Free Republic

At the beginning of this year, many Americans opened their paychecks to find that their take-home pay was suddenly less than it had been the previous month. The payroll tax cut had expired, resulting in the average American worker owing an additional $700 in payroll taxes this year compared to last. For a two-parent household, that’s $1,400 less with which to pay the bills, put food on the table, and fill up the gas tank. But it’s far from the only added expense straining family budgets. Oil prices, in particular, have skyrocketed over the past decade, imposing higher direct and...

I'll give President Obama his due. He wasted no time in implementing some of his energy policy. In spite of the rhetoric he has used about increasing drilling leases on federal lands, we knew he wasn't serious about making it easier for American oil companies to use new lands for possible development. This is what we get for reelecting a President who has such a focus on promoting green energy. He seems to believe that the harder he makes it for oil companies to retrieve the natural resources in America, the easier it will be for green energy companies...

There were several surreal moments in the debate last night between the Democrat candidate for president, Barack Obama, and the American candidate Mitt Romney. While most are focused on Obama’s stunningly brazen lie about his statement of the attack on our Benghazi embassy, the more telling episode showed that Obama is simply disengaged from reality as it is experienced by most people. From the transcript: >>>"ROMNEY: That was a statement. I don’t think the American people believe that. I will fight for oil, coal and natural gas. And the proof, the proof of whether a strategy is working or not...

In its strongest ever warning, Ofgem said there may have to be “controlled disconnections” of homes and businesses in the middle of this decade because Britain has not done enough to make sure it has enough electricity. The regulator's new analysis reveals the risk of power-cuts is almost 50 per cent in 2015 if a very cold winter causes high demand for electricity. It predicts Britain will face power shortages because old coal and oil plants are being forced to shut down under the European Union’s environmental regulations. This will partly be replaced by wind farms, but they are less...

If voters knew how America’s economy would look after two terms of President Barack Obama’s administration, Mitt Romney would win in a landslide. In the 2008 campaign, President Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that the “notion of no coal … is an illusion.” He noted that he favors a cap-and-trade system, “[s]o if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” While Obama did not get to implement cap-and-trade, he found other ways to...

So there I am, pulling into a gas station in my town, and Tarek is smiling. He owns the station, and right now he's charging me $4.25 a gallon. American motorists may not be better off than they were four years ago, but Tarek certainly is. When President Barack Obama took office, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $1.84. That means gas prices have more than doubled on Obama's watch. But why? The primary reason is that the system is rigged. Oil companies watch the worldwide speculation market, and if the traders are bidding the price...

Seeks input from Texas energy executives Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney tapped oil executives for nearly $7 million on Tuesday and told them he will lay out a comprehensive energy proposal this week aimed at increasing U.S. energy production and creating jobs. On a day of fund-raising in Texas, Romney got whoops of approval from contributors in the West Texas oil town of Midland when he vowed to take advantage of "oil, gas, nuclear and renewables" if elected president on Nov. 6. Midland is where former President George W. Bush grew up, and Romney's motorcade passed a road sign...

Forget America’s fiscal cliff, Europe’s currency troubles or the emerging-markets slowdown. The most important story in the global economy today may well be some good news that isn’t yet making as many headlines – the coming surge in oil production around the world. Until very recently, our collective assumption was that oil was running out. That was partly a matter of what seemed like geological common sense. It took millions of years for the earth to crush plankton into fossil fuels; it is logical to think that it would take millions of years to create more. The rise of the...

Several years ago, a push began in Congress to make incandescent light bulbs illegal. The measure was designed to force Americans to use the more energy efficient CFL (compact florescent light bulbs). Supposedly, CFL bulbs use less electricity and last longer. However, I find that I have had to replace some CFL bulbs almost as often as incandescent bulbs. I still have incandescent bulbs that have been in use for many years and still burning brightly. I, like many consumers, resisted the forced legislation more because of cost more than anything else and I hate it when Congress keeps interfering...

<p>ALLEN PARK, Mich.—In this suburb just west of Detroit, Ford Motor Co. is working on one of the biggest gambles in its 108-year history: a pickup truck with a largely aluminum body.</p> <p>The radical redesign will help meet tougher federal fuel-economy targets now starting to have wide-ranging effects on Detroit's auto makers. But Ford will have to overcome a host of manufacturing obstacles, plus convince die-hard pickup buyers that aluminum is as tough as steel.</p>

[Snip]...I have long felt that one of the biggest threats to the U.S. ethanol industry is a major drought/crop failure in the heart of corn country. This year we may be experiencing such an event. Recent reports indicate that what had been expected to be a record crop of corn has been downgraded such that only 40% of the corn crop is being classified as in good or excellent condition. This is down 48% versus last week and 69% versus a year ago.

Corn prices are nearing the record highs of last summer as the U.S. Midwest suffers its worst drought since 1956. Shoppers should expect higher grocery bills, because corn is used in three-quarters of supermarket products. But don’t panic. Overall cost hikes are likely to be modest. “A 50% increase in the price of corn tends to raise total shopping bills by about 1%,” says Ricky Volpe, a research economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Corn’s price has jumped 45% this summer. Of course, even a modest increase to shopping bills is unwelcome news for households on tight budgets. Strange...

The American economy is flagging, and desperately in need of greater productivity and innovation. One presumes that President Obama understands as much; he has in fact suggested that he knows where this needed boost might come from. In this year's State of the Union Address, the president said that "nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy." His speech seemed to acknowledge that the American economy needs plentiful, affordable energy to thrive, and that the energy sector has a great deal of room to grow. Indeed, in his remarks, Obama touted the possibility of 600,000 new jobs...

Journal of Petroleum Technology — July 2012 Guest Editorial • On the Precipice Of a New Energy Source? Steve Jacobs, COO, and Patrick Leach, CEO, Decision Strategies, and David J. Nagel, CEO, NUCAT Energy Steve Jacobs is chief operating officer of Decision Strategies and has more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. His specialty is evaluating market opportunities for new and existing technologies and companies. He earned BS degrees in psychology and education from Oklahoma State University. Jacobs is an energy information ambassador for SPE. He moderates and lectures at numerous events around the world....

On the day it closed, Solyndra said it was laying off 1,100 full-time and temporary employees. But 1,861 workers lost their jobs as the solar panel manufacturer shut its doors, according to U.S. Labor Department documents provided to The Bay Citizen under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents also show the Fremont-based company increased production in 2011, even though it failed to sell all the panels it made the previous year. By the time it closed last August, Solyndra had an unsold inventory of more than 23 megawatts – enough solar panels to power about 23,000 homes. Analysts said...

John Holdren, President Barack Obama's Science Czar, has hit upon a new way to accomplish an old goal of his. Holdren, in the 1970s, was an advocate of what he called the "de-development" of the United States, among other things. CNS News reports that in a recent video interview, Holdren suggested that the de-development of the United States could be accomplished...

Actually, I know the answer to my own question. The answer is manyfold: Hussein has lifted the drilling moratorium; Hussein approved Keystone; Hussein has opened domestic exploration, drilling, and production; Hussein has opened the "strategic reserve"; Hussein didn't actually "invest" all those billions in Brazil's, etc. petroleum industries, he invested it our petroleum industry; Hussein Obama pees oil thereby increasing domestic supply driving the price down; isn't Obama wonderful? NOT I'm not an industry economist so what did I miss? Don't tell me it's all because of Memorial Day and summer's arrival, that doesn't make sense. This is not an...

On Wednesday, I pointed out that Barack Obama’s so-called “all of the above” energy plan, as explained on his campaign website, had a very large omission. This graphic represented the energy policy on which Obama was campaigning for re-election:In case the graph on the left isn’t clear enough, here it is by itself:Oddly, the “all of the above” approach excluded coal, which sources 45% of all electricity produced in the US, sustains more than a half-million jobs, and allows for lower prices to consumers and businesses. After nearly losing in coal-dependent West Virginia’s Democratic primary to a felon currently in...

Last month President Barack Obama signed an executive order that could lead to more federal rules on gas drilling. Obama said it is important to take advantage of natural gas resources, but he added air and water quality must be safeguarded. Of course. But what Obama did last week was to establish a "working group" to coordinate federal oversight of the natural gas industry. It will be headed by Heather Zichal, who is deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change. Zichal is no friend of fossil fuels. She once worked with the Sierra Club and was an...

Facts are sometimes nasty, persistent things that get in the way of the best political spin. President Obama likes to say that oil production is up and that the rise in gasoline prices is not his fault, but the facts challenge his words. Energy production is up, but only due to policies and practices set in motion ten years ago by the George W. Bush administration, and production is up only on private fields. (Snip) Economists estimate that for every $0.01 increase in a gallon of gasoline sustained for one full year, the economy loses $1 billion for that year.