Romney Must Cease and Desist From Ethanol Mandate

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  August 23rd at 10:51 AM  | 

Earlier today, Mitt Romney unveiled his comprehensive energy plan he will pursue as president.  Energy policy provides Republicans with their most potent weapon against Obama in this campaign.  Nothing emblematizes Obama’s socialist, anti-prosperity style of governance more than his destructive energy policy compromised of a “none-of-the-above” approach.  Well, none of the above except for green energy.  To that end, Romney’s biggest ace in the hole | Read More »

Fred Upton’s Solyndra Subterfuge

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  August 3rd at 08:27 AM  | 

On Tuesday, Fred Upton, the Republican godfather of green energy social engineering, spearheaded passage of the “No More Solyndras Act” (H.R. 6213) through the Energy and Commerce Committee.  This bill would bar DOE from granting loan guarantees to any company that filed its application after December 31, 2011.  What a better way for the author of the incandescent light bulb ban to end off the | Read More »

Orrin Hatch’s Election Promise Gone With the Wind

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  August 2nd at 11:05 AM  | 

Whew!  It’s good the Utah primary is over.  Now Senator Hatch can relapse into his natural modus operandi. As we’ve noted before, at the end of every calendar year, Congress passes a ‘tax extenders’ bill to temporarily reauthorize specific tax breaks that have not been permanently written into law.  Some of these extenders include universal tax cuts such as, the AMT patch, the R&D business | Read More »

Mitt Romney Fans the Flames of Free Market Energy Policy

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 31st at 10:45 AM  | 

Mitt Romney actually stood for bold colors yesterday.  For conservatives, it should be the biggest story of the week. Conservatives are rightfully focused on the impending tax cliff that is facing American taxpayers at the end of the year.  But we must not forget the subsidy cliff either.  Dozens of special interest tax preferences, known as tax extenders, are slated to expire at the end | Read More »

We’ve Defeated Fred Upton!

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 24th at 08:40 AM  | 

Well, not exactly.  Fred Upton has defeated Fred Upton. As the primary season progresses, we’ve see this pattern repeat itself on numerous occasions.  There’s an old bull Republican who has been pushing for big government and anti-free-market policies for years.  Then, as soon as his primary opponent begins to sow the seeds of disquiet in his district, the old bull lurches to the right, introduces | Read More »

EPA Mandates Use of Nonexistent Fuel Blend

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 18th at 06:40 AM  | 

It’s bad enough that government regulations and environmental legal defense groups have prevented us from building oil refineries for over 30 years.  It’s even worse when the existing ones are forced to blend fuel mixtures that don’t exist. We are all painfully aware of the Soviet style mandate that requires 10% of petroleum to be comprised of ethanol.  This unconstitutional mandate has killed jobs, driven | Read More »

Jeff Duncan has a True “All of the Above Approach to Energy”

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 12th at 07:44 AM  | 

Even as gas prices decline, we must not relent in our pursuit of free market energy solutions.  Gas prices will continue to spike every few months as long as we refuse to increase supply to meet our energy needs.  Moreover, $3.40 per gallon of gasoline – or even $3 per gallon – is too much.  We must not let Obama off the hook for continuing | Read More »

Obama’s Middle Class Tax Hikes

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 10th at 12:00 PM  | 

While Obama is prosecuting a flaccid war overseas and apologizing for our troops when they defend against Taliban attacks, he is fighting a no-holds-barred class war at home.  Once again, Obama has announced that he will orchestrate the largest tax hike in American history on those earning more than $200,000.  After all, taxing the rich is a great way to raise revenue; it worked so | Read More »

10 Reasons to Oppose Highway/Student Loan/Flood Insurance Omnibus Bill

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 28th at 07:40 PM  | 

While everyone is focused on how to deal with the impending government takeover of healthcare, we must continue to battle the forces of big-government in Congress.  Yesterday, in another display of venerable bipartisanship, leaders from both parties agreed to roll the $120 billion Democrat highway bill, subsidies to fuel the Big Education bubble, and a 5-year extension of government-run flood insurance into one omnibus bill, | Read More »

Double Capitulation Alert: Say No to Highway and Student Loan Bills

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 27th at 07:00 PM  | 

While everyone is waiting breathlessly to see whether the Supreme Court will strike down Obama’s egregious power grab in the healthcare sector, a bipartisan group of congressmen and senators are working to grow government in several other sectors of the economy.  We must not be complacent. In our battle to shrink the size of the federal government, there have been a number of issues on | Read More »

Shale Fracking: If it Keeps Moving, Regulate it

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 26th at 08:43 PM  | 

Shale technology coupled with horizontal drilling has created the biggest oil and natural gas boom in recent years.  Fracking could become the most auspicious innovation of the past decade.  It has already created thousands of jobs, and has the potential to drive down the cost of energy and reinvigorate our economy.  Unfortunately, the more successful the private innovation, the more Obama’s regulatory regime will ensure | Read More »

Energy-Water Appropriations Bill Vote Roundup

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 8th at 08:01 AM  | 

This week, the House debated and passed the FY13 Energy-Water appropriations bill, which primarily funds the Energy Department and agencies within the Department of Interior.  While House leadership claims to support a balanced budget, they are not willing to eliminate the requisite number of programs needed to achieve that goal.  As conservatives, we believe that the entire Department of Energy – except for the nuclear | Read More »

Murkowski Must be Denied Chairmanship of Key Energy Panel

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 5th at 03:45 PM  | 

Last week, Senator Jim DeMint said the following regarding the stakes between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst in the Texas Senate race: “A Republican majority is pointless if it isn’t achieved w/ conservatives who will fight to stop the spending and debt.”  His comments cannot be more oracular. If we win back control over the Senate, yet keep the same leadership intact, we will be | Read More »

Let Farmers Buy the Farm, Not Taxpayers

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 4th at 10:42 AM  | 

There is perhaps nothing as destructive to the free market as the federal government’s stranglehold over the agriculture sector.  There is also nothing as detrimental to the GOP’s ability to draw a bold contrast on free markets, dependency, spending, and crony capitalism, as their willingness to support 5-year farm bills. Current farm policy creates inveterate dependency in some of the most conservative corners of the | Read More »

Dick Lugar Haunts the Free Market from the Grave

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 23rd at 10:45 AM  | 

You might have thought that we vanquished Dick Lugar from the levers of power a few weeks ago.  But if nothing is done to stop the impending 5-year Farm Bill, he might harm us with his regressive policies long past his time in Washington. Last month, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed a 5-year farm bill that continues to serve as one of the most potent | Read More »

The Next in Our Dump Upton Series

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 22nd at 02:55 PM  | 

“I have said at nearly every climate change hearing that for me I don’t dispute the science.  Right or wrong, the debate over the modeling and science appears to be over.” Guess who said that?  While those comments appear similar to the sentiments expressed by the likes of Al Gore, it was actually Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton who said it during a | Read More »

It’s Time to Dump Upton for Jack Hoogendyk in MI-6

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 15th at 07:56 AM  | 

It’s hard to think of a more liberal Republican that occupies a more consequential position in Congress than Fred Upton.  It’s not just the fact that the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the most powerful House panels, is a big supporter of green energy.  It’s not just the fact that this same man was the Thomas Edison of the incandescent light | Read More »

Senate Action Alert: Highway Bill/Energy Subsidies

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 13th at 10:45 AM  | 

Update: All 4 amendments were defeated, meaning we won 2 and lost 2. DeMint’s devolution amendment failed 30-67 with 14 Republicans (including McConnell) voting no; Stabenow’s green energy pork amendment failed 49-49; DeMint’s repeal of all energy subsidies failed 26-72; the Menendez-Burr handouts for natural gas cars failed 51-47.  6 Republicans supported the subsidies, including Tom Coburn! This might seem like a stalemate, but the | Read More »

Lots of Taxpayer Green Going to Greens

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 7th at 02:48 PM  | 

Democrats have a penchant to misconstrue the parlance related to tax credits and subsidies.  They refer to subsidies as tax cuts and tax cuts as subsidies.  They would have you believe that oil companies are completely on the dole, while solar and wind companies are heavily taxed entities in desperate need of some “tax breaks” and loans in order to alleviate the burden of producing | Read More »

Senator Jerry Moran Wants to Pick Losers in the Market: His Choice is Big Wind

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  February 21st at 02:15 PM  | 

If I were pressed to offer one anecdote exemplifying our failure to elect consistent conservatives to Congress last November, the story of Senator Jerry Moran and Big Wind would be at the top of the list. In 2010, then-Congressman Jerry Moran beat former Congressman Todd Tiahrt for the Republican nomination for Senate in Kansas running as a red meat conservative.  He easily won the seat | Read More »