Mr. Trump yesterday announced that he would withdraw the U.S. from the international climate agreement reached in Paris in late 2015, but would seek to renegotiate it so as to achieve…
By Benjamin Zycher | June 2, 2017
There is a time to weep and a time to laugh. And the recent letter from ExxonMobil urging President Trump not to exit the Paris climate agreement provides a time for both, with a…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 30, 2017
My colleague Jim Pethokoukis deserves applause for his recent argument that the effects of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations are uncertain, notwithstanding the loud assertions of many, and that incremental policy interventions are vastly…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 25, 2017
Let us put aside initially any dispute about the science and evidence underlying the Paris COP-21 agreement to limit global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Let us ask instead what the agreement ostensibly…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 25, 2017
Thee heat is on, not because summer beckons, but instead because of a pressure campaign now being aimed at the new California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra. An alliance of environmentalists, plaintiff attorneys,…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 18, 2017
Is it “discriminatory” to trim the subsidies bestowed upon a given class of power consumers by everyone else? Would those customers be transformed into second-class citizens? That is the gist…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 16, 2017
Saudi Aramco has announced its intention to sell up to 5 percent of itself to investors as part of a larger plan by the House of Saud to diversify the Saudi economy…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 3, 2017
Environmentalist ideology and political ambition in combination make for a dangerous blend, and nowhere is that truth clearer than in the context of climate politics, the valuation of fossil-fuel reserves…
By Benjamin Zycher | April 11, 2017
Pain is painful, in particular for policymakers confronted with tough decisions and difficult compromises. And so kicking the can down the road is a time-honored fallback position for the political…
By Benjamin Zycher | April 5, 2017
Energy policies in the U.S. historically have been shaped by poor analytic arguments, resulting in an incoherent policy environment driving costs and prices upward. The adverse resulting effects have afflicted…
By Benjamin Zycher | March 27, 2017
The latest quarterly earnings reports season looms on the horizon, providing full employment for business reporters, accountants, attorneys, various species of number crunchers, prognosticators, kibitzers and pizza delivery firms catering…
By Benjamin Zycher | March 13, 2017
An existing executive order can be reversed with a new one — a stroke of the pen — but regulations promulgated through the formal public notice and comment processes of…
By Benjamin Zycher | February 9, 2017
Everything old is new again, the latest manifestation of which is the reaction of the environmental Left to the news that President Donald Trump has issued presidential memoranda and an…
By Benjamin Zycher | January 27, 2017
Life in the Beltway offers a range of amusements, the latest of which is the reaction of the environmental left to President-elect Donald Trump’s announced intention to nominate Oklahoma Attorney…
By Benjamin Zycher | December 14, 2016
President-elect Donald J. Trump said recently that there exists “some connectivity” between human activity and climate change, which may or may not reflect a shift in his view on that…
By Benjamin Zycher | December 6, 2016