Last December, Texas governor Rick Perry, speaking at a Houston fundraiser, sadly noted how President George W. Bush had lost his way in Washington, D.C. His good friend had compromised his principles and left the nation in a lurch, however unintentionally.
But then the governor launched into his Texas-is-great stump speech that included kudos to windpower, a new large industry (no) thanks to a legislative mandate requiring that Texas electricity retailers purchase qualifying renewable energy. (Wind is the most economical of the qualifiers.) The 1999 mandate, enacted with the crucial help of Enron lobbyists, was increased in 2002 with a powerful wind lobby at work. And so at the point of a gun, Texas became the leading windpower state in the country, passing California along the way.
So it was not surprising that last Saturday night Gov.…
Continue ReadingAs mentioned in a post yesterday, Cato just published a rather encylopedic Cato Handbook for Policymakers. Text is due from contributing authors around August, and the tome is published in January to coincide with the arrival of a new Congress (or, when we’re on a four year cycle, at the beginning of the new presidential term). It’s a nice set of policy discussions and a handy one-stop-shop for what we think Congress ought to do on a number of policy fronts.
My energy chapter, submitted in August, coincided with the peak of the hysteria about oil and gas prices, foreign oil dependence, offshore oil development (“Drill Baby Drill!”), and rampaging congressional search & destroy operations to root out the speculators theoretically at the root of the price spiral. Hence, my essay was about why oil prices were going up and what Congress could do about it. …
Continue ReadingI have in front of me the recent Cato Handbook for Policymakers (2008). The Cato Institute advertises it as follows:
Now in its seventh edition, the Cato Handbook for Policymakers sets the standard in Washington for real cuts in federal spending, taxes, and power. It offers an issue-by-issue detailed blueprint for reducing the federal government to the limits intended by the Founding Fathers. Providing both in-depth analysis and concrete recommendations, Cato’s Handbook is an invaluable resource for policymakers and anyone else interested in securing liberty through limited government.
Energy. Chapter 43, “Energy Policy,” prepared by Cato senior fellows Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, has the following summary:…
Continue Reading