In addition to the disorienting tariff announcements coming out of Washington of late, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted along party lines in late February to repeal the Waste Emissions Charge (WEC), a fee designed to disincentivize the emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas currently responsible for a full third of today's global warming.

Central to former President Joe Biden's climate change mitigation efforts, the WEC measure would have affected only the largest industrial offenders and spurred more effective mitigation efforts to limit fugitive emissions and other methane-release mechanisms. I believe industry can be trusted to continue its ongoing sustainability initiatives—but turning a blind eye to the increasingly tangible effects of greenhouse gas emissions hardly seems to advance our collective best interests. See this issue's first article for more details.

   — Keith Larson, Market Leader