Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Pull the Plug on Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

March 19, 2013, 9:59pm

Baruch Feigenbaum

Installing electric vehicle car-charging stations may sound like an investment in the future, but electric vehicles produce just as much Carbon Dioxide as traditional vehicles. Additionally such subsidies merely encourage the rich to purchase vehicles they can already afford. If consumers really wanted these vehicles, the government would not have to offer up to a $15,000 subsidy to get Georgia consumers to buy them.

The Limits of Wind Power

Very high wind penetrations are not achievable in practice due to the increased need for power storage, the decrease in grid reliability, and the increased operating costs

October 4, 2012

William J. Korchinski, Julian Morris

Very high wind penetrations are not achievable in practice due to the increased need for power storage, the decrease in grid reliability, and the increased operating costs. Given these constraints, this study concludes that a more practical upper limit for wind penetration is 10%. At 10% wind penetration, the CO2 emissions reduction due to wind is approximately 45g CO2 equivalent/kWh, or about 9% of total.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Boiler MACT Regulation

EPA boiler rules should reflect the real world

April 10, 2012

Adam Peshek

Boiler MACT is an example of a regulation that could be amended in simple, appropriate ways to adhere to the spirit of President Obama’s Executive Order 13563. Instead of moving forward with the current proposed rule, EPA should address the issues raised in this brief, including by:

• Basing MACT floor policy decisions on the performance of actual existing boilers, not the performance of a hypothetical boiler that comprises restrictions for individual pollutants currently only achieved in isolation.
• Setting health-based standards per Section 112(d) (4) of the CAA for acid gases that are prevalent and have historically been regulated according to such standards.
• Only reclassifying fuels as “solid waste” (with all the associated additional burdens) if the EPA is able to prove that such a reclassification will result in substantial health benefits. Currently EPA is moving in the opposite direction, placing the burden of proof on industry to petition to remove substances that have historically been used as fuel.

The Facts Behind EPA's Greenhouse Gas Regulations

April 3, 2012, 5:35pm

Adam Peshek

A Cost Effective Way to Cut Smog

Why the Environmental Protection Agency’s ozone plan will do more harm than good

March 14, 2012

Julian Morris, Adam Peshek

Advocates for the EPA plan claim that ever lower ozone standards would have additional health benefits. If the impact of ozone were linear that would be true; but it is not: once ozone levels reach a certain level, the additional health benefits of further reductions are likely small to non-existent.

EPA's Fuzzy Math

February 17, 2012, 12:42pm

Adam Peshek

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