The Heartland Institute

Unlike oil, the price of natural gas is set in the domestic market. Right now, American consumers and businesses are reaping a windfall from the lowest natural gas prices in 10 years. Cheap gas has reduced heating and electric bills for millions of households, while industries using natural gas as a feedstock or boiler fuel ...

The hydraulic fracturing process of extracting natural gas from shale rock formations has not resulted in any groundwater contamination, according to a study released by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. The study, Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development , found any instances ...

Unlike oil, the price of natural gas is set in the domestic market. Right now, American consumers and businesses are reaping a windfall from the lowest natural gas prices in 10 years. Cheap gas has reduced heating and electric bills for millions of households, while industries using natural gas as a feedstock or boiler fuel ...

The next time you hear President Obama beating up on oil companies and crusading to wipe out what he calls the industry’s “tax breaks,” don’t be fooled: He’s telling a lie. Recently at the White House, Obama unleashed some of his most aggressive rhetoric yet on the subject, telling Congress that it can “stand with big oil ...

Idaho and Wyoming residents and environmental groups are expressing opposition to a proposed 1,100-mile long high-voltage power line designed to transmit 3,000 megawatts of mostly wind-generated electricity to fast-growing areas in the West. Sage Grouse, Pristine Lands The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is overseeing ...

Federal energy policies designed to rid the nation of traditional incandescent light bulbs continue to encounter popular resistance, with South Carolina’s legislature considering its own unique act of defiance. Intrastate Bulbs Considered Lawmakers in Columbia are pondering a proposed “Incandescent Light Bulb Freedom Act,” a measure ...

Meredith, New York seems like an idyllic place—patchwork farms roll tranquilly along the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains, interspersed with small ponds and temperate woodlands. Gentle breezes blow through the tall grasses, symbolizing the town’s serene lifestyle. That same breeze, however, has divided Meredith’s 1,529 ...

What do you do if you are a global warming alarmist and real-world temperatures do not warm as much as your climate model predicted? Here’s one answer: you claim that your model’s propensity to predict more warming than has actually occurred shouldn’t prejudice your faith in the same model’s future predictions. Thus, anyone ...

Sometime in the next few days, Florida Gov. Rick Scott will have to decide whether to sign or veto HB 7117 , a multipronged renewable energy and conservation bill that provides tax credits for renewable energy technology investment and renewable fuel infrastructure. If signed and implemented, the bill would cost taxpayers $16 ...

What constitutes an affordable “green” light bulb? According to the U.S. Department of Energy, $50 per light bulb is our most promising future. No Likely Market The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a $10 million prize to Philips, a Dutch electronics company that is one of the leading manufacturers of light bulbs sold ...

States that have imposed renewable power mandates during recent years are seeing electricity prices rise dramatically, reports a newly published study by the nonpartisan Manhattan Institute. The rising electricity prices are most dramatic in seven coal-producing states that have nevertheless “diversified” their electricity with renewable ...

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 ...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reaffirmed that bisphenol A, a chemical used in certain plastics and resins, poses no identified risks to human health at current exposure levels. FDA’s decision came in response to a Natural Resources Defense Council petition for the agency to ban BPA in food packaging and containers ...

Rising levels of ground-based ozone in the western United States can be traced to emissions in Asia that are transported across the Pacific Ocean by westerly winds, according to a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Significant Asian Impact As much as 20 percent of the ground-level ozone measured in California ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed carbon dioxide restrictions that will effectively ban the construction of coal-fired power plants. The proposed restrictions would block the construction of any new power plant that does not limit its carbon dioxide emissions to 1,000 pounds per megawatt-hour. The proposed restrictions ...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is requesting a congressional investigation into why the Justice Department is imposing a double standard on bird kills regarding wind power producers versus oil and natural gas producers. Ideological Harassment In a Feb. 22 letter the former Speaker of the House sent to Lamar Smith ...

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has voted against a proposed wind farm in rural Goodhue County because the developers failed to provide an acceptable plan to protect bald eagles and other species. Eagles, Migratory Birds Threatened Goodhue Wind proposed the construction of a 32,700 acre, 48-turbine wind farm in ...

Environmentalists have filed a challenge to the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a wind turbine project slated for Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont. First in National Forest System “On January 3 of this year, after eight years of study, the forest supervisor of the Green Mountain National Forest made a decision to ...

Shell Oil Company is partnering with the Nature Conservancy of Texas in an effort to rebuild an eroding island which is home to more than 24,000 nesting birds. Shell has donated $500,000 toward the first phase of the project, which is estimated to cost a total of $2.3 million. Winter storms that moved across Corpus Christi ...

Construction of BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power project in the Mojave Desert is destroying the habitat of threatened desert tortoises. Conservationists have documented that in addition to destroying desert tortoise habitat, the project, approximately 50 miles south of Las Vegas in southeastern California, has directly caused ...