Policymakers Face Facts, and Turn Away

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence,” observed John Adams, the Founding Father who served as the second President of the United States. That was in 1770. We live in a different time, one in […]

To EV or Not to EV

The automobile industry in the United States puts bread on the table for about 5 million factory workers, dealers, and assorted repair and maintenance providers. It provides another 2.5 million jobs for local businesses, bringing the industry’s contribution to about 12 percent of the nation’s total employment. It turns out products so important to Americans […]

Climate Policy Debate Heats Up In Dubai

Eight years ago, 194 nations and the EU agreed in Paris to adopt policies to limit the rise in the earth’s temperature to 1.5°-2°C above levels existing before industrialization took millions out of poverty. John Kerry, the U.S. climate czar, tossed a gift to photographers by having his two-year old granddaughter perched on his knee […]

Growth, Greening and Fossil Fuels

Davos isn’t Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart’s Rick could calm Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa by promising her in their 1942 film they would always have Paris. But such words could not calm John Kerry, the man President Biden chose to cool the planet, or Al Gore, re-emerging at the  Davos World Economic Forum from relative obscurity. They might […]

Deals Are Cut, Spending Up, Emissions Down, Lobbyists and Bureaucrats to the Fore

Climate change recently was pushed to the back burner by a host of more immediate concerns – gas prices, inflation, recession, crime, illegal immigration – and by a realization that the geopolitical and economic settlement following WW II is in tatters. But climate policy is once again a hot topic in the United States, and […]

Climate Change Battle Takes A Right Turn

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to lay out a policy framework to cope with climate change that will get us where we need to go. That new framework builds on two new facts. First, the private sector has committed sufficient capital to get the job done by relying more on market forces and adequate […]

Either/Or Versus And

When “either/or” becomes “and,” we have made progress in a policy dispute. And that is what has happened in the climate and energy policy debate. It should now be clear to all (save those on the extreme ends of the spectrum of views) that we must have fossil fuels in ample supply if we are […]

Gang Green Does Glasgow

The annoyance of a rail disruption confronted by the delegates attempting to get to Glasgow, the unpleasant aroma resulting from the current strike of garbage collectors while they were there, complaints from those looking forward to 2015-style Parisian quality food in the home of haggis[1], and a meeting that over-ran its planned adjournment as common […]

The Energy Crisis: We Have Met The Enemy And It Is Us

Cheer up. The energy crisis is person-made. It can be undone by correcting policy errors. A quick review of the policy blunders. Natural Gas Start with natural gas, the transition fuel from oil and coal to a less globe-heating energy economy. Prices have shot up to almost double last winter’s in America, and are four […]

It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green

World leaders who signed on to the Paris Climate accord in 2015 will gather in Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, the formal session beginning on November 1. Britain, in partnership with Italy, will play host. The nations represented committed themselves to ratcheting up of their original commitments every five years, but were […]