A Free-Market Energy Blog

New Science Endangers EPA’s “Endangerment Finding"

By Chip Knappenberger -- July 12, 2012

“If the EPA were to have done that with the regulations being proposed here … it is quite likely that their original Endangerment Finding would have to be revised and potentially overturned.”

The public comment period for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions for New Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units closed on June 25, 2012. A number of extensive comments were submitted arguing that the basis of the Endangerment Finding—that human greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations”—has become so outdated as to require a thorough re-assessment.

Strong cases were made that the EPA failed to completely consider new and influential scientific results which have a direct relevance to the impact that climate change as a result of human greenhouse gas emissions may have on the public health and welfare.…

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Nordhaus, Tol, and Climate-Change Economics: Turning Around the Conventional Wisdom

By Robert Murphy -- July 11, 2012

“The scientific modeling of climate change, and its possible impacts on human welfare, are very technical…. When experts try to summarize the fields for the layperson, they sometimes present matters in misleading ways, however inadvertent. William Nordhaus’s treatment of the economics literature, and RealClimate’s discussion of the accuracy of climate models’ temperature predictions, are good examples.”

At the Institute for Energy Research (IER) blog, I rebutted Yale economist William Nordhaus’s New York Review of Books criticism of a Wall Street Journal editorial by 16 “global warming skeptic” scientists, including MIT’s Richard Lindzen.

To understand the full point-counterpoint, the interested reader should consult the above links chronologically. Elsewhere I have challenged the entire case for a carbon tax. However, in the present post I want to focus on just two issues in the overall debate, that were raised in the wake of my initial IER post:

(1) the timing and amount of net damages from climate change, according to the best economic models, and

(2) what the climate scientists mean when they talk of a “confidence interval” in temperature projections.

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Wind Energy Jobs: Mysterious Numbers from AWEA (75,000 claim bogus)

By -- July 10, 2012

“AWEA’s job figures, dating back to at least 2009, may be nothing more than figures pulled from thin air.”

The numero uno goal of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is extending the Production Tax Credit (PTC) beyond its current expiration date of December 31, 2012. Documents available on the trade group’s website show that about $4 million of AWEA’s 2012 budget ($30 million) was directed toward PTC lobbying.

With job growth the top political issue in this election season, AWEA’s strategic plan calls for rebranding of the wind industry as an economic engine that will produce steady job growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector. But therein lies a problem: the wind industry’s own record on job growth lacks credibility.

Public information suggests that AWEA has inflated its overall job numbers.…

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Energy Loserville: U.S. DOE Picks in an Artificial Industry

By Sterling Burnett -- July 9, 2012
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Economic Efficiency, Not 'Energy Efficiency' (Economist Cordato parses a sacred cow)

By -- July 6, 2012
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Oil and Gas: America's Brightest Job Spot

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 5, 2012
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U.S. Declaration of Independence (and declaration against government dependence)

By Richard Ebeling -- July 4, 2012
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Will U.S. Sovereignty be LOST at Sea?

By Larry Bell -- July 3, 2012
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The Inhibiting Power of Dilute Energy

By Jon Boone -- July 2, 2012
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America's Bounty vs. Federal Frac Rules: Will We Lead or Lag the World?

By Donald Hertzmark -- June 29, 2012
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