Economist Ben Zycher reveals the “perversities, problematic assumptions, and wasteful outcomes made inevitable by the contradictions and incoherence of the Biden leasing policy.” Biden just announced a policy of allowing new leases but charging higher royalty rates. Here’s a summary of Zycher’s observations about this policy: The Biden administration will start leasing on 80 percent…
Search Results for: climate change
Supreme Court To Hear Its ‘Most Important Environmental Case’ This Term
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in West Virginia vs. EPA on Monday, February 28. Case Western Reserve law professor Jonathan Adler calls this case “the most important environmental case in the 2021-2022 term.” “In this case, the justices will consider the scope of the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the power…
Yosemite and the ‘Balance of Nature’ Myth
The following photographic essay illustrates the changing landscape at California’s Yosemite Valley and undermines the myth of a static “balance of nature.” The author, Shawn Regan, is vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). The photograph above shows Yosemite Valley in 1899 (left) and today (right). If it seems like…
Is the Interior Department Leasing More Land for Oil and Gas than Trump Did?
An investigative report by Adam Federman in the Washington Post says that the Biden administration is issuing oil and gas permits at a rate faster than Trump did. “Between Jan. 20 and Oct. 31, the Bureau of Land Management [part of the Interior Department] approved 3,091 new onshore drilling permits—permits it could have deferred or…
The Biden Energy Package: 25 Moves That Push Up Prices
Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group, has compiled a list of Biden administration policies that are pushing up prices of energy. A sampling of the 25 actions: #1 and 2: Adopting new EPA oil and gas rules Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new regulations governing methane emissions from oil and gas production, transmission, storage,…
Interior Department Reverses Trump’s ‘Incidental Take’ Deregulation
Should private companies that accidentally kill migratory birds be held criminally responsible? The Trump administration didn’t think so and changed an interpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty that made an unintentional killing of migratory birds a crime. Now the Fish and Wildlife Service is reversing the Trump administration’s decision. The Migratory Bird Treaty was…