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Executive Director
Missouri Energy Initiative
A State Energy Plan (SEP) is a comprehensive strategy that helps policymakers, state utility regulators, energy suppliers, and consumers strategically plan for a state’s energy future. The goal of an SEP is to act as a roadmap to improve energy affordability, security, and resilience, which in turn, will ultimately lead to a state’s prosperity. As of 2014, thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have some form of energy planning document to guide statewide energy policy, with another five having begun the process. The Missouri Energy Initiative (MEI) conducted a detailed analysis of SEPs, leading to several conclusions: SEPs have… [more]
View InsightLast week President Obama signed an executive order to coordinate the Administration’s activities on natural gas development. The order will convene the Interagency Working Group to Support Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources, and will bring together at least 13 federal agencies. The working group will coordinate interagency policy, work to share scientific, environmental, technical and economic information, and engage in long term planning with regards to research, natural resource assessment, and the development of infrastructure. The order states that “States are the primary regulators of onshore oil and gas activities,” but that “the Federal Government… [more]
View InsightTo date, no offshore wind farms have operated in the United States. However, several projects under consideration or development could change that. In February, the federal government completed an environmental review of designated “wind energy areas” off the mid-Atlantic coast, and found that lease sales for wind energy would not create environmental problems. This finding may facilitate the sale of wind energy leases off the coasts of Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware as early as this year. [New York Times] The Cape Wind Project, a wind farm off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, could be the first operational offshore wind energy… [more]
View InsightSenator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has released the 2011 Wastebook, his annual “guide to some of the most wasteful and low priority government spending”. Among the report’s targets is DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), a program that improves the energy efficiency of low-income family homes. Among the criticisms of the program highlighted by Senator Coburn: The DOE Inspector General found in a 2010 survey that the program suffered from poor workmanship, inflated contractor and material costs, and substandard home inspections to a level that “put the entire program at risk.” WAP-funded job training programs are sometimes unable to place trainees in… [more]
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