“The highlight of the entire hearing was the testimony of DOE’s Daniel Simmons. Everyone else pretty much played their assigned role.”
The title of last week’s hearing on the US Department of Energy’s new pro-consumer orientation toward appliance standards, “Wasted Energy: DOE’s Inaction on Efficiency Standards & Its Impact on Consumers and the Climate”, was obviously biased. But Daniel Simmons, Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, stole the show.
First up as the only Panel 1 witness was IER alumni, Daniel Simmons, who was sworn-in on January 16th, 2019. Daniel’s five-minute allocation started at the 34-minute mark of a nearly 4-hour long hearing. Simmons was followed with five minutes of questioning from Subcommittee members; starting with Chairman Rush; who questioned a possible lifting of restrictions affecting the manufacture of certain types of incandescent light bulbs.…
Continue Reading“Affordable, reliable energy is critical to human well-being.”
– Daniel Simmons (current DOE assistant secretary)
“When energy is scarce or expensive, people can suffer material deprivation and economic hardship.
– John Holdren (former Obama science advisor)
A top official of the US Department of Energy did something last week that had not been done in many, many years. In his Statement for the Record, Daniel R Simmons, Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), presented a pro-consumer brief (as in real consumerism, not what experts think is best for consumers with another agenda in mind) in a hearing on appliance standards before the US House of Representatives.
Energy sustainability can and should be defined in terms of consumer welfare. As Obama’s former science advisor John Holdren stated (above), energy is not a luxury but a necessity–and is respected as such in free market, capitalist societies.…
Continue Reading“Better climate knowledge about natural versus anthropogenic forcing seems to be a decade away.”
“The civil level of discourse was a pleasure to observe. Statements of respect and appreciation often preceded the words ‘but I disagree’ followed by a mildly worded but sharp rebuttal.”
“Better climate knowledge about natural versus anthropogenic forcing seems to a decade away.” That was the major takeaway from a major 1999 climate conference in Houston, Texas as noted by Martin Cassidy of the Houston Geological Society, who authored a conference summary, “Global Climate Change: Panel Agrees: ‘In 10 Years We Will Know‘.”
In fact, one of the conference participants, Gerald North, climatologist at Texas A&M, repeated this a decade after this conference. In his words:
In another decade of research we will have squared away a lot of our uncertainties about forced climate change.…
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