Institute for Energy Research

U.S. Government Shuts Out Increased Alaskan Oil Production

In the 1970s, the United States built the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) to provide greater access to large reserves of domestic oil in Alaska. Built at a cost of $8 billion (equal to over $39 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars), TAPS moves oil 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez, a southern port in Alaska.(i) Thirty-three years after start-up in 1977, the pipeline, originally designed to move 2.1 million barrels per day, has a current flow of only 0.68 million barrels per day[ii], less than a third of its capacity due to the production decline at oil fields in Prudhoe Bay and other North Slope areas. There are far more domestic oil resources that could flow through the pipeline, but the federal government continues to deny Americans access to these energy resources.

Kish: Obama Admin Is Causing Our Energy Problems, Not Solving Them

WASHINGTON – In response to the price of crude oil hitting $100 per barrel today and the continued unrest in Libya, IER Senior Vice President for Policy, Dan Kish, released the following comments:

Energy Forecasts Agree on Global Fossil Fuel Domination

Fossil fuels are dominating the world’s energy market—a trend that will last for at least the next 20 to 25 years, the leading energy forecasters contend. According to these forecasters, it does not matter whether policies remain the same or whether anti-fossil fuel policies are enacted—fossil fuels will continue to produce 75 to 80 percent of the world’s energy by 2030.

Obama’s Budget: Central Planning the Nation’s Energy Sources

In American political discourse, everyone pays lip service to the virtues of free-market capitalism, and everyone recognizes the disaster of outright socialism. Yet through its massive power to tax, spend, and regulate, the federal government can achieve backdoor central planning, where federal officials pick winners and losers. We see this pattern all too clearly in President Obama's recent budget proposal and its impact on the American energy sector.

Everybody’s Got One: Obama, Salazar Running Out of Excuses

WASHINGTON--Two major developments this week spell trouble for the Obama Administration's war on affordable energy. Energy majors ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Shell announced the completion of a state-of-the-art Marine Well Containment System (MWCS) capable of controlling catastrophic spills like the Deepwater Horizon accident this past spring. In addition, Federal Judge Martin Feldman granted Ensco Offshore an injunction, ordering Secretary Salazar to act on five deepwater permits within thirty days. Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, released the following statement in response:

Greenpeace Still Tilting at Windmills in Spain

Gabriel Calzada is Associate Professor of Economics at the King Juan Carlos University in Spain and Founder-President of the Instituto Juan de Mariana. Just in time for President Obama's new budget with a large increase in spending on 'clean energy' (renewables), and the coincidental hearing in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Green Jobs and Trade, Greenpeace is weighing in to try and rehabilitate President Obama's erstwhile model for these schemes: Spain.

Countries Worry about Rare Earth Metal Supplies

China controls 97 percent of the world's supplies of rare earth metals used in weapon systems and in many modern technological devices, including wind turbines, hybrid cars, and electronics.(i) China views itself as the OPEC of rare earth metals because the country can affect the supply by limiting its exports to countries dependent on its rare earth metal resources. China controls the world's market for rare earth elements, not because China has the vast majority of rare earth reserves (in fact, China only has 36 percent of identified rare earth reserves[ii]), but because China does not impose the regulations on mining rare earths that other countries do. China can control the market at lower cost, putting other competition out of business. It has cut export quotas, increased export taxes and even banned exports of rare earths to Japan due to a maritime territorial dispute.[iii] As a result, countries are concerned about supplies of rare earth elements.

The True Energy Threat to the United States National Security?

H. Sterling Burnett, is a Senior Fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, a non-partisan, non-profit research institute with offices in Dallas, Texas and Washington, D.C. President Obama continues to tout his support for moving to a “clean” energy economy, confidently asserting in his State of the Union Address and subsequent speeches around the country, that his administration’s program of subsidies, government grants and tax breaks for green energy technologies will, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and thus improve the United States’ national security.

Annual U.S. Production and Import of Crude Oil

Secure Oil Resources: Where Can We Get Them?

The turmoil in Egypt has made many worry about our oil supply, seeing prices rise due to the conflict. The issue raises the question of where we should be getting oil to ensure the security of its supply. Obviously the first place is at home. But with the Obama Administration placing a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf followed by a de facto ban, withholding the final stages of a permit from Shell to drill offshore in Arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea in Alaska(1), and withdrawing leases on Federal lands that contain vast resources of shale oil[ii], the only choice for the United States is to turn to oil imports for its supply.

EPA Will Destroy Jobs, Not Create Them

One of the hot political debates raging in Washington is the effect the EPA--and specifically, its plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions--is having on businesses. According to the WSJ, trade associations and businesses single out the EPA as the #1 target when they complain about stifling federal burdens.

High Speed Tax Payer Money Pit

Today, President Obama called for a $53 billion government 'investment' in high-speed rail over the next six years.

War on Affordable Energy Continues

Gas prices were already ticking upward before Egypt disintegrated into political turmoil, but the Obama Administration is accelerating that trend by not issuing permits for domestic energy development and exploration. Today, Royal Dutch Shell announced that they would postpone their arctic drilling project in the Beaufort Sea--a region estimated to have billions of barrels of oil--because they cannot secure the necessary permits. We can add this company to the list of those wishing to do business in the United States, but cannot as a result of regulatory green tape.

Will Unrest in Middle East Finally Awaken Washington to Impacts of its American Energy Embargo?

The tumult in the streets of Cairo sent shock waves throughout world. Oil prices rose in response to fears that further unrest could result in the closure of the Suez Canal, through which more than 600,000 barrels of oil is shipped every day on its way to the United States and other nations.

Blinder Understates the Cost of a Carbon Tax

In a recent article (“The Carbon Tax Miracle Cure,” Jan. 31) Alan Blinder listed numerous alleged benefits of a phased-in carbon tax. His main argument is that it would stimulate job creation in new technologies and techniques. Out of his entire column, he devoted a single sentence to the possible downside of his plan when he wrote, “No one likes to pay higher taxes.” A more balanced assessment shows that a carbon tax presents very real dangers, even if we rely on the same economic analysis that so enthralled Blinder.

Levelized Cost of New Electricity Generating Technologies

Download PDF: Levelized Cost of New Electricity Generating Technologies The Energy Information Administration (EIA) produces forecasts of energy supply and demand for the next 20 years using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS)(1). These forecasts are updated annually and published in the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO).[2] All sectors of the energy system are represented in NEMS, including the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution system.

Peak Not: Running Into Oil and Gas

"Resources are highly dynamic functional concepts; they are not, they become, they evolve out of the triune interaction of nature, man, and culture."[0] So said the institutional economist Erich Zimmermann, explaining why so-called fixed, depletable resources expand rather than deplete in free market settings. Julian Simon similarly stated: "Human beings create more than they destroy."[2]

Wind Finishes 2010 with Poor Showing in Capacity Increases

The wind industry would like you to believe that windmills are now cost competitive with natural gas units for electricity generation[0], but in 2010, natural gas fired units added twice the capacity that wind units added through most of the year.[ii] Why? There are several reasons. The recession lowered the demand for electricity, natural gas prices are low due to production and reserves of shale gas, and one of wind’s federal subsidies was expiring at the end of 2010.

The Apollo Program and Making Renewables Affordable: Two Completely Different Goals

Senator John Kerry encouraged President Obama to call for an Apollo program for energy at the State of the Union. The problem is that the goal of the Apollo program is far different, and far more easily achieved than making renewables affordable.

Obama on Energy: Fancy New Rhetoric, Same Failed Policies

WASHINGTON – Inthe State of the Union address, President Obama missed a prime-time opportunity to truly usher our nation into a secure energy future. He changed his rhetoric and his tone, but not his harmful policies or misinformed ideology. Institute for Energy Research President Thomas J. Pyle issued the following statement: