A Free-Market Energy Blog

Unloading Hansen's 'Climate Dice'

By Chip Knappenberger -- September 24, 2012
“Today’s temperature ‘extremes’ are simply yesterday’s extremes warmed up a bit, partly from the heat-island effect. But they are not new events…. Hansen’s push on weather extremes is another case where the level of alarm is disproportionate to the level of impact.” 

Today’s temperature “extremes” are simply yesterday’s extremes warmed up a bit, partly from the heat-island effect. But they are not new events where none existed prior.

This distinction is neither subtle nor unimportant. When it comes to temperatures, yesterday’s extremes warmed up offer less of a surprise (and hence a greater ease of adaptability) than if a new crop of extreme events suddenly sprung up out of nowhere to catch us unprepared.

But such a distinction is not made prominently evident in the latest work by NASA’s James Hansen—and even less so in the accompanying media coverage (including that instigated by Hansen himself).

Continue Reading

"Silent Spring at 50: The False Crises of Rachel Carson" (Reassessing environmentalism's fateful turn from science to advocacy)

By Roger Meiners -- September 21, 2012

“Carson made little effort to provide a balanced perspective and consistently ignored key evidence that would have contradicted her work. Thus, while the book provided a range of notable ideas, a number of Carson’s major arguments rested on what can only be described as deliberate ignorance.”

– Roger Meiners, et. al (cover insert)

Widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement when published 50 years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring has had a profound impact on our society. While Carson was not the first to write about the dangers of pesticides or to sound environmental alarms, her writing style and ability to reach out to a broad audience allowed her to capture and retain the attention of the public.

Yet this iconic book, hardly scrutinized over the decades, substituted sensationalism for fact and apocalyptic pronouncements for genuine knowledge.

Continue Reading

Wind Consequences (Part III: Total Costs)

By Kent Hawkins -- September 20, 2012

This post completes the determination of wind costs, and Part IV covers subsidization and emissions. Part I, Introduction and Summary, contains links to all the posts in this series.

Just about any analysis you see understates wind’s cost. In fact there can be no comparison between the costs for wind and reliable, dispatchable generation plants such as coal, nuclear and gas plants. Reliability is so important in electricity systems, and wind’s persistent erratic behavior is so problematic that any electricity it produces is not usable and is a threat to electricity system reliability.

Add capacity from reliable generation plants flexible enough to balance wind’s erratic output and a steady, reliable electrical energy flow can be provided. However there is a substantial cost associated with this. As shown in Part II, for wind to produce the same amount of useful, reliable electricity over 40 years, wind and associated balancing overnight plant capital costs are almost 3 times that for nuclear, the most expensive conventional generation plants reviewed.…

Continue Reading

NRDC Wind Jobs Report Doesn't Make the Grade (250 MW does not create 1,000+ jobs)

By -- September 19, 2012
Continue Reading

Wind Consequences (Part II: Analysis Approach and Implementation Costs)

By Kent Hawkins -- September 18, 2012
Continue Reading

Windpower Consequences (Part I: Introduction and Summary)

By Kent Hawkins -- September 17, 2012
Continue Reading

Climate Alarmism: Our Sanity and Wallets Need a Break

By -- September 15, 2012
Continue Reading

Can Windpower Grow Without the PTC?

By -- September 14, 2012
Continue Reading

'Demand Response' in Electricity: Economists vs. FERC on (Over)Pricing

By -- September 13, 2012
Continue Reading

Sierra Club Energy: Beyond Affordable

By Lance Brown -- September 12, 2012
Continue Reading