CEI Today: Regulatory Improvement Act, wind energy tax credits, and EPA’s war on coal

Today in the News

REGULATORY REFORM – WAYNE CREWS & RYAN YOUNG

American Spectator: The Regulatory Improvement Commission

No bureaucracy would voluntarily reduce the size and scope of its mission and its budget. Instead, reform must come from outside. One such approach is the Regulatory Improvement Act of 2013, introduced by Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Roy Blunt (R-MO). The bill would establish an independent Regulatory Improvement Commission, which would identify rules ripe for repeal and send them to Congress.

The idea goes back at least two decades, and has garnered support from across the political spectrum, from former Senator Phil Gramm (R-TEX) on the right to the Progressive Policy Institute’s Michael Mandel on the left. Here’s how a Regulatory Improvement Commission would work.

 

WIND ENERGY TAX CREDITS

24-Group Coalition Against Wind Subsidies

On behalf of the millions of members that our organizations represent, we encourage you to oppose extending the main source of federal support for wind energy, the production tax credit (PTC). The problems with bestowing government favors on wind energy are myriad — it doesn’t produce cheaper energy, it threatens electrical grid reliability, it’s inefficient, it’s unprincipled tax policy, to name a few — and it’s time to end this misguided handout.

 

OBAMA EPA GLOBAL WARMING REGS

Daily Caller: The EPA’s death blow to the coal industry

“Surprise! The Federal Government Just Did Something That Will Address Climate Change,” blared the headline on the George Soros-funded, radical-left Climate Progress website.

Only the new rule announced Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency to limit carbon emissions from power plants will do nothing of the sort. What it will address – in the most direct way possible – is the coal industry. And its message to them is simple: Drop dead.