Energy and Environment

Dear Friends – You are likely aware of the EPA’s latest assault in its ongoing “War on Coal,” which essentially bans the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States.  These misguided EPA regulations, called New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), are so unrealistic that there is not a single coal-fired plant in the United States that would be allowed to be… Read more »

Lack of Oversight at the EPA Those who read this column regularly may remember my bill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Maximum Achievable Contraction of Technocrats (MACT) Act, H.R. 3641, which would reduce the EPA’s workforce by 15 percent within three to four years.  I introduced this bill because I believe the EPA has too many people working on new regulations which… Read more »

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) issued the following statement on the 2,000 days that have passed since an application for the Keystone XL pipeline was first submitted to the U.S. State Department on September 19, 2008: “Though other pipeline projects requiring a Presidential Permit took 18 to 24 months to review and approve, the Obama Administration has been reviewing the Keystone XL… Read more »

Protecting Black Lung Benefits As you know, I support the repeal of Obamacare and believe it will eventually collapse under its own weight.  As many feared, its rollout was problematic.  Federal officials are now telling us that implementation of Obamacare is on track.  But they told us the website was on track too. After refusing to work with Congress on altering or… Read more »

Half a League, Half a League, Half a League Onward Many lessons can be extracted from history.  Reflecting on today’s quickly-evolving situation involving Russia and Ukraine makes me think of the Charge of the Light Brigade which took place in 1854 during the Crimean War.  Religious issued contributed to the start of the Crimean War, but another factor was growing Russian… Read more »

Opening in California earlier this month was the giant Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, which the Wall Street Journal reports “…includes three towers as tall as 40-story buildings.  Nearly 350,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, reflect sunlight onto boilers atop the towers, creating steam that drives power generators.” … Read more »

In an Energy and Commerce Committee business meeting on February 6, 2013 (video 2 at 32 minutes and 43 seconds), Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was discussing the “planetary problem” of climate change and said, “You know, in Chicago, we had 335 days without snow, which is a record.  And as I was saying yesterday at the hearing, you know, we all get cards around the holidays of… Read more »

Energy Policy: “All of the Above” or a “Hope and a Prayer?” Early February, groundhog and weather forecaster Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter.  Given the weather we’ve seen since then, it seems to me that, this year, he was right. A recent Politico story entitled “Icy blast heats up coal debate” quotes Ms. Laura Sheehan, senior vice president of communications… Read more »

Russian Bear, On The Prowl I was startled by a January 29 New York Times piece which stated, “The United States informed its NATO allies this month that Russia had tested a new ground-launched cruise missile, raising concerns about Moscow’s compliance with a landmark arms control accord.”  These tests reportedly began as early as 2008, and “Such tests are prohibited by the treaty… Read more »

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) today issued the following statement after voting in favor of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) conference report: “Agriculture is an integral part of the economy and history of the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly the Ninth District.  The negotiations that led to this conference report have been neither easy nor… Read more »