For decades in the climate change debates, we’ve heard that reducing carbon emissions will cost society too much money. Indeed, curbing CO2 emissions is expensive. For a large economy like the U.S., which emits about six billion tons annually, the price tag can range anywhere from a staggering $60 to $600 billion. Every year.

Donald J. Trump made many important campaign promises on his way to victory. But saving coal is one promise he won’t be able to keep. Many in Appalachia and other coal-mining regions believe that President Obama’s supposed war on coal caused a steep decline in the industry’s fortunes. But coal’s struggles …

With the recent congressional budget negotiations putting a spotlight on the need to raise revenues, and with our transportation infrastructure in many places crumbling before our eyes, it is time to consider modernizing the gas tax. Doing so would help fill the budget gap while updating and improving our transportation systems …

On December 20, 2015, a mountain of urban refuse collapsed in Shenzhen, China, killing at least 69 people and destroying dozens of buildings. The disaster brought to life the towers of waste depicted in the 2008 dystopian children's movie WALL-E, which portrayed the horrible yet real idea that our trash could pile up uncontrollably, squeezing us out of our habitat. A powerful way to transform …

In June the state of Florida made an unusual announcement: it would sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the corps’s plan to reduce water flow from reservoirs in Georgia into the Apalachicola River, which runs through Florida from the Georgia-Alabama border. Florida was concerned that the restricted flow would threaten certain endangered species. Alabama also objected, worried …