Big Wind’s Last Gasp
By Lisa Linowes -- September 2, 2014Wind energy development in the United States has slumped. Despite record installations in 2012, and eking out a 1-year, $12 billion extension [1] of the wind production tax credit (PTC), new wind capacity last year fell to just 1,087 megawatts, a level not seen in more than a decade. Development in 2014 is showing signs of improvement, but the year may not fare much better.
The industry blames Congress and the uncertainty surrounding the PTC for the slowdown. But such thinking is overly simplistic and ignores the fundamental challenges facing big wind. This slump, like others that plagued development in prior years, can be traced directly to generous government assistance, current energy prices, and the inherent limitations of wind power.
Slowdown Reasons
The Section 1603 cash grants enacted under ARRA fueled a wind bubble as developers raced to build and qualify their sites.…
Continue ReadingMasterResource on Break (back September 2nd)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 27, 2014… and already looking forward to the November release of Alex Epstein’s historic, timely call to national/international debate.
Early Praise ….
“With more politicians in climate science than scientists, the refining fire of debate has devolved into the burning of heretics. Alex Epstein’s The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels may make your blood boil, but his cool reason and cold, hard facts will lead us beyond hysterics to a much better future.”
–Peter Thiel, entrepreneur and investor (cofounder of PayPal)
“If you want to see the power of fine logic, fine writing, and fine research, read Epstein’s book. In my long career, it is simply the best popular-market book about climate, environmental policy, and energy that I have read. Laymen and experts alike will be boggled by Epstein’s clarity.”
–Patrick J.…
Continue ReadingJames Hansen: “I Struggle to Sleep” (with current energy trends, energy policy)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 26, 2014“Events are spiraling down so rapidly that I struggle to sleep…. Ironically, environmental groups’ insistence that renewables are the only alternative to fossil fuels actually assures expansion of fracking, locking in long-term dependence on gas for electricity, and crude oil for vehicles.”
– James Hansen, “The Energy to Fight Injustice,” August 20, 2014.
James Hansen is “nauseous” about Beijing’s “impenetrable smog”—fair enough. China needs to use off-the-shelf technology to clean up its their coal fleet, one plant at a time (as done in the U.S.).
Hansen is “troubled” about “the injustice” of climate change—highly debatable. The doctor’s own prognostications about global warming have been falsified and again (along with many others). [1] The warming of the 1990s was due to natural factors, not only anthropogenic ones, the latest science suggests.…
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