Andrew Morriss and Donald Boudreaux have an op-ed in today’s WSJ explaining why gasoline prices have become more volatile. The short version: Boutique fuel requirements have balkanized the gasoline market, magnifying the effects of local supply disruptions. For most of the 20th century, the United States was a single market for gasoline. Today we have […]
Archive | Energy
Lessons from British Columbia’s Carbon Tax
In yesterday’s NYT, Yoram Bauman and Shi-Ling Hsu explained why the U.S. would be wise to follow British Columbia’s example and impose a carbon tax and use the revenues to reduce other tax rates. On Sunday, the best climate policy in the world got even better: British Columbia’s carbon tax — a tax on the […]
Eminent Domain and the Keystone Pipeline Project
By Ilya Somin on May 9, 2012 3:06 pm in Energy, Environment, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
The New York Times has an article describing how the TransCanada corporation is using eminent domain to forcibly acquire property to build the Keystone oil pipeline: When the TransCanada men first came, Julia Trigg Crawford said, they were polite. They offered money. Seven thousand dollars to let the Keystone XL pipeline cross her family’s 600-acre […]
Heartland’s Mad Billboard Stunt
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 9, 2012 10:40 am in Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Politicizing Science
The folks at the Heartland Institute are mad, and that seems to have driven them a little mad. For years environmental activists have compared climate skeptics and those who raise questions about the likelihood of a warming-induced apocalypse to Holocaust deniers and worse. In 1989, then-Senator Al Gore famously compared those who downplayed the climate […]
IG Inspector Claims White House Obstructed Gulf Drilling Moratorium Report
The New Orleans Times Picayune reports the White House denied the Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General access to e-mails and communications about White House revisions to a report Interior Secretary Ken Salazar relied upon to justify a moratorium in oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The story begins: A senior federal investigator […]
A Stronger Case for Keystone
The Washington Post editorializes that the case for approving the Keystone XL pipeline was “always strong” and “has grown stronger.” A key environmentalist argument against Keystone XL has been that the project would encourage the extraction of bitumen, a particularly dirty oil-like substance, from the “oil sands” in Alberta. If activists could “shut in” Canadian […]
EPA Adopts Fracking Rules
Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced new air pollution regulations for natural gas production including emission control standards for hydraulic fracturing. The WSJ reports and Ron Bailey comments.
EPA to Release More Greenhouse Gas Regulations
The Washington Post reports the Environmental Protection Agency will release proposed regulations governing the emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants this week, perhaps as early as today. As described by the Post, this New Source Performance Standard regulation could put a halt to the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless and until […]
The Green Costs of Kelo Revisited
By Jonathan H. Adler on February 29, 2012 12:33 pm in Eminent Domain, Energy, Environment, Kelo, Property Rights
In 2006, Ilya and I co-authored “The Green Costs of Kelo: Economic Development Takings and Environmental Protection,” in which we argued that allowing the use of eminent domain for economic development was bad for environmental conservation. Environmentalist advocates responded with disbelief. The Community Rights Counsel (the precursor to the Constitutional Accountability Center) went so far […]
Fined for Failing to Do the Impossible
Back in 2007, Congress created a biofuels mandate under which oil companies are required to use a minimum amount of cellulosic ethanol each year. The mandate was supposed to encourage the development of a domestic cellulosic ethanol industry. This has not happened. Several years after the mandate was imposed, there is still no commercial cellulosic […]
The Keystone Pipeline Precedent
Others have commented on President Obama’s decision to punt on the Keystone XL pipeline project. Ordering additional review pushes the decision past the next election and enables the Administration to evade responsibility should the project ultimately fail. As those who study environmental law know, delays of this sort are often enough to derail major projects […]
A Prize for Ocean Cleanup
Last month, the X-Prize Foundation announced the winners of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup Challenge. The challenge was created to spur the development of more effective oil spill cleanup methods. Specifically, the challenge offered $1.4 million in prizes for the development of removing oil from the ocean’s surface. The aim was to double the industry’s […]
Another Setback for Cape Wind
In 2002, federal reguators predicted it would take between 18-months and three-years for the proposed Cape Wind energy project in Nantucket Sound to receive federal approval. Nearly ten years later, the project is still awaiting full federal clearance, and has yet to begin construction. Full operation remains at least two years away. On Friday, the […]
EPA To Regulate Fracking
Last Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it planned to propose regulations governing the disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing. The WSJ reported on the announcement and initial reactions here.
Are Motorcycles “Greener” Than Cars?
The LA Times reports on a Mythbusters investigation into whether motorcycles are a more environmentally friendly mode of transportation than cars, at least with regard to their fuel consumption and emissions. The investigation involved road-testing vehicles of each type from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s while monitoring the vehicles’ fuel consumption and emissions. The results: […]