Energy & Environment
What the Media Didn't Tell You in 2025
The Reason editors examine the most underreported stories of 2025 across politics, economics, global affairs, and culture.
These Companies Want To Use AI To Make Cheaper and Cleaner Energy—If the Government Lets Them
Don't blame AI for your high electricity bill. Blame the politicians who are trying to take AI away.
The Most Overlooked Holiday Miracle: Abundance
History shows clearly that the societies most capable of generosity and liberalism are not those trapped in poverty but those that have escaped it.
The Data Center Price Myth
Rising electricity prices are being pinned on data centers, but demand isn’t what makes power expensive.
Avatar: Fire and Ash Is Part Spectacle, Part Retread
An eco-action film that covers too much familiar ground.
The House Just Passed a Bill To Curb Environmental Lawsuits and Speed Up Construction Projects
The SPEED Act is unlikely to pass the Senate, but hopefully it will initiate sorely needed bipartisan reforms.
17 Ways Politicians Can Make Things Cheaper, Starting With Food, Health Care, and Appliances
A real affordability agenda would unleash free markets, not constrain them.
These Researchers Are Turning Plastic Waste Into Fuel
Recent innovations could help address plastic pollution.
The MAHA Administration Bails Out Big Seed Oil
The Trump administration continues a long tradition of subsidizing the things it tells Americans to eat less of.
Trump Says China Didn't Buy Soybeans While Biden Was President. Here's What the Data Show.
American farmers exported more than 26 million metric tons of soybeans to China annually during Biden's term. Trump's deal with China would cover less than half that amount.
Court Blocks Trump's Ban on Wind Power, but Other Anti-Renewable Policies Remain
Trump isn’t the first president to pick energy winners and losers, but he should be the last.
The 2025 Libertarian Gift Guide: 28 Great Ideas for Apocalypse Preppers, Boozers, Self-Improvers—and More
Panicked about holiday shopping? Reason staffers and contributors are here to save the day.
Trump's $11 Billion Farm Bailout Is Further Proof That Tariffs Aren't Working
But don't expect the White House to think too hard about it.
New Car Prices Hit $49,766 in October. Rolling Back Fuel Economy Regulations Could Bring Relief.
Here's a Trump reform that could actually make something more affordable.
The Horseshoe of Doom: Populists Left and Right Say America Is Failing. The Facts Don't.
When voters believe they're living through an economic apocalypse, they're willing to embrace the very policies that would create one.
Why Science Lost Its Way
Author Matt Ridley examines how science became centralized and dogmatic, why public trust collapsed during COVID, and how open dissent is essential to restoring credibility.
A Second Round with William Barr on Litigation Over Interstate Pollution
Whatever the merits of climate tort suits (or lack thereof), the argument they are preempted does not hold up.
Solicitor General Urges Review of FIFRA Preemption
The Department of Justice sides with Monsanto on whether federal law preempts state-law duty-to-warn suits against pesticide manufacturers, setting up an important test of the Court's view of federal preemption.
Republican Socialism: Trump Is Taking Federal Stakes in Private Companies
The Trump administration's pivot toward socialism did not come without warning.
Uncle Sam Makes Thanksgiving Worse
We have many things to be grateful for this time of year. The government isn't one of them.
Thankfully, We Don't Have To Spend As Much of Our Incomes on Food As Our Ancestors Did
The portion that Americans spend on food has fallen steeply over the last century.
D.C. Circuit Upholds Energy Department Ban on Non-Condensing Furnaces and Water Heaters
After this decision, rescinding this Biden Administration rule may be more difficult.
Thanksgiving Traffic Shows the Highway Trust Fund Is Running on Empty
Federal gas taxes no longer cover the cost of highways, leaving taxpayers to fill a growing multibillion-dollar gap.
Taxpayers Still Paying for Hurricane Sandy Relief Mismanagement 13 Years Later, New Report Finds
A recent Transportation Department audit of Hurricane Sandy relief funds found $95 million in questionable costs and $2.9 billion in unspent money.
The U.N. Has Now Held 30 Climate Change Conferences That Have Accomplished Almost Nothing
COP30 in Brazil just ended and was more of the same.
Psychoactive Hemp Products Will Be Federally Prohibited in a Year Unless Congress Intervenes
A spending bill approved as part of the package that ended the federal shutdown aims to close a loophole that gave birth to $28 billion industry.
'Catch Kits' for Fetal Remains Are Republicans' Latest Dystopian Plan To Punish Abortions
GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are pushing the idea that abortions are a water quality issue.
Three Mile Island Can Restart Without Subsidies. The Federal Government Is Giving It $1 Billion Anyway.
Bringing the defunct power plant back online is a good thing. The government's involvement is not.
Missouri Town Will Pay $500K To Settle Lawsuit Over Deputy Shooting Blind and Deaf Dog
The Animal Legal Defense Fund says it's one of the largest settlements for the police killing of a dog.
A Senate-Approved Bill Would Ban the Hemp-Derived THC Products That Congress Legalized in 2018
The appropriations bill, which the House is considering, would wipe out an industry that offers alternatives to cannabis consumers in states that still prohibit recreational marijuana use.
Trump Baselessly Accuses Meat-Packers of 'Criminally Profiting at the Expense of the American People'
There are several reasons why beef prices are at a record high. Collusion isn't one of them.
The U.N. Has Been Holding Climate Conferences for 30 Years. Carbon Emissions Continue To Climb.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperatures are on the rise after 33 years of largely fruitless negotiations.
The Sierra Club Went Woke, and Now Is Going Broke
A heavily reported expose on one of the nation's environmentalist organizations in the New York Times
NYC Proposes a Pantry To Give Away Free Pet Food. That Won't Solve the City's Animal Shelter Crisis.
The surge in shelter surrenders is driven by housing instability, soaring vet costs, and a post-pandemic pet boom, not the cost of kibble.
Wyoming Woman Sues Her Town To Let Her Keep Her Pet Pygmy Goat
Venus Bontadelli thought she'd left the nanny state behind when she fled California. But her new home of Powell, Wyoming, wasn't as free as she'd hoped
Placing Climate Tort Litigation in Context (Updated)
Using tort law for environmental protection has a deeper historical pedigree than does resort to administrative regulation.
Trump's Attorney Concedes: His Legal Theory Would Let a President Tax Foreign Cars To Combat Climate Change
Justice Neil Gorsuch got Solicitor General D. John Sauer to admit one "likely" outcome, if the Supreme Court upholds Trump's tariffs.
New Jersey Sticks With a Conventional Democrat
Mikie Sherrill will mostly continue business as usual—but with the possibility of some regulatory reform.
In Search of a New Environmentalism -- Hayward Replies
Steven Hayward has the final word in the recent Law & Liberty Forum on the future of environmental policy.
William Barr Discovers the Economics of Tort Law (and Misrepresents the Law Governing Interstate Pollution)
Another reply to the former attorney general on climate litigation that may end up in the Supreme Court.
In Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia, Elites Are Alien Creatures
A bleak, absurdist take on the gap between the world of HR corporate speak and ordinary Americans
Republican Socialism Goes Nuclear: Trump Bets $80 Billion on Government-Backed Energy
After years of decline, nuclear energy's prospects are looking bright. The worst thing the government can do now is get more involved in the industry.
Bill Gates Admits That Climate Change 'Will Not Be the End of Civilization'
The Microsoft co-founder recently penned a letter arguing that increasing global prosperity is the best way forward on the issue.
How Property Rights and Markets Are Overcoming the Marine Tragedy of the Commons
A discussion on the "Taboo Trades" podcast.
The Clean Air Act Is Making Our Air Dirtier
Wildfire smoke is bad for your health. Environmental regulations make it worse.
