Daily Policy Digest
Environment Issues
| Profits on Carbon Credits Drive Output of a Harmful Gas Since 2005, 19 plants receiving the waste gas payments under a U.N. carbon credit system have profited from churning out more harmful coolant gas so they can be paid to destroy its waste byproduct... |
| Country's Economic Welfare Can't Take More Poor Energy Policy The Energy Information Administration forecasts that our energy budget in 2035 will continue to be dominated by oil, natural gas and coal, although coal's share will decline and natural gas' will increase... |
| Ethanol vs. the World The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently downgraded its 2012 corn forecast by 13 percent from last year's crop, to 10.8 billion bushels -- the shortest harvest since 2006... |
| Energy Regulations: Protecting Irrational Consumers from Themselves The Department of Energy estimates the global greenhouse-gas emissions benefits of clothes dryer standards at between $93 million and $1.49 billion -- less than half of the total claimed benefits of the regulation... |
| Food as Fuel America 's corn ethanol sector now consumes about as much grain as all of the country's livestock... |
| No Need to Get the Lead Out With the exception of a few species, such as the California condor, the effect of lead ammunition on wildlife has proved to be negligible, says Alexis Hunter, an intern with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| China Buys Canadian Energy: Lessons for the United States Congress should recognize the State Department finding that Keystone XL would pose no significant environmental threat and authorize the pipeline... |
| Who Really Gets Rich Off High Gas Prices? Exxon made profits of seven cents per gallon in 2011, while governments at every level reaped 50 cents per gallon through taxation... |
| Coal Comfort Over the past decade or so, American coal consumption fell by 5 percent, but global coal consumption soared, growing by about the same amount as the growth in oil, natural gas and nuclear combined... |
| Genetically Modified Foods Are Safe From 1996 to 2010, the use of modern genetic engineering technology increased crop production and value by $78 billion... |
