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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…
December 3, 2019
Another Round of Energy Pork
Christmas is upon us, and the elves are busy in the North Pole suburb of Capitol Hill. The House has produced a draft piece of “green energy” legislation that would yield massive costs, massive economic distortions and massive environmental damage. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, justifies his “Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now (GREEN) Act,” as…
November 13, 2019
The Long and Winding Saudi Aramco Initial Public Offering Road
The initial public offering (IPO) for up to 5 percent of the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) has been delayed several times recently, ostensibly due to a seeming difference of opinion about the value of Aramco between the House of Saud ($2 trillion) and the larger investment market (substantially less than that). The IPO will…
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 11, 2019
Massachusetts’ Lawsuit Against ExxonMobil Brings New Meaning to Silly
Attorneys General are supposed to enforce the rule of law. They are not supposed to use lawsuits to achieve policy outcomes not enacted by the legislature. They are not supposed to pick targets that are politically unpopular and then try to find some hammer with which to attack them. They are not supposed to transform…
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…
October 10, 2019
Has Irwin Stelzer Asked the Right Question on Climate Change?
My friend and former colleague Irwin M. Stelzer has written a short but interesting essay on climate policy, arguing that by asking the right question we will be oriented toward a useful set of policy prescriptions given the substantial uncertainties about the underlying facts and projections of anthropogenic warming. His arguments, which reflect closely those he articulated…
July 18, 2019
Using the Money of Investors to Promote the Theory of Man-made Warming
The House Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Committee on Financial Services, held a hearing earlier this month on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure rules and possible legislation requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to mandate ESG standards for all publicly-traded firms. This would include a requirement that companies disclose in their annual reports the financial and business…
July 8, 2019
The Confusions of the ‘conservative’ Carbon Tax
Various news reports and self-serving political pronouncements would have us believe that imposition of a tax on “carbon” — emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) — now enjoys growing support among Republican policymakers and conservative observers, a political premise advertised at a decibel level vastly higher than actual political reality would support. That reality is straightforward:…