Hard times indeed are hard, and that adjective is wholly inadequate to describe the double whammy now afflicting U.S. crude-oil producers: declining demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the…
By Benjamin Zycher | March 30, 2020
President Donald Trump announced a few days ago that the US Department of Energy (DoE) will purchase “large quantities of crude oil” to be stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), created under authority…
By Benjamin Zycher | March 23, 2020
In the Beltway, no inefficient policy deed goes unrewarded. That is an eternal truth illustrated well by the expansion of federal powers—at the expense of state and local authority—attendant upon…
By Benjamin Zycher | February 19, 2020
The Trump administration proposed earlier this month a reform of the implementing regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law enacted 50 years ago. The implementing regulations last were updated…
By Benjamin Zycher | January 29, 2020
As night follows day, my recent post on the near-zero climate effect of the methane emitted by feral camels in Australia elicited a torrent of criticism from all the usual suspects, in…
By Benjamin Zycher | January 21, 2020
The New York Supreme Court announced its landmark decision earlier this month in the first climate change-related securities lawsuit—“People of the State of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corporation”—to be…
By Benjamin Zycher | December 20, 2019
Christmas is upon us, and the elves are busy in the North Pole suburb of Capitol Hill. The House has produced a draft piece of “green energy” legislation that would…
By Benjamin Zycher | December 3, 2019
The initial public offering (IPO) for up to 5 percent of the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) has been delayed several times recently, ostensibly due to a seeming difference of…
By Benjamin Zycher | November 13, 2019
One number is needed to illustrate the absurdity that is the Paris climate agreement: 0.17 degree Celsius. That is the temperature reduction in 2100 attendant upon the Paris greenhouse gas…
By Benjamin Zycher | November 12, 2019
Attorneys General are supposed to enforce the rule of law. They are not supposed to use lawsuits to achieve policy outcomes not enacted by the legislature. They are not supposed…
By Benjamin Zycher | November 11, 2019
I wrote recently about the new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released as a “Summary for Policymakers” of “Global Warming of 1.5°C,” a deeply politicized document that makes the…
By Benjamin Zycher | November 1, 2019
“Renewable” electricity — predominantly wind and solar power — is all the rage, described by numerous commentators, politicians, pundits, journalists, and other such “experts” as cost-competitive, clean, and a major…
By Benjamin Zycher | October 12, 2019
My friend and former colleague Irwin M. Stelzer has written a short but interesting essay on climate policy, arguing that by asking the right question we will be oriented toward a useful…
By Benjamin Zycher | October 10, 2019
The House Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Committee on Financial Services, held a hearing earlier this month on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure rules and possible legislation requiring the Securities and Exchange…
By Benjamin Zycher | July 18, 2019
Various news reports and self-serving political pronouncements would have us believe that imposition of a tax on “carbon” — emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) — now enjoys growing support among…
By Benjamin Zycher | July 8, 2019