The Bipartisan Policy Center recently hosted an event discussing the geopolitical impacts of the US’s recent tight oil boom. Tight oil, or shale oil, production has increased with the expansion of hydraulic fracturing technology used to access shale gas from shale or sandstone formations. Amidst the rallying cries of a “qualified abundance” instead of a … Continue reading
1. OIRA is not interesting. If you’re reading this, congratulations on being among the few Americans who care about the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Even most of the members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs demonstrated their lack of interest by failing to attend the hearing. OIRA is the … Continue reading
The federal government employs people of many different professional backgrounds, but among them you will not find fortunetellers. Yet scientists, analysts, and lawyers could sometimes use an assist from seers in completing the work they are asked to do. Conducting cost-benefit analyses of agencies’ proposed regulations necessitates predicting their impact on the economy, an unfathomably … Continue reading
I’m sure all of you are familiar with the internet – if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be reading this. There are 2.3 billion internet users around the world. The majority of these users are concentrated in the developed world, but many also reside in newly industrialized countries like China, India, and Brazil. As the number … Continue reading
In a previous post, I wrote about the challenges of balancing economic and environmental interests when crafting regulatory policy. I argued that while regulations often incur significant economic costs, more regulation doesn’t necessarily translate into greater environmental benefits. This issue came up at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday about state and federal approaches … Continue reading
While politics and partisanship are the primary forces driving the discord in Washington today, it is power that will ultimately determine the outcome of such conflict. In our government, power is shared between branches, which in times of divided government like the present, essentially means shared between parties. With each side empowered to block the … Continue reading
The environment is one of those things like education or jobs. No one says they are against job creation. No one claims to be anti-education. Nobody (despite what environmentalists may tell you) wants to destroy the environment, or eradicate the habitat of this or that endangered species. These things happen, of course. Jobs are lost, … Continue reading
Government agencies like FEMA are rarely the object of public attention, but when a crisis comes, their actions and decisions have important implications for citizens’ welfare. For government agencies to deliver effectively when the bright light of the national media is shining upon them, they must conduct careful planning when not under public scrutiny. The … Continue reading
Perhaps only the Marines are able to make holding an umbrella over another person look powerful and executed with precision. As these marines stood stoic, Mother Nature reminded her critics on Thursday that she too has a flair for the poetic when rain began to fall on President Obama’s joint press conference with the Turkish … Continue reading
The Bureau of Land Management has released a new proposal for rules governing the use of hydraulic fracturing on federal land. This proposal contains revisions from last year’s proposal that better balance environmental and business interests over the controversial drilling technique. Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ has been used in conventional, vertical wells since at least … Continue reading
Policy Interns 
You must be logged in to post a comment.