In 2006, Ilya Somin and I co-authored “The Green Costs of Kelo: Economic Development Takings and Environmental Protection,” in which we argued that allowing the use of eminent domain for economic development was bad for environmental conservation. Environmentalist advocates responded with disbelief. The Community Rights Counsel (the precursor to the Constitutional Accountability Center) went so far as toContinue reading “The Green Costs of Kelo Revisited”
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Climate Change in the D.C. Circuit
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will begin two days of oral arguments in a set of challenges to the EPA’s various rules applying the Clean Air Act to greenhouse gas regulations. These rules are the inevitable outgrowth of the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, as I explain here and here. For thisContinue reading “Climate Change in the D.C. Circuit”
Trade a Tortoise
Two years ago in PERC Reports Todd Gartner wrote about his efforts at “helping the American Forest Foundation develop a market-based habitat credit trading system in portions of Georgia and Alabama. The incentive-based framework will complement other efforts in the region to keep the eastern population of the gopher tortoise off the Endangered Species list.”Continue reading “Trade a Tortoise”
Pipeline Dreams
The Center for Biological Diversity announced that they, together with some 40-plus other organizations, were able to rally 793,000 signatories for a petition against the Keystone XL pipeline. The proposal is building a pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast where it can be refined and distributed in the United States and abroad. WhatContinue reading “Pipeline Dreams”
Q&A with Enviropreneur Kelly Sands Siragusa on Conservation Banking
Kelly Sands Siragusa is the Conservation/Mitigation Manager for Corblu Ecology, LLC, a private firm in Atlanta, Georgia, that specializes in ecosystem restoration and mitigation banking. Siragusa came to PERC’s Enviropreneur Institute (PEI) in 2011 to focus on emerging market-based approaches for nutrient reductions and water quality improvements for Total Maximum Daily Load implementation. She soonContinue reading “Q&A with Enviropreneur Kelly Sands Siragusa on Conservation Banking”
In Praise of ‘Enviropreneurs’
Endangered African wildlife are conserved on Texas ranches that have switched from money-losing livestock to profitable rare and endangered species.
The 10,000 Mile Diet
Publishers Weekly recommends The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet, co-authored by former PERC fellows Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu, as a book to watch for in 2012. Check out Shimizu’s piece in PERC Reports where she outlines three myths about eating local. Myth 1: Eating locally produced food reduces our environmental impact.Continue reading “The 10,000 Mile Diet”
Recycling: Is it the right thing to do?
Recycling, “it’s the right thing to do,” right? We hear that line in Montana a lot. And the people that use it gain the moral high ground against skeptics, like me. I have been accused of being an anti-environmentalist as a result. Environmentalist or not, I do believe in conservation. And recycling more to meet anContinue reading “Recycling: Is it the right thing to do?”
The Locavor’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet
How eliminating agriculture subsidies and opening up international trade, not reducing food miles, is the real route to sustainability; and why eating globally, not only locally, is the way to save the planet.
Hunting Endangered Species
The scimitar horned oryx, the addax, the dama gazelle—endangered animals one would expect to encounter in Africa. Yet, as some Texas ranches are proving, helping to bring back large numbers of these endangered species can be a profitable pastime. As this 60 Minutes segment shows, by allowing a number of these animals to be hunted forContinue reading “Hunting Endangered Species”