Daily Policy Digest
Environment Issues
| Using the Free Market to Expand Access to Electricity Worldwide electricity demand is projected to grow by 2.2 annually, driven by developing countries and electric car expansion... |
| Peak Oil Production Still Ahead Global crude oil extraction between 2001 and 2011 rose by 10.8 percent to just 5 million metric tons shy of the 4 billion metric mark... |
| Dividing Fracking Regulation Efficiently There is no evidence that hydraulic fracturing operations cause serious or widespread contamination of drinking water within or across political boundaries... |
| Regulations Slow Beneficial Natural Gas Exports The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that U.S. gains from liquefied natural gas trade would total $4 billion annually... |
| A Balanced Approach to Climate Change According to the Palmer Drought Severity Index, droughts were most widespread through the 1930s and 1950s, with the last 50 years having been generally wetter on average... |
| Competitive Market Forces Serve Texas' Electricity Needs The process of pricing electricity capacity, reliability and deliverability is wrought with subjective assumptions and theoretical ideals that bear little relation to actual market effects... |
| Genetically Modified Rice Will Help Vitamin Deficient Children "Golden rice" is modified to have higher vitamin A content and could be a benefit to the 3 billion people who depend on rice as their staple food... |
| The Impending Decline of Coal Over the last decade, net coal-fired electricity generation decreased 10 percent, while natural gas-fired generation increased 50 percent... |
| Federal Grant to Battery Cell Maker Squandered An Obama administration grant for a South Korean advanced battery maker to scale up production in the United States did not yield any results despite $142 million in funding... |
| Green Energy Push Harmful to the Economy The electricity that is produced from natural gas is 43 percent the cost of solar power, 68 percent the cost of wind power and 57 percent the cost of biomass... |
