Thursday, September 25, 2014
12:00 am - 12:00 am
Friday, September 26, 2014
12:00 am - 12:00 am
Hyatt Regency Houston
1200 Louisiana Street
The globally game-changing upsurge in domestic oil and gas production now faces an historic standoff with federal policy intent on eliminating fossil fuels. Texas is ground zero for this collision. Join the Texas Public Policy Foundation at a unique gathering of internationally renowned thinkers and authors as we address the most critical issue facing mankind today.
A sampling of Kathleen Hartnett White's latest pathbreaking work on the intersection of energy policy and climate change:
NRO: A Gathering Storm
The scientific basis of climate hysteria is eroding, but that’s not stopping Obama’s crushing regulations.
"The debate is settled,” said the president in his State of the Union address. “Climate change is a fact.” But of course there is no debate about whether climate change is a fact: The debate is now about whether human emissions of greenhouse gases cause weather events of unprecedented intensity. President Obama argued that stringent new limits on coal-fired power plants are urgently needed “because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods.” So less coal-fired electrical generation will help us avoid droughts and floods? Heedless of the absurd stretch in his own argument, the president presses on. [CONTINUED]
FuelFix: Renewable Energy is unreliable and parasitic
Oil, gas and coal have boosted living conditions around the globe, but policies to effectively replace those fossil fuels “with inferior energy sources” could undermine those improvements, a former Texas environmental regulator argues.
In her new 36-page paper outlining “the moral case” for fossil fuels, Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow Kathleen Hartnett White insists that access to oil, gas and coal are inextricably linked with prosperity and human well-being. [CONTINUED]
NRO: Inglorious Mess: Federal Court Upholds EPA’s Greenhouse-Gas Authority
In a remarkably blasé decision that included a link to a children’s cartoon, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHG). The D.C. Circuit held that EPA’s Endangerment Finding (which determined that man-made greenhouse gases are “reasonably anticipated” to harm human health) was “unambiguously” correct. The three other GHG regulations before the court were not only lawful but “compelled by statute.” The court found that, under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Endangerment Finding must be a purely “scientific judgment” of the EPA’s administrator to which the court must defer as long as the decision passes rational muster. [CONTINUED]
Austin American-Statesman: Bundle up, the climate is changing
Before the oppressive heat of a hot Texas summer impairs objectivity, consider a basic fact. Global warming has ceased for 16 years. This inescapable fact contradicts the official science of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the foundation of global warming alarmism. [CONTINUED]
Investor’s Business Daily: The Texas Hockey Stick: Charting The Lone Star Oil Boom
While the U.S. economy slogs along, the Texas oil and gas sector is soaring beyond all records and current projections. A pillar of hope for the rest of the economy, the energy boom in Texas is a reminder of the power of competitive free markets.
By leaps and bounds, Texas oil increasingly dominates the phenomenal rise in domestic oil production. After 28 years of continuing decline, Texas has increased its oil production by a remarkable 141% since January 2009, a rate of growth coincident with an astonishing 155% increase in the inflation-adjusted West Texas Intermediate oil price.
Clearly, the higher oil price incentivized Texas oil businesses to do what the private sector does best: produce! [CONTINUED]
Investor’s Business Daily: U.S. Energy Wealth Could Be Best Weapon Against Putin's Bullying
President Obama's tepid response to Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine overlooks the one trump card that this country, without brandishing a single weapon, could play: the geopolitical power of North America's energy wealth.
As is widely reported, Putin effectively uses Russia's abundant energy to intimidate Western and Eastern European countries dependent on Russia's energy and to entice an oil-hungry China into a Russia-driven Eurasian ambit. Ukraine recently saw the price of natural gas from Russia increase by 80%.
Russia's solvency, however, is precariously dependent on these energy sales. European countries rely on Russian exports of oil and natural gas to meet more than one-third of their demand. Russia depends on these exports for 25% of gross domestic product, 50% of government revenue and 70% of export income, according to The New York Times. [CONTINUED]