Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Rick Perry Makes a Good Plan Sound Bad

The Texas governor's energy pitch strikes all the wrong notes.

October 25, 2011

Shikha Dalmia

The biggest problem with the energy plan that Rick Perry released recently is Rick Perry himself. Like a desperate used-car salesman, he is making such outlandish claims for it that his customers might walk out before taking a good look.

That, however, would be a pity, because the plan is actually better than any proposed by any president in recent memory.

The High Cost of Low Fuel Bills

New efficiency standards for cars may cost lives

August 11, 2011

John Stossel

President Obama has declared that auto companies' fleets must average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, almost double the current 27.5. Standing at his side when he made the announcement were executives from the Big Three automakers. They're happy to agree to stupid rules, since they are now dependent on government favors. Obama said that under his new rule, "everyone wins. Consumers pay less for fuel, the economy as a whole runs more efficiently." John Stossel begs to differ.

Conflict Oil or Canadian Oil?

A second dispatch from Alberta's oil sands.

August 10, 2011

Ronald Bailey

In this second dispatch from the Alberta oil sands tour we meet some Canadian oil sheiks over canapes and participate in an enlightening visit to a steam-assisted gravity drainage facility. The latter is more interesting than the nomenclature makes it sound. Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey asks readers to contemplate the question: Why would the U.S. want to depend on “conflict oil” instead of oil from our neighbors to the North?

The Man-Made Miracle of Oil from Sand

A dispatch from Alberta's oil sands

August 9, 2011

Ronald Bailey

The oil sands of Canadian province of Alberta contain 1.7 trillion barrels of oil of which 170 billion can be commercially produced using today's technologies at current prices. The Canadians want to sell us millions of barrels more per day, but environmental lobbyists oppose it as "dirty oil." How to balance U.S. energy security versus concerns about greenhouse gas emissons? Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey reports back in his first dispatch from his oil sands junket.

The Coming Autopocalypse

The Obama administration's proposed CAFE rules declare a war on cars

July 26, 2011

Shikha Dalmia

The Obama administration claims it “saved” the American auto industry by bailing it out to the tune of $100 billion. But as Shikha Dalmia observes, it now looks like the White House wants to kill the industry off. In one fell swoop, Dalmia writes, Obama’s newly proposed fuel efficiency standards will hurt taxpayers, drivers, car buyers, and autoworkers. That’s tantamount to declaring a war on cars without first seeking a formal declaration from Congress.

Natural Gas Flip-Flop

Big environmental groups were for fracking before they were against it.

July 22, 2011

Ronald Bailey

In his column from the August/September issue of Reason, Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey looks at the debate over producing clean-burning natural gas from shale via hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and discovers that big environmental groups were for fracking before they were against it.

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