Environment roundup

  • Organized efforts mount to blockade, shut down, and ban oil and gas infrastructure [David Roberts/Vox; Kevon Paynter] My two cents on Baltimore’s ban on new or expanded crude oil terminals, which follows moves against fuel infrastructure in Oakland and Portland [Free State Notes] Massachusetts judge approves “necessity defense” raised by protesters who blocked work on pipeline [Erin Mundahl, Inside Sources]
  • Related: calls to ban hydrocarbon (even gas) utility generation stir backlash among some Democrats [Amy Harder, Axios] And not illogically given the distributional effects [Ronald Bailey, Reason]
  • “$18 Billion Prize,” new stage play about Chevron/Ecuador case by Phelim McAleer and Jonathan Leaf, ruffles some Bay Area feathers [Daniel Kennard, National Review]
  • Questions about curious study of GMO safety [Dan Vergano, BuzzFeed]
  • “Creative Regulators and Environmental Protection,” Federalist Society panel video with C. Boyden Gray, Adam White, Robert Glicksman, Nathan Richardson, Caroline Cecot;
  • Europe optimizes its train system for passengers, while U.S. optimizes its for freight. Which is the greener choice? [Coyote]

One Comment

  • It is one thing to say we should construct solar and wind. It is another entirely to try to ban fossil fuels outright, either by stopping transport, blocking ports, or suing Exxon. The magical thinking involved ignores that people in fact need fossil fuels and will die in winter if they cannot get it. As an example, Boston and the NE in general this winter had to import natural gas from Russia because there are so many bans on either fracking or building pipelines in the NE. Isn’t that collusion? Or just stupidity.