(This article first ran in Transportation Innovations newsletter.) Editor’s note: Virginia’s next Governor could learn lessons from the examples in this article and dramatically improve the faulty bridges in our state. The collapse of one span of the I-5 bridge in Washington State several months ago has led to considerable...
Environmental alarmists are demanding that we embrace “revenue-neutral” carbon taxes and carbon dioxide regulations, before it’s “too late” to prevent “catastrophic” global warming, “monster” storms and rising seas that will “inundate our coastal cities.”Anyone dissenting from this “call to action” is a climate change “denier” – a pejorative devised to...
It’s becoming “silly season” in the race for Governor, and candidates should be spending their time offering positive policy solutions, says Mike Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute.
... Oil Sheikhs finance Hollywood movies against it. HBO “documentaries” are made about it. TV “news” complains about it. Opposing it is the latest cause celeb in environmental politics. What can cause such a commotion? It is hydraulic fracturing, a process essential to our nation’s natural gas future. The battle over...
Read Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s plans for pre-K through 12 education, and you’ll find a lot in common: Both want a new emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricula, to reform the state Standards of Learning to incorporate more problem solving and critical thinking, and...
(This first ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch) The real estate industry has been showing signs of sustained growth over the last year. That’s good news for an industry that has been in a severe contraction since the recession of 2007-2009. Residential investment grew by double digit rates in the...
(This first ran in Surface Transportation Innovations.) Virginia’s Midtown Tunnel P3 project, being delivered as a $1.7 billion toll concession, has been challenged in court as an unconstitutional delegation of tolling authority to Virginia DOT (and hence to the concession company, a joint venture of Macquarie and Skanska). To the...
The EPA since 2009 has adopted a confrontational relationship with the states. This power grab does not impact just the states, but you and your pocketbook. In fact, an Illinois congressman said this about EPA: “There is an outlaw in Washington…and Congress must police it.” A new report issued by...
Read Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s plans for pre-K through 12 education and you’ll find a lot in common: Both want a new emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricula, to reform the state Standards of Learning to incorporate more problem solving and critical thinking, and...
The Jefferson Journal: Why Restrict Energy Development?
Oil Sheikhs finance Hollywood movies against it. HBO “documentaries” are made about it. TV “news” complains about it. Opposing it is the latest cause celeb in environmental politics. What can cause such a commotion? It is hydraulic fracturing, a process essential to our nation’s natural gas future, and the battle...