A Free-Market Energy Blog

Call for Wind Moratorium in Victoria, AU (precautionary principle invoked)

By Sherri Lange -- May 18, 2016

“This is a very simple issue. We have a new industry operating infrastructure that some people say is making them sick. There is insufficient research of the type needed to determine the validity of these claims. … [T]he precautionary principle requires that all future wind farm development should be put on hold, pending the outcome of the study.”

“At the end of the day these people don’t care if wind farms make people sick. They just want them built due to their obsession with climate change. How else to explain the deeply shameful attacks by Greens politicians and other activists on the people who say they are getting sick. Throughout the inquiry I chaired these people were relentlessly mocked, labelled ‘flat earthers’ and alien abductees, by the Greens, their activist supporters and sections of the media.”

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Offshore Wind: A Problematic Future (AWEA’s hype falls short)

By -- May 17, 2016

“The bulk of AWEA’s presentation was designed to show how many and diverse are the offshore wind projects under way. Other than Deepwater Wind and the likely dead Cape Wind projects, all the other projects or possible projects are living on government grants and/or remain little more than speculative research projects. [AWEA head Tom] Kiernan acknowledged that the problem for offshore wind is its cost, likely three to five times that of onshore wind projects.

At last month’s National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) annual meeting, the Offshore Renewables Committee hosted a breakout-session presentation by Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).  With him was research analyst Celeste Wanner who presented a rundown of the status of offshore wind projects. [1]

As one would expect, Mr. Kiernan presented all the positives for wind energy – its cost has declined to where it is now competitive with coal and natural gas generated electricity, there are no emissions since there is no fuel burned to generate electricity.…

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Trump’s NO to Climate Alarmism/Forced Energy Transformation (very good news from the campaign trail)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2016

“I will not support or endorse a carbon tax!”

– Trump Tweet, May 13, 2016

“A Donald Trump presidency would be an environmental disaster.”

– League of Conservation Voters, May 5, 2016

The other side is screaming already. The presumptive Republican nominee for the next president of the United States is proving himself to be better than some Republicans, and even a few self-styled libertarians, in his wholesale rejection of climate alarmism and its public-policy corollary, government-forced energy transformation. (For Trump’s broader energy views, see here.)

Trump’s unequivocal policy follows another development: the rejection of a carbon tax as trade bait for abolishing climate regulation (see Robert Murphy’s post, Vox Admits There Will Be No Carbon Tax Deal).

Right and left–CO2 emission taxation deserves a speedy burial at the (misnamed) Niskanen Institute, where libertarian scholarship seems to be missing.…

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Climate: The Real ‘Worrisome Trend’ (Part II: Policy and Intent)

By Joe D'Aleo -- May 12, 2016
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Climate: The Real ‘Worrisome Trend’ (Part I: Faulty Science)

By Joe D'Aleo -- May 11, 2016
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IRS Overreach on Wind Power: Likely Illegal

By -- May 10, 2016
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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: May 9, 2016

By -- May 9, 2016
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Michael Brune/Sierra Club’s Non Sequitur (Letter to Koch assumes a market problem, a government solution)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 5, 2016
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From Zond to Enron Wind to GE Wind: Founder Interview (government enablement for the record)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 4, 2016
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Omelettes & Eggs Climate Theory Debunked (A brief review of Marc Morano’s “Climate Hustle”)

By Sherri Lange -- May 3, 2016
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