• The Good, the Bad, and the Early in the Senate Spill Bill

  Posted July 28th, 2010 at 12:00pm in Energy and Environment with 0 comments

  The Senate just released its proposed legislative response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Fortunately, earlier efforts to load the spill bill down with extremely costly and unrelated measures like cap and trade have given way to a more targeted approach. Nonetheless, the bill still contains a number of problematic provisions, and in any event comprehensive [...] More

• Morning Bell: 100 Days Later, Obama Still Failing the Gulf

  Posted July 28th, 2010 at 7:40am in Energy and Environment with 39 comments

  Over the last four weeks, The Heritage Foundation sent multiple teams of respected energy, environment, homeland security and response experts to the Gulf to study the federal response to the oil spill. These three delegations, with more to come, have traversed the areas hit hardest by the crisis, talking to response workers, affected oil crews, fishermen, elected [...] More

• Live from the Gulf: A Rallying Cry for Drilling, Jobs

  Posted July 23rd, 2010 at 3:30pm in Energy and Environment with 12 comments

  This week over 11,000 people flocked to the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana to send a simple but important message to Washington: give us our way of life back. Lift the moratorium, stop unnecessarily killing jobs, let us clean up the Gulf and get back to work. Representatives from the oil, seafood and tourism industries as [...] More

• Cap and Trade only Mostly Dead

  Posted July 23rd, 2010 at 3:00pm in Energy and Environment with 4 comments

  Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced an energy bill without a cap-and-trade provision—a victory for the American economy.  Yet, like the famous Miracle Max scene in The Princess Bride, cap-and-trade is only “mostly dead.” In a year when seemingly-dead legislation has suddenly come back to life, it is premature for Americans to dance a victory [...] More

• Gulf Spill Update: Obama Deepwater Ban Becoming Total Drilling Ban

  Posted July 22nd, 2010 at 4:00pm in Energy and Environment with 9 comments

  The Obama administration’s recently re-imposed deepwater drilling moratorium is now reportedly stopping shallow-water drilling as well. The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources issued a release Tuesday showing that the moratorium has resulted in a near-total decline of approved shallow-water drilling permits: Approved permits for shallow water drilling in the Gulf of [...] More

• Gulf Spill Update: Obama’s Job Loss Tally Grows

  Posted July 19th, 2010 at 3:30pm in Energy and Environment with 1 comments

  Alan Sayre is a New Orleans-based business writer who works for The Associated Press. Today he published an analysis of the perfect job killing storm the Obama administration is creating in Louisiana: In the blink of an eye, the economic focus in Louisiana has shifted from recession recovery to avoiding actual and potential job losses piling [...] More

• Market Loser Is a Political Winner

  Posted July 19th, 2010 at 2:30pm in Energy and Environment with 2 comments

  President Obama has picked another “winner” among green technologies meant to portend an energy revolution. This time it is a Korean-owned battery factory in Michigan, part of a $2.4 billion government investment in electric car battery technology in spite of a global glut of battery supply. However, the question is not really whether the technology [...] More

• Reid’s Deficit Addiction Is Blocking Unemployment Benefits Extension

  Posted July 19th, 2010 at 12:00pm in Energy and Environment, Entitlements with 8 comments

  There’s only one reason nearly 2 million American former workers are without unemployment benefits today: Senator Reid (D-NV) and his Democratic colleagues’ addiction to deficit spending. The Senate is expected to try to extend these benefits soon. There are arguments pro and con, but if the benefits are extended, then the $34 billion cost should [...] More

• “Did You Feel the Earthquake, Mr. President?” and 10 Questions He Wasn’t Asked

  Posted July 16th, 2010 at 2:30pm in Energy and Environment, Ongoing Priorities with 17 comments

  It gets pretty boring to watch conservatives endlessly complain about a fawning press corps, and a biased media. Yes, a majority of the national media is left-leaning; even they will admit as much. Some journalists put political views aside, and do an excellent job of delivering the news. Others can’t bear to avoid political commentary. [...] More

• Live From the Gulf: Obama Sends Top Doc to Study Damage He Inflicted on Gulf

  Posted July 16th, 2010 at 2:00pm in Energy and Environment, Ongoing Priorities with 11 comments

  President Barack Obama’s decision to ban oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the federal government’s bureaucratic delays are exacerbating the nightmares already tormenting the torn region. Now, in a bitter twist of irony, Obama’s surgeon general, Regina Benjamin, this week visited the Gulf to warn residents about the mental health problems caused by oil [...] More

• Live from the Gulf: Local Officials Forced to Fight Bureaucracy More Than Oil Spill (VIDEO)

  Posted July 15th, 2010 at 11:00am in Energy and Environment with 2 comments

  For the past two weeks, the Heritage Foundation has been down in the Gulf raising awareness about what is and is not working in the oil spill cleanup and what possible solutions exist that are being ignored by the media. Last Friday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) led a group of eight Congressmen on a Gulf Coast [...] More

• Morning Bell: Why the Obama Stimulus Failed

  Posted July 15th, 2010 at 9:18am in Energy and Environment, Enterprise and Free Markets with 69 comments

  Today, President Barack Obama will attend a groundbreaking ceremony in Holland, Mich., for a South Korean-owned factory that will make batteries for electric cars. The purpose of the trip is to highlight the “success” of the President’s $862 billion economic stimulus package which the White House claimed yesterday has already “saved or created” 3 million [...] More

• Live Video from the Gulf: The Moratorium In Their Own Words

  Posted July 15th, 2010 at 8:00am in Energy and Environment with 5 comments

  One of the many questions Heritage’s team in the Gulf asked locals when they visited last week was how they thought the President’s drilling moratorium would affect them. We have highlighted some of the many concerns they shared in a new video. They were roundly critical of the composition of the President’s oil spill commission and [...] More

• Live from the Gulf: Jindal’s Four-Point Plan for Revitalizing Coastal Louisiana

  Posted July 15th, 2010 at 7:00am in Energy and Environment with 6 comments

  NEW ORLEANS — With the Gulf oil spill approaching its 90th day, Gov. Bobby Jindal outlined an ambitious plan Wednesday to restore confidence in Louisiana and revitalize its oil-infested coast. His four-point plan puts the federal government and BP on notice for their role in the cleanup. Jindal was joined at the Port of New Orleans [...] More

• From Disaster to a Catastrophe In the Gulf – What’s Obama’s Endgame?

  Posted July 14th, 2010 at 8:00pm in Energy and Environment with 6 comments

  To many along the Gulf Coast, the oil spill response is Katrina… with a difference. With Katrina, says Mark Riley, an official in Louisiana’s Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Department, the problem was that the federal government showed up with its “hurricane bag” and found a disaster. This time, they showed up with “oil spill bag and found [...] More

• Live From the Gulf: A Rallying Song for America

  Posted July 14th, 2010 at 12:30pm in Energy and Environment, Ongoing Priorities with 1 comments

  As President Obama’s Oil Spill Commission met in New Orleans, Louisiana yesterday, they were met with an unexpected surprise. Drew Landry, a Lafayette native and singer-songwriter treated the commission to a rallying cry for the people of the Gulf, and some wise advice. The Huffington Post reports: “”We definitely need other solutions, going green — whatever [...] More

• Circumventing Cap and Trade with an Another Bad Energy Bill

  Posted July 14th, 2010 at 12:00pm in Energy and Environment with 2 comments

  In the midst of a crisis in the Gulf, some Senators are making a final push to pass energy and climate legislation this year. Senators John Kerry (D–MA) and Joe Lieberman (I–CT) are introducing a scaled-back version of their original cap-and-trade bill but still want to maintain a carbon cap. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [...] More