What Happens in California Should stay in California

June 14, 2024

California recently adopted a zero-emission requirement for all railroad locomotives in the state by 2030, which many critics are saying could cripple the nation’s freight rail network. That’s because California doesn’t have its own separate fleet of locomotives. So to keep the trains running, the rule effectively forces nationwide compliance with one state’s policy. California […]

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U.S. is Leading, But No One is Following

June 7, 2024

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) famously said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” No fan of academic studies, he had learned how statistics can be used to make almost any point the researcher wants to make. My Grandma often quoted the 1880s version, “Figures don’t lie, but liars do […]

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Preserving Antiquities, or Regulating Economics?

May 31, 2024

Our obsession with the study of antiquities goes back centuries, at least since Renaissance poet Petrarch wrote, “Among the many subjects which interested me, I dwelt especially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me.” But what exactly is antiquity? It is relevant this year because several western leaders are calling for a […]

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An End Run Around the Supreme Court

May 24, 2024

An “end run” was once a common football term, describing an offensive play in which the ball carrier runs around the end of the defensive line. But today it is more often used rhetorically to describe a strategic dodge, any maneuver to bypass, circumvent, or sidestep. It’s more common in politics than in football. Many Westerners celebrated […]

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Jim Evans and the Battle for PILT

May 17, 2024

I did a double take when I saw the headline, “Meeker County to call on Congress to pay up for federal lands.” I thought it must be a typo because Meeker is a town not a county (it’s in Rio Blanco County). The subtitle repeated it: “Analysis of public lands in Meeker County found that […]

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Is the Goal Cleaner Air – Or Something Else?

May 11, 2024

In 1991, Oleta Adams sang “Get Here” on “Soul Train.” She spent 23 weeks on the Billboard top 100 with the love ballad, listing all the ways he could get to her: by railway, trailway, airplane, caravan, sailboat, swinging on a rope, by sled, horseback, or even by windsurfing, magic carpet, or hot air balloon. […]

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How to Recover Endangered Species – Or Not

May 1, 2024

A group called Environment Oregon is circulating a petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFSW) to get on with it. Two years ago, the agency proposed reintroducing sea otters to the Oregon Coast, concluding that reintroduction was not only feasible, but essential. The agency has done absolutely nothing about it since. The government […]

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Department of Energy: The New Philosopher King

April 26, 2024

There is a famous story about Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman walking down the street with a friend. The friend stopped and said, “Hey, there is a $20 bill on the sidewalk.” The economist turned to him and replied, “There can’t be. If there were a $20 bill on the sidewalk, somebody would have picked […]

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Governments Cannot Change the Automobile Market

April 22, 2024

Electric cars are set to dominate the worldwide automobile market. They account for more than a third of all cars on the road, and gas-powered cars are only 22 percent. The year is 1900, and both engine types will soon overtake primitive steam-powered vehicles, still 40 percent of the vehicles in America. Although Stanley Steamers […]

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The Most Important Conservationist You’ve Never Heard Of

April 19, 2024

When I first moved to Washington, D.C., fresh out of college in 1979, a Capitol Hill friend offered a temporary room in a great old townhouse. Another room was occupied by a somewhat quirky, funny, and absolutely brilliant writer named R.J. Smith. He became the most important and influential conservation leader you’ve never heard of. […]

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