Comment to the Environmental Protection Agency: Proposed Rule on “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Year 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” Summary The benefit/cost analysis published by the Environmental Protection Agency in its proposed rule “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Year 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” is fatally flawed; accordingly, the proposed rule should not be finalized. EPA claims that the fuel savings … [Read more...]
Proposals For a Windfall Profits Tax Are Damaging Even If Never Enacted
In the wake of the midterm election results, President Biden has made it clear that “I’m not going to change,” in particular with respect to his view that “the oil companies are really doing the nation a real disservice.” Image: Creative Commons under Unsplash Accordingly, it is easy to predict a continuation of the incoherence of the Biden stance toward conventional energy: a policy environment reducing investment in future discovery, production, and ancillary capital … [Read more...]
Joe Biden’s Ad Hoc Use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Notwithstanding vociferous criticism of the politicized use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by the Biden administration, such drawdowns have been employed for decades by Democratic and Republican administrations alike as an ad hoc and futile response to short-run increases in fuel prices. Unlike the case for all previous administrations, which viewed the domestic production of fossil fuels as a positive or at least … [Read more...]
The Curbelo Carbon Tax as Wealth Redistribution
No matter how you look at it, the Florida Republican’s new proposal is bad policy. Environmental policy as a tool of wealth redistribution is nothing new. The latest example is a proposal for a greenhouse-gas (GHG) tax just introduced by Representative Carlos Curbelo (R., Fla.). Curbelo’s tax would start at $24 per metric ton of GHG emissions, growing 2 percent per year above inflation and an additional $2 per ton every two years if emission-reduction goals are not met. Those goals rise … [Read more...]
