“While we think that policies and institutions compatible with freedom and openness are important factors in promoting human progress, we let the evidence speak for itself. We hope that this website leads to a greater appreciation of the improving state of the world and stimulates an intelligent debate on the drivers of human progress.”
– HumanProgress.org (Cato Institute)
Kudos to Cato for their new website portal, HumanProgress.org, which brings into one place the statistics of human welfare with reference to the socio-economic conditions responsible for it. The mission and status of this new website is discussed below.
A Julian Simon Institute?
I often lamented the absence of a Julian Simon Institute to tackle the area of ‘sustainability’ or “sustainable development,’ which covers so many things relating to population and progress. …
Continue Reading“FERC Commissioner Tony Clark seems to be about the only person currently on record to see what’s coming…. In Commissioner Clark’s words, each state with an approved plan ‘will have entered a comprehensive “mother-may-I?” relationship with EPA that has never before existed’.”
If you’re an impressionable economist, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s powerplant carbon abatement proposal looks like a winner. Different people have different costs of reducing emissions, and the draft rule proposes several alternative paths that a state might take in formulating its implementation plan. Flexibility allows a state (or possibly a group of them) to choose among direct limits on generator emissions, to implement policies that substitute renewables for coal, or to use a “portfolio” approach that includes increased end-use efficiency. Just get EPA to sign off on your compliance plan, adhere to it, and you’ll be part of America’s low-carbon future.…
Continue Reading“The chief reason BC is not an appropriate ‘model’ for the U.S. is that the province’s geology, climate, and electric supply system are dissimilar to those of most American states. BC’s peculiar electricity fuel mix sharply limits the damage that a $30/ton carbon tax can do to the province’s economy. Nearly all of BC’s base load electricity is zero-carbon hydropower…. Natural gas is the only part of BC’s electric supply system subject to the tax …. and generates less than 6% of BC’s electricity.”
To persuade Americans — especially conservatives and libertarians — that a carbon tax can “work” (reduce emissions) without harming the economy, some proponents tout British Columbia’s carbon tax, enacted in May 2008. How relevant is the British Columbia (BC) “model” to U.S. climate and tax policy debates?…
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