The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law 50 years ago by President Richard Nixon. It continues to be a powerful force in environmental protection—but for good or ill? PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, has published a special issue of its quarterly publication, PERC Reports, titled “Fifty Years of the Endangered Species…
Search Results for: regulation
Don’t Count on an Expanding Electric Grid
As regulated businesses, utilities’ incentives differ from those of many businesses. Citing a study in the Yale Journal of Regulation, economist Timothy Taylor explains why these incentives argue against a substantial buildout of a transmission network. This—even though the government is trying to force an “electric” economy. Taylor points out that shareholders of utilities are…
Straight Talk on Nuclear Power
Two prominent analysts raise doubts about nuclear power as the “answer” to climate change alarm. Ben Zyker warns conservatives about the costs. “Recent analysis from the Energy Information Administration reports estimates of prospective nuclear electricity production costs more than double those of natural gas-fired electricity. (If we include the cost of backup generation to avoid…
How I Plan to Vote on Environmental Issues
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute.
“Elections have consequences,” former President Barack Obama once rightly said, and we are in an election cycle. In choosing whom to vote for, I always consider how closely a current officeholder has adhered to his or her constitutional oath while in office—has he or she voted as often as possible to limit the federal government to its constitutionally enumerated role?
A Carbon-Reduction Plan an Economist Can Love—and One Invented It
Robert Litterman, a well-known economist —a “legend on Wall Street”— has an idea for spurring government and private investment into reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. Peter Coy, a New York Times columnist, discusses the “carbon-linked bond”: “The problem Litterman is trying to solve is that many private investors are unwilling to invest heavily in climate solutions because…
It’s Hard to Keep Special Interests Happy, But the Government Keeps Trying
Chances are, you haven’t heard of RFS, RINs, eRINs, RVOs, or maybe even RNG. I hadn’t. But if you are part of the agricultural and waste-industry interests that promote “biofuels,” you know all about them. They are the means by which fuel generated by corn, wood, waste from a landfill, or other “natural” biomass gets…