American refineries are closing and more closures are likely, often because of overly-burdensome regulation as well as lower gasoline demand. Several refineries in Pennsylvania are idle and possibly closing if no buyers come forward. The refining industry is one of the most highly regulated in the country and has been struggling for years to [...]
Ethanol Hasn’t Made Gasoline Cheaper
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is touting a new study claiming that ethanol reduced gasoline prices by more than a dollar per gallon in 2011. As with similar studies in the past, the methodology used here to calculate this number rests on a basic fallacy in how they frame the question, which we’ll explain below. [...]
May 24, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Facts, News, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats
Nothing Convenient About RFS
A recent study by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) found that two most prominent regulations affecting fuel use in the United States—the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards—have competing requirements that will have a negative impact on the more than 120,000 convenience stores that sell motor [...]
May 22, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Facts, News, Renewable Fuel Standard
EPA Staff’s Attempt to Regulate Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act
Explaining the ANPR The Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2008 that it was well on its way to regulating at least 85 percent of the energy used in America in the name of global warming (nevermind the fact that global temperatures have inexplicably not increased since at least 2001).[1] Because energy is an indispensable part [...]
May 21, 2012 | Facts, Greenhouse Gases, News, Threats
Fracking and Job Creation
One of the few booming sectors in the U.S. economy is oil and natural gas. Domestic development has been helped by high worldwide prices for crude, but the improvements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing—“fracking”—have also been very important. In a new report, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) estimate that [...]
May 17, 2012 | Emissions Standards, Facts, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats, Tier 3 Standards
Federal Intervention in Energy Markets Isn’t SAFE
The proponents of laissez-faire in energy markets keep winning argument after argument, but their critics keep moving the goalposts. For decades, Americans have been warned that they needed to wean themselves from oil because the U.S. would always be dependent on hostile foreign regimes. Now that new technological developments and further discoveries have shown that [...]
May 16, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Emissions Standards, Facts, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats
Does Ethanol Make Gasoline Cheaper?
The federal mandate to blend corn-based ethanol into the U.S. vehicle fuel mix is an economically absurd practice. On a level playing field, conventional gasoline would be used for the foreseeable future, as it is the most efficient method (all things considered) to deliver energy to U.S. vehicles. At most ethanol would have a [...]
May 14, 2012 | Facts, News, Renewable Fuel Standard
CBO Wants to Launch Preemptive Strike on American Energy Prices
Those who have followed the political debates over energy through the decades have observed a familiar pattern: The critics of American “dependence” on oil will keep coming back with new arguments, no matter how many times their earlier arguments are refuted. So it is with a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study on “Energy Security [...]
May 11, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Facts, Renewable Fuel Standard, Tier 3 Standards
Second Thoughts on Electric Vehicles
One of the problems with making purchases based on “the greater good”—as opposed to the direct benefits and costs—is that your estimate might turn out wrong. For example, many people simply assumed that electric vehicles were “good for the environment” and so were willing to spend more, and put up with more hassles, thinking [...]
May 10, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Facts, News
Parsing Obama’s Remarks on Fuel Standards
In July 2011, President Obama announced yet another federal intervention into the economy: increased fuel-efficiency mandates for vehicles. Although his speech was jocular and peppered with humor, it was also filled with very misleading “facts” about energy markets. In the present piece I’ll address some of the biggest whoppers. The President Agrees: Rising Oil Prices Are [...]
May 8, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Facts, News, Renewable Fuel Standard
