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January 18, 2021
Keystone XL Opposition Not Based on Facts
Everything old is new again: The Biden administration reportedly will revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, opposed during the Obama years, favored during the Trump term, and now disfavored yet again. But one reality is eternal: The arguments against Keystone XL are as weak today as ever. The all-purpose climate argument is the…
January 7, 2021
End Discrimination in Bank Lending
The opposition to “discrimination” by political activists has not prevented them from applauding constrained access to capital by such politically unpopular businesses as producers of fossil fuels and firearms or operators of for-profit colleges and private prisons. The list of disfavored economic sectors will only grow over time as government engages in ever-more economic favoritism. This…
December 29, 2020
Comment Letter to OCC on Rule for Fair Access to Financial Services
My name is Benjamin Zycher. I am a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. This letter responds to a request from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for comments on its proposed “Fair Access to Bank Services, Capital and Credit” rule (hereinafter referenced as the “Fair Capital Access” rule),…
December 15, 2020
Biden’s Incoherent Proposal to Ban Fossil Fuel Leasing on Federal Lands
During the election campaign, President-elect Joe Biden pledged to end new oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands (including federal waters); that is, to ban on those lands the discovery and development of fossil energy resources by private companies, and to end approvals of specific drilling proposals that result from leasing rights. Biden further pledged to…
October 28, 2020
The Biden/Trump Divide on Climate and Energy Policies
I betray no secret when I note that Donald Trump is not a man of policy sophistication. It is obvious that he is uninterested even in details that are crucial; instead, he goes with his “gut,” that is, his instincts, which often are sound but sometimes are dreadful. And despite, or perhaps due to, almost five decades in…
October 15, 2020
The Green New Deal Is Awful but Unlikely
During the September 29 presidential debate, Democratic candidate Joe Biden asserted that he does not “support the Green New Deal.” It “is not my plan.” Instead, he supports “the Biden Plan, which is different.” Put aside Biden’s silly claim that the Green New Deal “will pay for itself,” and ignore the fact that the Biden Plan…
September 16, 2020
An Alaska Energy Tax Proposal Meant to Shoot Alaska in the Foot
When proponents of a tax increase resort to the age-old argument that it is justified because those prospectively subject to it are paying less than their “fair share,” observers safely can make two assumptions. First: The proposed tax increase cannot be justified on the basis of standard public finance principles. Second: Those being threatened are…
August 6, 2020
What the US Can Learn from a Huge Oil Discovery in Guyana
The Trump administration proposed last month a reform of the regulations implementing the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, for decades a source of massive delay and cost increases for federal projects, yielding actual environmental harm because of an inherent bias in favor of the status quo over new investment promising improved environmental outcomes. It can come as no surprise that criticism from…
July 6, 2020
Litigation Against Fossil Fuel Producers Is an Obnoxious Money Chase
I betray no secret when I report that the modern litigation drive against the fossil-fuel industry is oriented overwhelmingly toward the age-old money chase rather than a concern with environmental improvement. The climate–change lawsuit game by now is old, old news, the central characteristics of which are the inanity of the claims and the inventiveness of the lawyers. For the latest iterations…
May 18, 2020
The PREPA Debt Deal and the Future of Puerto Rico Creditworthiness
There are no free lunches, an eternal truth that does not bode well for the years-long efforts of public officials in Puerto Rico to avoid the realities attendant upon the commonwealth’s staggering public debt of over $70 billion. The $9 billion debt of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) remains one of the largest…