On October 16, 2014, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report 3, which confirmed what unbiased observers have long known: the facility meets the government’s long-term regulatory and safety requirements as a nuclear-waste repository. Progress on opening Yucca has continually stalled due to a variety of factors, but chief among them has been the opposition of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has used his position of power to thwart efforts to open the site. Now that the Republican Party has captured the majority in the Senate, common sense may finally win the day.
Murkowski’s Folly
The first rule of communications is getting the message right. A March 11, 2014 op-ed by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt appearing in the Los Angeles Times provided a unique glimpse into how messaging used by politicians can shift over time. The editorial detailed the push in the 1990s by former Alaska Senators […]
Inspect What You Expect
During my previous career in the Marine Corps, one of my superiors offered the following advice when supervising subordinates: “Inspect what you expect.” In other words, do more than just assign a task and then assume it will be accomplished without any follow-up. After all, Marines are trained that a leader is ultimately responsible for whatever happens – or fails to happen – under his or her watch. Therefore, while the proverbial ball may be dropped by a lower-level assignee, the proverbial buck stops at the corner office.
Revive the Yucca Mountain Project
On August 13, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that the Obama administration must resume consideration of Yucca Mountain as a repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. The ruling was the latest event in the quest to resolve the decades-old battle over where the country should store its roughly 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste.
Wasteful Government Subsidies for Cape Wind Project
Wind energy has been touted by environmentalists as clean and cheap. While it may be clean, it is far from cheap. A maze of government subsidies, mandates and crony capitalism deeply mask the true cost of wind energy production to make it extremely wasteful of citizens’ dollars. In the free market, wind energy would never be built without the massive government intervention it receives.
Snow-quester: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to (Work?)
In 2010, Washingtonians lived through Snowmageddon. Some referred to it as the Snowpocalypse.
The Case Against Keystone XL Gets Weaker
Late Friday afternoon, right around when most people likely tuned out and stopped reading the news, the State Department released a report stating that the Keystone XL Pipeline would have little impact on climate change.
Weatherization—Money Continues to Pour
It has been three and a half years since Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the wasted money in this bill has taken its toll on taxpayers. President Obama and cheerleaders for the $838 billion stimulus promised it would be the antidote to a floundering economy, creating anywhere from “thousands and thousands” of jobs to 3.5 million jobs, depending upon which Obama administration spokesperson was making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Mandating the Hypothetical: EPA’s Cellulosic Biofuels Mandate
It is no secret that many federal regulations in the United States are ineffective and burdensome to the economy. However, the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirement for oil producers to purchase non-existent cellulosic biofuels may be the most absurd.
Taxpayers Charged Billions to Anoint Green Car Manufacturing Winners
In an effort to alleviate the burden of rising gasoline prices on the economy and reduce vehicle emissions, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in 2007. The legislation ramped up fuel economy standards and encouraged the use of renewable fuels.