In 2004 Logan, Utah, saw the opportunity to place a turbine within the city's culinary water system. The turbine would reduce excess water pressure and would generate clean, low-cost electricity for the city's residents. Federal funding was available, and the city qualified for a grant under the...

This paper examines effects that voting systems can have on electoral outcomes in multicandidate elections. Using ballots collected from a county Republican Party special election, we recount the votes using preference based voting systems and compare the results to the special election outcome....

Recent bankruptcies in the coal industry have stoked concerns regarding the efficacy of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). We review the history of SMCRA through a public choice lens focusing on bonding and the Abandoned Mine Land fund (AML). Overall, SMCRA can be...

Local self-governance institutions, which emerge through a slow trial and error process, can solve common property resource problems. Elinor Ostrom, the 2009 Nobel Prize winner in economics, suggests in her work that the presence of local leaders is a prerequisite for the successful solution of...

Many analysts suggest that the Endangered Species Act's restrictions on property rights discourage conservation by encouraging landowners to "shoot, shovel and shut up" if they discover an endangered specie's presence on their land. To overcome that perverse incentive, the Bush administration is...

In April of 2018, an optical gas imaging (OGI) and full flow sampler (FFS) emissions measurement study of pneumatic controllers (PCs) at 15 oil and natural gas production sites in West Virginia was conducted. A total of 391 PC systems supporting 66 working wells were found. All were classified...