“Even in flush economic times, carbon taxes would be bad policy. When economies are already laboring under too much spending and are at diminishing-return levels of taxation, implementing a carbon tax would be a mistake.”
– Kenneth Green, Dissecting the Carbon Tax, The American, July 13, 2012.
Open-mindedness is a mark of scholarship. And some great lights of classical-liberal social thought in the 20th century changed their minds for theoretical/empirical reasons from a utilitarian perspective.
F. A. Hayek began as a democratic socialist. Milton Friedman started as a FDR New Dealer and Keynesian. [1] Friedman later in life even moved away from his (naive) view of a fixed-monetary rule where, as he once put it, a computer program could manage the money supply. [2] Turns out that ‘money supply’ is not a fixed, known quantity; turns out that money is a government monopoly subject to politics.…
Continue Reading“If there’s any chance at a rational policy on climate, two things must happen. First, intelligent laymen must take back the debate, by pushing currently out-of-bounds science back onto centre stage. They must stop letting ‘experts’ do their thinking for them. Second, political attacks on scientists must be stopped. Those must be pushed out of bounds.”
– Christopher Essex (Ph.D), Financial Post, February 26, 2015.
On June 11-12, 2015, in Washington, D.C., The Heartland Institute of Chicago, Illinois will host its Tenth International Conference on Climate Change, titled The New Science & Economics of Climate Change. “The debate over climate change is changing,” our conference brochure states. “Can you feel it?”
Yes, a growing number of scientists say the climate is less sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought. Most Americans do not believe global warming is a major threat.…
Continue ReadingThe Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science. It’s all spelled out at WiseEnergy.org, which is a wealth of energy and environmental resources.
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every 3 weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.
—————————
Some (quite a few!) standout articles in this issue are:
NC House Passes Major Bill to Freeze its RPS
Wind Turbines are Less Effective than Assumed and CO2 Abatement Cost is Higher
Association Between Wind Turbines and Human Distress
Carbon Capture (and the hypocrisy of environmental groups)
Wind and Solar Transmission Planning
The Global Thirst for Low-Cost Electricity Continues Driving Coal Demand
Wind Energy Impact on Grid Stability and Operation
Let’s Run the Numbers: Nuclear vs Wind and Solar
Dominion: Offshore Wind is Too Expensive
Ten Reasons to Eliminate the Wind PTC
Climate Advisers Must Maintain Integrity
Earth Day: 22 Ways to Think about the Climate-Change Debate
See also two special sections this time, which include several reports on:
1) Climate data integrity, and the the accuracy of climate computer models
2) the Catholic Church and climate change…
Continue Reading