Everything old is new again: The Biden administration reportedly will revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, opposed during the Obama years, favored during the Trump term, and now…
By Benjamin Zycher | January 18, 2021
The opposition to “discrimination” by political activists has not prevented them from applauding constrained access to capital by such politically unpopular businesses as producers of fossil fuels and firearms or operators…
By Benjamin Zycher | January 7, 2021
My name is Benjamin Zycher. I am a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. This letter responds to a request from the Office of the Comptroller…
By Benjamin Zycher | December 29, 2020
During the election campaign, President-elect Joe Biden pledged to end new oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands (including federal waters); that is, to ban on those lands the discovery and…
By Benjamin Zycher | December 15, 2020
Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate agreement on the first day of his administration, a promise unambiguous and therefore certain to be fulfilled, notwithstanding the essential absurdity of the Paris agreement narrowly and of climate policies more…
By Benjamin Zycher | November 19, 2020
I betray no secret when I note that Donald Trump is not a man of policy sophistication. It is obvious that he is uninterested even in details that are crucial;…
By Benjamin Zycher | October 28, 2020
In an age characterized by the politicization of virtually everything, it is unsurprising to see political pressures exerted upon the managers of investment funds established for the financial benefit of current…
By Benjamin Zycher | October 20, 2020
During the September 29 presidential debate, Democratic candidate Joe Biden asserted that he does not “support the Green New Deal.” It “is not my plan.” Instead, he supports “the Biden Plan,…
By Benjamin Zycher | October 15, 2020
This comment letter responds to a request from the Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, for comments on its proposed rule “Fiduciary Duties Regarding Proxy Voting and Shareholder…
| October 5, 2020
When proponents of a tax increase resort to the age-old argument that it is justified because those prospectively subject to it are paying less than their “fair share,” observers safely…
By Benjamin Zycher | September 16, 2020
Let the hysteria begin. The Trump administration has finalized a reform of the federal rules on emissions of methane, the major component of natural gas, from oil and gas production. The existing rules were implemented by the…
By Benjamin Zycher | August 18, 2020
The Trump administration proposed last month a reform of the regulations implementing the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, for decades a source of massive delay and cost increases for federal projects, yielding actual environmental harm because of…
By Benjamin Zycher | August 6, 2020
Opposition to infrastructure investment for the production and transport of conventional energy is de rigueur on the environmentalist left, a stance widely justified as an important bulwark for the protection of…
By Benjamin Zycher | August 6, 2020
In a recent New York Times review of Bjorn Lomborg’s new book, “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” (Basic Books,…
By Benjamin Zycher | August 4, 2020
This comment letter responds to a request from the Environmental Protection Agency for comments on its June 11 proposed rule “Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in…
By Benjamin Zycher | July 29, 2020