PERC’s Roger Meiners writes that calls for massive changes in all aspects of modern life from transportation to food production in
order to reduce carbon emissions are unrealistic. Repeated failures of such utopian experiments suggests extreme caution.
Author Archives: admin
Is No Use Good Use?
Last spring President Obama announced America’s Great Outdoors action plan, an initiative to plan for conservation and recreation in the 21st century. A dominant idea is that America’s conservation should come from America’s people and not be directed from Washington DC. Amen. One can only hope this will differ from the current public input track we’re on.Continue reading “Is No Use Good Use?”
Here’s what an energy transition looks like
What will our energy future look like? Unlike many of our political leaders, I claim no special insights, but I see some interesting trends. The first is reported by Roger Pielke, Jr. demonstrating the switch away from oil in electric power generation in the early 1980s by OECD countries. Beginning in the 1970s a sharp riseContinue reading “Here’s what an energy transition looks like”
How does water marketing work?
PERC enviropreneur alum Chris Corbin is featured at New West today for his water market consulting work with Lotic: The company takes an approach to water different from engineering or legal consultants, traditionally the ones involved in these types of conversations, Corbin said. Lotic’s role is to look at water as an asset, just as one mightContinue reading “How does water marketing work?”
Montana consultant helps clients enter the water market
In Montana, enviropreneurs like Chris Corbin are creating a water market by helping owners identify and vaule their water rights and sell them.
National Parks Dodge Shutdown But What About State Parks?
The threat of a federal government shutdown, which included closing national parks, alerted many to the funding woes of national parks. But state parks may be more vulnerable. As Stephanie Simon pointed out in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday: Lawmakers in states including California, Washington and North Carolina are weighing budgets that would stripContinue reading “National Parks Dodge Shutdown But What About State Parks?”
It’s Garbage: What’s the Problem?
Readers, writers, students, and teachers still confess to believing that there is a garbage problem. “We have too much garbage,” they claim. In a reply to a previous blog I was queried, “Shouldn’t we start training those who will inherit the waste problem?” What waste problem, I ask? The market generates landfill space as itContinue reading “It’s Garbage: What’s the Problem?”
U.S. can’t afford to scrap nuclear power
By Andrew P. Morriss TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Despite the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, eliminating the technology that provides 21 percent of the United States’ electricity and 14 percent of electricity worldwide would be dangerous and unrealistic. Our demand for electricity is largely met using coal, nuclear, large hydro, and naturalContinue reading “U.S. can’t afford to scrap nuclear power”
A Methane Market
An unintended consequence of landfilling garbage is the emission of greenhouse gases, yuck! A modern landfill, however, can capture nasty methane gas and turn it into electricity. Presently, about one-quarter of the municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills in the United States are capable of capturing methane gas and turning it into energy, making it availableContinue reading “A Methane Market”
What is it about national energy policy?
by Pete Geddes I’m convinced that I have discovered a new social law. It seems to have the validity of Newton’s. Here it is: national energy policy causes IQs and body temperatures to converge, with the most rapid convergence occurring in the political arena, especially in a presidential election year. The Hoover Institution’s Richard Epstein’sContinue reading “What is it about national energy policy?”