Latest Articles

This video of science-lab dogs being set free will make you bawl

I have complicated feelings about animal testing, at least when it comes to science. But I have very uncomplicated feelings about dogs, and this video of nine beagles being set free made me blubber unattractively. These dogs have lived in cages their entire lives, testing medicines, cosmetics, and household products (which does not qualify as […]

Climate change gives creepy, bat-carried disease a boost

In Australia, a virus called Hendra, which has had a 60 percent mortality rate in humans, is on the rise. There were 18 outbreaks of the disease this year, more than in the 16 previous years combined, and scientists suspect that climate change had a hand in this year's surge. An animal-borne disease like West […]

Government invests in robots that prevent oil spills

As oil and gas companies wander ever further offshore in search of fossil fuels, the government's putting some money into technology that safeguards against oil spills. The amount they’re spending — $9.6 million — is a paltry sum as federal investments go. But the important thing here is the result, which is robots. And not […]

Critical List: 2011 was pretty darn warm; dams could exacerbate climate change

2011 will be the tenth or eleventh warmest year on record, depending on who you ask. All but one of the nine or ten warmer years were in the last decade. (The only exception is 1998.) The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs is required to approve renewable energy projects on Native American-owned […]

Re-Occupy Main Street: Entrepreneurs revive down-and-out business districts

Designer Will Phillips (pictured) and John Bolster have opened Sandtown Millworks in a former bank with help from a Operation:Storefront grant.Photo: Elizabeth Evitts DickinsonLast week kicked off that special time of year when indulgence and guilt face off in the ultimate death match, prompting headlines like this one in the “healthy living” section of the […]

Behind closed doors, Obama administration politicizes the regulatory process

When former Harvard Law Professor and eclectic intellectual Cass Sunstein was named administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), conservative, industry-oriented Wall Street Journal editorial writers enthused that his appointment was a “promising sign.” A slew of subsequent events has proved their optimism well placed, as we have noted repeatedly in CPRBlog. […]

Crop insurance: This year’s Farm Bill frontier

2011 was a record year for liability, with drought in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, and Hurricane Irene taking out crops along the Eastern seaboard. Photo: Bob Gutowski One of the great battles of the 2012 Farm Bill might concern … (drumroll) … crop insurance! Don’t roll your eyes: At $8 billion, it’s the largest part […]

America’s energy future: iPads vs. typewriters with guns

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. As Americans transition their electricity system to the 21st century, they should ask this question: Does it make sense to pursue strategies such as accelerating the development of new high-voltage power lines that reinforce an outdated […]

Can Obama go back to political base(ics)?

An Obama 2012 rally in Chicago in April.Photo: Barack ObamaCross-posted from the Great Energy Challenge blog. President Obama made a smart move this month by putting the Keystone XL pipeline project into the deep freeze. It had been poor politics for him — and it would have been even worse policy for the country, especially when you consider […]

Mitt vs. Mitt, flip-flopping on climate change and much else

A new ad from the Democratic National Committee is pummeling Mitt Romney for his extensive record of flip-floppery on global warming and so much more: