Energy and Environment

U.S. to Withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty

President Trump on Thursday announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement.  While the decision has been met with much hand-wringing, Cato scholar Patrick J. Michaels calls the move a step in the right direction: “The Paris climate treaty is climatically insignificant. …Because of our private investments in technological innovation, America leads the world in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. We did that without Paris, and we will continue our exemplary leadership without it.”

Who Owns U.S. Infrastructure?

As part of its 2018 budget proposal, the Trump administration has introduced a plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The administration intends to reduce regulatory barriers that delay infrastructure projects and raise project costs. It also intends to encourage private investment in infrastructure through privatization and public-private partnerships. In a new bulletin, Cato scholar Chris Edwards argues that a reduced federal role would allow for increases in private investment and more efficient state and local investment.

The Case against a Carbon Tax

Some proponents of federal policies to combat climate change are arguing for a federal carbon tax. Within conservative and libertarian circles, some proponents claim that a revenue-neutral carbon tax “swap” could deliver a double dividend, reducing climate change while shifting some of the nation’s tax burden onto carbon emissions, which supposedly would spur the economy. A new paper from Robert P. Murphy, Patrick J. Michaels, and Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger argues that, both in theory and in practice, the case for a U.S. carbon tax is weaker than its most vocal supporters have led the public to believe.

Cato Studies

More Cato Studies

Of Special Note

The Three Languages of Politics

The Three Languages of Politics

First released in 2013, and now available as a newly revised Cato ebook and paperback, Arnold Kling’s The Three Languages of Politics could not be any more timely, as Americans talk past one another in a growing swirl of volume, heat, and disinterest in contrary opinions. An insightful guide on how to lower the barriers coarsening our politics, this isn’t a book about one ideology over another. Instead, it is about how we communicate issues and our ideologies, and how language intended to persuade can too often divide. Kling offers a way to see through our rhetorical blinders so that we can incorporate new perspectives and thinking into the important issues we must together share and resolve.

Special! 10 Copies for $10

Cato Pocket Constitution

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.

Now Available

The Libertarian Mind Audiobook

The Libertarian Mind, by David Boaz, longtime executive vice president of the Cato Institute, is the best available guide to the history, ideas, and growth of libertarianism, and is the ultimate resource for the current, burgeoning libertarian movement. This acclaimed book is now available as a fully unabridged audiobook, ready for immediate downloading, on Audible.com.

The Supreme Court: Past and Prologue
A Look at the October 2016 and 2017 Terms

The annual Constitution Day symposium, presented by Cato’s Center for Constitutional Studies, marks the day in 1787 that the Constitutional Convention finished drafting the U.S. Constitution. We celebrate that event each year with the release of the new issue of the Cato Supreme Court Review and with a day-long symposium featuring noted scholars discussing the recently concluded Supreme Court term and the important cases coming up.