Tale of Two Cites
The Congressional Budget Office, the "nonpartisan" arbiter of the cost of various proposals and plans for the legislature, comes in handy sometimes. Other times, not so much. So House Democrats are discovering anew. Just five days ago Speaker Pelosi vented her frustration with the CBO for its sky high projection for health care reform: “The CBO will always give you the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2009 00:51
Whither Empty Car Dealerships?
Richard Florida reports the results of a poll of what should be done with the 2000+ car dealerships being shuttered as a result of the bankruptcy reorganizations of Chrysler and GM: Ask the local residents about what the community needs (222 votes) Urban gardens (200 votes) Create walkable, vibrant places and improve current communities (138 votes) Farmers' markets and local events (126 votes) Solar and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 24, 2009 06:40
“Look upon My Works, Ye Mighty!”
Shelly's poem Ozymandias is forced to mind when reading this piece from the Herald-Tribune of Sarasota, Florida. It makes perfect economic sense---cheap, useful cars with good gas mileage---but does it ever speak volumes about the inevitability of change... Indian car company readies Sarasota showroom Toni Whitt SARASOTA COUNTY - While working for General Motors in the 1980s and early 1990s, Pawan Goenka discovered ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 13, 2009 08:28
Elites Losing Climate and Gun Argument
Michael Barone (via Glenn Reynolds) argues that elites are "out of touch" on climate change and gun control: Many years ago, political scientists came up with a theory that elites lead public opinion. And on some issues, they clearly do. But on some issues, they don't. Two examples of the latter phenomenon are conspicuous at a time when Barack Obama enjoys ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 11, 2009 09:59
Green Products Possible - They Just Suck
Responding to Kevin Drum's observation that no-phosphate dishwashing detergent suddenly became possible when regulation demanded it, proving that theretofore "The industry just didn't feel like doing it," Megan McArdle retorts, "when I look back at almost every 'environmentally friendly' alternative product I've seen being widely touted as a cost-free way to lower our footprint, held back only by the indecent ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 7, 2009 07:41
Sea Levels Rising Faster Than Predicted
Via Randall Parker, it appears that global sea levels are rising faster than previously predicted.The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested. Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 15, 2009 23:47
Conservative Policy Solutions
Kevin Drum seconds my concerns about conservative public intellectuals and offers two example where the Right isn't offering useful policy alternatives. Conservatives on Global Warming Take global warming. Here's the rough conservative reaction to it starting in the early 90s: It doesn't exist. It exists but it isn't manmade. It's manmade, but it's too expensive to do anything about. Even this is a generous assessment. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 24, 2008 15:44
Obama: Bankrupt the Coal Industry
According to statements by the candidate, anyone wanting to build a coal plant would be bankrupted if his plan to deal with greenhouse gasses (GHGs) is implemented. "I was the first to call for a 100 percent auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter," ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 3, 2008 16:49
No More Plastic Bags!
The NYT has an editorial about the scourge of plastic bags, "which have only a brief, useful life, can survive forever in landfills and are of enormous concern to not only environmentalists but local officials who are running out of places to put their trash." I'm old enough to remember when biodegradable brown paper bags were the norm in American grocery ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 30, 2008 08:50
Air Pollution Is Global
Unlike charity air pollution doesn't necessarily begin at home: WASHINGTON — From 500 miles in space, satellites track brown clouds of dust, soot and other toxic pollutants from China and elsewhere in Asia as they stream across the Pacific and take dead aim at the western U.S. A fleet of tiny, specially equipped unmanned aerial vehicles, launched from an island in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 31, 2008 12:01
Creating Fuel Cells With Solar Power?
MIT chemists have developed a means to electrolyze water at room temperature with photovoltaic cells.A new catalyst makes it feasible to split water with solar power. MIT chemists say the catalyst, used in conjunction with cheap photovoltaic solar panels, could lead to inexpensive, simple systems that use water to store the energy from sunlight. In the process, the scientists may have cleared ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 1, 2008 02:04
Al Gore Places Son in Rocket
Dateline Earth: "Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet." Former vice president Al Gore—who for the past three decades has unsuccessfully attempted to warn humanity of the coming destruction of our planet, only to be mocked and derided by the very people he has tried to save—launched his infant son into space Monday in the faint hope ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 31, 2008 07:42
More Good News For Solar
This morning, Glenn Reynolds linked to this bit of news from Popular Science regarding a discovery that could lead to greater efficiencies in solar cells: MIT engineers have recently helped up the feasibility of widespread solar power by developing a new “solar concentrator.” The concentrator, which is a flat glass panel spread across a large area, gathers light at the edges ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 16, 2008 09:59
Clean Air Causing Global Warming?
It seems that the leading man-made cause of global warming is environmentalism; specifically, efforts to improve air quality by reducing pollution, New Scientist reports. Since 1980, average air temperatures in Europe have risen 1 °C: much more than expected from greenhouse-gas warming alone. Christian Ruckstuhl of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland and colleagues took aerosol concentrations from ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 11, 2008 16:46
BLM Freezes New Solar Development for Two Years
The Bureau of Land Management has placed a two year moratorium on new solar power projects proposed for building on public lands. Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 29, 2008 08:44
