State Senate report correctly blames state and city leadership for the summer’s riots

Walz says Frey was to blame, Frey says Walz was to blame. The Senate report says they were both right. 

Xcel Energy Ties Executive Pay to Emissions Goals: Minnesotans Pay the Price

Government-approved monopolies like Xcel Energy operate under a perverse incentive structure in Minnesota. The more these companies spend on new wind turbines, solar panels, and natural gas plants, the higher their government guaranteed profit soar. This is why Xcel Energy’s corporate profits have increased in lock-step with renewable energy generation. Another factor influencing Xcel Energy’s advocacy of closing down their coal plants decades before the end of their useful lifetimes and building wind and solar is the fact that Xcel is one of the few utilities to tie executive compensation to performance on emissions goals. This incentive was established as...

Yale researchers found that childcare programs are not a big contributor to the spread of Covid-19

According to a study conducted by Yale Researcher, childcare programs that stayed open have not been a major contributor to the spread of Covid-19. This is the first large-scale study specifically targeting childcare programs, and it, therefore, presents valuable insights especially to parents and childcare providers.

AMERICAN EXPERIMENT BOOK SHELF

How state policy affects economies on opposite sides of the Red River

North Dakota is benefiting from its economic policies. We hope that Minnesota will take note.

Study: Solar Panels Reduce Nearby Property Values

A newly-released study from the University of Rhode Island (URI) has found that solar facilities reduce property values for nearby properties. I’m generally skeptical about studies that claim to be able to model the impact of a given development on neighboring property values because I have reservations about many of the assumptions used to formulate them (sound familiar), but I’d encourage you all to look at the methods used to come to these conclusions and decide for yourselves whether you think they are reasonable, or not. Study Results: Solar is Driving Down Property Values The study examined more than 400,000...

U of MN webinar focuses on 12 steps to recover from ‘white conditioning’

Based on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, part one of a webinar series co-hosted by the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work focuses on "recovery from white conditioning."

MEA framed as distance learning-focused, but was it?

The teachers' union MEA conference was framed as being distance learning focused. But looking through the offered workshops, few addressed distance learning-related challenges. Maybe that's why so few teachers participated in the union's politically charged event?

Jim Cooper: An Open Letter On Environmental Racism on the Power Hungry Podcast

In an August 3 open letter, California Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a Democrat from Elk Grove, called out the state’s environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council, saying that they promote policies that “systematically drive racial economic inequities and fuel environmental racism.” In this episode, Robert talks with Cooper about what motivated him to write the letter, why he wants to eliminate California’s EV rebate program, and why the state’s energy and climate policies should be overhauled. Listen to Assemblyman Cooper on Robert Bryce’s Power Hungry Podcast by watching the video below.