January 12th, 2024

• Stay up to date on all things energy by visiting the TEA Newsroom.
• Natural Gas CARES: It is the world’s Cleanest, Affordable, Reliable Energy Source.
• Opinion: Oil and gas overcame obstacles on way to set records.
• The race for Romney’s seat is a fight about climate.
• America has plenty of natural gas. So why is New England left out in the cold?
• Group launches campaign to overturn Michigan solar siting law.
• Biden admin slowly puts oil back into the SPR emergency stash.
• Crackdown on dishwashers dealt blow by appeals court.

The issue: Jennifer Granholm’s favorite electric vehicle has been deemed ineligible for federal tax credits. That’s because it’s made with so many Chinese materials. It turns out only seven makes of the EVs that qualify for the tax credits amounting to $7,500.

Why it matters: As of Jan. 1, American consumers will no longer receive a $7,500 Biden administration tax credit when they purchase a Cadillac Lyriq, General Motors confirmed. At issue are Treasury Department battery sourcing rules, which forbid tax credits from going to electric vehicles that contain battery components from China and other foreign nations of concern. We applaud this rationale by the federal government.

Consider:

• The development comes as a blow to Granholm, who toured the country in a Cadillac Lyriq during her infamous June electric vehicle road trip, which was aimed at encouraging Americans to purchase electric vehicles.
• At one point, the pricey car — which can cost about $60,000 — developed a “hardware issue” that made it difficult to charge. Granholm nonetheless praised the Lyriq and the other electric vehicles that made up her road trip caravan.
• Most American families cannot afford these vehicles. They are expensive and inefficient and finding adequate charging stations is an issue in many rural areas.

According to the IRS, only a few EVs and plug-in hybrids are eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit.

Just more hypocrisy from the leftwing climate crowd. No surprise there. The truth is the demand is not meeting the supply for these pricey, inefficient vehicles. As Mark Mills pointed out last summer, EVs really are an impossible dream for most Americans.

Bottom Line: The EV money pit is being paid for by Uncle Sam (aka the taxpayer) through direct and indirect subsidies, while our Chinese adversaries gets rich. Caveat emptor, which is Latin for “Let the buyer beware.”

The issue: China has an addiction to coal and it’s one it seemingly will not break. No one in the U.S. seems to want to hold them accountable. Yet the White House attacks domestic energy producers with regularity, while turning a blind eye and a deaf ear toward The Chinese Communist Party’s actions.

Climate czar John Kerry preaches about saving the planet, yet he hides the cost of the climate office. All the while he and President Biden cozy up to the Chinese, who burn coal faster than any other nation. Kerry continues to burn fuel in his private jet and now he refuses to disclose the details of his climate office staffing and its $4.3 million annual budget. American taxpayers deserve transparency on how this money is being spent.

Why it matters: China’s coal usage is on the  rise. In the past year, China has greenlighted more coal power capacity than they did in the previous six years combined. China burns more coal every year than the rest of the world combined. This post on X asks the questions: Why doesn’t Greta Thunberg ever protest in China? Why doesn’t Kerry, Bill Gates or Al Gore ever mention that? Instead they talk about shutting down our farmers and stifling the natural gas and oil industry with bans on home appliances.

Consider: China is emitting almost a third of all energy-related greenhouse gases — more than the United States, Europe and Japan combined.

You can’t believe what propaganda the CCP puts out. In April 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to “strictly control coal-fired power generation projects” in China. Since then, government permits for new coal power plants have soared and China’s new coal power capacity has more than doubled.

Affordable energy is critical to all Americans, but to these groups in particular:

• 62% of American adults live paycheck to paycheck.
• 49% of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 dollar emergency expense.
• 34% of American households have an income less than $50,000 a year.

Bottom Line: If Kerry wants to lecture someone over their emissions, he should go talk to China who burns more coal than anyone else. In full transparency, he should give credit to America for cutting emissions, and make his office expenditures public.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: energy policy matters, from the local to the federal level. There’s no more clear example of this than the discrepancy in gas prices between states just a few hundred miles apart. In California, the state with the highest gas tax in the nation, the average price for a gallon of gasoline is $4.60. In Texas, the largest energy producing state in the nation and a friend to the domestic oil industry, the average is $2.67. That’s almost a 2 dollar spread, all thanks to California’s backwards energy policies.

Nationwide, the national average for a gallon of gasoline is $3.07, which is 2 cents lower than it was one week ago.

Hearing On Nuclear Energy: On Wednesday, January 17, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions will have a hearing on international financing of nuclear energy.

FERC Open Meeting: On Thursday, January 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold an Open Meeting of the Commission.

“We are improving on climate issues by using natural gas instead of coal.” 

 — Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) at API’s State of American Energy Conference