Two Cautions on the Trump Energy/Environment Executive Orders
Article
AEIdeas

Two Cautions on the Trump Energy/Environment Executive Orders

The Trump “Day One” executive orders on energy and environment policies are worthy of applause because they implement a shift toward market forces in place of central planning as the dominant institution…

Liability Elasticity and Other Policy Concerns Underlying Social Media Addiction Lawsuits
Article
AEIdeas

Liability Elasticity and Other Policy Concerns Underlying Social Media Addiction Lawsuits

Lurking beneath today’s raft of social media addiction lawsuits blaming platforms for harming minors are three broad public policy concerns. These frets could easily affect corporate liability in areas beyond online media.…

A Flammable Landscape
Article
The Dispatch

A Flammable Landscape

Los Angeles continues to burn.  As of this writing, the Palisades Fire is spread over 23,713 acres and is 22 percent contained. This means that 22 percent of the fire’s perimeter has…

California’s Insurance Crisis
Article
The Honest Broker

California’s Insurance Crisis

Dave Jones, California’s insurance commissioner from 2011 to 2018, explained California’s growing insurance crisis in 2023: Due to the failure to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. and globally, we…

Demystifying Social Media Addiction Litigation
Article
AEIdeas

Demystifying Social Media Addiction Litigation

The old sales pitch hollered by baseball game vendors was “you can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” Something similar rings true today about not only knowing the litigants but…

Climate Science Whiplash
Article
The Honest Broker

Climate Science Whiplash

Did you know that climate change is making the San Francisco region more foggy? The Bay Area just had its foggiest May in 50 years. And thanks to global warming, it’s…

The Hardware and Software of AI
Article
The Dispatch

The Hardware and Software of AI

Friends, it is great to talk with you again. I hope you had a restful break. In the two weeks since we last chatted, I spent some time organizing my…

EPA Should Reject California’s Locomotive Electrification Regulation
Article
RealClearMarkets

EPA Should Reject California’s Locomotive Electrification Regulation

The California Air Resources Board last November requested from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a waiver under section 209(e) of the Clean Air Act for implementation of its “In-Use Locomotive Regulation,” an…

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms I
Article
Knowledge Problem

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms I

2025 is already shaping up to be a year of change for many reasons related to the economics and technology of energy. Between the uncertainty arising from a political change…

Meta’s Content Moderation Turnabout
Article
The Honest Broker

Meta’s Content Moderation Turnabout

Today, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced that it would immediately stop using “fact checkers” to police the content on its platforms, which also include Instagram and Threads. Meta explained:…

The Interests of the U.S. and the Honolulu Climate Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court
Article
RealClearEnergy

The Interests of the U.S. and the Honolulu Climate Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court

The Office of the Solicitor General — part of the Department of Justice —was created by the Statutory Authorization Act of June 22, 1870. The Act states that there shall be an…

DOGE Needs to Dig Deeper Than Its Leaders Understand
Article
The Dispatch

DOGE Needs to Dig Deeper Than Its Leaders Understand

An undergraduate class on Congress and legislation was one of the lowlights of my academic career. In my work for the class, I would often get wrapped up in critiquing…

Article
The Honest Broker

Fixing Universities

In my courses on policy analysis I teach my students to focus on problem definition before even thinking about policy options. The problem facing major American research universities, as characterized…

Economics of Grid Defection II
Article
Knowledge Problem

Economics of Grid Defection II

Last week I wrote about the grid defection discussion circa 2014, motivated by Elisa Wood’s webinar with Seyyed Ali Sadat and Joshua Pearce of Western Ontario University on their new paper in…

How to Get Rid of a Tenured Professor
Article
The Honest Broker

How to Get Rid of a Tenured Professor

I am the answer to a trivia question. Who is the only person to appear in the leaked 2009 Climategate emails and in the 2016 Hillary Clinton Wikileaks emails? That’d…