Thomas Tanton
Agriculture
How Misguided Energy Policy Eats Up the Economic Stimulus
This month, checks are going out to federal taxpayers in the form of an “economic stimulus” package. Economists are divided over how those dollars will be spent—new spending, paying off bills, savings? Unfortunately, other federal and state policies, including energy policy, will eliminate any stimulation. The economic stimulus checks are ...
Commentary
Is ‘Cap-and-Trade’ Good for California?
The California Air Resources Board is mulling a mix of regulations, fees and market-like mechanisms to impose on California, to comply with the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act. That 2006 law requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels within 12 years, but it gives the board ...
Environment
Giving credit where due
Something was wrong with Sally Ann, the beloved boat of Barry Treahy, another boating fan hit by the switch over. For months, Sally Ann did not run right and Treahy’s remedies weren’t working. He kept changing her fuel filters, rebuilt her carburetor. Finally, he cut into her gas tank, cleaned ...
Commentary
San Francisco Regulators Seek Greenhouse Fee
San Francisco-area air quality regulators are proposing to charge a fee to most businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. The fee–4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide–would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants and would include landfills, factories, and small businesses such as ...
Commentary
Nuclear Renaissance?
Schwarzenegger ‘open minded about nuclear power’ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger believes that nuclear power has “a great future” and that it is time to “relook at that issue again rather than just looking the other way and living in denial.” The governor made these comments March 14 in Santa Barbara, at ...
Environment
First the Economy, then the Environment
Most of the press reports on the negative environmental impacts of renewable fuel have centered on the production of ethanol. Seems that ethanol production, because of changes in land use patterns, run off, fertilizers and sprays, often causes more pollution than the production of gasoline. New reports, in particular this ...
Environment
Economic Outlook Still Bad from Green Energy
To pay for it, the bill’s authors would use the same resource they tried to take in HR 6: rescinding tax incentives for the oil and natural gas industry. That could raise almost $18 billion over 10 years. But the renewable-energy lobby is trying to focus attention on the bill’s ...
Energy
Whose Economy?
Unable to extend tax breaks as part of the energy bill signed into law just two months ago, some are trying to attach them to the emergency economic stimulus package. As the package emerged this week from the Senate Finance Committee, among the items added was a string of energy ...
Blackouts
Big Brother Wants Your Thermostat
The California Energy Commission recently considered a proposal to take control of home thermostats, a move that drew national attention and public protests. The CEC has now backed off,-but the story remains instructive for California consumers and policy makers alike. Under the original proposal, part of a 236-page revision to ...
Agriculture
Different Shades of Green
Biofuels are made from either grain, sugar or vegetable oils–all important food products. There is increasing competition for feedstocks (food stocks?) between eating and energy. Rising prices for vegetable oil are forcing the world’s poor to ration every drop, or go without. Bakeries in the United States are being squeezed ...
How Misguided Energy Policy Eats Up the Economic Stimulus
This month, checks are going out to federal taxpayers in the form of an “economic stimulus” package. Economists are divided over how those dollars will be spent—new spending, paying off bills, savings? Unfortunately, other federal and state policies, including energy policy, will eliminate any stimulation. The economic stimulus checks are ...
Is ‘Cap-and-Trade’ Good for California?
The California Air Resources Board is mulling a mix of regulations, fees and market-like mechanisms to impose on California, to comply with the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act. That 2006 law requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels within 12 years, but it gives the board ...
Giving credit where due
Something was wrong with Sally Ann, the beloved boat of Barry Treahy, another boating fan hit by the switch over. For months, Sally Ann did not run right and Treahy’s remedies weren’t working. He kept changing her fuel filters, rebuilt her carburetor. Finally, he cut into her gas tank, cleaned ...
San Francisco Regulators Seek Greenhouse Fee
San Francisco-area air quality regulators are proposing to charge a fee to most businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. The fee–4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide–would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants and would include landfills, factories, and small businesses such as ...
Nuclear Renaissance?
Schwarzenegger ‘open minded about nuclear power’ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger believes that nuclear power has “a great future” and that it is time to “relook at that issue again rather than just looking the other way and living in denial.” The governor made these comments March 14 in Santa Barbara, at ...
First the Economy, then the Environment
Most of the press reports on the negative environmental impacts of renewable fuel have centered on the production of ethanol. Seems that ethanol production, because of changes in land use patterns, run off, fertilizers and sprays, often causes more pollution than the production of gasoline. New reports, in particular this ...
Economic Outlook Still Bad from Green Energy
To pay for it, the bill’s authors would use the same resource they tried to take in HR 6: rescinding tax incentives for the oil and natural gas industry. That could raise almost $18 billion over 10 years. But the renewable-energy lobby is trying to focus attention on the bill’s ...
Whose Economy?
Unable to extend tax breaks as part of the energy bill signed into law just two months ago, some are trying to attach them to the emergency economic stimulus package. As the package emerged this week from the Senate Finance Committee, among the items added was a string of energy ...
Big Brother Wants Your Thermostat
The California Energy Commission recently considered a proposal to take control of home thermostats, a move that drew national attention and public protests. The CEC has now backed off,-but the story remains instructive for California consumers and policy makers alike. Under the original proposal, part of a 236-page revision to ...
Different Shades of Green
Biofuels are made from either grain, sugar or vegetable oils–all important food products. There is increasing competition for feedstocks (food stocks?) between eating and energy. Rising prices for vegetable oil are forcing the world’s poor to ration every drop, or go without. Bakeries in the United States are being squeezed ...
