David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, contributed a guest piece to Environment America titled Why environmentalism is conservative. The article explores how environmental protection connects to traditional conservative values like stewardship, responsibility, and preserving natural resources for future generations. It highlights the idea that caring for clean air, water, and public lands fits within a long-standing conservative ethic of passing something better on to those who come after us. It also points to examples from past conservative leadership in environmental policy to show that these principles have historically crossed party lines. Read the full piece:...
David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, is featured in a report from 12 News covering a recent decision by Arizona utility regulators to roll back the state’s renewable energy standards. The coverage explains that Arizona regulators voted to eliminate requirements that had guided how much electricity utilities must generate from renewable sources like wind and solar. Supporters of the change say it gives utilities more flexibility in how they meet energy demand, while critics warn it could slow the growth of clean energy and reduce long-term investment in renewables. The decision has sparked debate over how states should balance energy affordability, reliability, and the future of renewable development....
PRESS RELEASE October 24, 2023 CRS Releases “Restoring Accountability” Follow-up Report on Taxpayer Exposure from Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship (CRS), a national grassroots organization with more than 23,000 members, has produced a new report following up on its 2021 report Broken Promises, which detailed the staggering taxpayer exposure from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. “Despite agreeing, as a condition of their drilling permit, to fully clean up and plug well sites once they are finished using them, oil and gas companies regularly skip out on that obligation, leaving us taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in clean-up costs,” explained CRS president David Jenkins. This new report, with updated data, underscores how this fiscal burden on taxpayers continues to grow and explains how long overdue new rules proposed by the Department of Interior (RIN 1004–AE80) to significantly increase its oil and gas program bonding requirements can help. In Broken Promises, we reported that at the end of FY2020, there were more than 96,000 “producible and service wells” on federal public lands, which could leave U.S. taxpayers on the hook for as much as $13.7 billion in future clean-up costs. Since then, BLM has approved more than 11,200 additional permits for oil and gas companies to drill new wells on federal public lands—wells that, without federal bonding reform in place, potentially exposing U.S. taxpayers to an additional $1.6 billion more in clean-up costs. Taxpayers could eventually have to pony up as much as $15 billion, and that does not account for any potential future wells from the 34,000 oil and gas leases...
David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, recently published an op-ed in the The Gainesville Sun taking a closer look at Florida’s energy policies and what they mean for the future of solar. In Florida lawmakers favor solar monopolies over free market, Jenkins walks through concerns that current and proposed policies may be tilting the playing field toward monopoly utilities rather than encouraging real competition. He touches on what that could mean for rooftop solar, consumer choice, and long-term energy costs—while raising broader questions about how much government should shape the market. Read the full op-ed:...
David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, recently published an op-ed in the Reno Gazette Journal titled More drilling in Nevada won’t lower prices, just make Big Oil richer. In the piece, Jenkins looks at a question a lot of people are asking right now: would drilling more oil in the U.S. actually bring gas prices down? He explains that oil prices are set globally, so even if more drilling happens here at home, it doesn’t automatically mean cheaper prices at the pump for drivers. The op-ed also notes that expanding drilling on public lands would largely benefit big oil companies, since they are the ones best positioned to increase production and capture those profits. Read the full op-ed:...
With an unprecedented level of bi-partisan support, both houses of the Nevada legislature have passed a bill to establish a state renewable energy standard of 50 percent by 2030. The vote was unanimous, with “yea” votes recorded by every Republican and Democrat in the Nevada Senate and General Assembly. The legislation (S.B. 358), which also sets a goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, was signed into law by Governor Sisolak on April 22. Given Nevada’s tremendous solar and geothermal energy potential, the low costs of these energy sources, and the state’s urgent need to diversify away from expensive natural gas generation, passing this legislation was the smart and conservative choice. Currently, Nevada depends on out-of-state natural gas for more than two thirds of its electricity generation. This makes no sense for a state that has unrivaled solar and geothermal resources–even more so, now that electricity generated by these renewables is cheaper than electricity generated using natural gas. Even new solar plants with storage are beating the price of gas-generated power. Also, since the price of natural gas is projected to double between now and 2030, Nevada residents were facing significant electricity rate increases. Solar energy, by contrast, is forecast to continue getting cheaper. CRS has been sounding the alarm about Nevada’s risky over-reliance on natural gas and the lack of diversity in its electricity portfolio for several years. It is gratifying to see the state take this prudent action to address that problem. There are still some on the political right, mostly those with close ties to special interests, who still peddle tired old canards that renewable...
