Solar energy systems purchased in the United States have increased tenfold since 2010. As solar photovoltaics (PV) markets expand, solar energy becomes more affordable. In the last five years, the price of solar has decreased by 40 percent. Despite solar PV becoming more affordable and rising consumer demand, between 50...
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group formed in 1960 and often blamed for the oil shock of 1973, is treated as a cartel that aims to limit oil production and hold oil price at a level above market equilibrium. Recent research has offered a counter theory that...
In 2016, the state of Oregon passed landmark legislation that doubles the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard and eliminates the use of coal-fired electricity for the state’s two major electric utilities by 2030. The legislation was the first of its kind in the country to outright ban the use of a...
In The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria argues that there has emerged "too
much democracy" and too little liberty in the world today, and suggests this trend may
lead to a crisis of belief in democracy. However, what Zakaria calls "democratization" in
many cases does not lead to democracy.
The...
There are currently 43 countries which have adopted some kind of carbon pricing policy – either adopted a carbon tax or entered a cap–and–trade, while the remaining countries have not. This has created significant diversity in the world with regard to climate change mitigation. There is thus a need to...
Renewable energy policy serves as a tool to combat the hazards that fossil energy sources pose to human health and the global environment. It is also being used to achieve additional social and economic goals alongside environmental policy, namely, bringing equitable liberation to populations disproportionately affected by increasing global temperatures....
Humanitarian intervention by the United States has increased since the end of the Cold War. This thesis examines the cases of Somalia, Rwanda, Libya and Syria as to explore why the US chooses to offer various amounts of aid to some failed or fragile nation states and not others. Rwanda...
The law commonly referred to as Title IX, which was passed in 1972, called for an end to sex-based discrimination in educational and federally-funded settings. Before long, it became particularly associated with the quest for equality for women’s sports. As Title IX was a major catalyst in advancing and even...
Nuclear energy enjoyed widespread support in the United States during its initial decades and has seen extensive study as a potential means of combating contemporary energy issues such as climate change and alternative transportation fuels. Despite the potential contribution to solving these challenges, the industry has been largely stagnant since...
Cities of the world today house more than half the world’s population, contribute to 80 percent of the global GDP, consume approximately 70 percent of the global energy and produce 70 percent of the greenhouse gases produced worldwide (Floater et al., 2014; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014). City governments...