Environment
Commentary
The Power of the Plaintiffs’ Bar
Why Democrats are avoiding medical-malpractice reform at all costs. The health-care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved makes a lot of promises. It will cost American taxpayers $829 billion, on top of an already out-of-control federal budget, as well as guarantee an increase in their individual medical expenditures. But one ...
Business & Economics
Budget fixes, no; blueberries, yes
SACRAMENTO – Elected officials would have us believe that the world would not go around if they weren’t busy addressing the “big” issues in city councils and state legislatures. But, in reality, most of what elected officials do ranges from the nonsensical to the malevolent. How many readers believe that ...
Commentary
AHIP/PriceWaterhouse Blowback?
All intellectual capitalists since Adam Smith have known that we cannot rely on business to carry our philosophical water for us, but even I’m amazed that AHIP has waited so long to release a report (so ably summarized by Mr. Capretta), that describes how the Baucus memorandum (it’s not a ...
Commentary
Obama flip-flops on insurance mandate
San Francisco Chronicle, October 13, 2009 President Obama has promised that his health reform plan will lower costs and expand coverage. He and his Democratic allies are counting on an “individual mandate,” or a requirement that everyone purchase health insurance, to achieve these goals. But Obama hasn’t always been gung ...
Business & Economics
Pacific Research Institute Releases New Study on California’s E-Waste Waste
San Francisco, October 7, 2009 – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, found that California’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) is a waste of taxpayer dollars. In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, less than half of the facilities audited were in complete compliance with program rules, ...
Climate Change
Krugman on Waxman-Markey’s Cost: We Hope His Readers Can’t Multiply
Paul Krugman has been on the warpath lately regarding climate change economics. He has devoted his last two NYT columns (here and here) to the subject, as well as back-to-back blog posts (here and here). True to form, Krugman accuses those who disagree with him of abject stupidity and evil ...
Agriculture
Cooling Down the Cassandras
Washington Post, October 1, 2009 Real Clear Politics, October 1, 2009 ReporterNews (Abilene, TX), September 30, 2009 Plateau in Temperatures Adds Difficulty to Task Of Reaching a Solution — New York Times, Sept. 23 WASHINGTON — In this headline on a New York Times story about difficulties confronting people alarmed ...
Environment
U.S. Air Quality Continues to Improve
Environment & Climate News (The Heartland Institute), October 1, 2009 Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants have fallen sharply this year, according to a recent report by energy research firm Genscape. Emissions of other pollutants have dropped as well. For the first half of 2009, SO2 emissions dropped 24 ...
Commentary
Earthquake Fears Halt California Geothermal Project
The federal government has halted a geothermal power project in California in response to concerns the project is causing an increase in regional earthquake activity. The project was launched last fall with more than $6 million in taxpayer funding. The project, in a Northern California region knows as The Geysers, ...
California
Governor to Impose $Quarter-Billion Tax Hike on California
Renewable energy that is forced on the California market means higher energy costs for everyone. Renewables are simply more expensive—which is why their proponents have to argue for mandates (and not coincidently, the highest levels of direct subsidy.) Ironically, the mandates—excused as ‘helping drive costs down through mass markets’ have ...
The Power of the Plaintiffs’ Bar
Why Democrats are avoiding medical-malpractice reform at all costs. The health-care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved makes a lot of promises. It will cost American taxpayers $829 billion, on top of an already out-of-control federal budget, as well as guarantee an increase in their individual medical expenditures. But one ...
Budget fixes, no; blueberries, yes
SACRAMENTO – Elected officials would have us believe that the world would not go around if they weren’t busy addressing the “big” issues in city councils and state legislatures. But, in reality, most of what elected officials do ranges from the nonsensical to the malevolent. How many readers believe that ...
AHIP/PriceWaterhouse Blowback?
All intellectual capitalists since Adam Smith have known that we cannot rely on business to carry our philosophical water for us, but even I’m amazed that AHIP has waited so long to release a report (so ably summarized by Mr. Capretta), that describes how the Baucus memorandum (it’s not a ...
Obama flip-flops on insurance mandate
San Francisco Chronicle, October 13, 2009 President Obama has promised that his health reform plan will lower costs and expand coverage. He and his Democratic allies are counting on an “individual mandate,” or a requirement that everyone purchase health insurance, to achieve these goals. But Obama hasn’t always been gung ...
Pacific Research Institute Releases New Study on California’s E-Waste Waste
San Francisco, October 7, 2009 – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, found that California’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) is a waste of taxpayer dollars. In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, less than half of the facilities audited were in complete compliance with program rules, ...
Krugman on Waxman-Markey’s Cost: We Hope His Readers Can’t Multiply
Paul Krugman has been on the warpath lately regarding climate change economics. He has devoted his last two NYT columns (here and here) to the subject, as well as back-to-back blog posts (here and here). True to form, Krugman accuses those who disagree with him of abject stupidity and evil ...
Cooling Down the Cassandras
Washington Post, October 1, 2009 Real Clear Politics, October 1, 2009 ReporterNews (Abilene, TX), September 30, 2009 Plateau in Temperatures Adds Difficulty to Task Of Reaching a Solution — New York Times, Sept. 23 WASHINGTON — In this headline on a New York Times story about difficulties confronting people alarmed ...
U.S. Air Quality Continues to Improve
Environment & Climate News (The Heartland Institute), October 1, 2009 Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants have fallen sharply this year, according to a recent report by energy research firm Genscape. Emissions of other pollutants have dropped as well. For the first half of 2009, SO2 emissions dropped 24 ...
Earthquake Fears Halt California Geothermal Project
The federal government has halted a geothermal power project in California in response to concerns the project is causing an increase in regional earthquake activity. The project was launched last fall with more than $6 million in taxpayer funding. The project, in a Northern California region knows as The Geysers, ...
Governor to Impose $Quarter-Billion Tax Hike on California
Renewable energy that is forced on the California market means higher energy costs for everyone. Renewables are simply more expensive—which is why their proponents have to argue for mandates (and not coincidently, the highest levels of direct subsidy.) Ironically, the mandates—excused as ‘helping drive costs down through mass markets’ have ...