A major scandal has arisen in the biggest environmental lawsuit in history - the $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron oil company brought by a lawyer representing citizens of Ecuador.

As reported in Tuesday’s New York Times, Chevron has released video implicating Ecuador government officials close to the president in a massive bribery scheme.  Chevron claims its covertly recorded videos “reveal a $3 million bribery scheme implicating the judge presiding over the environmental lawsuit currently pending against Chevron and individuals who identify…

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But State Still In Trouble With Global Warming Law

WASHINGTON, DC, July 21, 2009 – Top California lawmakers have included a plan for expanding oil drilling off the Southern California coast, as part of a budget compromise aimed at closing the state’s $26 billion shortfall.  The move drew praise from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“State Republican legislators, led by Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, are to be commended for forcing Republican Governor Schwarzenegger and the Democratic majority in the legislature to accept…

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Check out me and Richard Morrison doing another episode of CEI’s weekly podcast, Liberty Week.  This week we cover:

The “meltdown” on Wall Street
Hurricane Ike
Nancy Pelosi’s opposition to offshore drilling
The War on Bottled Waterâ„¢
A breakthrough for Paralympic athletes

Also, this week we have Radu Burnete (our Romanian intern) joining us to consider how European Union rules have made short cucumbers, uncurved bananas and unpasteurized cheese crimes against the people.

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This summer has made it quite clear that the US is suffering an energy crisis. Not a great one yet, but definitely a harbinger of things to come. And at least part of the crisis has been caused by historical legislative and administrative action that artificially constrained domestic energy supply or imposed undue regulation discouraging new generation. Meanwhile, judicial and administrative action since Mass v EPA have stored up a significant problem for the future as coal power plants have…

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