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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.

Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.

Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.

He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

Pennsylvania gets high marks for rein on drilling for gas

Pennsylvania over the past three years has greatly reduced the number of environmental incidents related to natural gas drilling, and state officials appear fully able to oversee the industry without intrusion from the federal government, according to a study released Tuesday. Published May 15, 2012

Gov. Nikki Haley

National curriculum plan may face challenge

An influential group of conservative state lawmakers is on the verge of proposing model legislation to block the Common Core national education standards that have been heavily promoted by the Obama administration. Published May 10, 2012

Conservatives defend fired writer on race

Conservative commentators and think tanks have rushed in recent days to the defense of embattled journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley, who was fired from her job as a blogger with the widely respected Chronicle of Higher Education for questioning the value of black-studies programs. Published May 9, 2012

Solar project opens on federal property

Interior Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar on Monday cheered on the opening of the first large-scale solar power project on federal property, just three days after his department rolled out new regulations on oil and gas companies doing business on those very same lands. Published May 7, 2012

Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar, center, announces charges against 13 people in the hazing death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion during a news conference in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday, May 2, 2012. The charges were announced more than five months after Champion, 26, died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance against a rival school. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Colleges pledge to squelch dangerous rites of hazing

After horrific, firsthand accounts from students and multiple recent deaths, the long-accepted practice of hazing — both in Greek organizations and other university clubs — has been thrust into the spotlight, and a fierce, unprecedented crackdown from college leaders is gaining traction nationwide. Published May 2, 2012

Barges filled with coal and wells pumping natural gas give the U.S. enough fuel to export to burgeoning markets in Asia, but proposals to build a natural gas liquefaction and export plant in Maryland and coal export facilities in the Pacific Northwest have raised environmental concerns about the global use of fossil fuels. (Associated Press)

Coal, gas exports meet tough environmental resistance

Global demand for American natural gas and coal is booming, but recent clashes on both U.S. coasts underscore that getting American supplies to eager foreign buyers will be anything but easy. Published May 1, 2012

**FILE** Al Armendariz, Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 administrator, speaks at a town-hall meeting in 2010. (Courtesy of YouTube)

EPA official resigns over ‘crucify’ remark

Embattled Environmental Protection Agency official Al Armendariz, under fire for 2010 comments bragging that he would "crucify" oil and gas companies in order to send a message to the industry, has resigned. Published April 30, 2012

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during his weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Thursday, April 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Boehner: Romney’s success is a model for Americans

While some political analysts speculate that Mitt Romney's massive wealth could hurt him with working-class voters this fall, others think the Republican presidential hopeful's wild success could turn out to be one of his greatest assets. Published April 29, 2012

FILE- This undated aerial file photo shows the Dominion Liquified Natural Gas facility in Cove Point, Md. The Sierra Club said Thursday it will try to block an energy company's plan to export liquefied natural gas to find new markets for the drilling boom that has flooded the Mid-Atlantic with natural gas. Virginia-based Dominion Resources Inc. is seeking to export 1 billion cubic feet per day through a terminal it owns in Maryland. A previous legal settlement dating to the 1970s gives the Sierra Club the ability to reject any significant changes to the purpose or footprint of the existing natural gas terminal in Cove Point, Md., 60 miles southeast of Washington. (AP Photo/ Matt Houston, File)

Gas boom may stop at coast of Maryland

Cove Point in Southern Maryland has become the latest flash point in the fight between the fossil fuels industry and its longtime foes in the environmental movement. Published April 26, 2012

**FILE** Al Armendariz, Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 administrator, speaks at a town-hall meeting in 2010. (Courtesy of YouTube)

EPA official apologizes for viral ‘crucify’ quip

A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency apologized Thursday after being caught on video bragging that his agency's method of enforcing oil and gas regulations was to find a few bad actors to "crucify" and hold up as examples. Published April 26, 2012

** FILE ** A woman ignites a candle before a Mass in the Roman Catholic Church at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria. Researches have been trying to determine whether a part of the human brain – a "God spot" – is responsible for spiritual feelings. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Research says ‘God spot’ does not exist

Turns out the other "G-spot" is a myth. Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that the so-called "God spot," an epicenter of the brain responsible for feelings of spirituality and connection to a higher power, doesn't exist. Published April 25, 2012

Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. ** FILE **

Salazar says critics live in ‘fairy tale’ land

Interior Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar on Tuesday blasted the "world of fairy tales" that he thinks most Republicans and some oil and gas industry leaders live in, arguing that the Obama administration remains committed to domestic fossil fuels and any claims to the contrary are patently false. Published April 24, 2012

A Montgomery County sheriff's deputy walks away March 7, 2012, from an old school bus in Spendora, Texas, where an 11-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother were found living on their own. Both of the children's parents are in prison, officials said. (Associated Press/Houston Chronicle)

School bus drivers take turns for the worse

School bus drivers across the nation have made headlines recently for all the wrong reasons, including spectacular crashes and charges of drunken driving and theft of the iconic yellow vehicle. Published April 16, 2012

**FILE** A Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site operates near Burlington, Pa. Natural gas locked in dense rock deep beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio requires a powerful drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to release it. (Associated Press)

Obama issues order to coordinate fracking oversight

In a move that immediately drew praise from across the energy industry, President Obama on Friday issued an executive order to better coordinate federal oversight of "fracking," the popular but controversial natural gas extraction method. Published April 13, 2012