California’s extreme drought will force rationing of water or higher prices, say John McKenzie and Richard McKenzie. Raising water prices has a great advantage: “Higher water prices can increase the state’s available water supply—without additional rainfall or the construction of desalination plants. California is annually losing a massive amount of accessed water in its distribution systems…
Tag: Environmental Management
PERC: Slow Environmental Reviews Hold Back Wildfire Prevention
Parts of the West are engulfed by wildfire every year, mostly on U.S. Forest Service land. The Forest Service has two techniques to prevent wildfires: mechanical treatments (usually thinning the forest) and prescribed burns (setting controlled fires to clear brush and shrubs). But environmental reviews are causing drastic delays before the process can even start….
A Growing Backlash Against ‘ESG’ Investing?
Demands that companies meet “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) standards are weakening, say Andy Puzder and Stephen R. Soukup in an essay for RealClearEnergy. They point out that Larry Fink, head of the investment firm BlackRock (the largest manager of assets in the world) has softened his tone. In the past (as in his 2020…
Bureaucratic Delays Will Hinder Biden’s New Forest Restoration Plan
The Biden administration has issued a ten-year plan to manage the national forests to prevent future wildfires. It will include “the use of prescribed fire and thinning to reduce hazardous fuels,” says PERC’s Shawn Regan, writing in City Journal. “It’s a step in the right direction,” says Regan. However, the billions of dollars proposed by the…
Prosperity Improves the Environment (We Knew That but Many Don’t)
The 2020 Environmental Performance Index shows a close relationship between environmental success and a country’s GDP. This annual index, developed jointly by the Yale Center for Environmental Policy and Law and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University, ranks 180 countries. Writing on HumanProgress.org, Ethan Yang finds that wealth and environmental…
‘Science Massacre’ at the EPA
Daren Bakst writes in the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal: “The ‘EPA science massacre’ took place just over a month ago. EPA Administrator Michael Regan dismissed all of the advisers from two legally required panels: the Science Advisory Board and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. It was a complete housecleaning, with not one person left standing. “This shocking move,…