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Energy, Environment and the Land
45 posts, newest first (page 2 of 2).
A Thought Experiment on the Federal Kitchen Inspector Coming for Your StoveA labelled satire follows an invented kitchen office from gas stoves to toasters and candlelit dinners, to show where regulation by fear ends. Why the Endangered Species Act Punishes the Landowner Who Helps a BirdThe Endangered Species Act makes habitat a legal liability, so owners have a reason to clear it early. The record says the incentive is the problem. Seven States, One River and the 1922 Compact That Promised Too Much WaterThe 1922 Colorado River Compact divided water that was not there. Here is how it happened, what a century of lawsuits followed, and why markets beat allocation. A 94-Year-Old Lost Her Condo Over a Tax Debt and the Court Said EnoughIn Tyler v. Hennepin County a unanimous Supreme Court held that a county cannot keep a seized home's value beyond the tax debt, a plain property-rights win. From the 1973 Embargo to the 2022 Sale, a Strategic Petroleum Reserve TimelineThe Strategic Petroleum Reserve was built as insurance against a supply cutoff, and its record shows when drawing it down made sense and when it managed prices. How America Went From Importing Natural Gas to Shipping It WorldwideIn a decade America built import terminals and then turned them around to export, and those cargoes serve allies and displace coal and Russian gas. The Air Got Cleaner While the Economy Grew, and the Numbers Show HowSince 1970 emissions of the six common air pollutants fell sharply while the economy grew, which refutes the claim that prosperity and clean air are enemies. Hundreds of Millions Still Cook Over Wood, and That Is a Moral QuestionCheap, reliable power is the surest road out of poverty, so discouraging poor nations from building it carries a moral cost that climate politics rarely counts. After the 1953 Flood the Dutch Built Their Way to Safety, a Lesson in AdaptationThe Dutch answered the deadly 1953 flood with the Delta Works, and the story shows that wealth and engineering protect people from weather better than anything. Grant the Warming, Then Ask What Each Climate Policy Actually BuysConservatives can accept a century of measured warming and still reject costly climate policy, because the question is what each policy changes and who pays. The Wind Tax Credit Was Temporary in 1992 and Kept Coming Back for DecadesA per-kilowatt-hour credit meant to be short-lived was renewed again and again, and the arithmetic shows how it bends the power market it was meant to nudge. The Electric Car Mandate Is a Choice Washington Makes for Your DrivewayPhasing out new gasoline cars swaps millions of family choices for one government choice, and the case against it is about freedom and cost, not about the cars. Seven Things People Said About the Texas Blackout of 2021, TestedBoth sides told tidy stories about Winter Storm Uri. Seven claims tested against the federal record, and the lesson about paying for dependable power. Admiral Rickover's Navy Has Run Reactors at Sea for Seventy YearsHyman Rickover built naval nuclear propulsion, and its record at sea shows that reactor safety comes from culture, training and standards rather than luck. Count Deaths per Unit of Power and Nuclear Beats Nearly Everything ElsePer unit of electricity, nuclear has one of the lowest death rates of any source. The method, the arithmetic and the three famous accidents, in order. Four Pieces of Every Gallon and Why the President Controls the FewestA gallon of gas is crude, refining, distribution and taxes, and the biggest piece is set on a world market no President commands. Here is what policy can move. The Antiquities Act Says Smallest Area Compatible, So Read the Text AgainThe 1906 Antiquities Act limits a monument to the smallest area compatible with protecting its objects. Read the text beside monuments of millions of acres. Does the Commerce Clause Reach a Red Wolf That Never Leaves the CountyThe Endangered Species Act reaches animals that never cross a state line on a broad reading of the Commerce Clause. The court fights show why limits matter. Why Washington Owns Most of Nevada and What the Property Clause AllowsArticle IV's Property Clause lets Congress dispose of federal land, and the West calls it a trusteeship, not a permanent estate. The text and the cases. Madison Wrote That Government Exists to Protect Property of Every SortMadison's 1792 essay held that a man owns his opinions, conscience and labor as well as his land, and that only a government protecting all of it is just. Knick v. Scott Township Reopened the Federal Courthouse to LandownersFor 34 years a rule locked landowners out of federal court on takings claims. Knick ended it in 2019, 5 to 4, and the Fifth Amendment is stronger for it.
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