A Free-Market Energy Blog

Dear Big Oil: Stop Acting Like Big Tobacco

By -- October 10, 2013

The following is the beginning of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels: the Key to Winning Hearts and Minds”—my soon-to-be published manifesto on how fossil fuel companies can neutralize attackers, turn non-supporters into supporters, and supporters into champions. I’ve been been circulating it among our clients.

If you know someone in the industry who would benefit from this, please share it with them.

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Imagine that you are talking to the CEO of a tobacco company. He is trying to deal with the endless political and legal attacks on his industry. He tells you that he can win back the hearts and minds of the public by doing the following:

  • “We need to stress to the public that we are an economically important industry that creates jobs and tax revenues.”
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Windaction News Issue: October 9, 2013

By -- October 9, 2013

News and information from
The WindAction Group

facts, analysis, exposure of industrial wind energy’s real impacts

Recent Articles

Wind developer clashes with power grid operator

Minimum Generation Emergencies generally occur during temperate nights, when power demand is at an annual low. Blomberg said that when this happens, the first generators to be called off are those outside the region. The next generators ISO calls off are the “self-schedulers.” These are the generators that bid into…

Gadsden City Council supports proposed wind turbine regulations

The council unanimously voted in favor the resolution, which supports a bill pre-filed by State Sen. Phil Williams (R-Rainbow City). Williams’ draft bill would require wind farm developers to get a permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. It would also establish height requirements, setbacks, and mandate that noise…

PUC rules UMaine wind farm proposal must be made public

“As a general principle, the more information that’s in the public view, the better, because people may have interesting, important things to say to us,” said PUC Chairman Thomas Welch in an interview after PUC deliberations took place in Hallowell.

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Challenging Big Green for Human Betterment

By E. Calvin Beisner -- October 8, 2013

The statistics are startling. Johns Hopkins University scholar Nick Nichols found that in 2010, 13,716 environmental groups filed as tax-exempt 501(c)(3)’s with combined revenue of $7.4-billion. Their total assets? $20.6 billion.

Here are some specifics Nichols reports:

  • 2012: Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), $112 million revenue, $173 million assets;
  • 2011: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), $97 million revenue, $249 million assets;
  • 2011: Three Greenpeace organizations, $39 million revenue, $21 million assets.

And just what are these organizations doing with their money? Precious little in the way of environmental restoration or protection—lots in the way of advocating for policies that will fulfill Senator Barack Obama’s promise, when he ran for President in 2007, that if he were elected electricity rates would “skyrocket.” [1]

“I wonder whether the tax-paying coal miners of West Virginia realize that they are subsidizing progressives intent on destroying their jobs?”

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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: October 7, 2013

By -- October 7, 2013
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The California Current: Weekly Digest (October 4, 2013)

By -- October 5, 2013
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‘Simple Rules for a Complex World’: Five for Energy Policy

By Peter Grossman -- October 4, 2013
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Keystone XL: Safe and Prepared (TransCanada)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 3, 2013
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Blow for Energy Postmodernism: FERC Nominee Binz Bows Out

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 2, 2013
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Energy Price-Control Lessons for ObamaCare (remembering a classic WSJ editorial from 1979)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 1, 2013
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Rooftop Solar: Grievous Grid Economics

By Landon Stevens -- September 30, 2013
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