A Free-Market Energy Blog

WSJ Letter: ‘Some Inconvenient Truths of Wind and Solar’

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 13, 2017

“Dense mineral energies can be considered more environmentally benign than dilute, intermittent renewables. Peter Huber has written that ‘the greenest fuels are the ones that contain the most energy per pound of material that must be mined, trucked, pumped, piped, and burnt.’ He notes that ‘extracting comparable amounts of energy from the surface would entail truly monstrous environmental disruption’.”

Letters-to-the-editor are an effective way to communicate ideas. They are brief and to the point, appealing to the shortened attention spans that most readers have experienced.

Letter writing can be the best return on a policy writer’s investment. The King of the practice is Donald Boudreaux, Professor of Economics at George Mason University (see his many titles and affiliations here).

Through the years, I have published several letters in the Wall Street Journal.…

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Energy Tax Preferences: Rid Them All (2013 Cato letter to House working group revisited)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 12, 2017

“Energy tax preferences represent governmental intervention in markets; they are designed to direct private investment away from some activities to activities favored by the tax preference(s).”

” … tax preferences represent the government’s attempt to take resources from some parties in the energy sector and reallocate them to other parties in the energy sector.”

” … the best remedy for excessive corporate income tax burdens is a direct reform of the corporate income tax. Targeted tax preferences to moderate industry tax burdens are a poor way to address the problem.”

– Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, Letter to Energy Energy Tax Reform Working Group, House Ways and Means Committee [chair: Kevin Brady (R-Texas)], April 15, 2013.

Several years ago, Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren of the Cato Institute wrote a tax policy missive to the Energy Tax Reform Working Group of the  House Ways and Means Committee.

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Wind Cronyism at the Crossroads: Time to Weigh In

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 11, 2017

“After 25-years of subsidy-driven financing of renewable energy, Main Street Americans are now taxed billions annually so the richest Wall Street bankers and corporations can avoid their tax burden by funneling money to big wind development.”

“We support the House provision to remove the PTC inflation adjustment. Retaining the 2.4¢/kwh subsidy in light of lower installation costs and increased production confers a bounty on big wind that far exceeds what 1992 lawmakers could ever have envisioned.”

– Linowes letter to lawmakers (below)

With the Energy Policy Act of 1992, a substantial tax credit has gone wind’s way. A quarter-century and many extensions later, this gravy train is at risk of being partly derailed.

It’s about time.

While conferees will reconcile the House and Senate versions of the tax bill this week, it appears that a haircut will happen to industrial wind power via the Production Tax Credit (reduced amount, stricter calculation).…

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‘InsideClimate News’: Propaganda for Alarmism (balanced reporting would neuter their mission)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 7, 2017
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‘The Growing Abundance of Fossil Fuels’ (1999 essay for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 6, 2017
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U.S. Tax Priorities Sack Big Wind

By -- December 5, 2017
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The Climate Science Debate Is Joined! Hallelujah!

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 4, 2017
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The Importance of Government Subsidies for EV Success

By -- November 30, 2017
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Wind Energy and Tax Reform: It’s Past Time

By -- November 29, 2017
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Mineral Resource Fixity and Boundary Effects

By Richard Sigman -- November 28, 2017
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