Getting America the energy plan it deserves has always been the chief goal of the Pickens Plan. A lot of what needs to be done requires one simple thing: Leadership.

Some in our government truly wish to legislate every single aspect of our lives. The sobering part is that it's all a game of numbers -- the more laws like these are put to the vote, the more chance some will slip through.

Conservatives can't complain next time they see a rat hair sticking out of their hotdog. They can't lament when a loved one dies from drug contamination or when a child gets ill from bad meat. This is the natural consequence of their political philosophy.

Of course the individual athletes who won the medals deserve the credit for their achievements. But many of them never would have had the opportunity to develop their individual talents to the Olympic level had it not been for sensible, needed government actions.

We've all heard allusions to a "tsunami" of regulations battering U.S. businesses. The reality is there is no "tsunami" and federal agencies are late on completing nearly 80 percent of the rules by congressionally mandated deadlines.

When you ask small business owners from Nevada to Pennsylvania what the greatest obstacle in the way of their success is, they echo what numerous studies have indicated for months: government regulations.

We can't know for sure what's behind these oil prices. But what we can know is that we don't know -- and that our government should have the resources to track these markets and intervene when they're being misused.

While the anger and fear that dominate our discourse is justified, it cannot be allowed to blind the electorate to certain realties. Who is the one standing behind the curtain giving voice to the Great Oz?

I wrote a letter to the New York Times last week, suggesting that members of Congress who say they are opposed to government regulation should be ask...

WASHINGTON -- The issue may be dust in the wind, but Republicans are still moving to block it. Environmental Protection Agency officials have said ...

We have developed an American myth about the magical efficiency of market forces and have deified entrepreneurs. We have developed a disdain for government as an obstacle to progress. Neither is entirely true or false.

As history shows, any small, short-term budgetary gains from work force cutbacks are likely to be offset by serious regulatory missteps, more after-the-fact finger-pointing and a continuation of the cycle of failure and mistrust.