A Free-Market Energy Blog

Third-Party Solar Sales: Free Market Not

By Roy Cordato -- April 21, 2015

“The next time someone says that solar is a reliable form of energy ask them if, using only the panels, you will be able to light your house at night (other than with a kerosene lamp), heat your house during a blizzard, or cook dinner after dark. This is where the forced subsidy comes in.”

If an industry requires government coercion to sell its product, it is not a free-market industry. This is the case with third-party sales of roof-top solar-generated electricity where the building is otherwise on the utility grid.

In a recent Charlotte Observer article, Rep. John Szoka, R-Cumberland, plugged his so-called “energy freedom” legislation allowing off-the-electric-grid third-party sales from solar farms directly to consumers, which is prohibited in North Carolina. “I believe in free markets, and I believe in property rights,” he said.…

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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: April 20, 2015

By -- April 20, 2015

The 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 three weeks this newsletter is compiled to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters.

Some standout articles in this issue, are:

An exceptional TV interview about journalistic incompetence (think AGW, Wind Energy, etc.)

Scientists Say New Study Is A ‘Death Blow’ To Global Warming Hysteria

Dr. Curry on: Draft APS Statement on Climate Change

How Colleges Are Becoming Greenhouses for Sustainability Indoctrination

Wind Turbine Leaseholders May be on the Hook for Billions

What’s the True Cost of Wind Power?

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California’s Drought: Whitewashing Government

By -- April 17, 2015

“Any party which takes credit for the rain must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the drought”

– Dwight Morrow, American businessman and diplomat, quoted in Outlook and Independent, Vol. 156 (1930), p. 289. Ascribed to an October 1930 speech in The Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), p. 672.

In California the Democratic Party, in near monopoly power in the state, have for the past two decades been underfunding big water infrastructure projects and diverting water from farms to fish. They have been taking credit for the moral high ground of allegedly saving a few fish from threatened extinction at the cost of four billion gallons of water per fish.

But now that there is four-year long green drought they want to place blame for it on others.…

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Judith Curry vs. Climate Alarmism (Jon and Jerry–are you listening?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 16, 2015
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Getting Gas to Green: Enron & Environmentalists (1992/93)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 15, 2015
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Quebec/Ontario Cap-and-Trade: Warnings from James Hansen

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 14, 2015
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Climate-Change Reductio Ad Absurdum: Rep. Lee (D-CA) Damages Her Cause

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 13, 2015
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The Political Capitalism of Gabriel Kolko: Revising the Revisionist

By William D. Burt -- April 10, 2015
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Steyer/Cisneros Climate Pitch Falls Flat in Los Angeles

By -- April 9, 2015
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Northeast Obstructionists: Natural Gas Pipelines at Risk (Keystone XL’s slippery slope)

By -- April 8, 2015
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