Climate Change

More Idiocy from the Wall Street Journal Op-ed Page

A few years ago, a friend of mine suggested starting a blog entitled something like, “Why The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Was Idiotic Today.”  You’d never run out of material for posts! Certainly that was the case today, as Senator Lamar Alexander and Representative Mike Pompeo, both Republicans, make a case against the wind …

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Climate Change and National Security

The two parties disagree sharply about whether climate change can be considered a threat to our national security.  A recent paper by Andrew Guzman (Berkeley) and Jody Freeman (Harvard) summarizes the support for this idea among serious students of national security: In 2008, the National Intelligence Council produced the most comprehensive analysis to date of …

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Setting the Record Straight on Obama and the Environment

We shouldn’t underestimate Obama’s environmental achievements.

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Reasonably Libertarian: Gary Johnson’s Environmental Views

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson isn’t exactly a household name, but it looks like he’s going to be on the ballot in nearly all states.  That made me curious about his environmental positions. I have to admit that Johnson’s views were better than I expected. You can’t really call Johnson an environmentalist, but he looks quite …

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Golden Rules for Fracking

Well, this is embarrassing.  Kevin Drum, one of the best bloggers out there, posted a few days ago on the issue of whether hydraulic fracturing is good or bad for the environment.  Kevin covers the ground that we have here before, namely: Yes, natural gas is better than coal or other fossil fuels in terms …

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Comments on FHFA’s Proposed Rule on Enterprise Writing Standards for PACE Programs

As we have chronicled earlier on this blog, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)’s court-ordered rulemaking on Enterprise Writing Standards for Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs resulted in thousands of public comments in response to the Agency’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR)—the overwhelming majority in support of PACE.  Today is the deadline for submitting …

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What the Convention Speeches Could Teach Economists About the Discount Rate

The economic formulas assume that people want their children and grandchildren to be as well off as they are, no better and no worse. But people actually want the future to be better than the present, and they’re willing to make sacrifices for this to happen.

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What Is the Future Role of Fossil Fuels in the Electricity System?

If you put aside their environmental impacts, fossil fuels are wonderful for generating electricity.  They are cheap, reliable, and currently in abundant supply.  But the environmental drawbacks are considerable, and the most serious one is their contribution to climate change. To deal with climate change, do we need to adopt an attitude of unremitting hostility …

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New Report on Electric Vehicle Policies & Capitol Hill Briefing Today at Noon ET (webcast available)

The environmental law centers at UCLA and UC Berkeley Schools of Law today released a new report on industry actions and federal, state, and local policies needed to stimulate long-term, mass adoption of electric vehicles.  “Electric Drive by ’25” (available from either UCLA Law or Berkeley Law) is the tenth report in our Climate Change …

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Après Mitt le Déluge?

When accepting the Republican nomination, Governor Romney treated us to a bit of humor about climate change. “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” he said, “My promise is to help you and your family.” No one doubts that families need help, but is the idea …

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