Energy & Environment

Fatal Employment: Men 10 Times More Likely Than Women To Be Killed At Work

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries on December 18, with the data likely being surprising to some people. Looking at 139 separate occupations and discrete industries, an obvious pattern quickly emerges: the safest workplaces are indoors and the safest occupations frequently require education beyond high school. The...

December 19, 2018

Energy & Environment

Texas Taxpayers Pay For Political Virtue Signaling With Costly Renewable Energy

The City of Georgetown, Texas, and its mayor, Dale Ross, have become known internationally over the past couple of years due to the city’s claim that its municipal electricity utility uses 100% renewable energy. But as recent developments show, Georgetown’s proverbial 15 minutes of fame came at great cost to taxpayers and electricity ratepayers. Mayor...

December 17, 2018

Energy & Environment

As France Burns Over a Fuel Tax for Climate Change, Democrats in the US Want a ‘Green New Deal’

As the worst unrest to grip France in 50 years rages on, triggered by a pending climate change fuel tax (since postponed), President Macron announced a slate of measures designed to appease the masses. Included in the government giveaways: a minimum wage hike of about $1.75 an hour, no taxes on overtime pay and reforming...

December 13, 2018

Taxes & Spending

Taxing Text Messages & Electricity – One Way Texas Is Like California: Unelected Officials Can “Tax”

As early as Dec. 20, the Public Utility Commission of Texas may vote to increase electricity costs on consumers by up to $4 billion. Meanwhile, in California, that state’s PUC is considering a “tax” on text messages to the tune of $45 million per year and may even apply the “Public Purpose Program” fee retroactively, raising an additional one-time...

December 12, 2018

Energy & Environment

Paris Is Burning Over Climate Change Taxes — Is America Next?

The City of Lights, Paris, has been illuminated in recent days by cars set alight by thousands of protesting “Yellow Vests”—largely middle class people who earn their living by driving or who commute to get to work. The cause of their ire is a scheduled 25 cents-per-gallon increase in gas taxes, and about 10 cents...

December 7, 2018

Local Government

Opinion: How Big Government Hijacked the Federal Climate Report

As taxpayers and citizens, we expect our Federal Government to responsibly use its resources and to be responsive to the will of the people as expressed in elections. But all too frequently, the bureaucracy — the administrative state — churns on with its agenda, untouched by mere elected officials or appointees of the administration. This...

December 3, 2018

Energy & Environment

Trump’s Right About California’s Fires: It Wasn’t Climate Change; Two New California Laws Prove It

California’s politicians, bureaucrats, electric utilities and even celebrities have taken to using “climate change” as a multipurpose excuse for having done nothing to prevent deadly wildfires. Doing nothing, at least nothing effective, has been a central public policy feature in the climate change debate, especially when it comes to wildfires. The facts are clear: California’s deadliest year...

November 27, 2018

Taxes & Spending

New York and Virginia won Amazon, but low-tax states keep winning more and more jobs

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., offered Amazon $1.5 billion in corporate cronyism tax breaks, saying, “It’s not a level playing field to begin with. All things being equal, if we do nothing, they’re going to Texas.” State and local taxes matter. After the historic tax cut passed with President Trump’s signature last December, they matter even...

November 19, 2018

Energy & Environment

California’s Deadliest Fires Could Have Been Mitigated By Prevention

At least 63 people have been killed with 631 reported missing in the California fires as thousands of firefighters, including 200 sent from Texas as well as other states, battle to contain the blazes. More than 7,000 structures have been destroyed, including up to 90 percent of the homes in Paradise, population 26,682, in Northern...

November 16, 2018

Economy

Job Creation, Job Losses, And Politicians

Every month U.S. employers hire nearly 2.5 million new workers as they start new businesses or expand existing ones. But about 2.2 million workers are also laid off, quit or retire, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This churning of employees being hired and separated is a good thing for the economy, even...

November 9, 2018

Local Government

Homeless In San Francisco, Taxed To Texas?

Yesterday, voters in San Francisco approved a $300 million-per-year tax on business earmarked to help the city’s burgeoning homeless population, estimated to number about 7,000 in a city of 884,000. The measure will likely suffer from a double backfire in that it will result in more homelessness while shrinking the city’s tax base. San Francisco’s...

November 7, 2018

Economy

Can Trump End Birthright Citizenship?

In an interview with Axios on HBO, President Donald Trump discussed his plans to discontinue the practice of automatically granting U.S. citizenship to all babies born on U.S. soil. “It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” the President said. “You can definitely do it with an...

November 5, 2018