Weekly Writers Round-Up: Repercussions from Hong Kong, Complexity of the Death Penalty, and Backfiring Green Energy Policy

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? We can help make those a reality. Apply now for our fall session of the Writing Fellows Program! Applications are open now through August 23!

How China’s political earthquake threatens its ‘president for life’ by Tyler Grant (Summer 2018) in The Washington Examiner
Before an earthquake hits, there are tiny indicators along tectonic fault lines that geophysicists think might tell us what’s coming. Along the proverbial Ring of Fire, political tremors in China have rippled for months. The escalating protests in Hong Kong are the result.

Last year, Hong Kong resident Chan Tong-kai killed his girlfriend during a visit to Taiwan and returned to Hong Kong. Police couldn’t extradite Chan because no extradition treaty exists between Hong Kong and Taiwan. To close this loophole, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong proposed the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019, which would allow Hong Kong to extradite fugitives to any country.

What residents worry about most is extradition to China…

The El Paso Shooter Clearly Deserves The Death Penalty — But That’s Not Always the Case by Natalie Dowzicky (Summer 2019) in Townhall
After the El Paso gunman took the lives of 22 people, it’s no surprise that he now faces the death penalty. He’s been charged with federal domestic terrorism by county officials, who have gathered mountains of evidence indicating he’d been planning the attack for some time. Of course, it’s an unspeakable tragedy, and the punishment for such a heavy crime is fitting. As El Paso District Attorney Jaime Esparza told reporters on Sunday, “I know the death penalty is something very powerful, but in this occasion it’s something that’s necessary.” Esparza is right — the penalty is extremely powerful, and this is one case where a state is very clearly being just in wielding that power. Far too often, though, that’s not the case…

Well-Intentioned Energy Policies Are Hurting Consumers by Krisztina Pusok (Fall 2017) in Inside Sources
In most states, homeowners with rooftop solar panels can feed back any excess energy they produce back into the grid, earning either energy credits or direct payments in return. The policy is called net metering, and its intent — to encourage the adoption of clean energy systems — is laudable.

Yet the net metering programs in place around the country create a host of adverse, unintended consequences that outweigh their benefits, especially for low-income households, according to a new report by the American Consumer Institute…