“You don’t want [California’s] system with caps, where you have trading, you have derivatives, you have markets that then collapse and don’t actually reduce emissions much. That’s been tried in Europe, and it didn’t do much.”

– James Hansen, quoted in David Baker, “James Hansen Blasts Cap-and-Trade,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 5, 2012.

“Cap-and-trade’s complexity provides a breeding ground for special interests…. Why do those special interests deserve it anyhow?”

– James Hansen, “The People vs. Cap-and-Tax,” New York City, January 12, 2010.

NASA climate scientist James Hansen has long attracted criticism as the progenitor of modern climate alarmism. In recent years, Hansen has been prone to hyperbolic statements against fossil fuels, ignoring the moral imperative for abundant, affordable, and reliable mass energies (called progressive energy by Alex Epstein).…

“The UN’s ‘Deep Decarbonization Pathways’ … will require a radical transformation of economic and energy systems by 2050, through massive declines in carbon intensity in all sectors. It is not about modest or incremental change [but] … major changes in every country’s energy and production systems, over both the mid-term and long-term.”

Radical Islamist terrorists just maimed and murdered hundreds of people in Paris, dozens more in Mali, still more in other nations. They promise more atrocities in the United States and around the globe.

Meanwhile some 40,000 bureaucrats, politicians, scientists, lobbyists, activists and journalists plan to enjoy five-star Parisian hotels and restaurants, while attending COP21, the twenty-first UN Climate Change Conference, from November 30 through December 11. Like President Obama, they insist that humanity faces no greater threat than climate change.…

[Editor note: An under-the-radar federal energy intervention is to force fossil-fueled water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part II tomorrow.]

In March of 2015, MasterResource.org published my article, Giving (tax) Credit Where Credit Isn’t Due: “Geothermal” Heat Pumps (and beyond) where I asked: “So what’s next, calling toaster ovens and electric resistance water heaters renewable?”

Apparently, the answer is electric resistance water heaters since they are now being depicted (unwittingly or otherwise) as “batteries” for thermally storing “clean” electric energy.  But toasters may not be far behind. The following article is about the latest rash of “crony environmentalism” under the guise of “deep decarbonization” through increased electrification of everything possible; regardless of adverse economic impacts.

Introduction & Background

For better or worse, Congress has delegated broad authority to the Department of Energy (DOE) to mandate minimum energy efficiency standards for most major (and many minor) residential and commercial energy consuming products.…

[Editor note: An under-the-radar energy intervention is to force fossil-fuel fired water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part I yesterday.]

Why should electricity monopolize energy if gas-fired alternatives are more economical as determined by self-interested consumers?

If the objective is low carbon water heaters, there are more direct means of doing so. The following graphics compare the full fuel-cycle efficiencies of traditional gas water heater to electric water heaters:

Gas Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency

Electric Resistance Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency

Note: The previous two graphs are used with permission form the Gas Technology Institute

The electric utility industry prefers a site-based energy efficiency metric because it can indicates that switching to an electric resistance water heater from a gas water heater can “save” over 30% more energy. …