The Heritage Foundation has many able analysts who have done great work on energy and the environment. But since the absolute farce that is the cap-and-trade “solution” to global warming is now the preferred plan of all three major presidential candidates, the need to highlight succinct analysis from others has never been greater. Bryan Leyland, who is chairman of the economic panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, summed up not only why the European Union’s carbon cap-and-trade program is a failure, but also why all carbon cap and …
Possibly the scariest outcome from Super Tuesday is that the top three candidates to become president all support a cap-and-trade approach to global warming. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are all smart and capable leaders, but they also have been completely engrossed in White House politics for more than a year. Hopefully when they have the time to examine recent evidence they will reject their current proposals, which include costly carbon limits that will harm our economy without positively affecting the climate at all. …
The Los Angeles Times reports today that “the climate may be right for a global warming bill” due to “big chunk of industry” just wanting to get something done. Unfortunately much of the legislation on Capitol Hill is modeled after the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, and that effort has abjectly failed. Since the program was implemented EU emissions from relevant sectors have risen .8% and are well above the Kyoto target (See here for why the EU scheme has failed). Now the EU has launched a “20 20 by …
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of Nevada’s congressional delegation sent a letter to Secretary Elaine Chao asking the Department of Labor to put up the “necessary resources” to help 63 recently laid-off Nevadans transition to new jobs. Sounds reasonable, right? Reid is just trying to help some down-on-their-luck constituents. Except that Reid and his comrades are the reason those 63 scientists, engineers and technicians lost their jobs in the first place. They worked at the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository that Reid has …
The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act set Jan. 31, 1998 as the deadline to opening the Yucca Mountain repository for spent nuclear fuel. Today marks the 10 year anniversary of that mandate. Thanks to a hand full of myopic politicians from Nevada, few would argue that the nation is any closer today than it was a decade ago to opening Yucca Mountain. This is not because of science. The Department of Energy has done numerous studies and Environmental Impact Statements that declare the Yucca repository safe. It is not because …
On energy and environment, the President offered no big policy changes for his final year, and in particular declined to endorse any major climate change legislation targeting greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Such cap and trade bills would do more economic harm than environmental good, and it is best that this administration run out the clock on them rather than try to win 11th hour plaudits from environmentalists. Those environmentalists will certainly be displeased and criticize Bush for not doing enough. But the President is continuing with a number …
