January 29, 2024
Letter to the Editor: Stuck With Biden, I’m Still a Never Trumper
Mr. Verret argues that Never Trumpers should vote for Mr. Trump because Mr. Trump “is the only alternative to” Mr. Biden’s leftist policies. Most of Mr. Biden’s policies have been pursued through administrative fiat, and thus can be reversed. So Mr. Verret is answering the wrong question. The correct one: What are the medium-term implications…
January 25, 2024
The Looming Biden Climate Test for Natural-Gas Exports
Should you doubt the magnitude of the Biden administration’s ideological crusade against fossil fuels, merely consider the recent reports that the Department of Energy is considering the addition of a “climate test” criterion for approval of export facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG). This would be in addition to the politicized “public interest” analysis to which such proposals have been…
January 17, 2024
Why I Left Harvard
Since early December, the end of my 20-year career teaching at Harvard has been the subject of articles, op-eds, tweets from a billionaire, and even a congressional hearing. I have become a poster child for how the growing campus DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—bureaucracies strangle free speech. My ordeal has been used to illustrate the hypocrisy of the assertions by Harvard’s leaders…
January 17, 2024
Pay Attention, America: Edmund Burke and the Folly of British Climate “Leadership”
“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” This timeless wisdom was articulated by Edmund Burke, a famous philosopher, member of the House of Commons for many years in the mid- and late 18th century, and often described as a “father of conservatism.” British energy policies since 2008 — the year that Parliament…
November 6, 2023
Why the CDC Failed Its Covid-19 Test
The Covid-19 pandemic was a disaster. Over a million Americans died—many in isolation in hospitals and nursing homes, far from their friends and family—and millions more became seriously sick, lost their jobs, or felt the effects of widespread economic and social disruption. Students suffered irreversible learning losses, with many exiting the public-school system altogether. Patients delayed or…
October 23, 2023
A Carbon Tax to Finance Child Tax Credit Expansion
A carbon tax is considered by most economists to be the most efficient and effective way to reduce carbon emissions. However, a long-standing political challenge to a carbon tax is the perception that it would disproportionately burden low- and middle-income households relative to high-income households. Many analysts and lawmakers have proposed using carbon tax revenues…
October 4, 2023
Why So Many Americans Are Losing Trust in Science
Dr. Mandy Cohen has been on a national tour. The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she aims to rebuild trust in that troubled agency at a moment when Covid-19 cases are rising again and the Biden administration has begun a new vaccine campaign. She has her work cut out for her. According…
September 30, 2022
Here’s How to Improve Manchin’s Permitting Proposal — to Help More Energy Projects
While Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has withdrawn his own permitting bill, it is expected to surface again as Congress turns to permitting reforms to make it easier to build the necessary infrastructure for the energy systems of the future — especially after authorizing $370 billion in funding for new, cleaner-energy sources. All the money in the world will not help…
September 26, 2022
Biden’s Rule-Breaking Integrity Official
A Biden administration official whose job is to ensure the “integrity” of government science has an integrity problem of her own. Last month the National Academy of Sciences suspended environmental scientist Jane Lubchenco for violating basic principles of research integrity. Despite this disciplinary action from one of the most prestigious science organizations in the world—and her own…
August 11, 2022
Enthusiasm for the CHIPS and Science Act Is Overblown
Will the CHIPS and Science Act be an inflection point for the U.S. scientific enterprise? The often overlooked “science” portion of the new bill is the culmination of one of the core legislative priorities of Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Todd Young (R-IN): the Endless Frontier Act (EFA)—an attempt to jumpstart American science and innovation…