A Free-Market Energy Blog

Big Wind’s Big Barriers (examining DOE’s fantasy scenario for a faulty technology)

By -- June 15, 2015

“The output of DOE’s models are easy to promote, but reality paints a very different picture. DOE’s Vision assumes 7 GW of wind built per year between 2014 and 2020, followed by 12 gigawatts per year between 2020 and 2030, and 17 GW every year after until 2050. The Agency points to the progress since 2009 as proof that a more aggressive wind roll-out is possible. But in many ways, the success of wind in those years is the very reason wind development will not grow, but continue to slow.

The Department of Energy’s Wind Vision report released this March details a scenario where 10% of the United States’ end-use demand can be met with wind power by 2020, 20% by 2030, and 35% by 2050. [1] Achieving these milestones would be challenging, says DOE, but doable … provided the right policies are maintained (i.e.…

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‘Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits of Climate Doom’ (Book Review)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 12, 2015

“[T]here are big differences between responsible stewardship ideals that most of us subscribe to, and ideologically moralistic, anti-development obstructionists who use fear and guilt to exert costly and unchecked influence over ever-expanding aspects of our liberties and lives.”

– Larry Bell, Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits of Climate Doom (Seattle: Stairway Press, 2015), p. 226.

Larry Bell is an intellectual arbitrager in the climate wars. Professor emeritus in space architecture at the University of Houston, Bell became intrigued about the physical science of climate change–and its downstream implications. What was found was a yawning gap between consensus science and what should have been the result of the scientific method. The result was determined self-study and prolific writing on the politicization, and even corruption, of climate science in academia, in government, and in pressure groups.…

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Perverse Environmental Justice (Part II)

By -- June 11, 2015

“The real ‘criminals’ are those who use climate fear-mongering to justify fraudulent science and policies that kill, by denying people access to life-saving fossil fuels.”

Contrary to global warming hype, cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, according to a study that analyzed 74 million deaths in 384 locations across 13 countries. And contrary to climate models and predictions, recent winters have been long and cold – a far cry from climate alarmist claims that snow and skiing would soon be a thing of the past.

In Britain, many pensioners now ride buses or sit in libraries all day during the winter to stay warm, while others burn used books in stoves, as they are cheaper than coal or wood. Thousands die of hypothermia each winter, because they can no longer afford to heat their homes properly, due to soaring electricity costs under Britain’s climate and renewable energy policies.…

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Perverse Environmental Justice (Part I)

By -- June 10, 2015
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Kyoto Redux? This Canadian Worries

By Tom Harris -- June 9, 2015
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No Global Warming Pause! (NOAA study captures media, including WSJ)

By E. Calvin Beisner -- June 8, 2015
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Some of My Favorite Quotations–and Yours?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 5, 2015
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Australian Avian Mortality: The Cover-Up (similarities to the U.S.)

By Mark Duchamp -- June 4, 2015
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Wind Power Mortality: Submission from World Council for Nature to Australian Senate

By Mark Duchamp -- June 3, 2015
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John Christy, Climate Scientist, to President’s Council on Environmental Quality (May 13, 2015, testimony)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 2, 2015
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