One of the most difficult tasks in Washington is connecting the dots. What I mean is this: advocates who have staked out positions on various issues often focus on the minutiae of proposed legislation, fight to have certain language included in bills on political or ideological grounds, and neglect to consider how American consumers could be affected. Occasionally, this inability to step back and see the real-life consequences of legislation creates laws that make little sense and are costly to the taxpayers.

Fortunately for all of us, blogger and columnist James Shott has connected the dots on two proposed bills and has discovered that their impact on consumers could be severe while generating few, if any, benefits. A hat tip to my friend James for a particularly well-written and thorough... more »

API urged Congress to consider the ramifications of applying new regulations to the process of hydraulic fracturing today, just as members of the House and Senate introduced legislation to regulate the process under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

According to a study commissioned by API and conducted by Global Insight, new federal regulations could cause a sharp drop in U.S. oil and natural gas production.

The study, "Measuring the Economics and Energy Impacts of Proposals to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing," found that the number of new U.S. wells drilled would plummet 20.5 percent over a five-year period, and natural gas production would potentially be reduced by about 10 percent from 2008 levels by 2014. As a result, jobs could be lost, government revenues from energy production would fall... more »

Congress has passed thousands of laws during its long history and frequently, questions are raised about how to interpret them. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA has the statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles under Clean Air Act--although the law was written to control other emissions in certain locations. Similarly, the EPA this year agreed to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to review the risks of carbon dioxide absorbed into seawater.

Last Friday, an effort to use the Endangered Species Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was stopped by the Obama administration. The Interior Department decided that despite the fact that the polar bear is listed as a threatened species, the law cannot be used to regulate gre... more »