The EPA proposed a rule Friday designed to limit blue states’ ability to reject oil and gas pipeline projects. The proposed rule implements an April executive order from President Trump to rein in state use of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. That provision of the law allows states to deny permits if leaks […]
But much more than theory or haggling over technical details, we have excellent empirical evidence that a Green New Deal just does not work. It’s been tried, twice, on different sides of the world and it didn’t work either time. The first time it was Australia. The global recession hits, so as a nice bit […]
Optimism among U.S. manufacturers is soaring as the Republican-led tax cuts help fuel a white-hot economy with the lowest unemployment numbers in over a decade, but a significant labor shortage is undermining the gains, a new report shows. Nearly 93 percent of manufacturers are projecting further expansion for their businesses, and positive sentiment among smaller […]
To start, despite a huge workforce of almost 400,000 solar workers (about 20 percent of electric power payrolls in 2016), that sector produced an insignificant share, less than 1 percent, of the electric power generated in the United States last year (EIA data here). And that’s a lot of solar workers: about the same as the combined number of employees working at Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Pfizer, Ford Motor Company and Procter & Gamble.
A federal trial court in West Virginia, in a case called Murray Energy Corporation v. EPA, recently found that EPA failed or refused to implement a statutory requirement to continuously evaluate job losses and shifts in employment caused by its regulations. The court ordered EPA to fully comply with the law. The court further found that due to the impact of its regulations on our economy, and the undisputed widespread employment effects suffered by the coal industry, it would be an abuse of discretion for EPA to refuse to conduct the job loss impacts on the coal industry resulting from its regulations.
In a global survey of 40 nations about how concerned people are about climate change, America scored 8.78 on a scale from three to 12, where 12 is the most concerned. The U.S. was tied with the United Kingdom and only Poland, Israel and Australia scored lower, just by a hair.
Electric cars are worse for the environment per mile than comparable gasoline-powered cars, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. This contradicts the common assumption that electric cars are cleaner. In spite of this, the federal government still pays $7,500 for every electric car purchased — a subsidy the nation would be better off without, say the authors.
A new survey by the Society of Human Resource Management released Tuesday found about 14 percent of businesses have reduced part-time hours and another 6 percent plan to do so. Employers are reducing hours to avoid Obamacare’s employer mandate, which requires companies to provide health insurance to all workers that work 30 or more hours a week.
For the second month in a row California has earned the right to be called the state with nation’s highest unemployment rate. Mississippi and Nevada both tied California for the honor at 9.6 percent. Last month, California and Rhode Island shared the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, but Rhode Island dropped its rate an impressive .4 points, all the way down to 9.4 percent.