Daily Policy Digest
Environment Issues
| Solar Energy: Dirtier Than We Think More than 46 million pounds of waste was generated from solar companies in California between 2007 and mid-2011... |
| Interest Group Wants to End Natural Gas Exports Natural gas prices have fallen about 50 percent in the last few years as a result of increased production due to hydraulic fracturing... |
| Pricing Electric Cars Different electricity rates means that an all-electric 2011 Nissan Leaf would cost only $28.29 to drive 1,000 miles in Washington state but more than $97 to drive that same distance in Hawaii... |
| California's Push for Renewable Energy Will Raise Prices California's 33 percent renewable portfolio standard will cost California approximately $5 billion in 2020... |
| Exaggerated Global Warming Claims May Lead to Poor Policy The United States is actually at the lowest point of hurricane activity, measured by total energy, since the 1970s... |
| United States Could Become the World's Largest Energy Producer By 2030 approximately 99 percent of America's energy needs will be met at home, compared with only 70 percent in 2005... |
| Electric Cars: Still a Work in Progress The electric car market as a whole accounted for merely 0.1 percent of the 15-million-car-per-year American market, up only 0.001 percent from 2011... |
| Overreacting to Environmental Crimes Many statutes in the Gulf Coast states do not require the perpetrator to act with mens rea, or a "guilty mind," meaning that violators could unknowingly wind up on the wrong side of the law... |
| Plastic Bag Restrictions Offer Few Benefits A 2011 study found that traditional plastic bags have the lowest environmental impact of any of the bags, including biodegradable and cotton bags... |
| Corn-Based Ethanol Production Should Cease As a fuel source, corn ethanol is far less efficient than gasoline, providing 27 percent lower fuel economy than traditional gasoline... |
