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Full-Text Articles in Business
High Efficiency Devices, Cfl Light Bulbs, Caveat Emptor, Robert Mccormick
High Efficiency Devices, Cfl Light Bulbs, Caveat Emptor, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
Starting in January, the common incandescent light bulb becomes illegal, well maybe, in most of the United States. (Some recalcitrant states, SC and TX to name two, seem hell bent on reminding the federal government of the long forgotten 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but wasn’t that fight settled a long time ago?) Advocates of this law say that it encourages the use of more energy efficient lighting sources such as CFL and LED lights. It has been noted that a large fraction of the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb goes to create heat and not light, …
Wolves, Mosques, And Other Environmental Problems, Robert Mccormick
Wolves, Mosques, And Other Environmental Problems, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
Most environmental issues involve resource conflicts. One person wants to use a river to carry away her waste products, while another one wants to swim and fish in the same stream. Often these uses conflict and collide. A modern example of how “enviropreneurs,” or environmental entrepreneurs, come to see these conflicts involves wolf restoration to Yellowstone National Park. Since wolves were exterminated from the park by rangers in 1922, some people have worked like crazy to get them back against all odds. Ranchers of cattle and sheep despise the wolf for what it does to their herds. In the late …
Some Taxes Are Good, But The Good Die Young, Robert Mccormick
Some Taxes Are Good, But The Good Die Young, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
There is a budding bipartisan proposal to increase the federal highway gas tax. A Republican senator from Tennessee, Bob Corker, and a Democratic senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, are co-sponsoring a bill to raise the highway gas tax 6 cents per gallon twice over the next two years, a 12-cent total increase.
The Premium And Other Sensible Nonsense, Robert Mccormick
The Premium And Other Sensible Nonsense, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
As this working paper by Steven and Alison Sexton explains, there is a substantial, and important, price premium that Toyota Prius buyers are willing to pay to drive a Prius. They are clearly buying something other than mere transportation. To some—indeed many—this waste of resources seems silly. To others it seems wonderful. The comparable gasoline-powered Toyota costs several thousand dollars less. Why would anybody do this? After all, the Prius buyer could purchase the equivalent gas Toyota and use the savings to donate to an environmental organization, or to pay the local boy or girl scouts to pick up litter? …
10 Years Of Enviropreneurs, Robert Mccormick
10 Years Of Enviropreneurs, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
The lives of many and the face of PERC were indelibly impacted some 11 years ago when Bruce Yandle, PERC senior fellow and Dean Emeritus of the Business School at Clemson University, met with members of the Searle Family and their Kinship Foundation. The meeting was to discuss the idea of creating a leadership institute that would focus on environmental managers and issues. What became of that meeting was an idea whose time had come: to bring management principles, economics, property rights, markets, and business ideas to the environmental movement. Soon after, the idea of a leadership institute was born …
"To Call A Situation Hopeless Is To Call It Ideal", Robert Mccormick
"To Call A Situation Hopeless Is To Call It Ideal", Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
The political and rhetorical battle lines have been drawn, and people are deciding which side they will take in the climate change crisis. On the one hand, we have most traditional environmental activists, a consensus of physical scientists, and a host of politicians who insist that we must do something about carbon emissions. This group wants to subsidize electric cars and solar power production, tax or ban coal-fired power plants, ban incandescent light bulbs, among other planned, top-down approaches. This group seems to believe that doing something is better than nothing. To do nothing, even if it won’t matter much, …
Crosses, Stars, Moons, And Green Street-Side Bins, Robert Mccormick
Crosses, Stars, Moons, And Green Street-Side Bins, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
What do these four symbols have in common? Well, to start with they all cost resources, that is, they are not free. Why in the heck then do practitioners waste their money on them? Why do churches have steeples, and synagogues wonderfully ornate glass windows, and mosques, exquisite wool carpets? Surely the money spent on these trappings could have been used to do missionary work, feed the poor, or heal the sick. What is going on?
Brainless Sustainablility, Robert Mccormick
Brainless Sustainablility, Robert Mccormick
Robert E McCormick
One of the envirobuzzwords of the 21st century is sustainability. I recently googled the term “environmental sustainability” and there were over 11 million hits. The National Science Foundation makes grants for sustainable engineering which “typically considers long term horizons.” More generally, most people think of sustainability as the capacity to endure.