A Free-Market Energy Blog

Is the Carbon Tax Seance Over? (A reality check for a trumped-up ‘conservative’ cause)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 22, 2013

When asked if a carbon tax was preferable to EPA regulations on greenhouse gases, David Kreutzer, a research fellow with the Heritage Foundation who sat on yesterday’s panel, described the question as a trap.

It’s like asking me what’s the most humane way to execute innocent people …. When conservatives talk about a carbon tax, the headline says, “Conservative supports carbon tax,” So I’m not going to be drawn into this fantasy world where we speculate on what might happen when we know it won’t, when it gives people ammo to misrepresent what I said.

So no, a carbon tax is not preferable to EPA regulations.

Evan Lehmann, “Conservatives Attack Each Other Over Carbon Tax Plans,” ClimateWire, July 18, 2013.

“[Ken] Green delighted his mostly conservative audience by comparing a carbon tax to a vampire who must be staked, beheaded and sprinkled over water — ‘preferably holy water’.”

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Eagle Ford: Texas Shale Star (Resourceship in action: III)

By Fred Lawrence and Ron Planting -- July 19, 2013

“The Eagle Ford, still in an early stage of development, may end up being more complex than some of the earlier big resource plays such as the Barnett or Haynesville … Companies from around the world are interested in being part of the Eagle Ford success, a sign that this evolving transformation is global as well as awesome in scope.”

One of the most remarkable sources of gains in U.S. liquids and natural gas production in recent years has come from Texas’s Eagle Ford play, thanks to the application and ongoing refinement of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. These developments have helped put Texas and North Dakota at the top of the list of regions that have been contributing to the brightening U.S. energy picture.

Oil production in the Eagle Ford, in the southwestern portion of Texas, has gone from a minimal level in 2010 to over 300 thousand barrels per day so far this year, plus another roughly 70 thousand barrels per day of condensates.

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Locavorism vs. Resource Efficiency

By Pierre Desrochers -- July 18, 2013

“By concentrating the growing of crops in ever more suitable locations, hydrocarbon-powered long distance trade not only maximized output and drastically lowered prices, but also significantly reduced the environmental impact of agriculture.”

“Turning our back on the global food supply chain and, in the process, reducing the quantity of food produced in the most suitable locations will inevitably result in larger amounts of inferior land being put under cultivation, the outcome of which can only be less output and greater environmental damage.”

An article of faith among local food activists is that modern industrial agriculture damages the environmental more than decentralized food systems. The article of faith is that concentrated impacts are worse than multiple, smaller operations–negative environmental  scale economies, as it were.

This belief is erroneous, creating a gulf between (good) intentions and result.

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Offshore Alaska Drilling: Private Effort versus Regulatory Constraints

By Greg Rehmke -- July 17, 2013
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Global Warming is Responsible for ….

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 16, 2013
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AWED Newsletter: July 15, 2013

By -- July 15, 2013
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Other Arguments Against Environmental Commodification (Part IV)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 14, 2013
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Economists vs. Ecosystem Commodification (Part III)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 13, 2013
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Environmentalists Question Commodification (Part II)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 12, 2013
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Pricing (Nonmarket) Ecosystem Services: The Dream (Part I)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 11, 2013
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