On June 25, 2026, officials from Washington, California, and Québec signed an agreement to merge their cap-and-trade systems. Once linkage takes effect, which is expected in 2027, the shared carbon market will cover roughly 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions of two large U.S. states and one Canadian province. Continue reading
Executive Summary Switching from oil to renewable energy and electric vehicles does not get rid of resource dependency. It just changes what you depend on. Instead of relying on oil, countries end up relying on critical minerals such as lithium, rare earths, silver, polysilicon, and copper—and as China refines most of them, even minerals mined elsewhere often must go through China before they can be used. For … Continue reading
On September 19, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved a bill renewing California’s cap-and-trade program until 2045. This renewal comes despite hostility toward state-level clean energy programs from the Trump administration, notably President Trump’s executive order that specifically criticized California’s cap-and-trade program. Continue reading
Executive Summary President Trump signed an executive order (EO) on his first day back in office entitled “Unleashing American Energy,” which removes Biden-era barriers to federal land leasing for energy production as a method of expanding U.S. energy production. A significant change imposed by the order includes the Environmental Protection Agency’s mandated reassessment of a … Continue reading
Executive Summary The 2023: A historic year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters | NOAA Climate.gov indicates the increasingly detrimental costs of the growing occurrence of natural disasters as the total cost of U.S. billion-dollar disasters over the last 5 years (2019-2023) is $603.1 billion, with a 5-year annual cost average of $120.6 billion, … Continue reading
Executive Summary The United States is projected to fall short of the climate goals it set under the 2015 Paris Agreement, even with the burdensome provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Carbon pricing programs present a more cost-effective solution than subsidies and could reduce emissions by the required amount while generating revenue. Existing carbon pricing … Continue reading
Do you love coffee but also love red meat and dessert? If so, there’s good news and bad news. On Thursday, February 19, the Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee (DGAC) released a lengthy 571-page report of suggestions to the Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The report explained … Continue reading
The EPA recently held 11 sessions for public input on the agency’s new rules to restrict carbon emissions from existing power plants. While large coal interests and major labor unions were represented, the vast majority of attendees represented environmental advocacy groups (or themselves) and favored regulation. Some might suggest that this indicates broad support for … Continue reading
Shale gas discoveries has proliferated in the United States as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, a relatively new technology, has allowed an efficient way to extract shale gas, producing a cheaper and cleaner source of energy than coal. The shale gas boom happening in the United States which has resulted in an economy-boosting decrease in gas prices … 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
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