The winds of change roared through the American political system this November, but clearly they didn’t blow hard enough to break congressional love for wasteful subsidies like the wind energy production tax credit. In an overwhelming vote of 378 to 46, the House of Representatives extended the credit retroactively for 2014, potentially burdening American taxpayers…
Jason Stverak: Billionaire’s Energy Tax Crusade Is Risky Business For Unions
A billionaire investor arrived in Washington Tuesday to kick off a $100 million spending campaign designed to overwhelm the opposition this fall midterms, and senior Democrats were predictably furious. But this megadonor wasn’t a Koch brother or any other conservative bogeyman. It was Tom Steyer, an environmental activist planning to spend nine figures of his own money to force…
Jason Stverak: More Than 1st Amendment Needed To Protect Journalists
The news on Monday that three Al-Jazeera journalists were convicted and sentenced in Egypt to seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges has sparked international outrage. The ruling is a huge blow to the free press and seen widely as a political move against unfriendly coverage. As America and the rest of the civilized world look at…
Jason Stverak: It's A War On People, Not Coal
The EPA’s new CO2 emissions rule may be designed to combat global warming, but it will instead accomplish exactly one goal — killing off the American coal industry. The rule, which requires both new and existing power plants to cut emissions by 30 percent over the next 11 years, deliberately targets coal-fired plants that now…
Don't Slow Down The Bakken Oil Boom, Grow With It
I was struck by these comments from Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity President Jason Stverak about concerns over North Dakota oil production overwhelming energy infrastructure. Many are blaming recent train derailments on the spike in oil-by-rail shipments, and are calling for oil production in the state to be slowed down. Stverak makes the…