A Free-Market Energy Blog

US Energy Efficiency: ACEEE Propaganda (exploiting readers, including the media)

By Donn Dears -- September 1, 2016

“The fact that electricity costs the average German four-to-five times as much as the average American is of no import, according to the ACEEE.”

Some organizations publish studies purporting to demonstrate why their proposals are good for America. But the proffered intellectual justification is really opinion masquerading as facts.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) recently published another study–uncritically reported on by the media in Canada and the US–claiming to document that America remained behind Germany in energy efficiency.

The ACEEE uses a methodology in their reports that include non-tangible policy issues, such as whether a government has enacted the types of legislation desired by the ACEEE. Governments adopting these policies rank highly in ACEE studies, while countries that don’t adopt their environmental policies rank poorly.

These biased studies are eagerly highlighted by the anti-free-energy-market media to show how backward the US is in developing energy programs to cut CO2 emissions.…

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Offshore Wind’s $0.24/kWh: Deepwater Project Nears Launch (states, ratepayers take note)

By -- August 31, 2016

“Now that Deepwater Wind is close to starting operation, ratepayers can compare its 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour versus their latest power bill showing an energy cost of 8.7 cents per kilowatt hour – a 15.7 cent difference…. So why is Rhode Island building this project?

The wind turbines offshore Block Island, Rhode Island, the Deepwater Wind project, are rising faster than expected due to favorable weather and wind conditions. In fact, the last blade was installed on the fifth wind turbine two weeks ago.

The U.S. renewable energy business will soon enter a new era when these turbines generate electricity. Many people may wonder why it has taken the U.S. so long to start an offshore wind industry, given the perceived success of projects in Western European countries. But cost matters, and the cost of offshore wind defines a new high for US ratepayers.…

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EVs: An Ancient, Not Infant, Industry

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 30, 2016

“No electric car since 1902, regardless of battery or drive train, had been able to compete effectively against its contemporary internal combustion counterpart.”

– David Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and The Burden of History (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2000), p. 203.

Energy history takes the wind out of the sails of the advocates of forced energy transformation. Proponents of government- enabled renewable energies must contend with the fact that for most of mankind’s (impoverished) history, the market share of biomass, wind, solar, and falling water was 100 percent. (The carbon-based energy era is only a couple of hundred years old.)

And proponents of government-enabled electric vehicles (not golf carts) must know that their technology was beat fair and square than a century ago.

Here are some quotations on the rise and fall of EVs (or EEVs–emission elsewhere vehicles).…

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‘Where Wind Studies Go Wrong’: Response to Michael Goggin (AWEA)

By Kent Hawkins -- August 29, 2016
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Free Market Energy: Not ‘Notorious’ (Axelrod tweet rejoinder)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 25, 2016
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Elon Musk’s Tesla: Rigged Markets for Failing EVs

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 24, 2016
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‘The Increasing Sustainability of Conventional Energy’ (1999 conclusions for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 23, 2016
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Energy & Environmental Newsletter: August 22, 2016

By -- August 22, 2016
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‘Lure of the Renewables’ (Vaclav Smil in 1987 for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 18, 2016
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The Commoditization of the Electricity Market

By Jim Clarkson -- August 16, 2016
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