February 2013

Sequester Reporting Scavenger Hunt: Official Rules

Michael Giberson Brace yourself, sequester is coming! The news has been filled with horror stories over the pain threatened by the sequester cuts. From the mighty New York Times (“As Governors Meet, White House Outlines Drop in Aid to States“) and Wall Street Journal (“Governors Brace for Sequestration’s Hit to States“) down to a blog …

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Smil: No Imminent Danger of Peak Oil, but Will Peak Oilers Admit It?

Michael Giberson Vaclav Smil wonders, now that 2012 appears to have yielded a new record level of global oil output, will “some catastrophists and peak-oil cultists” have to back off their gloomy outlooks? See Smil, “Memories of Peak Oil,” in The American. Here is my prediction: No peak oiler will find 2012 oil production data as …

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Are Property Rights Now More Clearly Defined for Organic Farmers in Minnesota?

Michael Giberson The United States Supreme Court chose to let stand a Minnesota Supreme Court decision concerning the rights of organic farmers exposed to pesticide drift from neighboring conventional farms. In the case Johnson v. Paynesville Farmers Union Cooperative Oil Co., the organic-farming Johnsons had sued conventional-farming Paynesville for damages after pesticide drift from Paynesville’s farm …

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Marc Gunther Profiles Whole Foods Ceo John Mackey

Michael Giberson Marc Gunther has a good brief profile, “John Mackey: hippie, libertarian, CEO.” I haven’t read Mackey’s new book yet, but may try it this summer. If nothing else, Mackey will provide an interesting counter to Milton Friedman’s famous views on what is now called “corporate social responsibility.” But Gunther’s essay makes an curious …

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Europe is Burning More American Coal

Michael Giberson Natural gas production is booming in the United States. The resulting low natural gas prices are helping the fuel displace other energy sources, most particularly the use of coal to produce electric power. As U.S. demand for coal falls, so has its price and as a result international coal buyers are increasingly turning …

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Notes on the Post-sandy Nj/nyc Black Market in Gasoline

Michael Giberson Jeffrey Tucker at Laissez Faire Today points out Peter C. Earle’s blog on the emergence of a black market in gasoline in northern New Jersey and New York City during the post-Storm Sandy period. A few days after the storm swept through, when politicians began reasserting their willingness to enforce price gouging limits …

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Norwalk Connecticut Gas Station Settles on Charges of Sandy-related Price Gouging

Michael Giberson When it comes to gasoline price increases, how much do prices have to rise before a price increase is “unconscionably excessive”? What difference between prices before and after a declaration of emergency is large enough to create a “gross disparity”? Twenty percent? Ten percent? Five? In Connecticut these days it looks like a …

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