No good deed goes unpunished. That adage might be applied to Gordon Strong’s 1954 donation of Maryland’s Sugarloaf Mountain as a preserve for public use, while remaining in private hands. Stronghold, Inc., a nonprofit organization, owns most of the mountain and, until recently, intended to keep it open for public use (as it has been…
Tag: Regulation
On Speeding Up Environmental Reviews, Joe Manchin May Have Lost Out
To support the “Inflation Reduction Act” that just cleared the Senate on a party vote, Senator Joe Manchin agreed to a “side deal.” According to the Washington Post that deal would streamline the permitting process for major energy projects, including a West Virginia gas pipeline. Among other things it would set a two-year maximum limit…
The Offshore Wind Energy Problem: Government Overregulation, Disincentives, and Anti-market Policies
This is a guest post by Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a previous post on this site indicated, I have written a paper for the John Locke Foundation opposing the North Carolina governor’s plan for wind power offshore. Is…
Back to ‘Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up’: Court Drops Trump’s Common-Sense Rules on Endangered Species
“With this change, we’re back to the ‘shoot, shovel, and shut up’ status quo.” (PERC Tweet). A federal district court in California has vacated Trump-administration rules designed to make the Endangered Species Act more fair and effective. The most important rule dealt with the treatment of threatened species, which are species that are not yet…
Interesting Links . . .
- No new gas stations in Los Angeles?
- Canada’s “Zero-Plastic Waste 2030” program will cost $13 billion (Canadian dollars), gain only $619 million benefit, says Fraser Institute’s Ken Green.
- Australian Scientists Discover Styrofoam-eating “superworm.”
- Supreme Court agrees to hear a case that would define “waters of the United States” for EPA regulatory purposes.
- Why does electricity usage go down? Income inequality, says Resources for the Future.
- Ford trying to get more congressional support for electric vehicles, says the Washington Post.
Should We Even Try to Recycle Plastics?
Pressuring plastic producers to recycle their products has gone on for decades. But two writers at the Atlantic have now concluded, “Plastic recycling does not work and will never work.” In the U.S. in 2021 only 5 percent of all post-consumer plastic was recycled. Furthermore, they say that the plastic producers deny this and those denials…