In the fight for freedom, the Texas Public Policy Foundation develops workable ideas for elected officials to consider in their roles as representatives of the people.
Subsidies for wind and solar have long distorted Texas’s electricity market, threatening higher prices and greater likelihood of blackouts and ‘demand reduction’ events. The April 2 piece, “Texas Targets the Free Market,” by California Policy Center president Will Swaim, misses the mark. Mr. Swaim’s instincts are right; markets are generally superior to government fiat. But in making...
OPEC+ made a surprise announcement Sunday night, April 2, to cut oil production by more than 1.1 million barrels per day – about 1% of global production. Crude oil prices immediately shot up, presaging pain at the pump for Americans already struggling with inflation. The move by 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries...
In Austin, Texas, in a 24-hour period in March less than a mile apart, a woman was punched several times and sexually assaulted, suffering a split lower jaw and bruises over her body; then a building was burned down, damaging adjacent buildings, causing about $1.5 million in damage. The common thread: Homeless men living on the street...
The experts could hide behind international law as they advocate economy-crushing lockdowns and forced vaccinations. Elon Musk tweeted that “Countries should not cede authority to WHO,” and conservatives have joined him in sounding the alarm about proposed legal changes to the World Health Organization and its International Health Regulations (IHR). The basic question is whether America should...
When we follow it, our Constitution is well suited to achieve its Preamble’s enumerated ends, namely to: “…form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” That more people question the Constitution’s viability today...
Our nation’s monuments reflect the people who made it their home, the struggles they endured, and the values that made it possible. Every civilization erects monuments to the things its members wish to celebrate. It does us well to occasionally stop and reflect on the nature of these monuments and what they depict; they can...
With the strain of supplying Ukraine with weapons and China’s mounting belligerence, it would be prudent to conduct a defense industrial base mobilization exercise. The Biden administration is slow to recognize threats then prioritize limited resources to prevent conflict, or prevail should deterrence fail. This is the balancing act in Russia’s war on Ukraine. President...
Gavin Newsom’s California looks like an ‘Elysium’ on earth Elon Musk just gave California’s Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom some welcome good news as Musk announced Tesla will build its engineering headquarters in Palo Alto—in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Newsom, expected by political analysts to be maneuvering to run for the Democrat nomination for president, has...
Pundits and politicians on the political left have been pushing to overturn the Electoral College—the way America chooses presidents—by enacting a national popular vote interstate compact. Now, with 15 reliably blue states and the District of Columbia in agreement, and action pending in an additional six states, including Florida and Texas, the national popular vote is on...
Competing narratives and poor information plague national discourse about public safety, making it difficult to reach a political consensus. Even while gangs increasingly mug, carjack, and gun people down on the streets of many major cities, fentanyl poisoning deaths take 100,000 American lives, and mass murder incidents happen with unsettling regularity, perceptions of crime are...
Radical plans in California spike electricity, natural gas prices thanks to outlandish green energy goals. When Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special legislative session in December to tax California’s oil refiners out of their “excessive” profits, he was following a well-trod path of Golden State governors blaming the oil and gas industry for the...