Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

President's Yucca Policy Inconsistent with Nuclear Rhetoric

President Obama's effort to terminate the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project could end America's nuclear renaissance before it even begins.

Green Jobs: Environmental Red Tape Cancels Out Job Creation

The push for "green jobs" is likely to harm the economy and reduce the prospects for net job growth.

Conditions and Policy Reforms Must Accompany Nuclear Loan Guarantee Boost

President Obama's expansion of nuclear loan guarantees would institutionalize the inefficiencies that subsidies create.

What Boxer-Kerry Will Cost the Economy

Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are pushing their climate-change legislation in the Senate. Like the Waxman-Markey bill, passed by the House last year, Boxer-Kerry is a cap-and-trade bill. Why is that bad? Because severely restricting greenhouse gas emission places an enormous burden on American families--higher gasoline prices, higher heating costs, higher energy taxes, higher unemployment. The Heritage Foundation's team of economic and climate-change experts details the extraordinary costs that will fall on businesses and families across the country should this legislation become law.

The EPA's Global Warming Regulation Plans

Congress should amend the Clean Air Act in order to prevent the EPA from bankrupting the nation.

The Environmentalist's Profound Arrogance

Is this America? Over the past year, we have seen a new Administration and Congress make a concerted effort to give the federal government expansive power over nearly every sector of our economy. Polls show that the American people are uneasy with this big government approach and the impact it will have on our country’s future. That suspicion is especially pronounced when it comes to global warming.

"Climategate" Should Derail Copenhagen Climate Conference

Is it a good thing that delegates from the United States and 191 other countries have convened a U.N. conference in Copenhagen to work on a new global-warming treaty? Well, it's good to the extent that warming is a real problem. But the "climategate" scandal -- the release of e-mails and other documents indicating gross misconduct among key scientists -- suggests otherwise.

Copenhagen a Step Backwards -- Toward Reality

To fully appreciate what a step backwards the final Copenhagen accord is, one has to recall the buildup to it. For the last two years, global warming activists and UN officials had circled December 2009 on their calendars as the watershed moment for creating a new carbon-constrained global economy for decades to come. And in the nick of time, they would argue, as the existing targets in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol are scheduled to expire in 2012.

All Economic Pain, No Environmental Gain

Rep. Sensenbrenner is right -- a major deal in Copenhagen or a comparable domestic global warming bill would be all economic pain for no environmental gain. If President Obama wants to truly represent the interests of the American people, he would not sign onto an agreement with any real teeth.

Climate Conferees Should Do Nothing

At the ongoing U.N. conference on climate change in Copenhagen, proponents of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol -- for which initial commitments expire in 2012 -- are trying to hash out a new international agreement for lowering carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, a new global energy tax may be in the works.

Poor Nations Have Better Things to Worry About

As a first-time observer at a UN climate change conference, one thing that stands out here in Copenhagen is just how many delegates come from nations that ought to have far higher priorities than dealing with global warming.