The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science.
Instead of a science-based approach, our energy and environmental policies are typically written by those who stand to economically or politically profit from them. As a result, anything genuinely science-based in these policies is usually inadvertent and accidental.
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. To this end, every three weeks or so a newsletter is put together to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We very much appreciate MasterResource for its assistance in publishing this information (for the two most recent reports, see here and here).
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A sordid story of wind energy in Rhode Island. This is very representative of what is going on everywhere. Watch this video carefully!
Reports about greed energy economics:
Very significant: How AWEA’s Job Claims are Bogus.
More evidence of extra costs required by wind energy.
Phony wind prices harming nuclear industry.
NREL — secret “lab” wasting your money.
Germany’s Unaffordable Wind Energy.
Germany’s “Green revolution” may cost Taxpayers well over $1 Trillion.
Sequester is a Manufactured Crisis.
Sequestration might hamper development of unreliables.
Sequestration results in 8.7% cut in wind 1603 grants.
More good commentary re sequestration and energy impacts.
Wind project’s $30 million in subsidies to be reviewed.
Despite high wind development, Texas has had a net loss in green jobs since 2010!
Ontario may “solve” wind’s intermittency with a Battery Five Times the Size of Niagara Falls. The cost — who cares?
MPs on the Pay of Subsidized Eco-firms…
BC Hydro’s Billion Dollar Climate Bill.
Investors may sue when handouts stop.
Reports about turbine health matters:
An excellent list where health professionals have expressed turbine concerns.
Health Effects of Infrasound can Cause Death.
Sleep duration predicts cardiovascular outcomes. (Peer reviewed.)
Deaths from various Energy Forms Compared.
Turbine Noise at Fairhaven Massachusetts.
Reports about turbine wildlife matters:
USF&WS and 30 year Eagle killing permits.
Miscellaneous energy reports:
A superb summary of wind’s deficiencies by an economics PhD.
Winds of Change — how communities are destroyed.
Wind Power’s Role Overestimated.
Wind Industry Should be Prosecuted for Fraud
Power Density Separates Wheat from the Chaff.
Offshore Wind Turbines Can Break Like Matches.
Wind Facts from a Different Angle.
NY State Judge dismisses lawsuit by wind developer.
Renewable Energy’s Big Secret.
Wind farms will create more carbon dioxide, say scientists.
Grass Roots Revolt on Green Energy.
Is Your Church Bowing to the Green Dragon?
An Ill Wind Blows in New Hampshire.
Germany “Reaches the Pain Threshold”.
Peak Oil vs Peak Government —> please follow.
Keystone Pipeline — Pyrrhic Victory Ahead?
Solar energy can be a large consumer of water: see here and here.
An article about the new head of DOE.
Manmade global warming articles of interest:
A new solution to global warming, that might actually make sense!
Climate Change Poised to Enter Classrooms.
Survey says: Decades of climate alarmism have had little effect on attitudes.
Normative Science (really good) by Dr. Judith Curry.
Some scientists conclude that CO2 follows global warming.
IPCC head acknowledges 17-year pause in global warming.
Latest Research: EU & Russian Scientists Confirm Medieval Period Warmer Than Modern Global Warming
Time To Jail The Climate Scamsters?
Keystone Pipeline Will Not Affect Climate.
Sierra Club resorts to civil disobedience to promote their religion.
Our Real Manmade Climate Crisis.
Can Global Warmists Get Their Story Straight?
You’ve probably heard that environmentalists (and their media associates) were making dire warnings about global cooling in the 1970’s. This is a fascinating list of dozens of such claims.
Other articles of general interest —
An excellent article on the situation with flood insurance.
A superior short video about Obamacare and morality.
Our proposed national energy slogan is “All of the Sensible” (in contrast to the absurd “All of the Above”). Please pass it on. US citizens should make sure to get up-to-speed with what is on our PTCFacts.Info pages, as this is still a political issue.
Please pass this information on to other open-minded, science-oriented people.
John,
Thank you for your continued excellent reporting. I have to comment on the article, ” Ontario may ‘solve’ wind’s intermittency with a Battery Five Times the Size of Niagara Falls”, further to your reference about the likely high costs.
In summary, the claims in this article greatly misrepresent the value of this pumped hydro facility.
First the headline claim that it is five times Niagara Falls does not disclose that it is just five times the height.
To suggest in the same article that this helps with the integration of persistently erratic (on a short term basis of a few minutes) and unreliable (on a longer term basis of hours to days) wind and solar PV generation is a major misrepresentation, probably based on not understanding the matter.
At 400 MW it does not represent a major energy flow source. This facility is capable only of making some contribution to the support of normal peak demand, which occurs twice daily.
Excellent observation, Kent. Thanks.
And apropos the Bloomberg piece that “reports” on how wind is withering the nation’s nuclear industry:
This silly article is instructive about how fantasy affects reality. It’s credible only if one is really young not only at heart but also in brain. Wind “price” is not the only thing subsidized here; in many ways this comprises the least of its support. The socialized costs of its mainly dedicated transmission lines, the payments for not producing (wind curtailment is essential everywhere), the requirements for grids to take wind’s roiling energy, and, not least, the cost of the continuous accompanying conventional generation that enable wind but for which it pays nothing, all play a major role in the false narrative that “wind pummels price and threatens nuclear.” It’s believable if one is ten, in much the way that Harry Potter is believable.
Recommended reading is the article here on the history of the National Renewable Energy Lab, one of the most problematic of government’s bloated agencies: http://watchdog.org/62420/co-secret-energy-lab-spawns-million-dollar-govt-employee.
Especially troubling, to me, is the way the Heritage Foundation continues to play footsie with this outrage. Note how Heritage’s Nick Loris accepts the role of the Lab even as he argues for private contractors running the show. Loris exemplifies how economists, with little understanding about how electricity is produced and transmitted, enable the dumb and dim of renewables–in the process unconsciously giving succor to politicians like Colorado’s Ed Permutter, whose district houses the NREL and whose Congressional work brings home its $533 million annual bacon.
Perhaps this venue can help John Droz gather more visual evidence for a particular wind event that happened in Dec 2009.
I’d heard from one person working in the Guadalupe Pass area of west Texas that an entire ridge of wind turbines had been blown to smithereens, but that individual hadn’t taken any photos. Until somewhat recently, I hadn’t looked into the matter, but when I did, I was at least able to locate a few photos, seen when you scroll down the page here http://www.srh.noaa.gov/maf/?n=events_091208 and I now know the name of the place, the Delaware Mountain Wind Energy Center.
Considering how prominently the wind farm is seen from highway 180 over Guadalupe Pass, I’d think there are more photos and videos out there somewhere, taken by various travelers, since the wipeout would have been spectacular to see .
I have a question about the AEA report. If you look at the report by clicking the link on your website, the following description of Dr. Cicchetti is stated:
“Dr. Charles J. Cicchetti held the Jeffrey and Paula Miller Chair in Government, Business, and the Economy at the University of
Southern California until 2008. He continues to lecture at USC on electricity matters. Cicchetti was the Deputy Director of the
Energy and Environmental Policy Center at Harvard University’ s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was Professor of
Economics and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1972 to 1985. He was the first economist at
the Environmental Defense Fund and did post-doctoral research a t Resources for the Future.
Dr. Cicchetti also chaired the Wisconsin Public Service Commission from 1977 to 1980 and previously directed the Wisconsin
Energy Office. He was a member of the California ISO Market Advisory Group. He is an economic consultant and a Senior
Advisor to Pacific Economics Group and others. He has been associated and held management positions in the past with Arthur
Andersen Economic Consulting, Putnam Hayes and Bartlett, NERA, and Madison Consulting Group.
His publications include Going Green and Getting Regulation Rig ht, The California Electricity Crisis, Restructuring Electricity
Markets, Perspectives on Power, The Marginal Cost and Pricing of Electricity, and Alaskan Oil.”
If the AEA reported is accessed elsewhere, Dr. Cicchetti’s bio states:
“Dr. Charles J. Cicchetti held the Jeffrey and Paula Miller Chair in Government, Business, and the Economy at the University of
Southern California until 2008. He continues to lecture at USC on electricity matters. Cicchetti was the Deputy Director of the
Energy and Environmental Policy Center at Harvard University’ s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was Professor of
Economics and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1972 to 1985. He was the first economist at
the Environmental Defense Fund and did post-doctoral research a t Resources for the Future.
Dr. Cicchetti also chaired the Wisconsin Public Service Commission from 1977 to 1980 and previously directed the
Wisconsin Energy Office. He was a member of the California ISO Market Advisory Group. He is an economic consultant
and a Senior Advisor to Navigant Consulting, Inc, Pacific Economics Group and others. He has been associated and held
management positions in the past with Arthur Andersen Economic Consulting, Putnam Hayes and Bartlett, NERA, and
Madison Consulting Group.
His publications include Going Green and Getting Regulation Rig ht, The California Electricity Crisis, Restructuring Electricity
Markets, Perspectives on Power, The Marginal Cost and Pricing of Electricity, and Alaskan Oil.”
I would like to understand the reason for the difference but, more particularly, I would like to understand how a Navigant Consultant can attack a Navigant product. Is there an explanation? I would like to use the report but question whether it is credible given Dr. Cicchetti’s position. Thank you for any light you can shed.
Recent Energy and Environmental News – March 2013…
By John Droz, Jr. ~ A sordid story of wind energy in Rhode Island. This is very representative of what is going on everywhere. Watch this video carefully! Reports about greed energy economics: Very significant: How AWEA’s Job Claims are Bogus. More evi…