The Heartland Institute

Green jobs programs enacted by various states are causing economic harm on an economy-wide basis that outweighs the limited economic benefits within the “green” energy sector, according to a newly published study by the nonpartisan State Budget Solutions. Job Destruction Outweighs Creation The report, Green Jobs Don’t Grow on Trees ...

Kansas is the focus of a new land rush taking place in middle America. This time, it is not homesteaders or yeoman farmers grasping for the rich soil; it’s energy producers eager to tap abundant oil and natural gas resources through hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) techniques. In the process, jobs are being created ...

Kansas and Texas are leading a group of eight states suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over EPA’s planned implementation of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. The Cross-State rule will impose costly new restrictions on power plants in 27 states. EPA argues the new restrictions are necessary for states not targeted ...

Recent greenhouse gas emissions cuts reported by developed nations are illusory, a new peer-reviewed study has found, as many of the cuts have occurred simply as a result of industries relocating to developing nations such as China and India. Migrating Emissions As analysts and some politicians recognized when debating the Kyoto ...

Russia, Japan, and Canada announced at a late-May G8 summit they would not participate in an international treaty following up the Kyoto Protocol with new carbon dioxide cuts. In doing so, they joined the United States, which reiterated it would remain outside any such treaty. Kyoto’s Poor Results Although most developed nations ...

After conducting a comprehensive study of claims of natural gas production polluting a ranch owner s aquifer and drinking water, Colorado state regulators concluded the operations undertaken by Pioneer Natural Resources in Las Animas County, Colorado caused no negative water impacts. In a similar case, Texas state regulators absolved ...

The Kentucky Senate has approved a bill to end a moratorium on nuclear power plants being built in the state. The bill, sponsored by Bob Leeper (I-Paducah), passed the Senate on February 8 by a 31-5 vote. Kentucky state law currently prohibits nuclear power plants from being built in the state until the U.S. government opens ...

Lame duck Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) has placed a moratorium on new natural gas leases on state forests lands. Rendell had previously supported new natural gas leases, but he decided to impose the moratorium after the state legislature declined to implement a hefty new severance tax he wanted. The Governor s actions ...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined salmon genetically modified to grow to maturity faster than either wild or traditional farm-raised salmon are safe for human consumption and pose no threat to the environment. Aquabounty, the developer of the genetically modified salmon studied by FDA, has been trying ...

The New York Senate has passed a bill to impose a nine-month moratorium on granting new permits for natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state’s portion of the massive, multistate Marcellus shale rock formation. The bill passed by a 48-9 vote on August 4. Productive, Proven Technology Fracking ...

Alaska state officials are objecting to the Obama administration s decision to list more than 187,000 square miles almost the entire U.S. polar bear population s range as critical habitat. Critical habitat is defined as an area containing features essential to the conservation of species listed as threatened or endangered under ...

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions fell by more than 6 percent in 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Energy Information Administration report. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions as a whole fell almost 3 percent. The agencies expect to find emissions fell by an even greater amount in 2009, but figures are not ...

Bipartisan groups of legislators in both the U.S. House and Senate are attempting to pass legislation to halt the Environmental Protection Agency s proposed greenhouse gas regulations. House Dems Lead Revolt In the House, Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D- MN), Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), are ...

In challenging EPA s proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, Congressional leaders are following the lead of several states that have mounted their own challenges. Current State Efforts The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in December 2009 filed an official objection to the EPA s decision to move forward ...

A series of e-mails between scientists who serve as gatekeepers for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change leaked from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has caused a firestorm of controversy that has yet to die down several months after the news first broke. Smoking-Gun Emails The incident ...

Kittitas County, Washington is experiencing sticker shock as the true cost of solar power is coming in at more than three times the promised price. In less than one month s time, the cost estimate for a proposed 75 megawatt solar power plant has soared by more than 200 percent. Estimates Rising Rapidly On July 9, Howard Trott ...

Dozens of very productive new wells near North Dakota s Bakken oil field have state officials believing another massive new oil find may be at hand. A newly discovered oil field in the Three Forks-Sanish formation is producing high yields, and some analysts believe it may surpass production in the huge Bakken oil field just ...

The Waxman-Markey bill to restrict carbon dioxide emissions would cost $846 billion in the next decade alone, in the form of required payments for emissions allowances, according to a June 5 report from the Congressional Budget Office. The bill has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending action in ...

In a surprising blow to environmental activists and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, Los Angeles voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have required the city to install 400 megawatts of solar panels by 2014. Powerful Supporters, Big Money Just weeks before the March 3 election, the solar initiative ...

One of the most effective, widely used herbicides in the United States known as 2, 4-D has a serious drawback: It devastates grapes. That makes it very difficult to raise grapes in the Midwest, because 2, 4-D is widely used on popular staple food crops including corn and wheat, and it can harm grapes up to two miles away ...