The Biden administration is ignoring the problem of waste and pollution in its pursuit of renewable energy, writes the Institute of Energy Research (IER). “Electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines result in a massive amount of waste and pollution. China is responsible for half of the total electric vehicles in the world—a number…
Search Results for: pollution
Prosperity Improves the Environment (We Knew That but Many Don’t)
The 2020 Environmental Performance Index shows a close relationship between environmental success and a country’s GDP. This annual index, developed jointly by the Yale Center for Environmental Policy and Law and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University, ranks 180 countries. Writing on HumanProgress.org, Ethan Yang finds that wealth and environmental…
The New Trade in Non-Production (of Carbon)
The pressure to “do something” about global warming has created exotic new programs that emphasize reducing output. You might think of them as markets in non-production. I will explain them. Carbon offsets. Companies that produce or use fossil fuels are trying to reduce their “carbon footprint” but still continue their business. They are purchasing “offsets”—that…
API Endorses Carbon Pricing, But Biden Doesn’t
The American Petroleum Institute, the leading U. S. trade association for the oil and gas industry, has changed its position on carbon pricing. On March 25, it announced that it now supports “sensible legislation that prices carbon across all economic sectors while avoiding regulatory duplication.” The API’s statement of principles on carbon pricing set some…
Curbside Recycling Is Costly—So Make Producers Pay?
There’s a growing clamor for producers of plastic packaging to pay the costs of recycling their materials. On March 25, two Democratic congressmen from California and Oregon introduced a bill that would make such “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR) mandatory across the country, reports Waste Dive. That bill follows efforts within at least seven states to…
Laugh a Little: Climate Predictions and How They Panned Out
Paul Homewood of the Global Warming Policy Forum has put together recent predictions of climate change. A few: A Looming Ice Age. Numerous reports in the 1970s reflected concern that the Earth was heading towards a new ice age. These are nowadays often dismissed as mere newspaper gossip, but they were far more than that….