Environment
Agriculture
California Targets Auto Emissions, Ethanol Gets No Break
California’s Air Resources Board has approved a landmark rule mandating a statewide cut in greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels through 2020. The sweeping regulation targets carbon emissions from the production and burning of gasoline and alternatives such as ethanol. The rule may affect the way land is used to ...
Business & Economics
Cap and Trade: The government’s new pet market
Encore Online (Wilmington, NC), June 29, 2009 While most Americans are distracted by the situation in Iran and the vital current healthcare debates, Barack Obama and his friends in Congress are attempting to rush through one of the most draconian realignments of energy policy in the nation’s history. This legislation ...
Commentary
Western Climate Initiative: Here’s the rest of the story
Michael Gibbs, the Governor’s point man on regional climate initiatives, has provided commentary on the Western Climate Initiative and the Capital Panel Discussion held on May 15, arranged at the request of Assemblyman Niello. I was one of the panel members, yet feel I must have been at a different ...
Commentary
Will Cap and Trade Pass Congress?
The Volockh Conspiracy, June 23, 2009 The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on cap-and-trade this week. The bill seeks to lower US per capita cabon emissions to levels below those of the US colonial period. As I blogged four months ago: The goal is an 83% reduction in ...
Business & Economics
Unions using environmental rules to block non-union plants
Following The New York Times piece exposing greenmail – a union tactic to hijack green construction and implement wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on energy related projects in California (“Labor Sees Green in Solar Plants in California: A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants,” 6/19) ...
Business & Economics
A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants
SACRAMENTO — When a company called Ausra filed plans for a big solar power plant in California, it was deluged with demands from a union group that it study the effect on creatures like the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk. By contrast, when a competitor, BrightSource Energy, filed ...
Environment
Energy Pathways? Let’s Take A Closer Look
Not surprisingly, the study asserts that continuing on a “business-as-usual” energy path risks greater economic insecurity, while aggressive acceleration of clean energy assures faster and more sustained economic growth. Relying on renewable sources for 50 percent of California’s electric power, combined with increasing energy efficiency by 1.5 percent a year, ...
Environment
Perpetual Myth
The oil companies do not get huge tax breaks on oil production in California; they do pay taxes at rates comparable to other states, just in different forms. They pay higher property, corporate income, and other taxes than in other states that impose oil severance taxes (or “drilling taxes”). A ...
Environment
Taxpayer Cash for Environmental Clunkers
Earlier this month the House approved a measure that would give consumers up to $4500 to dump their gas guzzlers and buy a newer and more fuel efficient vehicle. Despite widespread support, this “cash for clunkers” program has its problems, and so do other environmental regulations coming out of Washington. ...
Commentary
Is Big Oil a crusader against greenhouse gases?
Over the past eight years, which industry has invested the most to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases? You might be thinking of windmills or solar panels. Or maybe those folks who are trying to make energy out of pond scum … er, algae. But according to a new industry-funded ...
California Targets Auto Emissions, Ethanol Gets No Break
California’s Air Resources Board has approved a landmark rule mandating a statewide cut in greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels through 2020. The sweeping regulation targets carbon emissions from the production and burning of gasoline and alternatives such as ethanol. The rule may affect the way land is used to ...
Cap and Trade: The government’s new pet market
Encore Online (Wilmington, NC), June 29, 2009 While most Americans are distracted by the situation in Iran and the vital current healthcare debates, Barack Obama and his friends in Congress are attempting to rush through one of the most draconian realignments of energy policy in the nation’s history. This legislation ...
Western Climate Initiative: Here’s the rest of the story
Michael Gibbs, the Governor’s point man on regional climate initiatives, has provided commentary on the Western Climate Initiative and the Capital Panel Discussion held on May 15, arranged at the request of Assemblyman Niello. I was one of the panel members, yet feel I must have been at a different ...
Will Cap and Trade Pass Congress?
The Volockh Conspiracy, June 23, 2009 The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on cap-and-trade this week. The bill seeks to lower US per capita cabon emissions to levels below those of the US colonial period. As I blogged four months ago: The goal is an 83% reduction in ...
Unions using environmental rules to block non-union plants
Following The New York Times piece exposing greenmail – a union tactic to hijack green construction and implement wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on energy related projects in California (“Labor Sees Green in Solar Plants in California: A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants,” 6/19) ...
A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants
SACRAMENTO — When a company called Ausra filed plans for a big solar power plant in California, it was deluged with demands from a union group that it study the effect on creatures like the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk. By contrast, when a competitor, BrightSource Energy, filed ...
Energy Pathways? Let’s Take A Closer Look
Not surprisingly, the study asserts that continuing on a “business-as-usual” energy path risks greater economic insecurity, while aggressive acceleration of clean energy assures faster and more sustained economic growth. Relying on renewable sources for 50 percent of California’s electric power, combined with increasing energy efficiency by 1.5 percent a year, ...
Perpetual Myth
The oil companies do not get huge tax breaks on oil production in California; they do pay taxes at rates comparable to other states, just in different forms. They pay higher property, corporate income, and other taxes than in other states that impose oil severance taxes (or “drilling taxes”). A ...
Taxpayer Cash for Environmental Clunkers
Earlier this month the House approved a measure that would give consumers up to $4500 to dump their gas guzzlers and buy a newer and more fuel efficient vehicle. Despite widespread support, this “cash for clunkers” program has its problems, and so do other environmental regulations coming out of Washington. ...
Is Big Oil a crusader against greenhouse gases?
Over the past eight years, which industry has invested the most to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases? You might be thinking of windmills or solar panels. Or maybe those folks who are trying to make energy out of pond scum … er, algae. But according to a new industry-funded ...
