President Trump today signed an executive order that could expand offshore energy drilling. Among other measures, the order rolls back an executive order issued in the final weeks of the Obama presidency that banned energy drilling in hundreds of millions of acres of offshore land. As a long-time advocate of offshore energy exploration, I believe it's utterly absurd to ban ourselves from developing vast energy resources that would help lower fuel prices, relieve our dependence on unstable and h...
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Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22) released the following statement today after joining the executive committee of Donald Trump’s transition team: “Today I was honored to have been named to the executive committee of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team. In this role, I will advise President-elect Trump on the appointments of his Cabinet members and on appointments to other top positions in the new administration. I look forward to helping to assemble an energetic and forward-looking team...
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Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives today encouraging the Department of the Interior to advance its plan to sell two leases for energy development in the Arctic. The Arctic lease sales are included in the Department of the Interior’s draft plan for its 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. However, after canceling the draft plan’s approval of new drilling in t...
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A group of state attorneys general announced earlier this year they would investigate ExxonMobil for fraud due to company statements that cast doubt on the supposedly catastrophic threat posed by global warming. In an amazing coincidence, the officials took action shortly after a coalition of global warming activists, including Greenpeace and the Rockefeller Family Fund, held a fateful meeting in which they discussed plans to launch a full-scale attack on ExxonMobil. The plans included actions ...
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Capay Valley, a rural area northwest of Sacramento, recently had a big turnout to celebrate its 101st annual Almond Festival. This caught my eye because extreme environmental groups have blamed California farmers in general and almond growers in particular for the state's water crisis. Of course, they rely on grossly distorted statistics to make their case, but that doesn't seem to bother many of the media outlets reporting on growers supposedly using too much water. Like Central Valley farmers...
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After a seven-year-long review process, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline today. The pipeline received widespread backing from the American people and bipartisan support in Congress. That’s not surprising – for most people, deciding whether to create more jobs, boost economic growth, and secure more oil from a stable, friendly nation like Canada is pretty easy to do. President Obama, however, sees things differently. Time and again, he has chased after his utopian dream of a “gr...
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Since its inception, the Obama administration has engaged in an all-out push to adopt ever-stricter global warming regulations. Recall that Barack Obama was the only presidential candidate – at least as far as I can remember – who took office vowing to bankrupt any company in an entire American industry that refuses to adhere to his environmental agenda. When President Obama’s attempt to impose a carbon-trading scheme on the U.S. economy proved too extreme even for a Democrat-controlled Congres...
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Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed its fourth major California water bill in less than four years. Once again, we are moving legislation that will ease the devastating water crisis that is wreaking havoc on the Central Valley economy and pushing useful farmland out of production. Although the White House and many congressional Democrats resisted all our previous efforts and are already opposing the new bill, we are working to convince them that something has to be done. As thirsty Ce...
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The national media suddenly took notice of the California water wars this week after Governor Brown announced state-wide water restrictions. It’s nice to see some media interest in the problem, though they’re coming pretty late to the game. It’s amazing how a decades-long crisis in the Valley turns into a big story once the effects hit San Francisco and other coastal enclaves. Governor Brown, President Obama, and many others are blaming the water crisis on global warming, but I have a different...
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National Review Online Having grown up on a farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley, I have seen firsthand how environmental extremists smashed a flourishing agricultural region. Citing the need to protect a three-inch baitfish called the Delta smelt, green activists succeeded in getting farmers’ water supplies drastically cut. As some of the world’s most productive soil degenerated into a drought-stricken landscape, farmers — some of whose families had worked these lands for generations — packe...
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