A Free-Market Energy Blog

Yesterday’s Eco-complaints; Today’s ‘Planet of the Humans’

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 15, 2020

“The people who build wind farms are not environmentalists. . . .  Business is a delicate balancing act, and chief executives are always walking a tightrope between the needs of the community, their employees, and the marketplace.” [Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age (1995), p. 454.]

Planet of the Humans‘ expose is long overdue.” [below]

Big Green, Inc. has been challenged by Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs’s “Planet of the Humans.” Importantly, the multi-million-view documentary brought together the inconvenient truths of (politically correct) renewable energies, as well as batteries for electric vehicles.

In a recent post for the Institute for Energy Research (IER), “Long-standing Eco-warnings Against Renewables Reinforce ‘Planet of the Humans’,” I documented how many mainstream eco-authors forthrightly talked about these problems. I noted:

Moore/Gibbs memorialized what had long been recognized by the environmental intelligentsia.

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Trump’s Last Regulatory White Paper (Fall 2020 Regulatory Plan)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 14, 2020

“Four years of regulatory reform has promoted the prosperity and liberty of Americans and advanced the rule of law. This Regulatory Plan continues that tradition.” [below]

“Reforms of environmental and energy regulations have propelled America to a position of energy dominance while maintaining and advancing the cleanliness of our air, water, and land.” [below]

Two per year, each U.S. federal agency publishes a Regulatory Agenda. The Trump Administration just last week released its Fall 2020 agenda, excerpted below.

MasterResource has closely followed Trump’s deregulatory actions on energy and the environment (see here). It has been a positive story as mentioned in our final comment below. But what is good is bad to the regulate-regulate-regulate crowd, seeing market failure as ubiquitous and both analytic failure and government failure as unimportant.…

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Energy Efficiency Policy Under Trump (Part III: Litigation)

By -- December 10, 2020

“The end-result [from ignoring one properly identified modelling “error”], unwittingly or otherwise, massively skewed EERE’s economic ‘determinations’ in favor of stricter standards for commercial packaged boilers. This ‘error’ also exists in other proposed rulemakings. In other words, EERE likely ignored this correction request to avoid embarrassment by exposing deep analytical biases within EERE, its Labs and contractors.”

This post concludes a three-part series on the highs and lows of the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology during the Trump window of opportunity. Part I was an overview, and Part II examined EERE’s process rule and overhaul efforts to date.

Historically, Final Rules become that when published in the Federal Register. Prior, such rules have been subject to change pursuant to the “error correction” procedure codified at 10 C.F.R. § 430.5 (etc.).…

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Energy Efficiency Policy Under Trump (Part II: EERE’s Process Rule & Overhaul)

By -- December 9, 2020
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Energy Efficiency Policy Under Trump (Part I: A Mixed Bag in the Swamp)

By -- December 8, 2020
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Gas Ban Economics 101

By Kenneth Costello -- December 7, 2020
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Ayn Rand, Energy, and Enron: Five Questions

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 3, 2020
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Remembering Enron (Bankruptcy & layoffs 19-years ago today)

By John Jennrich -- December 2, 2020
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Who do you Trust? (Michael Mann and Climategate)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 1, 2020
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Climategate Revised: Quotations from the Major Players

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 30, 2020
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