Environment

Agriculture

Ethanol craze boosts food prices, world hunger

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA), February 15, 2008 Press Dakotan, February 15, 2008 Billings Gazette (MT), February 12, 2008 Investor’s Business Daily, February 11, 2008 WASHINGTON – The red-hot congressional love affair with the alternative fuel ethanol is starting to leave many supermarket customers feeling mighty blue these days as they pay ...
Agriculture

I’m fat, you’re fat and your kids probably are, too

If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand. Apparently no one does except the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat and drink. Let’s get something straight, however. I’m fat. ...
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 ...
Climate Change

Climate Change Captives?

Organizers said the goal of the event, dubbed “Focus the Nation,” was to move past preaching to the green choir, to reach a captive audience of students in many fields who might not otherwise tune in to climate change issues.” The Lewis & Clark College economics professor behind the day’s ...
Business & Economics

Impact – January 2008

PRI Ideas in Action – January 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions.
Agriculture

No need for hormone labels

SAN FRANCISCO — After 14 years of widespread use, a safe and proven technology for increasing the availability of low-cost dairy products could disappear if government regulators place fears and rumors above sound science. The technology at issue is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), a drug designed to increase milk production ...
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 ...
Environment

More on Thermostats

Blackouts

Let’s Move Inside

Customers could not use their thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. They would apply only to new buildings. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission on January 30. During heat waves, customers crank up the ...
Agriculture

Ethanol craze boosts food prices, world hunger

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA), February 15, 2008 Press Dakotan, February 15, 2008 Billings Gazette (MT), February 12, 2008 Investor’s Business Daily, February 11, 2008 WASHINGTON – The red-hot congressional love affair with the alternative fuel ethanol is starting to leave many supermarket customers feeling mighty blue these days as they pay ...
Agriculture

I’m fat, you’re fat and your kids probably are, too

If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand. Apparently no one does except the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat and drink. Let’s get something straight, however. I’m fat. ...
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 ...
Climate Change

Climate Change Captives?

Organizers said the goal of the event, dubbed “Focus the Nation,” was to move past preaching to the green choir, to reach a captive audience of students in many fields who might not otherwise tune in to climate change issues.” The Lewis & Clark College economics professor behind the day’s ...
Business & Economics

Impact – January 2008

PRI Ideas in Action – January 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions.
Agriculture

No need for hormone labels

SAN FRANCISCO — After 14 years of widespread use, a safe and proven technology for increasing the availability of low-cost dairy products could disappear if government regulators place fears and rumors above sound science. The technology at issue is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), a drug designed to increase milk production ...
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 ...
Environment

More on Thermostats

Blackouts

Let’s Move Inside

Customers could not use their thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. They would apply only to new buildings. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission on January 30. During heat waves, customers crank up the ...
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