With yea votes from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D–W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D–Ariz.), the U.S. Senate narrowly passed the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday before adjourning for its August recess. Manchin had conditioned his support for the bill on a “side deal” that would streamline the federal permitting process for new infrastructure projects. But […]
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), hammered out through negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.) and unveiled last week, has been hailed as the “most important climate action in U.S. history.” Why? Because it “reduces carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030” below the level emitted by the […]
There’s a growing bipartisan consensus that the U.S. spends too much time and too much money approving new infrastructure projects. A side deal worked out by Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.), Democratic congressional leaders, and the White House as part of their ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ addresses this problem by attempting to streamline environmental reviews mandated by […]
Unlike President Biden’s frequent efforts to blame Vladimir Putin for inflation, Germany’s energy-driven economic woes really can be largely linked to Russia, which cut the flow of natural gas in retaliation for economic sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. Since Germany is the economic powerhouse of the continent, that’s bad news for the European […]
For the past few years, government officials and agricultural groups in California have been fighting over the question: Are bees fish? The California Court of Appeal for the 3rd District ruled on May 31 that, legally, they are. At the heart of this issue is the state’s Endangered Species Act, which prohibits the import, export, […]
In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, Matt Welch returns alongside editors Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and special guest Stephanie Slade as they dare to consider the earliest (and meaningless) polling and general chatter related to the 2024 presidential campaign. 0:25: Joe Biden 2024 and Democrats 18:49: Post-Dobbs polls on abortion 25:29: “BoJo” banter 33:57: Weekly […]
When President Joe Biden chastises oil companies for profiteering, he evokes a J.R. Ewing–style caricature of a greasy, greedy executive sneering in a giant Stetson. Satisfying as it may be, this narrative is unmoored from economic reality. As with any other commodity, oil producers are price takers, not price makers; oil and gas shortages inevitably […]