Daily Policy Digest
Environment Issues
| Big Data to Drive More Oil Productivity Increases In the past five years, technology has improved the productivity of America's shale fields by 200 percent to 300 percent... |
| Wind Farms Get Pass on Eagle Deaths More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles... |
| Texas and California: A Tale of Two Oil States Texas has more than doubled its oil output since 2005 and now pumps more than 2 million barrels a day; California's oil output is down 21 percent from 2001... |
| Oil Boom Raises North Dakota Wages Employment grew by 35.9 percent from 2007 to 2011 in counties where oil rigs were drilled... |
| Fisker Loan Failure Highlights Uncle Sam's Poor Investment History In 2009, green automaker Fisker was awarded a $529 million federal loan; now, the company is teetering on the brink of complete failure and the taxpayer is on the hook... |
| Unproven U.S. Oil Reserves Far Greater than Originally Thought The United States Geological Survey estimates that the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations hold more than 7.4 billion barrels of oil and gas that is undiscovered, but could theoretically be extracted in the future... |
| European Carbon Market in Trouble The European Union's carbon market, a "cap-and-trade" type system, could soon be the victim of its own success... |
| China Not Embracing Electric Cars The real number of electric vehicles sold in China last year was actually about 3,000, when factoring out hybrids and vehicles that aren't roadworthy, such as golf carts... |
| Environmental Regulations Stop Shovel-Ready Jobs The National Environmental Policy Act costs the U.S. economy $577 billion in direct investment and 1.9 million jobs through its regulation of privately funded energy projects... |
| Green Jobs: Illusive and Costly Solar generation accounts for only 500 jobs and wind technologies account for only 2,700 jobs... |
