A Free-Market Energy Blog

Defeating Big-Government Renewables in Michigan (Prop. 3's "suicide by gluttony")

By Kevon Martis -- December 6, 2012

Proposition 3, sponsored by by Michigan Energy-Michigan Jobs (MEMJ), would have forced utilities to produce 25 percent of Michigan’s electricity by 2025 from renewable sources, primarily industrial wind. Despite national backing and a lot of money spent, Michigan voters rejected the “25×25” measure by a 64–36% margin.

Clearly, the voters saw through what would have been effectivity a tax increase on electricity which would threaten to endanger reliability as well.

Background

This initiative was hardly local. It was driven by national pressure groups like the Sierra Club with their backing by natural gas company Chesapeake Energy, and the League of Conservation Voters, also heavily funded by deep-pocketed elites.

MEMJ itself was funded largely by the Green Tech Action Fund of San Francisco and the Natural Resources Defense Fund of New York, both darlings of green industrialists, particularly Tom Steyer, a California hedge fund billionaire.…

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A Moral Defense of the Oil Industry

By -- December 5, 2012

“It is the oil industry, not its opponents, that deserves the moral high ground. The moral arguments against oil pretend to be progressive but are in fact re-hashes of primitive philosophical doctrines. For example, ‘sustainability’ is a relic of centuries when human beings repeated the same lifestyle over and over–instead of finding better and better ways to do things.”

Imagine you are an advertising executive, and a CEO asks you: “Do you think you can help improve the reputation of my industry?”

You respond, “Sure, what are some ways your industry makes people’s live better?”

He replies, “Well, actually, our product helps people in just about everything they do. This past year, it helped take 4 million newlyweds to their dream destinations for their honeymoons. It helped bring 300 million Americans to their favorite places: yoga studios, soccer games, friends’ houses.…

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Wind Propaganda by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Orwellian greenwashing calls for correction)

By Sherri Lange -- December 4, 2012

“In its heyday the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was a bastion of objectivity. However this show revealed nothing but wind apologetics. The absurdities were thick and one-sided without a single thread of verity.”

Recently the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) pretended to take on the endless debate around the topic most people know little about – the health problems created by industrial wind turbines. The results were quite disappointing.

The Sunday, October 21st program (two segments) skated around the issues like Barbara Ann Scott.

The first segment was a cut and paste “documentary” by a novice reporter from Kincardine, Ontario about people in her “home town.” Frustratingly, and sadly, this entire set up piece merely touched at the edges of the actual concerns many of which have been reported on CBC by actual CBC reporters.…

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Carbon Tax: Climatically Useless

By Chip Knappenberger -- December 3, 2012
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Bill McKibben: Energy Enemy Number One

By -- November 30, 2012
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Energy Transformation and "Moore's Curse": Realism Before Action

By Steven Lightfoot -- November 29, 2012
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Saving the Wind Industry: Henry Hazlitt’s Lesson Applied Today

By -- November 28, 2012
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Texas Windpower: Will Negative Pricing Blow Out the Lights? (PTC vs. reliable new capacity)

By Josiah Neeley -- November 27, 2012
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San Francisco's 'Green' Energy Plan: Back-Door Coercion, Front-Door Costs

By Dave Roberts -- November 26, 2012
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Thanksgiving & Capitalism

By Richard Ebeling -- November 22, 2012
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