Ronald L. Sass

The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (HR 4435) on May 22. The bill specifies the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense and sets the policies under which money (somewhat in excess of 600 billion dollars) will be spent on our country’s defense. Congress knows that this bill must be passed each year in order for our armed services to continue to operate, making it a good vehicle for some interesting rogue amendments. Continue Reading →

Speaking from the historic steps of Old North on the Georgetown University campus on June 25, 2013, President Obama unveiled a detailed plan to address the causes and impacts of climate change. In his words, the president promised, “I’m directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants, and complete new pollution standards for both new and existing power plants.” Not quite a year later on June 6, 2014, Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, responded by proposing “state-specific rate-based goals for carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector, as well as guidelines for states to follow in developing plans to achieve the state-specific goals.” Continue Reading →

On May 5, the National Climate Assessment published its third report, “Climate Change Impacts in the United States.” Will the Congress of the United States respond actively to the report rather than do nothing, as it has in the past? Continue Reading →

Somewhere immediately after October 20, Houston was, and remains, visited by a plague of mosquitoes of biblical proportion. Where did they come from and when will they leave? Continue Reading →