A Free-Market Energy Blog

Dear House: Say NO to Wind PTC (10th extension crucial for Obama’s energy/climate agenda)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 18, 2015

“The wind PTC is critical to President Obama’s recently finalized carbon regulation. One of the ‘building blocks’ used to determine state targets includes significant increased installation of renewable energy—especially wind…. Without taxpayer subsidies like the PTC, the President will be unable to achieve his arbitrary renewable energy target.”

It is time for Republicans and fiscally-minded Democrats to put up or shut up on the centerpiece of Obama energy policy: the Production Tax Credit (PTC). It is high time that cronyism be replaced by an energy policy that is taxpayer-neutral and government-neutral. Obama’s climate alarmism and world government plans can only benefit from a 10th extension of this grievous government subsidy to the Enrons and GEs of the world.

This week, the American Energy Alliance, Heritage Action for America, Club for Growth, and Americans for Prosperity sent a letter in stark opposition to the PTC to the House Ways and Means Committee.…

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“The Case Against a U.S. Carbon Tax” (working paper lays out the issues)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 17, 2015

“The U.N.’s own report shows that aggressive emission cutbacks—even if achieved through an ‘efficient’ carbon tax—would probably cause more harm than good.” (p. 2)

“Libertarians and conservatives in particular should not simply trust the assurances from the advocates of a carbon tax, but should instead read the relevant literature themselves. In both theory and practice, a U.S. carbon tax remains a very dubious policy proposal.” (p. 36)

–  Robert Murphy, Patrick Michaels, and Paul Knappenberger, “The Case Against a Carbon Tax,” Cato Working Paper No. 33, September 4, 2015.

Are opponents of pricing carbon dioxide (CO2) in general, and a U.S. carbon tax in particular, uninformed about the physical science of man-made climate change? Are opponents also in denial about market-failure economic analysis? 

Hardly. Serious intellectual flaws exist in the case for CO2 pricing in the peer-reviewed literature, even the mainstream scientific literature.

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GOP Candidates: Time to Defuse Climate Alarmism

By James Rust -- September 16, 2015

“Is global warming from burning fossil fuels sufficiently dangerous to stop its use and replace our vast, inexpensive energy sources with possibly expensive and environmentally challenged solar, wind, ethanol from corn, other biofuels, and biomass (predominately burning wood). The answer is absolutely not–or not in the least.”

Some GOP candidates have responded “I am not a scientist” when confronted by questions about climate change (global warming). President Barack Obama singled out the phrase in his 2015 State of the Union speech stating,

I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities.

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Free Market Energy: Comments before the Georgia Public Service Commission

By Jim Clarkson -- September 15, 2015
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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: September 14, 2015

By -- September 14, 2015
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F. A. Hayek on Resource Conservation

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 10, 2015
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Enron’s Export-Import Bank (‘Smartest guys in the room’ at work)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 9, 2015
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Obama’s Climate Alarmism Tour (contradictory data + tuned-out public = failure)

By James Rust -- September 8, 2015
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The Enronization of Climate Science Revisited

By -- September 3, 2015
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California Plays with Cap-and-Trade Monies (Steyerland redistributionism)

By -- September 2, 2015
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