Ending industrial wind subsidies is a quadruple win: it fosters real jobs, promotes economic growth, protects endangered species, and elevates environmental values over image-making.
The public is coming to this view, not only energy realists. In the face of repeated efforts to extend (seemingly perpetual) wind energy subsidies by industry lobbyists, taxpayers and grass root environmentalists have said: ENOUGH.
Informed and inspired by a loose but growing national coalition of groups opposed to more giveaways with no scientifically proven net benefits, thousands of citizens called their senators and representatives – and rounded up enough Nay votes to run four different bills aground. For once, democracy worked.
A shocked American Wind Energy Association and its allies began even more aggressive recruiting of well-connected Democrat and Republican political operatives and cosponsors – and introducing more proposals like HR 3307 to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC).…
Continue ReadingAs part of its effort to create dialogue with the American people on environmental issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched a project in conjunction with SMITH Magazine, Six Words for the Planet.
The project, officially housed at this site, invites all citizens of the world to submit a six-word essay describing their feelings about Earth.
“Healthier families, cleaner communities, stronger America,” writes EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in her own offering. Other submissions from within EPA include the existential (“Many Nations. One Planet. Our Home.”) and haikuesque admonishment (“Breathe; A Moment in Nature. Breathe!”)
Catalyzing conversation about environmental topics is certainly not out of bounds like a lot of other things the agency has been doing–and caught doing. But most people have concerns that go beyond the (improving) environment.…
Continue ReadingThe Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) were crucial in my intellectual development. Back in the 1970s, when I attended my first FEE and IHS seminars, there were few such gatherings on the political economy of liberty. For some of us students, the timing was just about right for receiving during the summer what we missing at our colleges and universities.
So it was with interest that I read about Cato University 2012. The July 29–August 3 seminar is a great opportunity for students of liberty. The redone, spacious Cato Institute at 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, will be the venue for the first time in many years.
“In a time of political turbulence, a presidential election, ideological posturing, and so much more,” the announcement reads, “our nation’s capital is the perfect setting for examining the roots of our commitment to liberty and limited government and for exploring the ideas and values on which the American republic was founded.”…
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