Welcome to Our Research Archive
Search and filter by content type, issue area, author, and keyword
April 22, 2020
Earth Day 2020: The Exhaustion of the Climate Left
“Climate Action” is the theme of this 50th Earth Day, and it is useful to note that these five decades of apocalyptic warnings truly are amazing in their consistency: Not one actually has come to pass. The juxtaposition of two news stories, respectively from 1988 and from last January, is among the more amusing tidbits from decades of climate fearmongering….
April 18, 2020
Correcting the Record on the EPA Decision to Ease Reporting Requirements
In a display of crass dishonesty shameless even by Beltway standards, the usual suspects in the environmental left, led by the ineffable Al Gore, have mischaracterized, blatantly, a temporary policy change on compliance reporting requirements adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency. This change was announced because of widespread adaptations by both businesses and regulators in employment conditions—physical…
April 13, 2020
It Would Be Wise for Government to Not Meddle in the Oil Market
The crude oil sector now is confronted by a sharp decline in demand conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in production attendant upon the price feud between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Whether the deal brokered over the weekend by the Trump administration among Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. will raise…
April 8, 2020
Prepared Statement of Dr. Benjamin Zycher and Dr. Patrick J. Michaels on S. 2754, “American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2019”
The Committee on Environment and Public Works of the U.S. Senate is considering the proposed bill S. 2754, the “American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2019,” (hereafter “AIM”) which would mandate a phaseout of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants, ostensibly to reduce the climate change (“radiative”) impacts of HFC leakage into the atmosphere. This would engender in…
February 19, 2020
The FERC Minimum Price Order and Federalism
In the Beltway, no inefficient policy deed goes unrewarded. That is an eternal truth illustrated well by the expansion of federal powers—at the expense of state and local authority—attendant upon efforts to ameliorate the adverse effects of prior policies to favor one set of energy technologies over others. The latest example of this dynamic is a recent order from…
January 21, 2020
Camels and Livestock and Methane, Oh My
As night follows day, my recent post on the near-zero climate effect of the methane emitted by feral camels in Australia elicited a torrent of criticism from all the usual suspects, in full stampede to be the first and most vociferous in terms of condemnations of yours truly. A denier. A tool of the fossil-fuel industry. A…
December 20, 2019
ExxonMobil and the Politicization of Law Enforcement in New York
The New York Supreme Court announced its landmark decision earlier this month in the first climate change-related securities lawsuit—“People of the State of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corporation”—to be tried to a verdict in the U.S. On December 10, Justice Barry Ostrager ruled that the New York Attorney General had failed, even under a…
November 12, 2019
Point: Trump Is Absolutely Correct to Withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement
One number is needed to illustrate the absurdity that is the Paris climate agreement: 0.17 degree Celsius. That is the temperature reduction in 2100 attendant upon the Paris greenhouse gas emissions reduction, which is the simple sum of the promises (“Nationally Determined Contributions”) made by the participating countries. The U.S. contribution to that “achievement”: 0.015…
November 1, 2019
Is the IPCC Embarrassed or Phobic About Sustainable Development Goal 13?
I wrote recently about the new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released as a “Summary for Policymakers” of “Global Warming of 1.5°C,” a deeply politicized document that makes the following central arguments: I discussed all the reasons why this new report is not to be taken seriously, but I confess that I made a…
October 12, 2019
The Trouble with ‘renewable’ Energy
“Renewable” electricity — predominantly wind and solar power — is all the rage, described by numerous commentators, politicians, pundits, journalists, and other such “experts” as cost-competitive, clean, and a major part of the solution to the “existential crisis” now purportedly looming large as an attendant effect of anthropogenic climate change. A massive expansion of wind…