Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category

If you feed a dinosaur, you get a bigger dinosaur. Just don’t come complaining to me when it eats you.

Find out how much Uncle Sam is willing to pay you for upgrading your home’s insulation, furnace, or windows through the pending Homestar Program. Cha-ching!

Today, a juxtaposition of two very related, but conflicting “strategies” regarding our attempts to extract oil from under the ocean. Of course, if you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ll know that an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded on April 20th, killing 11 people before sinking into the ocean.  Now, the [...]

As many of you know, this is the weekend for North Carolina’s Cash for Appliance rebate program.  I don’t need to reiterate my objections to the recent series of “clunker” giveaways, but I’ll let Adrienne from Home Performance NC sum up one of the social costs: The only thing I’m not thrilled about in the [...]

via Greentech Media: One of the main arguments that pro-ethanol lobby groups like the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy make in defense of the generous Congressional subsidies to U.S. corn ethanol producers is that Brazil unfairly competes by slapping a 20% tariff on imported ethanol, effectively locking out U.S. ethanol exports. Well, so [...]

This Food Pyramid infographic has been making the rounds lately, asking the question “Why does a salad cost more than a Big Mac?” The answer it suggests is that government funding for the meat and dairy industries makes bad foods cheap. Sound familiar? These pyramids have been widely lambasted for engaging in bad graphic design, [...]

This just in: Smokey the Bear had it all wrong.  Now it seems that only YOU can cause forest fires. There’s mounting evidence that our fire suppression program over the last few decades has actually made forest fires worse. Instead of allowing frequent, smaller burns that remove brush and tinder from the forest floor, we allow [...]

You’ll have to forgive yesterday’s satiric look at the government’s new “Homestar” program.  I just couldn’t resist the name association. The press release was fake, but the frustration was real: Why do we need further incentive to do the things that already have a financial benefit? My suspicion is that the average American homeowner lacks [...]

On Tuesday, President Obama announced his plans to make Homestar Runner, that lovable armless marshmallow from internet cartoons, the United States’ new Energy Efficiency Czar. As part of his jobs agenda, the President outlined the potential for energy efficiency improvements, like insulation and window retrofits, to put furloughed construction workers back to work.  He emphasized [...]

Alex Lundry of TargetPoint gives a witty introduction to the way that statistics and data visualization are quickly becoming political weapons. It’s Pecha Kucha-style, so it moves fast! And you may want to put on your headphones if you’re in public, because he does drop the F-bomb.  My ears! via The Extreme Presentation blog