At a recent ExxonMobil annual meeting, members of the Rockefeller family made news by backing a shareholder proposal to change company policy in an effort to alleviate global warming. The resulting media attention raised questions about the proper role of institutional investors in voting on political or social issues brought...

The forlorn and increasingly desperate climate campaign achieved a new level of ineptitude last week when what had looked like a minor embarrassment for one of its critics​—​the Chicago-based Heartland Institute​—​turned out to be a full-fledged catastrophe for itself. A moment’s reflection on the root of this episode points to why the climate campaign is out of (greenhouse) gas.

The reasons Exelon CEO John Rowe has talked up natural gas come down to economics, ecology, technology, and history.

Sorry, Judd Gregg. You can do all the legislating you want, but you can't repeal the law of supply and demand.

Last week's announcement by four major oil companies that they are setting up a billion dollar joint venture to create a rapid-response system to contain deep offshore oil spills shows that private firms can act faster in a crisis than government regulators.

It seems almost crass to bring up economic issues at a time like this, but Katrina has triggered a mindless hysteria over energy prices that must be addressed. What are the facts?

Before state legislatures or Congress would enact laws, which would be administered by regulatory agencies; now we are regulating U.S. industry through lawsuits.

With legal celebrities on the job, the facts of lawsuits don't matter much, as most companies, worried by the thought of runaway juries, decide to settle.