“Climate change has many faces,” notes the website for Earth Day 2013, which took place Monday, April 22. “A man in the Maldives worried about relocating his family as sea levels rise, a farmer in Kansas struggling to make ends meet as prolonged drought ravages the crops ... the polar bear in the melting arctic, the tiger in India’s threatened mangrove forests. ...”

It’s a lengthy list. Unfortunately, it’s incomplete.

It’s time to add a few more faces to the pitiful environment painted by Earth Day organizers.

• An entrepreneur and small business shouldering the regulatory burden. Read More»

With less than 40 days to the Nov. 6 elections, passions, tempers and misinformation are on the rise regarding a school choice question on the ballot in Georgia.

Georgia voters will decide whether the state should be able to consider and authorize the creation of a public charter school, at the applicant’s request, if a local public school system rejects the charter application. Read More»

Given the wall-to-wall coverage of the upcoming regional transportation sales tax referendum, Georgians could hardly be blamed for believing that all transportation improvement in the state, and especially metro Atlanta, hinges on voter approval of the 10-year, penny sales tax on July 31.

In fact, there are ways to improve transportation policy and funding that can and should be implemented, whether the tax passes or not. Read More»

From a historic building on the banks of the Etowah River in Rome, Ga., Ed Watters and his co-workers design elaborate gardens and manage a successful landscape company with a staff of more than 60. Behind the serene décor of the Outdoor Living Studio, however, lurk onerous regulatory hoops that the company must jump through to do business. Read More»

The “Untie Atlanta” commercials on radio and TV are nothing if not clever. Frustrated commuters can relate to the visual onslaught on TV of roads tangled in a giant knot and the radio announcement, accompanied by blaring horns, that says “Traffic in metro Atlanta is tied up in knots ... Let’s untie the knot. Vote yes for the July 31 Regional Transportation Referendum.” Read More»

The headline on an article in The Onion satirical magazine in 2000 was, “Report: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others.”

Sometimes truth is even stranger than fiction. Fewer than four out of every 100 metro Atlanta workers rely on public transportation for their daily commutes, according to Census Bureau data.

Yet the priorities in proposals for congestion relief in metro Atlanta would lead any outsider to believe that the public is clamoring for more mass transit. Read More»

Atlanta resident Josiah Neff is so passionate about civil asset forfeiture reform in Georgia that last year he filed suit. One of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit against law enforcement agencies in Atlanta and Fulton County, the software company employee was outraged that the agencies didn’t even bother to comply with state law requiring them to disclose the private property they seized under suspicion that it was used or involved in criminal activity. Read More»

Imagine serving Brussels sprouts instead of broccoli casserole at Christmas dinner. You know most guests won’t eat them, but you believe they’ll bring balance to the meal and that guests will like them if only they taste them. That is the “build-it-they-will-come” mentality behind the project list for the July 31, 2012, penny transportation sales tax referendum in the Atlanta region. Read More»

An annual survey of the nation’s roads by the Reason Foundation reveals a lot about congestion in Georgia. The state is ranked 10th in the nation for spending on maintenance but 39th for capital spending. It was No. 1 for the condition of its interstates, but at 31 in the nation for the percent of urban congestion.

Put simply, Georgia’s roads are in great condition because they’re well maintained. But they’re congested because the state lags in adding capacity. And the state’s most congested urban region seems set to miss the best opportunity yet. Read More»

The federal Environmental Protection Agency was in Atlanta on May 26 to hold a daylong hearing – one of just three nationwide – on its proposed Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) regulations for utilities. The passionate – if sometimes misguided – comments came from representatives of utilities, power plant neighbors, Native Americans, environmental activists, grassroots groups and the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

The Foundation’s comments focused on three aspects of the proposed MACT rules:

• The cost to industry and consumers in Georgia Read More»