So, we’ve arrived at halftime in the big game for America’s energy security. Right now, the game is tied. The House of Representatives has approved legislation that includes a provision to explore for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. The Senate’s version does not. The first major energy bill in 10 years has advanced [...]
Author Archive | Charli Coon
Explore Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Charli Coon (2003.04.22 ) Environment
It’s not hard to figure out why Congress has yet to vote to allow exploration for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It’s the easy way out. You simply declare your love for the environment, your desire that America find some other way to solve its fuel needs–less consumption, more use of alternative [...]
A Polluted Process: Horse-Trading with Energy Policy
Charli Coon (2002.10.11 ) Environment
Politics, they say, is the art of compromise. You give something, I give something. In the end, we wind up with something everyone’s happy with. That’s how worthwhile legislation is forged, right? Yes, usually. But compromise could earn a bad name from the old-fashioned “horse-trading” under way as federal lawmakers try to hammer out a [...]
Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls
Charli Coon (2001.10.17 ) Politics, Price Controls
Even the Department of Energy’s study found that price caps — which, let’s not forget, are what got California into this mess in the first place — won’t improve the energy situation. In fact, they’ll likely make it worse. The study concluded that a $150 “hard cap” on electricity bills — like the one proposed [...]
Why Not Explore the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska?
Charli Coon (2001.10.11 ) Politics
In northeast Alaska, above the Arctic Circle, the snow seems to cover far more than the land. It’s so thick and deep and cold and hard that you smell next to nothing and you hear even less. Given that part of the state sees no daylight for two months of every year, you don’t see [...]