Libertarian environmentalism
North Carolina has enacted House Bill 467, which should be known as the “Crony Nuisance Protection Act.” Under it any agricultural or forestry business can violate its neighbors’ property rights and avoid fully compensating its neighbors for the harm.
For three years, Utah has worked with property owners to protect prairie dogs. But a decision from the Tenth Circuit threatens to get rid of that conservation program and replace it with more conflict.
Just as competition leads to innovation in the economy, and crony capitalism leads to sluggishness, competition among states is the driving force behind environmental policy innovation.
The Supreme Court is considering an important Takings Clause case on the government’s obligation to pay when it regulates away … More
If the President undoes a monument and successfully defends that action, it could lead to broader reform of the Antiquities Act that allows monuments and many other federal lands to be managed more effectively for both people and the environment.
Climate change challenges conservative and libertarian instincts in a way that makes it harder to believe the evidence, no matter how strong it is. Climate evangelists likewise tend to embrace science and evidence when it confirms their prior political views and reject it otherwise. For progressives and big-government liberals, climate change is easy to accept to the extent it seems to call out for a big-government solution. But even among climate evangelicals, where science and their prior political commitments conflict, politics usually win.
Science is incredibly politicized. Science is extremely important and scientists have a meaningful role in policy questions. But not all science is created equal and not everything a scientist thinks is science.
Free people and free economies have repeatedly shown they’re up to the task of solving environmental problems. Earth Day should be a celebration of that fact.
If Congress can only protect its choices by broadly preempting states laws, it will. And, in the long run, states will have less room to protect the environment than they would if courts continued to enforce the balance. That would be a significant blow to both federalism and the environment.
Environmental permitting should supplement property rights, not destroy them.
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