A Free-Market Energy Blog

AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: March 7, 2016

By -- March 7, 2016

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a  newsletter to  balance what is found in the mainstram media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more thought-provoking articles in this issue are:

Physician Explains Some Wind Turbine Health Impacts

Wind Infrasound Hazards Worse than Initially Thought

The laughable idea that renewable energy is or ever will be ‘least cost’

The Charade of Industrial Wind

Non-Compliant Wind Developers Are Threatened with Jail Time

Two Well-Intentioned Laws and Aims Collide

North Sea Whale Deaths.…

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Climate Malthusianism: James Hansen’s Latest

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 3, 2016

“In the United Nations Paris Accord last December world leaders promised to try to reduce future emissions. These politicians shamelessly clapped each other on the back, pretending they had accomplished something important. However, they had agreed beforehand not to even discuss the only action that could rapidly reduce global emissions.”

– James Hansen, “‘I am an Energy Voter’” February 23, 2016.

James Hansen is mad at the “I am an Energy Voter” campaign that encourages consumers to vote for their favorite energies at the ballot box, not only at the pump. Hansen, in fact, is mad at the free society where buyers voluntarily buy and sellers voluntarily sell. Ludwig von Mises called that consumer sovereignty.

Hansen wants otherwise. Renewables as savior is for the Tooth Fairy, he believes, so nuclear and forced conservation (conservationism) is atop his agenda — forced by a punitive carbon tax (or fee-and-dividend as he puts it).…

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National Defense Climatism: Dangerous and Myopic Thinking

By Donn Dears -- March 2, 2016

“The opportunity is for the next president to get the military focused on national defense, not climate alarmism and forced energy transformation.”

Just four years ago, retired Admiral Dennis McGinn said:

A nation that uses more than 20 percent of the oil that is produced globally every single year, that sits on (at best estimates) 3 percent of the known reserves, cannot drill its way out of the situation of energy insecurity that we’re in.

This quotation demonstrates shortsightedness and narrowness of thinking, similar to the Malthusian thought that has been disproved countless times. Today, the United States has the potential to become self-sufficient in oil, or, if not sufficient alone, then in conjunction with its strategic partner Canada.

McGinn also said: “At home, military bases that are self-sustaining are cheaper and more secure than those dependent on, say, natural gas pipelines or the local utility.”…

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Taylor at RFF: Don’t Assume the Problem, Debate It (why price carbon dioxide?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 1, 2016
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Jerry Taylor: Climate Change as ‘Political Theater’ (so why become an actor?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 29, 2016
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The Windpower/Health Debate: Ground Zero in Falmouth, MA

By Sherri Lange -- February 25, 2016
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On Scientific Method: Comment on Hawkins

By Jon Boone -- February 24, 2016
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Science, Advocacy, and Public Policy (MIT’s ‘The Future of Solar Energy’ revisited)

By Kent Hawkins -- February 23, 2016
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Dear Daniel Yergin: Give Alex Epstein the Microphone at CERAWeek

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 22, 2016
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Whales: An Offshore Wind Issue

By Paul Driessen and Mark Duchamp -- February 18, 2016
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