28 March 2014

In the News
Human Achievement Hour: Lights On!
William Yeatman, Master Resource, 28 March 2014
Climate Forecast: Muting the Alarm
Matt Ridley, Wall Street Journal, 27 March 2014
Anti-Fracking Agitprop Documentarian Josh Fox Is Wrong Again
Ashe Snow, Washington Examiner, 27 March 2014
Earth Hours Misguided Premise
Bjorn Lomborg, USA Today, 27 March 2014
Confidential Document Reveals Sierra Clubs War on Coal
Strategy
Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 26 March 2014
Members of Independent EPA Advisory Committee Got $180
Million from EPA
David Kreutzer, The Foundry, 26 March 2014
Global Warming Will Not Cost the Earth, Leaked IPCC Report
Admits
James Delingpole, Breitbart, 26 March 2014
Climate Change Debate about To Change Radically
Andrew Lilico, Telegraph, 25 March 2014

Sea Level Rise Decelerated 31% Since 2002

The Hockey Schtick, 23 March 2014
Washington Post Falls for Left-Wing Fraudsters on KochKeystone Connection
John Hinderaker, Powerline, 20 March 2014

News You Can Use

U.S. Now Accounts for 10% of Global Crude
Thanks to advances in oil and gas drilling collectively known as
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, U.S. oil production grow by a
record 1.136 million barrels a day last year to 8.121 million barrels
a day. As a result, the domestic energy industry now accounts for
10 percent of global production.

Inside the Beltway

William Yeatman

SCOTUS Upholds One Front in EOAs War on

Coal
On Monday, the Supreme Court effectively sided with the EPA in
a long-running legal battle over the Agencys controversial 2011
veto of a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit that already had
been issued to Arch Coal for a surface coal mine in Logan
County, West Virginia.
As I reported after a visit to West Virginia, EPAs veto of the
permit was deeply unpopular with people in the state. The coal
company litigated, and in March 2012, U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that EPA

did not have the authority to retroactively revoke a permit, a

decision which vacated the Agencys action, and would have
allowed Arch Coal to proceed with mining.
EPA then appealed Judge Jacksons ruling. On April 23rd, 2013,
a unanimous three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of
Appeals disagreed with the lower court, and found that EPA did
indeed have the authority to revoke a Clean Water Act Section
404 permit after it had been granted to the company seeking the
variance.
Arch Coal then appealed the D.C. Circuit Courts ruling to the
Supreme Court. But on Monday, the Court declined to take up the
case.
Now that its been established by the courts that EPA has the
authority to retroactively veto Clean Water Act permits, the case
returns to U.S. District Court Judge Jackson, in order to determine
whether EPA exercised this authority reasonably. As Ive argued
here, this question remains in doubt: The agencys justification for
revoking the permit is the supposed need to protect a short-lived
insect that isnt an endangered species.

Interior Department Lists Lesser Prairie Chicken

as Threatened; Could Be Worse, But Still Bad
Yesterday the Interior Department classified the lesser prairie
chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species
Act (ESA). While a threatened listing doesnt automatically
trigger the draconian regulations that are required under an
endangered classification, it gives the Interior Department wide

latitude to impose regulations, even those that could be as

severe.
The lesser prairie chickens habitat coincides with areas that are
experiencing for growing oil and gas production in the southwest
due to the advent of fracking. Over the last five years, energy
companies in the region have voluntarily spent millions of dollars
to preserve the species, in collaboration with the federal
government. The Interior Department ruled that the threatened
designation would not precipitate regulatory commitments for the
oil and gas industry beyond what they already are doing
voluntarily. This raises an obvious question: Why was the listing
necessary?
Despite the Interior Departments assurances, there is cause for
concern. The Endangered Species Act is known as the bulldog
of environmental statutes for a reason: It affords environmental
litigants ample opportunity to sue in federal court and press the
case for ever more stringent controls. Notably, yesterdays
threatened listing itself was the byproduct of so-called sue and
settle litigation, or sweetheart lawsuits whereby EPA cedes its
regulatory initiative to green special interests.

Across the States

William Yeatman

Pennsylvania, North Dakota Booming Due to

Fracking
The American energy boom engendered by fracking is having a
big impact on local economies. This week, the Department of
Labor released statistics showing that the citizens of North

Dakota, the locus of much of the increased fracking, enjoyed the

fastest increase in personal income, at 7.6 percent. Current per
capita income in North Dakota is $57,000, second only to
Connecticut, and has increased by almost 50 percent since
2009.The situation is similar in Pennsylvania, another area that is
being revitalized by the U.S. energy renaissance. According to the
Labor Department statistics cited above, the Keystone State has
added more than 15,000 direct jobs in the oil and gas industry
since 2007, which is a 268 percent increase (during a global
recession).

Green Energy Mandate Repeal Stalls in Kansas;

Introduced in Ohio
Over the last decade, a number of states have enacted green
energy mandates, known as renewable portfolio standards (RPS),
that require ratepayers to buy increasing amounts of wind and
solar energy. Because renewable energy is more expensive than
conventional energy, some states are now revisiting their green
energy production quotas, as consumer costs mount.
For example, this week the Kansas Senate, by a 25-15 vote,
passed H.B. 2014, which would repeal the states RPS
requirement that Kansas utility companies to receive 20 percent
of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Unfortunately,
the Republican-controlled Kansas House spurned the measure,
by a 77-44 vote. H.B. 2014, however, is not yet dead. There are
two weeks left in the legislative session, and proponents of repeal
remain sanguine.
Similarly, House and Senate Republicans in Ohio this week
announced their intention to introduce a bill that would suspend

the states 2008 RPS. The GOP has a large majority in both
chambers, so it stands to reason that this effort has an excellent
chance of succeeding.

Around the World

William Yeatman

EU Asks Obama to Stop Dragging Feet on Nat

Gas Exports
At a European UnionU.S. summit this week in Brussels, EU
leaders asked Barack Obama to share the facilitate gas exports to
help counter Russias influence over European energy markets.
With U.S. gas supplies buoyed by fracking, there exists an
economic incentive to increase gas exports. However, under the
Natural Gas Act, companies cannot import or export natural gas
without approval from the Energy Department. There are more
than two dozen license applications pending, but expanded
exports are opposed by antifossil fuel environmentalists, a key
component of the presidents political base. As a consequence,
his administration has dragged its feet, and the Department of
Energy has processed only six applications.
EU leaders asked the administration to hurry up. What we are
asking for is a willingness of the US side to be more pro-active on
licences, Joo Vale de Almeida, the EU ambassador in
Washington, told The Guardian. EU leaders were galvanized by
Russias imminent annexation of Crimea; they feared that Russia
could use its position in the EU gas marketRussian exports
account for a third of European gasas a geopolitical cudgel.