The Jefferson Journal
Commentary
This spring the already-serious problem of insufficient safe parking spaces for long-haul trucks has gotten significantly worse. As noted last issue, the new federal effort to seriously enforce federal Hours of Service (HOS) rules, thanks to electronic log books (ELDs), means thousands of drivers are desperate to find a safe...
A New York Supreme Court struck down portions of a General Permit which would regulate large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued a General Permit under its own water statute and the Clean Water Act (CWA). New York’s DEC regulates CAFOs in...
If we continue to burn coal to generate electricity, we might destroy the Earth’s capacity to support life. If we switch to natural gas, then fracking might poison the water and set our faucets on fire. Biomass sounds good, but burning it also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Hydroelectric...
Virginia has its very own snail darter – the Roanoke logperch, a threatened species of fish, the existence of which could delay or even obstruct a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project. The snail darter became a cause celebre for endangered species in 1973 when concerns arose that the habitat of the endangered...
A new empirical study in the journal Housing Policy and Debate has set off extensive discussions about Smart Growth and related ideas such as “location-efficient mortgages.” In the study, Nicolas Klein (Cornell) and Michael J. Smart (Rutgers) analyzed data from 11,000 families in a range of income brackets over the...
It’s become a recurring, frustrating pattern, as legislators and regulators ignore the immutable laws of unintended consequences, to drive political agendas or aid favored constituencies, while harming others. A good example is corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards on vehicles. Originally enacted in 1975 to offset the impacts of the...
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology issued a report on March 1, 2018, detailing how Russian-supported entities teamed up with U.S. environmental groups to use social media to raise arguments against the production of oil and natural gas. Meanwhile, Dr. Bonner Cohen recently wrote a...
What if I were to suggest turning all of New York into a national monument? OK, maybe we would exclude the gigantic city, but the rest of that beautiful State could be our newest national monument. You might instinctively see a couple major problems with my idea. There are other...
The U.S. economy has expanded for 107 months as of this month, making it the second longest expansion on record. The big question is whether economic growth will last 15 more months to hit record territory in July 2019 when it would surpass the longest expansion on record at 121...
Interstate 81, which slices through western Virginia, is one of the most heavily trafficked highways in the Old Dominion. Nearly 12 million trucks travel the Interstate, accounting for 42% of all interstate truck traffic in the state and transporting more than $300 billion in goods per year. The tractor-trailers make...