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May 18, 2017
Exxon Lied, People Died — or Something
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, public-sector spending interests, public officials, and others is attempting to induce him to investigate the fossil-fuel industry in general and Exxon in particular. The argument is…
May 16, 2017
Don’t Subsidize Rooftop Solar Customers
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 of the recent criticisms of the proposal by El Paso Electric to impose a “demand charge” on customers with rooftop solar systems. Well, no and…
May 3, 2017
How Much Is Saudi Aramco Worth?
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 through government investments in some group of industries yet to be specified. It is no secret or surprise that government officials generally, and those surrounded…
April 21, 2017
Earth Day and the Divestment Campaign Against Humanity
Is it confusion? Or is it malevolence? “It” is the driving force underlying the loud clamor for divestment from fossil fuel assets, a political pressure campaign that is growing in sound and fury—and international jet-setting—even as actual government actions to reduce the production and use of fossil fuels are proving futile. @vinnikava via Twenty20 The answer: It is both, so that divestment will be a central theme of…
April 11, 2017
Sticky Tar of Climate Politics Oozes over Oil Reserve Valuations
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 and accusations of “fraud.” With the deregulatory decisions of the Trump administration, in particular in the context of a severe prospective reduction in federal efforts…
April 5, 2017
No Compromise Is Perfect: Time to Accept Puerto Rico Debt Agreement
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 class, especially when voters prefer to see “wins” on their behalf as distinct from nuanced solutions to difficult problems. Related Content: Puerto Rico Needs Compromise, Not…
March 27, 2017
Real Reform for Indiana Power Consumers: SB 309
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 economic growth, employment, and consumer wellbeing generally and in the electricity market in particular. Indiana Senate Bill 309 would reform the net-metering system of subsidizing…
March 13, 2017
Does It Really Matter If Exxon Mobil Changes Its Reported Oil Reserves?
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 to all of them as they burn the midnight oil. And that is before the reports are submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)…
February 9, 2017
The Achilles’ Heel of the Obama Climate Regulations
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 administrative law can be undone only with newer regulations adopted through that same mechanism. Moreover, efforts to reform or to reverse a regulatory apparatus as…
January 27, 2017
The Environmental Left and Keystone XL
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 executive order resurrecting the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and beginning the process of reversing the abject obstructionism of the Obama administration toward infrastructure investment for the production and transport…