The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is in the process of finalizing its proposed “climate risk” disclosure rule for public companies. But the SEC has a huge amount of work to do,…
By Benjamin Zycher | July 19, 2022
Early in his presidency, Joe Biden promised to be a leader on science policy with proposals for new advanced research projects agencies centering on biomedical and climate research. And now,…
By James Pethokoukis | M. Anthony Mills | June 30, 2022
The “Do Something!” imperative so common in the Beltway as a response to the headlines of the day yields economic or policy improvement only rarely if at all. This cannot be…
By Benjamin Zycher | June 30, 2022
The Supreme Court just decided “the most closely watched environmental case in decades,” West Virginia v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the 6-3 opinion, the Court holds that the Environmental Protection…
By James W. Coleman | June 30, 2022
When America endeavors to tackle an ambitious project, we speak in terms of moonshots or a “Manhattan Project for X.” The assumption is that vast government resources, directed toward some…
By James Pethokoukis | M. Anthony Mills | June 23, 2022
“Look at my eyes. I guarantee you: we’re going to end fossil fuels.” That was President Biden’s dramatic 2020 campaign promise. On his first day as president he began to…
By James W. Coleman | June 21, 2022
President Biden will attend the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Saudi Arabia next month, with the explicit goal of convincing the GCC — that is, the Saudis — to increase production of crude oil…
By Benjamin Zycher | June 21, 2022
Proposals for “carbon pricing” and a border-adjustment tax on imports and credits on exports — the central ancillary policy needed to preserve the competitiveness of U.S. companies given the implementation of…
By Benjamin Zycher | June 16, 2022
Beltway nostrums are a dime a dozen, and the climate problem threat emergency crisis existential threat is tailor-made to elicit hundreds of them. An old one now receiving increasing attention is carbon capture and sequestration…
By Benjamin Zycher | June 9, 2022
American consumers are still suffering from record gasoline prices as the summer driving season kicks off. President Biden recently proclaimed that these prices were driving an “incredible transition” that will…
By James W. Coleman | June 8, 2022
The Biden administration last week canceled a large oil and gas lease sale — over 1 million acres — in the Alaska Cook Inlet as well as two sales in the Gulf of…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 16, 2022
Let us review the plain language of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (§1344(a)): “The Secretary [of the Interior] shall prepare and periodically revise, and maintain an oil and gas leasing program,” defined by the Congressional Research…
By Benjamin Zycher | May 3, 2022
The Biden administration announced late last week that it would resume leasing of federal lands for fossil fuel exploration and production, but at a scale (144,000 acres) about 80 percent smaller than…
By Benjamin Zycher | April 25, 2022
It is Earth Day 2022 — always falling on Lenin’s birthday, amusingly enough — the official theme of which this year is Invest In Our Planet™. As with every previous Earth Day,…
By Benjamin Zycher | April 22, 2022
Instead of taking steps to boost U.S. oil and gas production amid skyrocketing prices and the war in Ukraine, President Biden is standing by his green-energy goals and blaming fossil-fuel…
By James W. Coleman | April 14, 2022