Blog

12Oct

CAP Report on Coal Leasing Recycles Garbage

October 12, 2016 With its most recent screed against the federal coal leasing program, the Center for American Progress (CAP) continues to squander what little remains of its reputation for objective, credible policy analysis. Instead, this report recycles politically contrived conclusions based on a deeply flawed understanding of a program that in the past decade […]
03Oct

The President’s Climate Legacy Gets its Day in Court

September 28, 2016 This Tuesday, a major chunk of President Obama’s legacy will face microscopic scrutiny when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hears legal arguments regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Clean Power Plan” (CPP). The legal issues before the court are dauntingly complex, but the decisive issue before the […]
21Sep

10 Things EPA Doesn’t Want You to Know About The CPP

September 21, 2016: EPA’s website offers “Ten Things to Know About EPA’s Clean Power Plan.” In advance of the Sept. 27 oral arguments, NMA offers “Ten Things EPA Doesn’t Want You to Know” about it: 1. It’s unlawful – Sec. 111 (d) of the Clean Air Act doesn’t give EPA the authority to transform a […]
14Sep

Coal Miners – From Bill’s Day to Hillary’s

September 14, 2016 Say what you will about Bill Clinton, but the former president is without question an inveterate newsmaker. The news he makes is not always welcome, of course, and there’s the rub. On Friday, just as Hillary Clinton made halting attempts to bond with coal country, her husband blamed coal miners for deserting […]
08Sep

Job One for the Returning Congress

September 8, 2016 The jobs report released Friday ended any glib White House talk about its Labor Day achievements. From the 275,000 jobs added in July, we added a dismal 151,000 in August. AEI calls the impact on working men a “quiet catastrophe” – “quiet” because few in Washington’s punditry are talking about. “Catastrophe” because […]
31Aug

How to Make the Next Labor Day Better than this One

August 31, 2016 Like Christmas with no gifts, this is Labor Day with no good jobs – at least not for the near record number of jobless Americans who want them. Average hourly wages have barely budged since the recession ended four years ago. So this week count on the administration to airbrush its record […]
24Aug

Why Voters May Soon Be Angry Over Energy

August 24, 2016 As the campaign gets underway in earnest, an always intriguing exercise for those keeping score at home will be to hear how the candidates address pocketbook issues. These are the ones – not national security, the national debt, lousy cable TV offerings, etc. – that are upper most in the minds of […]
17Aug

A Note to the Candidates

August 17, 2016 Dear Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton: If there’s any good news for coal these days, it’s that you both have promised relief for coal communities hit hard by market forces and the president’s regulations. Donald Trump, you say you’ll put coal miners back to work. Hillary Clinton, you pledged to put their […]
10Aug

Administration Wins Gold

Washington, D.C. – The games got underway this weekend and already Team USA has claimed a coveted gold medal. But not in Rio. Actually America won the prize here in Washington, for most regulations exceeding $100 million for a two-term president. With an estimated cost of $743 billion for it regulatory marathon – larger than […]
03Aug

Off to the Coal (aka “Swing”) States

August 3, 2016 This week finds the candidates embarking on campaign swings through battleground states – Colorado with nine electoral votes, Virginia with 13, Pennsylvania with 20 and Ohio with 18. Another description for battleground states is “coal states.” Like most toss-up states this year, they either produce or use lots of coal, and sometimes […]