Commentary

Reason in the news

Two quick excerpts from today’s news– The Contra Costa Times reports:

The United States isn’t likely to save electricity from the extended daylight-saving time that starts Sunday, contrary to Congress’ reasons for ordering the change, two UC Berkeley economists concluded in a study released Thursday.

The study in question is here. Reason’s David Nott wrote about the dim daylight-saving idea last year: Putting the Cuckoo in our Clocks. And from the Fresno Bee:

The Valley air district today will release an updated smog cleanup plan that calls for scrapping 30,000 polluting passenger cars….The district proposes to identify the worst polluters through state smog-testing records. Owners would be approached and offered $5,000 apiece to sell their cars. The district will destroy the vehicles it purchases. If all 30,000 are taken off the road, two tons of pollution would be eliminated each day.

Reason’s Joel Schwartz made the case for focusing California’s Smog Check program on voluntary scrap of gross polluters here.