WhatFinger


Institute for Energy Research

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.

Most Recent Articles by Institute for Energy Research:


We Disagree with You, So Shut Up

A cage fight has recently erupted among the Environmental Left.  It pits those who want to eliminate affordable energy against those who want to eliminate all energy (and, while they are at it, eliminate people, too). Famous radical documentarian, Michael Moore, has co-produced an exposé on renewable energy with the director and ardent environmentalist, Jeff Gibbs.  The Planet of the Humans pulls the curtain back on the environmental impact and value of wind, solar, and biomass energies.  In a big non-surprise to those of us who have long questioned the logic of subsidizing these energies, the reward for Moore and Gibbs has been a vicious attack by the flag-bearers of the climate-industrial complex.
- Saturday, May 2, 2020

Biden Would Make the U.S. Dependent on Foreign Oil Again

Former Vice President Joe Biden promised to stop issuing leases for oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands and in offshore areas and he promised to ban hydraulic fracturing, known as "fracking". The logical result of these positions would be for the newly energy-independent United States to go back to importing much more of its oil from the Middle East for it is clear that it will be many decades before electric vehicles could replace gasoline engines and that substitutes could be found to replace products made from oil.
- Saturday, May 2, 2020

New York Needs Natural Gas But Bans Hydraulic Fracturing Technology

Several U.S. states—Vermont, Washington, Maryland, and New York—have banned the use of hydraulic fracturing technology to obtain oil and natural gas from shale basins, but among them, New York is the only state with enormous energy potential. Hydraulic fracturing technology spurred the energy renaissance in the United States and made the nation effectively energy independent in 2019 for the first time since the early 1950s.
- Saturday, April 25, 2020

Offshore Oil Drilling Safer Now Due to Industry Actions

On April 20, 2010, ten years ago, a “blowout” occurred on the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig, killing 11 workers and spilling millions of barrels of oil from BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. Four million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged well over an 87-day period, before it was capped on July 15, 2010. Shortly after the accident, President Obama instituted a six-month moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling. On December 15, 2010, the United States filed a complaint in District Court against BP Exploration & Production and several other defendants alleged to be responsible for the spill. Settlements were made with several of the defendants, including the settlement with BP Exploration & Production for a $5.5 billion Clean Water Act penalty and up to $8.8 billion in natural resource damages. As of 2018, BP had spent $65 billion on the spill. Since the accident, the offshore drilling industry has taken significant preventative actions.
- Friday, April 24, 2020

Energy Companies Are Donating Medical Supplies to Help Fight the Coronavirus

Companies are stepping up to help the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and are donating medical supplies and providing financial support. Marathon Petroleum donated 9,600 N95 respirator masks to the University Medical Center of El Paso and El Paso Children’s Hospital. Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts donated more than 2,000 face masks and 14,000 nitrile examination gloves to the community’s local hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., which operates the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants in New Jersey, is donating more than 50,000 N95 masks to the state’s health care system.
- Thursday, April 9, 2020

Automakers and Other Manufacturers Help Fight the War on the Coronavirus

During World War II, American industrial giants retooled their operations to make the United States the “Arsenal of Democracy.” Today, in response to President Trump’s metaphorical call to arms against COVID-19, America is once again flexing its industrial muscles to answer that call and produce life-saving equipment to battle the virus.
- Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Countries and U.S. States & Localities are Banning Plastics, but Plastic Products Help to Fight the Coronavirus

The Canadian government intends to designate plastics as toxic substances, which will allow them the authority to regulate and limit certain products. France prohibited single-use plastic plates, cups, and cutlery starting January 1, and England is enacting restrictions on plastic straws and stirrers beginning in April. Countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe either have bans on plastic bags or tax their usage. Eight U.S. states have placed a ban on single-use plastic bags—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden called for eliminating plastics during a town hall in New Hampshire where he specifically addressed single-use items such as straws but also seemed to call for a broader ban on the material.
- Thursday, March 19, 2020

Coronavirus Disrupts Supply Chains for Renewable Technologies

Solar has become a global technology and it is part of an increasingly intertwined global supply chain with China as the largest global producer of solar modules. The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that started in China, is expected to affect delivery times of solar products needed in the United States if the disease's spread stalls manufacturing production in China and other affected countries.
- Wednesday, March 18, 2020

California's Natural Gas to Electric Future

Six local governments in California are allowed by state regulators to limit the use of natural gas in many new buildings, encouraging the installation of all-electric appliances (including HVAC systems). These natural gas bans are scheduled to take effect in January. Berkeley was the first city to pass a ban on natural gas appliances in new homes. Now, the cities of San Jose, Menlo Park, San Mateo, West Hollywood and Santa Monica, and Marin County will ban or limit gas appliances in many new buildings. Where natural gas is still allowed, the local governments may require new construction to be more energy-efficient than the state requires.
- Monday, March 16, 2020

Big Green, Inc: The Kresge Foundation and the Allure of Activism

The myriad policies and initiatives put forth under the banner of climate change mitigation can sometimes overwhelm the mind. But most of these alleged climate solutions can be understood as big government in disguise, in the form of rules, regulations, and other encroachments on our free use of energy and other resources. Far too many philanthropic organizations financially support these government-in-disguise measures rather than supporting more useful measures that take the essentiality of individual and economic freedom into account.
- Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Wind Turbine Blades Will Continue to Pile Up at U.S. Landfills

Wind turbines are designed to last approximately 20 to 25 years. While the main core of wind turbines are made from steel and copper, which are recyclable materials, turbine blades are made from composite glass or carbon material and resins, which are not as valued and are generally disposed at landfills. Turbine blades span up to 260 feet and weigh an average of 36 tons, posing a difficult disposal problem. Because of their size and weight, turbine blades typically need to be cut up before they can be moved.
- Monday, March 9, 2020

Texas is the United States' Number One Natural Gas Producer

Texas is the United States' Number One Natural Gas ProducerTexas' energy efficiency in oil production is well known, but it is also a major natural gas player, outproducing Pennsylvania by 26 percent in 2018. From 2010 to 2018, the number of natural gas producing wells in Texas decreased by almost three thousand (2.9 percent) while production increased 1.27 trillion cubic feet—18 percent. Gas production from January to October of 2019 was almost another trillion cubic feet higher—15 percent higher—than the same period last year. This natural gas production has aided Texas' liquefied-natural gas (LNG) business. The first LNG shipment from Texas was from Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi facility in late 2018. Texas now has six LNG export facilities (trains) operating or planned for construction within the next 2 years, which will increase the U.S. export capacity to 10 billion cubic feet per day.
- Wednesday, February 12, 2020

U.S. Coal-Fired Power Plants Continue to Retire

U.S. Coal-Fired Power Plants Continue to RetireIn 2010, coal-generated 45 percent of the nation's electricity with 317 gigawatts of coal-fired generating capacity—30 percent of the generating fleet. Last year, the United States generated only 24 percent of its electricity from coal and coal-fired generating capacity fell to 234 gigawatts (as of October 2019). Between 2010 and the first quarter of 2019, U.S. power companies announced the retirement of over 546 coal-fired power units, totaling about 102 gigawatts of generating capacity. Plant owners intend to retire another 17 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity by 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Coal-fired plants have been retired due to regulation beginning with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards promulgated by the Obama Administration, competition from low-cost natural gas and heavily subsidized and mandated renewable (mainly wind and solar) plants, and relatively flat electricity demand growth.
- Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Germany Will Pay Its Utilities to Phase Out Coal

Germany will pay utility companies billions of euros to speed up the shutdown of their coal-fired power plants as part of the country's efforts to fight climate change. Domestic lignite (brown coal) and imported bituminous (black coal) provide about a third of Germany's electricity. According to German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, operators of coal-fired power plants in western Germany will receive 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in compensation for turning their coal plants off early, and the country will pay 1.75 billion euros ($1.9 billion) for coal plant operators to do the same in the east. This compensation is in addition to around 40 billion euros ($44 billion) that the government has already promised to coal-mining regions to abandon the fossil fuel. Through this move, Germany plans to exit coal-fired generation by 2035–three years before the final deadline in 2038 for coal-fired electricity to be phased out.
- Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Big Green, Inc: The Bloomberg Family Foundation and the Future of American Energy

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is running for President of the United States, but that's not all he's up to. He's also working to upend our energy-spurred prosperity. The Bloomberg Family Foundation, a $7 billion organization of which he is the benefactor has made obstruction of our energy economy its raison d'etre. Bloomberg himself also presides over the board the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, an international alliance of cities whose mayors back his climate and energy approach. Bloomberg is also the chairman emeritus of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the chairman of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). These organizations claim to be nonpartisan arbiters of the climate risk that businesses face, but in reality, they're controlled almost entirely by the network of hyper-partisan foundations that fuel the environmental left, and their recommendations reflect this. Unfortunately, the disclosure standards established by the SASB have an air of legitimacy that makes them insidious.
- Sunday, February 2, 2020

Dirty Secrets About the CLEAN Future Act

Dirty Secrets About the CLEAN Future ActThe Committee on Energy & Commerce recently released more details of the so-called "CLEAN Future Act," which "formally adopts the goal of achieving of a 100 percent clean economy by 2050." Besides the manipulative name, the proposal (a) doesn't even bother trying to justify its central goal and (b) includes a grab-bag of proposals that progressive Democrats have always favored, regardless of climate change concerns, and many of which are very blunt instruments to reduce emissions even if the central goal did make sense. When a small group of officials declares what "the science" dictates in terms of government measures, the public should be very wary.
- Friday, January 24, 2020

Oil and gas Production on Federal Lands Boosts Jobs and Revenues in Several Key States

Oil and gas Production on Federal Lands Boosts Jobs and Revenues in Several Key StatesOil and gas production on public lands has increased significantly since President Trump took office. President Trump has opened up millions of acres of land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for resource development. Drilling permits have increased almost 40 percent under the Trump administration, according to BLM data. Several states (e.g., New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado) have benefited from the increased activity on federal lands. Forty-eight percent of the revenue from lease sales goes to the state where the oil and gas activity is occurring for their roads, schools, and public services; the rest goes to the U.S. Treasury. If the leases result in producing oil or natural gas wells, revenue from royalties are also shared with the state.
- Monday, January 20, 2020

On the Climate Road to Serfdom

The political world is saying "no" to policies that make energy less available, more expensive, less reliable, and more intrusive. Hyperbole of peak demand is going the way of Peak Oil as the hydrocarbon production boom creates its own demand. Little wonder that compared to 1988 when global warming became a political issue, U.S. fossil-fuel consumption has grown 13 percent despite generous government subsidies to ethanol, wind power, and solar power.
- Sunday, January 19, 2020

Transportation and Climate Initiative Would Ratchet Up Cost of Living

The Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) is a regional collaboration of politicians from 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector.  The participating states are: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.
- Friday, January 10, 2020

Sponsored