“Biden Wants Minerals, but Mine Permitting Lags,” says a headline in E&E News‘s Greenwire. And the Washington Post asks: “Is Sustainable Mining Possible? The EV Revolution Depends on It.” If the minerals for electric vehicles are to be available, overly strict and lengthy environmental reviews must be curtailed or we must rely on China (and…
Tag: Biden administration
Biden’s Plans for Infrastructure Ring Hollow, Thanks to New NEPA Rules
President Biden is tightening up the environmental reviews for major projects—thus weakening the infrastructure act he appears to be so proud of. The White House Council of Environmental Quality has just issued new rules for assessing major projects under the 1969 NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act). The rules end President Trump’s relaxation of regulation and…
Ben Zycher on the Failings of Biden’s ‘New’ Oil and Gas Policy
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…
‘Temporary Chaos’ as Judge Rejects Biden’s Social Cost of Carbon
Update: On March 16, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (in New Orleans) reversed the district court’s ruling. That means the chaos was just temporary. It’s back to $51 as the “social cost of carbon” (explained below). In February a Louisiana court rejected the Biden administration’s $51-per-ton estimate of the “social cost of carbon” (really,…
Biden’s Plan for EV-Charging Stations: Not as Attractive as It Seems
The Biden administration plans to build 500,000 charging stations for electrical vehicles as part of the recently passed infrastructure act at a price of $7.5 billion. “This investment represents the latest iteration of a proposal that started out with a budget of $15 billion for the same number of chargers, writes Neel Dhanesha on Vox….
More Voices Speak Out Against Climate Panic
Now that the Biden administration calls climate change an “existential crisis,” and the UN Secretary-General warns that the world has reached a “tipping point on the need for climate action,” more temperate voices are beginning to speak up. People known for their expertise in economics are puncturing glib statements by politicians and the media. They…