Energy Costs
Business & Economics
Dodgy days for business
The national unemployment rate remains stubbornly high – 9.5 percent in June – and the private sector simply isn’t willing yet to make a genuine effort to create jobs. Some contend that to stimulate the economy, the government should spend and borrow more. This argument ignores a central reason for ...
Commentary
Will Business-Toxic Environment Poison Silicon Valley Innovation?
The world is full of pseudo-Silicon Valleys — private and public attempts to re-create California’s high-tech mecca. But they have achieved only pale copies of an original that remains the undisputed cradle of innovation. Historic leaders like Hewlett-Packard and Intel have stayed there, and more recent giants like Google, Facebook ...
Business & Economics
Guest view: Consider value-added tax, tort reform
Editors note: Several weeks ago, we asked readers to share their thoughts on what our state and region can do in the year ahead to help the economy specifically, how to grow the good-paying jobs we so desperately need. We also asked business leaders to tell us what theyve ...
Energy Costs
The Costs and Uncertainties of Carbon Reduction Schemes
Earlier this month, a bill to implement a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions passed the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The Boxer-Kerry bill now moves on to the full Senate for consideration, where it will likely be combined with other climate bills. The House narrowly passed a similar ...
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 ...
Business & Economics
The Best States For Business
The recession hit everywhere, but Virginia is booming compared with the rest of America. The carnage of the economic downturn is everywhere with bankruptcies, foreclosures and unemployment soaring nationwide. None of the 50 states are immune. Only two, Alaska and North Dakota, are expected to see employment gains this year. ...
Climate Change
Can CO2 Emissions Be Cut Without Hurting Growth?
Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009 No: Alternatives Are Too Expensive The U.S. and Western Europe can point to a remarkable achievement over the past 40 years: significant reductions in air pollution with only a modest effect on our economic growth and prosperity. So, why can’t we expect to do ...
Commentary
Mackinac Center Analysts Refute NRDC Green Energy Claims
The Examiner, September 1, 2009 Reliance on renewable mandates will cost, not create, jobs MIDLAND — The adoption of “green energy” policy recommendations made in a recent report by the National Resources Defense Council would push Michigan’s economy into a freefall, according to Mackinac Center for Public Policy energy analysts ...
Climate Change
Peril Policy Segment 10: It’s A Moral Issue
OpenMarket.org, August 24, 2009 Today’s excerpt from CEI’s film, Policy Peril: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself, offers a free-market perspective on Al Gore’s proclamation, at the end of An Inconvenient Truth, that global warming is “a moral issue.” Considered in the abstract, apart from ...
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 ...
Dodgy days for business
The national unemployment rate remains stubbornly high – 9.5 percent in June – and the private sector simply isn’t willing yet to make a genuine effort to create jobs. Some contend that to stimulate the economy, the government should spend and borrow more. This argument ignores a central reason for ...
Will Business-Toxic Environment Poison Silicon Valley Innovation?
The world is full of pseudo-Silicon Valleys — private and public attempts to re-create California’s high-tech mecca. But they have achieved only pale copies of an original that remains the undisputed cradle of innovation. Historic leaders like Hewlett-Packard and Intel have stayed there, and more recent giants like Google, Facebook ...
Guest view: Consider value-added tax, tort reform
Editors note: Several weeks ago, we asked readers to share their thoughts on what our state and region can do in the year ahead to help the economy specifically, how to grow the good-paying jobs we so desperately need. We also asked business leaders to tell us what theyve ...
The Costs and Uncertainties of Carbon Reduction Schemes
Earlier this month, a bill to implement a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions passed the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The Boxer-Kerry bill now moves on to the full Senate for consideration, where it will likely be combined with other climate bills. The House narrowly passed a similar ...
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 Best States For Business
The recession hit everywhere, but Virginia is booming compared with the rest of America. The carnage of the economic downturn is everywhere with bankruptcies, foreclosures and unemployment soaring nationwide. None of the 50 states are immune. Only two, Alaska and North Dakota, are expected to see employment gains this year. ...
Can CO2 Emissions Be Cut Without Hurting Growth?
Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009 No: Alternatives Are Too Expensive The U.S. and Western Europe can point to a remarkable achievement over the past 40 years: significant reductions in air pollution with only a modest effect on our economic growth and prosperity. So, why can’t we expect to do ...
Mackinac Center Analysts Refute NRDC Green Energy Claims
The Examiner, September 1, 2009 Reliance on renewable mandates will cost, not create, jobs MIDLAND — The adoption of “green energy” policy recommendations made in a recent report by the National Resources Defense Council would push Michigan’s economy into a freefall, according to Mackinac Center for Public Policy energy analysts ...
Peril Policy Segment 10: It’s A Moral Issue
OpenMarket.org, August 24, 2009 Today’s excerpt from CEI’s film, Policy Peril: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself, offers a free-market perspective on Al Gore’s proclamation, at the end of An Inconvenient Truth, that global warming is “a moral issue.” Considered in the abstract, apart from ...
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 ...
