A Free-Market Energy Blog

Energy & Environmental Review: December 23, 2024

By -- December 23, 2024

This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Unreliables (General):
*** The True Cost of Industrial Wind Energy
*** Dem Lawmakers Hinder Federal Investigation Into Biden Admin’s $400 Billion Green Energy Loans
Norway Wants to Scrap EU Power Links amid Surging Prices
Former NY Utility Regulator Warns State Lawmakers They’re on the Naughty List

Wind Energy — Offshore:
Floating Offshore Wind Systems in the Impoverished State of Maine

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Osage Tribe Wins Again, Federal Judge Orders Removal of 84 Wind Turbines by Next December
Wind Power Has Hit Its Limits In Europe

Fossil Fuel Energy:
Exxon To Build Large Off-Grid Natural Gas Plants To Exclusively Sell Electricity… AI Data Centers?

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Jigar Shah: End DOE’s Loans/Grants Now!

By David Bergeron -- December 20, 2024

Ed. Note: The author is a solar technologist and founder/CEO of SunDanzer, a free-market, off-grid solar company based in Tuscon, Arizona. Jigar Shah is director of the $400 billion Loan Programs Office in the U.S. Department of Energy.

Dear Jigar:

We both have a passion for solar and renewable energy to succeed in the marketplace, and we both have progeny that will inherit the environment after we are gone. Leaving them a better place—ecologically, fiscally, and otherwise—is our North Star. This can be done with wisdom, skill, and compassion.

Massive annual budget deficits and record accumulated national debt are getting worse by the day. The annual deficit is now $1.8 trillion (FY 2024), despite a 11 percent increase in tax receipts. FY 2025 is shaping up to be worse.…

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Electricity Statism or Free Markets? (Kiesling shows more cards)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 19, 2024

“Rob’s snide reference to my ‘chess pieces’ is a reference to my unwillingness to agree with his Utopian dismissal of ISO/RTO organized wholesale markets.” (Lynne Kiesling to Vernon Smith, below)

“Yes, playing with government chess pieces (on-grid solar, wind, batteries, ‘smart’ meters) and a centrally planned wholesale market is Statism writ large.” (Robert Bradley to Kiesling, below)

Electricity specialist Lynne Kiesling champions herself as a classical liberal, free-market advocate. But she is just the opposite and relies on obfuscation and charm to advocate and sell

1) government central planning of wholesale electricity and

2) government-enabled wind, solar, and batteries in place of least-cost (central-station) electricity.

It is her “synthetic regulation” or the highway, premised on a belief that there cannot be private property rights to grid electricity.

This woman of system will not forthrightly define what a free market is with electricity.…

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New Mexico Should Dump Its ‘Clean Energy’ Policies

By Kenneth Costello -- December 18, 2024
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Enron, NYT Declare Solar ‘Competitive’ (1994)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 17, 2024
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On the Origins of the US Forest Service

By Jane Shaw Stroup -- December 16, 2024
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“THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE GOOD FOR ENRON STOCK!!” (1997 Kyoto memo)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 13, 2024
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Andrew Dessler’s Strange Optimism (post-election groping)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 12, 2024
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Climate Grief vs. Climate Optimism: Why Not Open the Mind?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 11, 2024
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Rate Inflation in New England (perils of political electricity)

By -- December 10, 2024
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