A Free-Market Energy Blog

What If the World Enters a New Global Cooling Period? (while EPA fights against wood stoves in Alaska)

By -- February 22, 2017

“The battle over whether man-made or natural forces are the primary driving force behind global warming and climate change will likely become more contentious in the next few years. The key point is that the world’s population is at greater risk of serious harm from colder temperatures rather than warm temperatures.”

“Since the EPA’s ruling, the effort to find a solution to the wood-burning stoves remains elusive. As the editors of the local Fairbanks newspaper put it, ‘The borough faces two unpalatable alternatives: More stringent restrictions on home heating devices that could impact residents’ ability to heat their homes affordably, or choosing to stand pat and accept a host of costly economic sanctions and health effects to residents.'”

I previously commented on a New York Times column by personal health writer Jane Brody (highlighting recent studies showing that cold temperatures cause more deaths than heat spells). …

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The New ‘Mental Health’ Standard: Can We Apply It to Neo-Malthusians? (Romm, Hansen, Ehrlich, etc.)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 21, 2017

“‘An inability to tolerate views different’? ‘Rage reactions’? Can we apply this mental health standard to Joe Romm and James Hansen, not to mention Paul Ehrlich in his diatribes against Julian Simon?”

“This is ironic to those of us who have encountered angry neo-Malthusians trying to wake us up to the coming food famine (1960s warnings), resource famine (1970s warnings), and, most recently, climate alarmism. Does this standard apply to them as it does to all things Trump?”

I have resubscribed to the New York Times. I received a 50 percent discount, and with Trump’s upset win in November I wanted to better understand what the intellectual/media elite were thinking. (And the answer is … they still don’t get it.)

In the Letters section of February 14th edition, I encountered “Mental Health Professionals Warn About Trump.”…

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Nuclear’s Latest: Project, Company, Consumer Troubles

By Kennedy Maize -- February 20, 2017

“Toshiba’s nuclear business has been hemorrhaging money at its U.S. construction projects in Georgia and South Carolina…. The four units are in states with regulated markets and provisions for nuclear projects to receive a return on their capital investments during construction, through consumer electric rate increases.”

The social value of nuclear power may provoke wide debate. But as a business proposition, in countries with market-based economies, nuclear is failing. New construction is particularly disappointing: a new generation of technology widely expected to get costs and construction times down simply has not done so.

Problems at Toshiba

The latest evidence comes Toshiba, a giant Japanese conglomerate and parent of the U.S. nuclear reactor designer and vendor, Westinghouse Electric. Westinghouse’s ruinous investment in nuclear construction behemoth CB&I Stone & Webster has crippled Toshiba’s finances.…

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Big Wind: Threat to Air Navigation, Military Assets (Part III)

By -- February 16, 2017
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Why Trump Should Not Fund an Oroville Dam Fix

By -- February 15, 2017
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For Still-Poor China, Coal Pollution from Home Heating

By Greg Rehmke -- February 14, 2017
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Retire the Phony ‘Social Cost of Carbon’

By Roger Bezdek and Paul Driessen -- February 13, 2017
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Wind PTC: End the 4-Year Development Window (IRS guidance reversible) [Part II]

By -- February 10, 2017
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The Secret, Silent Wind-Power Peril (Part III: Fighting Back)

By Helen Schwiesow Parker -- February 9, 2017
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The Secret, Silent Wind-Power Peril (Part II: Nina Pierpont and ‘Wind Turbine Syndrome’)

By Helen Schwiesow Parker -- February 8, 2017
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