Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko has ordered his staff to stop the review of the nuclear materials repository at Yucca Mountain. Aside from the harmful policy implications of this action, the chairman seems to be moving forward without any authority to do so. President Obama has made it …
On August 4, Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and Fox News morning shows to declare Mission Accomplished on handling the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Specifically, she told the Today show: “I think it’s also important …
President Obama’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released four papers discussing several aspects of the federal response, including the use of dispersants and contingency plans for possible future spills. But a large part of the commission’s report and what’s garnering most of the …
“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain is supposed to have said. Rumors about the demise of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) would come as a similar surprise to more than a thousand scholarship recipients in Washington, D.C., who are attending schools of their choice this fall. …
In a recent CQ article, former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, weighed in about congressional oversight of homeland security. Congressional oversight of homeland security may sound as exciting as a colonoscopy, but it is actually a very big problem. Currently, over 100 committees and subcommittees have jurisdiction over the …
There are many reasons to be against the Obama tax hikes, especially as the economy struggles to recover. However, even putting aside economic growth considerations, it is simply not true that only the “rich” will be affected by the tax increase. For example, small businesses (and their workers), as well …
It’s not that Bill O’Reilly was pecksniffian in his verbal sparring with Bill Maher last week on the topic of religion. The powerhouse host of Fox News was just plain ill-equipped. A good-natured O’Reilly failed to put up an effective defense as an unhappy-looking Maher unpacked his usual smug ridicule …
There are legitimate concerns over Chinese dominance in rare earth minerals but the near-frenzied nature of some of some assessments is unjustified. The long-term problems stemming from Chinese control will be resolved by the market; only the short-term problems are potentially threatening, and those remain vague. Rare earths have achieved …
The White House recently released a video defending President Obama’s tax hike plan featuring the new Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Austan Goolsbee. Goolsbee replaced Christina Romer in September. Even though the personnel have changed, the flawed arguments supporting the President’s tax hike plan remain the same. In …
Raising taxes on successful businesses is one thing we cannot afford to do. Large, successful businesses that create jobs would be hit the hardest, but small businesses would also be hurt by such a tax increase. Although economists disagree on many aspects of economic growth and recession, there is near-unanimity …
