A new study by NERA Economic Consulting, prepared for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), documents the economic dangers of a federal carbon tax. The study is very conservative in its assumptions (as I’ll explain below), giving the benefit of the doubt to the proponents of a carbon tax. Even so, there study reaches two [...]
New NERA Study Shows Economic Dangers of a Carbon Tax
February 28, 2013 | Bus Tour, Emissions Standards, Facts, Greenhouse Gases, News, Threats
Regulating “Particulate Matter”: The EPA Doesn’t Even Believe Its Own Bogus Numbers
People who have watched environmental policy debates soon learn that the alarmist interventionists—the ones claiming that the government needs to act quickly in order to prevent catastrophe—are not afraid to throw around terrifying statistics that are absurd on their face. In a different forum, I walked through this phenomenon when it came to proposed regulations [...]
January 25, 2013 | Emissions Standards, Facts, Maximum Achievable Control Technology Standards, News
Energy Development a Parachute for Fiscal Cliff
A recent article at Free Enterprise outlined U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue’s suggestion for easing the problem of solving the so-called fiscal cliff: development of U.S. conventional energy resources. This would boost employment and output, lower energy prices for consumers, and bring in more revenue for various levels of government. If policymakers are serious as [...]
December 31, 2012 | Bus Tour, Greenhouse Gases, News
Dubious Arguments in Tier 3 Study
The EPA is planning to tighten its gasoline regulations from Tier 2 to Tier 3 standards, which would reduce permissible sulfur content from the current 30 parts per million (ppm) down to 10 ppm. (I have written a full overview of the economic issues surrounding Tier 2 and Tier 3 in this earlier IER [...]
December 5, 2012 | Bus Tour, News, Threats, Tier 3 Standards
Cass Sunstein’s Garbage In, Garbage Out on Cost/Benefit Analysis
In a recent NYT op ed, Harvard Law professor and former Obama official Cass Sunstein cited Ronald Reagan, of all figures, as inspiration for more federal regulation on the transportation and energy sectors. Sunstein’s angle was to say that Reagan endorsed the cost/benefit analysis arguing for the US agreement to fight the “ozone hole,” [...]
December 4, 2012 | Bus Tour, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Emissions Standards, Greenhouse Gases, News
Intentionally increasing gasoline prices only makes sense to New York attorneys
Earlier this week, the Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI)at the New York University School of Law announced they were threatening EPA with a lawsuit to increase the price of gasoline and diesel through a cap-and-trade system. They claim they want to increase the price of transportation fuel to “address climate change,” but they omit the [...]
November 29, 2012 | Emissions Standards, Greenhouse Gases
AEA Responds to EPA Rejection of Renewable Fuel Standards Waiver
WASHINGTON D.C. — The American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle responded today to the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency to deny a waiver request by seven state governors seeking relief from the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. “President Obama famously promised Vladimir Putin more flexibility after his re-election, but he’s offered no such flexibility to [...]
November 16, 2012 | News, Renewable Fuel Standard
Hurricane Sandy and Gas Lines: Regulations Lead to More Problems
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, government officials in New Jersey and New York interfered with the energy sector and made a bad situation much worse. By threatening to crack down on “price gouging,” the authorities crippled the ability of the market to respond to the emergency shortage of gasoline. Now, faced with the [...]
More Scare Tactics on Climate Regulations
Bjorn Lomborg has a great article in Foreign Policy walking through the problems with a major new study warning of the need for government action on climate change in order to avoid millions (!) of deaths. Lomborg’s critique shows how the climate change debate, especially as it’s reported in the major media, is full [...]
McDermott’s Carbon Tax Bill Is Worst of All Possible Worlds
An August analysis from Capital Alpha explores Rep. Jim McDermott’s carbon tax bill introduced late in the summer. The proposal calls for an initial $25 per ton tax on carbon, which quickly escalates to a capped fine of $525 (!) per ton by the year 2024. The Capital Alpha report is fairly evenhanded and speaks [...]
October 24, 2012 | Greenhouse Gases, News
