Posts Tagged: "climate"

EPA regulation of aircraft emissions could hurt green innovation

A study of the economic impacts of air quality regulations on American manufacturing plants between 1972 and 1993 conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the economic cost of such regulations caused a decline of 8.8 percent of profits in the manufacturing sector. That’s $21 billion per year that did not go to employee wages and couldn’t be used on research and development. Reduced economic output in the face of rising population numbers also produces a drag on the overall economy and R&D initiatives are often the subject of the first budget cuts during economic downturns. All of this points to a downward spiral in which increased environmental regulations actually pose an obstacle to the development of the green economy in the United States.

Steve Brachmann

August 5, 2016

Strong El Niño weather pattern could douse some of California’s drought problem

We may not know the extent of rainfall California will receive for several months, but it has been made abundantly clear that El Niño is definitely coming. Even if we were to experience a wet and active El Niño this year, it wouldn’t likely be a healing salve for the entire state of California. El Niño’s effects are strongest in the southern parts of California. In the central and northern parts of the state, rainfall amounts aren’t really affected all that much. Furthermore, with much of California’s water reservoir system in the central and northern parts of the state, those basins will be unable to help capture excessive rainfall, which could mean real disaster for parts of Southern California.

Steve Brachmann

September 3, 2015