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Green Laws Will Pump Gas Buyers in Summer
So far, 2003 has been a rough year for America’s motorists. Labor unrest in Venezuela and uncertainty about Iraq sent the average price of gasoline up…
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Stop Sending Cubans Back to Castro’s Gulag
The barbarity of Fidel Castro's regime became plain to the world last week—and so did the immorality of a Clinton-era policy toward Cubans attempting…
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New Challenges, New Failures: The U.N.
The way in which scientific endeavors are pursued globally is marked by clear inequalities, said United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in a recent…
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Energy Bill Draft Capitulates On Global Warming
Little is more insulting these days than an accusation of French sensibilities. Sometimes, however, the chaussure simply fits, and rarely better than in analogy…
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Nix the Energy Bill: Better No Bill than an Anti-Energy Bill
The White House seems to believe that passing an energy bill—any energy bill—will help GOP candidates win in 2004. Because of this, Republicans…
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Why Taxing Internet Sales Makes No Cents or Sense
As the April 15 deadline to pay personal income tax approaches, momentum is building to force a new group of people onto the…
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A Backwards Step in U.S. Energy Policy
Which climate-related initiative poses the biggest threat to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America’s economic future?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”…
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Pediatric drug testing may be unhealthy
Even by Capitol Hill’s standards, last Tuesday’s press conference was an exceptionally self-congratulatory event. The occasion was the unveiling of the Pediatric Research Equity…
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Misperceptions At The Gas Pump
Gas prices have surged, as have the demands for the government to do something about it. But only a few of the factors affecting…
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If The Feds Regulate Mere Annoyances, What Will They Not Regulate?
Question: Should government protect your dinner hour from annoying telemarketers? Answer: If the feds regulate mere annoyances, what will they not regulate?…
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The Poindexter Awareness Office: Turning the Tables on Mr. Supersnoop
Talk is cheap, but surveillance is, too. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The federal government's…
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The Chill from the Pentagon: The Total Information Awareness Project
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The Nice Treaty: Not So Nice For The U.S.
Yes means yes and no means maybe – at least that’ so among Europe’s elite. Which is ironic, because the Continental bien pensants would shudder…
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Human Bar Code
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Letter to the Editor, The Washington Post
Railroad deregulation provides a model for liberalizing all network industries. Network industries such as railroads, electricity and telecommunication have two elements: the flows (trains,…
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The U.S. Should Unsign Kyoto
Perhaps U.S. President George W. Bush believes it when he says the United States is free of the Kyoto climate change treaty. But if he…
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West Nile Wakeup Bites
It became common in Washington’s parks during the summer to see mothers rubbing their children’s arms, faces, and legs with wipes pulled from…
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Measure 27 Clouds Otherwise Clear Choices
Full Policy Brief Available In PDF Format Summary Picture yourself in a grocery store.
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EPA’s $32 Trillion Negligible Risk
It is no surprise that federal agencies often tailor their interpretation of the facts and the law to support various policy goals. It should…
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To Beat West Nile, Kill The Carrier
It is common in Washington’s parks these days to see mothers rubbing their children’s arms, faces and legs with wipes pulled from brightly…
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Powell for the Poor
The U.S. State Department is often the bane of conservatives' existence, mostly for its institutional embrace of the multilateral, let's-not-offend-anyone (particularly the Europeans), kumbaya-ism.
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Don’t Go There: Giving The EPA The Chance To Jeopardize Homeland Security
Senator Jon Corzine (D, N.J.) says he may offer his “Chemical Security Act” (S. 1602) this week as an amendment to the homeland-security bill.
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GM In Perspective
View the full Spiked debate forum on GM crops. 'If the field trials are allowed to progress unmolested, Britons…
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Liberals Will Wriggle Out Of Kyoto
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien intends to ratify the Kyoto climate change accord this autumn, but is still haggling over its terms — which puts…
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Green with Greed
“Green” groups do quite well for themselves courtesy of business and foundations derived from corporate wealth (Pew, Ford, Rockefeller, Heinz, MacArthur). Still, the green…
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‘A Totalitarian Effort’
Stanley Kubrick may be gone, but his visions of a hellish future corrupted by the abuses of corporatist government are alive and well. Nowhere are…
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Russian Roulette
Russia played the first Kyoto card at this “World Summit on Sustainable Development,” and it just might be an Ace. A member of the Russian…
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The New Faith: A Review Of “Economics As Religion” By Robert H. Nelson
The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church offered the following opinion on the cause of the September 11 attacks: “The affluence of nations such…
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Repealing E-Prohibition
Elliot Ness may have missed out on the web, but alcohol prohibition is alive and well over the Internet. More than half the states forbid…
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Careful What You Wish For
As over 100 judges from around the world at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) call for more lawyers to file more environmental lawsuits,…
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Environmental Correctness Threatens Costa Rican Economy
Abel Pacheco, recently inaugurated as President of Costa Rica, kicked off his administration by declaring a new era of “peace with the environment.”…
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Cirque De Solar Power
Oh dear. It’s only Day 3 of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and already I’m pleading with Amazon to deliver “Out of…
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Europe’s Forgotten Promise
Delegates to this week's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, will have to confront several stark ironies. Their lavish, $50 million soiree…
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Bush’s Kyoto Secret
The “World Summit on Sustainable Development” got underway today amid several key questions. How would anti-globalization – and, possibly, worse — forces attempt to disrupt…
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Wealth Of Delusion
Half of the expected 50,000-plus delegates are already gathered here at the United Nations’ World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), scheduled to last a fortnight. …
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Precautionary Principle May Do More Harm Than Good
Residents of a city facing a permanent threat from earthquakes know how important it is to exercise caution. Thus, it may seem reasonable for city,…
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Burn Baby, Burn?
In the unforgettable summer of 1988, the nation watched as uncontrollable forest fires destroyed half of Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, a…
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TV Networks Are Playing Ad Games With Digital Video Recorders
If you’ve ever taken a trip to the bathroom during a commercial break, watch out – the TV networks might sue you for…
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Hormone Replacement Therapy Truth: It’s Not All Bad
Hormone Replacement Therapy has been all over the news since a recent trial revealed that HRT comes with some significant health risks. The trial,…
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Getting The Rails Back On Track
As the recent crash of an Amtrak passenger train in Maryland illustrates, our nation's railroad tracks are in dire need of maintenance or replacement.
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Dream The Impossible Scheme
The Bush administration came out of the box on the energy issue with a reasonably positive mix of supply-side strategies – they are even willing…
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Texans Won’t Be Driven To California’s CO2 Craziness
While many people call Austin the “San Francisco of the South,” thankfully it's just about the only thing that the Lone Star State has…
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Can Science Make Us More Secure?
Fred L. Smith, Jr. President, Competitive Enterprise Institute The search for a safe society is dangerous as hell. One of the most…
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Why We Are United
As the patriotic tunes of July 4 reminded us, America is a highly diverse nation. We’re black, brown, white, red, and yellow; Catholic,…
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Orbitz: Good For Airlines, Good For Travelers
Orbitz started selling airline tickets over the Internet on June 1, 2001. It is owned by five major carriers and supported to a…
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EU Ratifies Biosafety Protocol
The European Union took yet another step away from the rational regulation of genetically modified crop plants and foods in late June, when it…
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Science vs. Presumption In Assessing Risk
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format On September 22, 2000, California Governor Gray Davis signed into…
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American Inferno: Greens Fiddle While Forests Burn
Copyright © 2002 by The National Review.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> …
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Don’t Run The Options: Expensing Proposals Raise Difficult Practical Questions
Several companies recently announced intentions to count the value of stock options granted to employees as a compensation expense in calculating corporate earnings. Among…
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Why Enron Loved Kyoto, And the EU Shouldn’t
What do the proposed European Commission directive for trading CO2 emissions credits and the current malaise affecting American corporate life have in common?<?xml:namespace…
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Diminishing Sovereignty
Maybe it sounds like a good idea: a global regulatory body for a global economy. That's the latest suggestion floating around the Organization for Economic…
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Why The “Sense Of Congress On Climate Change” Provision Should Be Stripped From H.R. 4
The findings presented in the Sense of the Congress provisions do not rest on a sound scientific footing and if carried out would…
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European move will stifle GMOs
Regulatory officials in the European Union seem to be ignorant of the Rule of Holes: When you're in a hole, stop digging. Repeated analyzes…
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Clearing the Air on President Bush’s New Clean Air Plan
Whether you support President Bush’s new air pollution reforms depends on one thing: whether you believe firms should be encouraged or discouraged from modernizing…
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False Representation
In her book Whose Trade Organization, Lori Wallach argues that corporate interests have for too long dominated the World Trade Organization and that…
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Climate-Science Shuffle
President Bush amazed supporters and detractors alike with his recent submission to the United Nations, “Climate Action Report 2002” (CAR), debuting a U.S. position that…
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The Anti-Power Act: A Jeffords Special
Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote on whether to approve S. 556, “the Clean Power Act,” proposed by James Jeffords,…
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Blessed Are The Poor With Spirit
This year's UN-sponsored World Food Summit just concluded with a grim reminder that the goal of cutting world hunger in half by 2015 set six…
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Biotech Critics Find A Little Goes A Long Way
In the fictional world of James Bond, the criminal group SPECTRE made a big business out of misusing technology to disrupt commerce, make money, and…
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Another Hot Shoe May Drop
Certainly, the Bush administration recently contradicting the president’s position, adopting to a great extent global warming alarmism in report to the United Nations,…
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A No-Risk Non-Policy From The Administration On Broadband
The “21st Century High Tech Forum” was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington last Thursday. Meeting at a time of such…
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Snoop, There It Is
As if it needed another headache after the dot-com and telecom crashes, the technology industry is facing a renewed push by Washington politicians…
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Deploy DDT To Fight Malaria
Thirty years ago this month, the government launched an assault on a basic liberty – the liberty to protect one’s own health using a pesticide.
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Andersen Verdict Disappoints: Moves To Criminalize Accounting Mistakes Are Counterproductive
Given the media frenzy over Enron, no one should be surprised that Arthur Andersen, its accountant, was found guilty. The formal charge was…
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Verdict Disappoints
Given the media frenzy over Enron, no one should be surprised that Arthur Andersen, its accountant, was found gutty. The formal charge was obstruction of…
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Multi-Pollutant Madness
Today the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold its fourth hearing on the “Clean Power Act” (S.556) proposed by Sen. James…
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Bush Must Withdraw Global Warming Report
The left’s latest attack on President Bush’s opposition to the Kyoto global warming treaty was launched with not even a whisper of warning on June…
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Chumming for Chumps at Tampa Shark Conference
A conference on shark attacks in Tampa this week is intended by its sponsors, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife…
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Shark Spin Soup: The Return Of The Shark Apologists
The federally funded press conference on shark attacks held on May 21 indicates that Americans have good reason to be afraid as another summer…
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Want to Avoid GM Foods? This Regulation Won’t Help
Yesterday, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted to expand the EU’s labelling requirement for Genetically Modified foods. The measure, in the form of…
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CEI’s Marlo Lewis submits comments to DOE on the proposed Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program
Letter available in pdf format This letter responds to the Deparment of Energy's request for comment on the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse…
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President Distances Himself From Global Warming Report
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Is Bush Playing Treaty Chicken?
As one of the first manifestations of President George W. Bush's supposed campaign of foreign policy “unilateralism,” last year he rejected, withdrew from or otherwise…
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The Hot Air from the Bush Administration
Well, Bush didn’t sign the Kyoto Global Warming protocol. It’s too bad he couldn’t leave well enough alone. While continuing to insist that…
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Secretary Gale Norton: Roosevelt Republican?
Gale Norton, an individual who was once libertarian and who has long espoused a principled view of private property and the market, now…
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Worrying About Frankenstein’s Monster
A specter is haunting Europe—called the “precautionary principle”. As generally defined, the precautionary principle states that a product or technology can be banned even if…
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Electricity Restructuring Is No License For Central Planning
Economists sometimes gets confused—specially when the real world doesn't fit into their…
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Campaign ExxonMobil Caters To The Greens
Before its cataclysmic fall, Enron had become the darling of the environmental movement. The company tirelessly pandered to environmentalists to bolster its green image…
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Government’s Role In Shark Attacks
The federal government recently sponsored a press conference on shark attacks, and while it was meant to be reassuring, it actually showed Americans have good…
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Foreign Entanglements: Dumping The Rome Treaty Raises Further Questions
The Bush administration has formally informed the United Nations of U.S. withdrawal from the Treaty of Rome. That agreement, signed by a departing President…
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Safer Strees Possible Without Red-Light Cameras
More of Arizona’s cities and towns are considering the use of red-light cameras. As they inch their way into the intersection of privacy…
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Disarmament by Default?
The Bush administration's agreement to deep new reductions in the number of nuclear weapons deployed by U.S. and Russian armed forces might be another…
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Is PBS Making You Sick?
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the taxpayer-subsidized PBS television is suffering from serious ratings problems. It's struggling to compete with the commercial cable…
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Attack Of The Shark Experts
If last summer was “The Summer of the Shark,” it also became the summer of the shark expert, as a parade of advocates…
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Laws Can’t Protect Kids from Porn
When it comes to protecting kids from porn on Internet Web sites, should “community standards” apply that would restrict materials regarded by the…
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Zen And The Art Of Telemarketing
Thomas Jefferson advised: When angry, count to 10 before speaking. Mark Twain, added: When very angry, swear. Few things make some people angrier than unwanted…
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Greenhouse Road To Ruin: Bad Regulations In Cali
A bill careening down the legislative turnpike in California threatens Americans' freedom of mobility everywhere. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />…
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Heed Hillary’s Herald
Will Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) intercede with Sacramento politicians to protect the California marketplace for pickup trucks, minivans, and SUVs? Senator Feinstein is not widely…
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“A” for Alarmism & “F” for Facts
Every year, the American Lung Association (ALA) releases its annual report card on smog, and every year it gives an “F” to over half…
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An Emerging Area Of Reform
As the Enron debacle regrettably spurred Congress to pass campaign finance reform, here’s hoping that Rupert Murdoch’s outrageous campaign against the merger of…
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Where Were The Inside Traders When We Really Needed Them?
Contrary to what you hear from just about every politician and every pundit, the Enron collapse suggests that less regulation might make future…
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George “Smoot Hawley” Bush
The Bush administration’s decision to abandon its free trade position to protect the domestic steel industry is distressful. Even Clinton didn’t give in…
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The Coolest Part of a Bad Energy Bill: A Small Victory
There isn't much good news for consumers in the Senate energy bill passed last week. The world's greatest deliberative body seemingly forgot that the…
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Ice Shelf Collapse Triggers Debate
In February and March, an ice shelf known as the Larsen B ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula collapsed, leading many to raise once…
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Battling Hunger With Biotechnology
Needless restrictions on agricultural biotechnology would harm the world's ability to battle hunger in the 21st century, say Gregory Conko and C.S. Prakash, co-founders…
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A Man, A Plan, A Boondoggle
The Bush administration is not his father’s Oldsmobile—I mean administration—but it isn’t Ronald Reagan’s either. Bush II is amenable to reducing government, but…
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Jumps At The Pump: Additives Add To The Price Of Gas
After staying relatively stable and inexpensive during most of the 1990s, gasoline prices have had a rocky time since 2000. In May of…
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Regulatory Route To Your Wallet
As if home prices weren’t high enough, an upcoming rule regulating radon in drinking water might raise the cost of your next home. Oddly, a…
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Cali’s Kyoto: Working Off A Bad Model – Corrected
View The Correction To This Article Undaunted by the mess they made of California's electricity marketplace, Sacramento politicians…
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California Scheming
The Washington Post first reported internal memos revealing that the vocal “global warming” movement and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol were fruit of a stealthy and…