A Free-Market Energy Blog

Turbines on Trial: Animal Miscarriages in Denmark (inconvenient fact for wind cronyists?)

By Mark Duchamp -- June 13, 2014

“Politicians, and wind industry shills who … deny the risks to health, are now liable to be successfully sued by wind farm victims. And so are governments, as they still refuse to measure infrasound emitted by modern wind turbines.”

In Denmark last month, 1,600 animals were born prematurely at a mink farm. Many had deformities, and most were dead on arrival. The lack of eyeballs was the most common malformation. Veterinarians ruled out food and viruses as possible causes. The only thing different at the farm since last year has been the installation of four large wind turbines only 328 meters away.

The wind farm consists of four 3 MW turbines, VESTAS model V112, reaching out to 140 meters in height at the tip of the blades. When they became operative last fall, a first mishap was reported by the mink farmer at a parliamentary committee on wind farms in January this year.

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‘Energy Independence’: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

By Pierre Desrochers -- June 12, 2014

“Unfortunately, at the first sign of political and economic trouble most people are spontaneously inclined to put the brakes on international trade and to increase local production of critical things such as food and energy. This stance often has dire consequences.”

As some apparently inexplicable behaviour illustrates (say, being a die-hard fan of the Chicago Cubs), humans are profoundly territorial creatures. According to evolutionary psychologists, this is because for approximately 90% of their time on this planet, modern humans belonged to small groups that were constantly fighting each other over the possession of land and resources. Deep down, most people’s behaviour is not all that different from that observed on Animal Planet’s Meerkat Manor

Peace and Open Trade

As recent events in the Ukraine remind us, sometimes the other tribe is still out there to get us.…

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Wind’s PTC: The Opposition Mounts (117 groups and counting)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 11, 2014

“The U.S. wind industry has … demonstrated reliability and performance levels that make them very competitive.”

Statement of Michael L.S. Bergey, American Wind Energy Association, 1986.

“The wind PTC was initially passed in 1992 as a temporary incentive to help a then fledgling industry – with the expectation that wind energy would be environmentally benign and would become commercially viable. However, after nearly 40 years of subsidies for wind energy R&D and 20 years of lucrative wind energy tax breaks — together totaling over $100 billion.”

– Glenn Schleede, “Republicans for Obama Energy (Senate Finance Committee Okays PTC/ITC Subsidies),” April 16, 2014.

Concentrated benefits/diffused costs. The cronies, rent-seeking profits calculated, lobby government in the capitals. Most of the rest of us, just paying a fraction of a penny for their many dollars, stay home. 

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Tom Tanton Interview (Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 10, 2014
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Tom Tanton Interview (Part I)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 9, 2014
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Can Green Energy be Demythologized? (Part 2)

By Wayne Lusvardi and Charles Warren -- June 6, 2014
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Why Is Clean, Cheap, Conventional Energy a Hard Sell? (Part 1)

By Wayne Lusvardi and Charles Warren -- June 5, 2014
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Energy Postmodernism: Obama Today, Amory Lovins Yesterday (645-page powerplant rule to nirvana)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 4, 2014
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Georgia Power and Its Regulators: Doubling Down on Unneeded Electricity (sun, wind, and overcapacity)

By Jim Clarkson -- June 3, 2014
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Hansen to Obama/EPA: State Renewable Credits, Cap-and-Trade Are Special-Interest, Ineffectual GHG Mitigation Policies

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 2, 2014
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