The Path to Fair and Equitable Carbon Pricing

This morning, as I was eating my breakfast, I was thinking about global warming and carbon taxes as I usually do. We had some important progress done this year, and we can use the momentum we have gotten from this next year to pass significant legislation in 2020 in the Washington State Legislature. Brief history …

More on Open Border policies around the world, Part One

As I have described in previous posts, I have been looking at outliers for open border policy around the world. Today I did a lot of work on it, improved my data, and now have a database of 208 borders in the world, with 124 different countries represented. Let’s dig into the data. To refresh, …

What legislation will pass

When designing legislation which has a chance of passing, there are a number of things which a legislator or non-profit needs to keep in mind. Based on my personal experience as a Carbon Washington employee, and volunteering for education and LGBT* rights, I have a few ideas, 3 regarding specific bills, and 2 regarding general …

Why a Pigouvian Tax Cannot Play Favorites

This week has been amazing, with three major pieces of legislation which will reduce emissions in Washington State over the (very) long term passing and being signed by Governor Inslee this week. This is following 5 years of work which Carbon Washington and Audubon Washington have been doing to try to get policies which achieve …

The Mueller Probe is not over

Greek dramas are written in 3 acts. The first act sets the stage and gives a taste of what is to come. That was Mueller spending the last two years gathering evidence. The second act is a ramp up to the climax, which is many different pardon-proof trials happening all over this country in multiple …

Trump’s summary of the Mueller Report is bullshit

I am supposed to believe someone who was handpicked by a man who was just under investigation for two years that there was indeed interference in our election by a foreign enemy power (Russia), but that after repeated attempts to reach out to the Trump campaign, the Trump campaign said no and the Russians continued …

Status of the 2020 election as of February 2019

This is proving to be one of the most crowded presidential primaries in a very long time. Only paying attention to governors and Senators (because those are the ones with an actual possibility of winning) we have: Cory Booker Kirsten Gillibrand Kamala Harris Amy Klobuchar Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren 6% of  the Senate, and 12.8% …

Fight Global Warming

Cut American emission in half Overview: EIAOverview of sources: EIA Where we need to do the most work: 50% of Northeast Ohio’s emissions come from electricity production. Geothermal plants could reduce this significantly. gcbl Wyoming has the most emissions per capita. 57% of their energy is for housing. Geothermal heating could significantly reduce emissions in …

Venezuela February 2019

There is a lot of talk about Venezuela currently with people making many erroneous claims. This is meant to be a relatively in depth study of Venezuela’s economy, political structure, and history. History Pre-History Venezuela has been inhabited by people for thousands of years. Colonialization Venezuela was conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century, …