Ed. note: The Great Texas Blackout four years ago triggered a social media debate that reconfirmed ‘classical liberal’ Lynne Kiesling as an advocate of centrally planned, highly regulated electricity. It also revealed a cadre of electricity planners who bristled at the argument that government failed, including Eric Schubert and Robert Borlick. The exchanges began a debate that led the author to write a free-market primer, Free Market Electricity, to resurrect the 1960s tradition of such names as Harold Demsetz, George Stigler, Milton Friedman, and Walter Primeaux.

Lynne Kiesling (above) came roaring out the gate on Blackout Day February 16, 2021. But ‘the queen of power markets‘ was wrong. The Electric Reliability Commission of Texas (ERCOT) was government–and at the center of the worst electricity crisis in history.…

Ed. Note: Four years ago, Storm Uri caused Texas’s centrally planned wholesale electricity market (ERCOT) to buckle, vindicating warnings about the state’s wind/solar reliance. The mainstream media implicated natural gas instead, failing to explore the why behind the why. Rather than deregulation, Texas has chosen to add wind, solar, and batteries, while subsidizing natural gas plants to counter intermittency. This duplicated grid is now driving rates up in a state that could have relied on surplus natural gas instead.

It was not so much the story of freak weather triggering a market failure writ large. It was a classic application of the political economy of government intervention: the seen and the unseen, expert/regulatory failure, and unintended consequences.

Don Lavoie, a preeminent thinker in the field of market-versus-government planning, once warned:

If the guiding agency is less knowledgeable than the system it is trying to guide—and even worse, if its actions necessarily result in further undesired consequences in the working of that system—then what is going on is not planning at all but, rather, blind interference by some agents with the plans of others.”

“The data make it clear that the only possible rationale for renewable energy—making significant reductions of CO2 emissions—cannot be achieved. The costs of attempting to do this are already imposing heavy costs on economies across the world.”

By the 1800s, wind and solar were both mature and successful technologies. Yet as soon as Western society developed the wealth and technology to take advantage of fossil fuels, they were discarded—along with batteries for electric cars—with no place in the modern world for grid-scale generation of electricity.  

Renewable energy still cannot compete with the efficiency, affordability, and reliability of fossil fuels. But this has not stopped it from making a comeback on the backs of American taxpayers and consumers who have paid for hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies from federal, state, and local governments.…

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):
Rising Electricity Rates under Biden (Texas wholesale up 200%)
An Australian community’s expensive experiment to go all renewable, is over after a fortnight of blackouts

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** How President Trump can stop offshore wind on day one
*** ‘Not feasible’ – Engineers whack offshore wind plans
*** Sweden says no to 13 Wind Projects, as they could slow its response to a Russian missile attack
*** Massive Big Wind Project Off Massachusetts Coast Suffers Another Big Blow
Whales Declare BOEM is a Terrorist Organization Committing Genocide

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)
Intermittent Wind Generation on Full Display in the First Two November Days
Dutch coalition party calls for stop on land turbines after devastating Clintel report

Nuclear Energy:
Thorium’s potential as a source of fuel for the future, and its other important uses

Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Resolving the Dissonance Regarding Fossil Fuels
*** Report: Estimation of the quantity of metals to phase out fossil fuels in a full system replacement, compared to mineral resources
*** Fracking and Pennsylvania: Why it Matters
*** Alec Epstein: The most heretical idea in the world
Resolving the Dissonance Regarding Fossil Fuels
Coal Is Still King In Spite Of War On ‘Fossil Fuels’

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
*** Ford lost $58,391 for every EV it sold during the 3rd quarter
*** Electric Vehicles: A Tale of Woe in the Absence of the Market Process
The “Energy Transition” coupled with “White Gold” Generates Battery Fires

Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** Affordable electricity can resolve worldwide poverty
*** SCOTUS Stumbles: EPA’s Power Plant Rule is Inflicting Irreparable Harm
Alex Epstein: Answers to questions about fracking, Keystone, hurricanes, and more
Navigating the physical realities of the energy transition
FBI thwarts man’s alleged plan to attack Nashville power grid with explosive-laden drone

Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:
*** The Carbon Capture Pipeline Deception
*** A Looming Political Earthquake
*** AI knows it is biased on climate change
*** World Bank Missing $41 Billion in Climate Funds

Manmade Global Warming — Miscellaneous:
*** Climate Journalism Done Right
*** Who Really Cares About Climate Change?…