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Four Dams on the Snake River Make Clean Power, So Why Tear Them Down The push to breach four lower Snake River dams for salmon would remove carbon-free hydropower and grain barging, a contradiction in climate politics. Pipe, Rail or Truck, Comparing the Ways to Move a Barrel of Oil Safely Oil gets to market one way or another, and blocking pipelines pushes it onto trains and trucks with worse records for spills and deaths. Why Washington Owns Most of Nevada and What the Property Clause Allows Article 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 Sort Madison'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. Running Out of Oil Was Forecast for a Century, So Why Hasn't It Happened A century of exhaustion forecasts, from World War I to the peak-oil books, failed because reserves are an economic idea that grows with price and technology. Lipstick, Aspirin and Asphalt, Everything a Barrel of Crude Oil Becomes Gasoline is only part of each barrel of crude, and the rest becomes diesel, jet fuel, asphalt, plastics, medicines and fertilizer feedstock. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Was Built for War, Not for Gas Prices Congress built the reserve in 1975 to survive a supply cutoff like the 1973 embargo. Using it to steer pump prices spends a military asset on politics. The 1973 Airlift That Saved Israel and Cost America an Oil Embargo Operation Nickel Grass rescued Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and the Arab oil embargo that followed taught America that energy is a security question. From the 1973 Embargo to the 2022 Sale, a Strategic Petroleum Reserve Timeline The 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 Worldwide In a decade America built import terminals and then turned them around to export, and those cargoes serve allies and displace coal and Russian gas. Hundreds of Millions Still Cook Over Wood, and That Is a Moral Question Cheap, 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. Four Pieces of Every Gallon and Why the President Controls the Fewest A 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. Twelve Questions About Rooftop Solar and Who Really Pays for Net Metering Twelve plain answers on how net metering works, why rates and grid costs are the real fight, and what to read before you sign a solar lease or loan. Your Power Bill Is Going Up, So Here Is How to Speak at the Rate Case A step-by-step guide to the public proceeding that sets your electric rates, and how an ordinary customer gets a seat at the table. Willis Carrier's Machine Remade the South, and Made the Case for Cheap Energy Willis Carrier's air conditioning made the South and Southwest livable year round and shows that abundant energy is a quality-of-life good, not a luxury. A Thought Experiment on the Federal Kitchen Inspector Coming for Your Stove A labelled satire follows an invented kitchen office from gas stoves to toasters and candlelit dinners, to show where regulation by fear ends. The Wind Tax Credit Was Temporary in 1992 and Kept Coming Back for Decades A 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. Admiral Rickover's Navy Has Run Reactors at Sea for Seventy Years Hyman 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 Else Per 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. We Raised the Empire State Building in About a Year, So Why Not a Power Line Americans once built skyscrapers, dams and a Pentagon in a year or two, and the slowdown owes more to permits and lawsuits than to engineering. A Thought Experiment on Requiring a Permit to Apply for a Permit A satirical Office of Pre-Application Review shows where permitting logic ends, then the real NEPA, Paperwork Reduction Act and APA steps are laid out plainly. A Two-Page Law From 1970 Now Produces Studies Longer Than a Novel NEPA began as a short procedural statute. Decades of lawsuits turned its impact statement into a years-long obstacle for roads, power lines and mines. Seven Things People Said About the Texas Blackout of 2021, Tested Both sides told tidy stories about Winter Storm Uri. Seven claims tested against the federal record, and the lesson about paying for dependable power. How Fuel Economy Rules Killed the Small Pickup and Supersized the SUV Federal fuel economy rules meant to shrink vehicles pushed buyers into bigger trucks and SUVs, because trucks got gentler targets and size set the goal. The Electric Car Mandate Is a Choice Washington Makes for Your Driveway Phasing 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. China Refines the Minerals Behind Every Battery, and America Let It Happen America has rare earths, lithium and copper in the ground but lets permits drag for years while China dominates processing, a strategic weakness we chose. The 1980 Bet on Five Metals That Settled the Great Scarcity Debate In 1980 Julian Simon bet Paul Ehrlich that five metals would be cheaper in 1990, won by a check in the mail, and showed why human ingenuity outruns scarcity. The Antiquities Act Says Smallest Area Compatible, So Read the Text Again The 1906 Antiquities Act limits a monument to the smallest area compatible with protecting its objects. Read the text beside monuments of millions of acres. Sue and Settle, the Friendly Lawsuit That Writes Rules Without You in the Room How a lawsuit between an advocacy group and an agency that agree can set the agency's rulemaking agenda, and what the 2017 reforms did about it. The Senate Voted 95 to 0 Against a Climate Treaty Before Kyoto Was Written In July 1997 the Senate unanimously warned against a lopsided climate treaty, and Washington has kept such deals away from the Senate ever since. Straws, Bags and the Other Small Sacrifices That Only Make Us Feel Green Straw and bag bans ask a lot of shoppers and deliver little measurable benefit, while the real source of ocean plastic goes largely unaddressed. Hot Day Means Climate Crisis, Cold Snap Means Weather, a Lesson in Coverage Coverage treats every heat wave as climate and every cold spell as weather. Here is the distinction scientists draw and how to check a claim yourself. Why the Endangered Species Act Punishes the Landowner Who Helps a Bird The 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. Chevron Began as a Win for Reagan's EPA, Which Makes Its Fall So Ironic Chevron deference was born in a case the Reagan administration won, and conservatives defended it for years. Here is how the right changed its mind. The Air Got Cleaner While the Economy Grew, and the Numbers Show How Since 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. The Major Questions Doctrine Explained, From Tobacco to the Power Plants Congress must speak clearly before an agency claims power over a vast part of the economy. Here is where the rule came from and where Gorsuch and Barrett part. After the 1953 Flood the Dutch Built Their Way to Safety, a Lesson in Adaptation The 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 Buys Conservatives can accept a century of measured warming and still reject costly climate policy, because the question is what each policy changes and who pays. Does the Commerce Clause Reach a Red Wolf That Never Leaves the County The 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.