The President has a speech at this hour where he will call for the consolidation of several federal agencies to shrink the federal bureaucracy and save money, a return to the “age of austerity” Obama that has faded of late as the election nears and populism returns to the fore. Obama will propose combining the [...]

I mentioned this in last night’s Roundup, but Al Gore, somewhat out of nowhere, admitted that ethanol subsidies were bad policy and that he only supported them to win the Iowa caucuses in 2000. The timing is interesting. Those ethanol subsidies are up for renewal at the end of the year. And some prominent conservatives [...]

We know now that the containment dome in the Gulf has failed, meaning that the underwater gusher spurting 200,000 gallons into the water will persist for weeks if not months. Tar balls have hit the shore in Alabama, and the toll on marine life will be great. With months left to play out in this [...]

The decision to expand offshore drilling in the Atlantic Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska caught progressive and environmental groups by surprise, and they are reacting negatively. Repower America, Al Gore’s coalition of environmental activists, has a petition at their site calling on the President to rethink his decision. They also put up the [...]

While opinions differ on financial regulatory reform, I think you can pretty safely condemn the climate and energy bill potentially taking shape in the Senate. The climate piece, with its forsaking an industry-wide cap on carbon for a phased-in, industry-by-industry approach, is obviously a weakened version of an already weakened House bill. But the energy [...]