“Modern wind farms are reliable, safe, state-of-the-art power plants with well-tested technologies that meet approved standards and hundreds of thousands of hours of operating experience,” the U.S. Department of Energy states. Except when they fail under normal conditions–or abnormal ones.
“Wind Turbines Destroyed by Typhoon Yagi,” read one recent headline. This (during peak hurricane season 2024) has wind power in the (not-so-good) news. Not only were older turbines destroyed by the 150 mile-per-hour typhoon (Category 4 in hurricane terms); new “more efficient typhoon-resistant versions” were leveled too. For multi-million dollar structures, the risk and the cost of insurance are major issues.
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The U.S. offshore wind industry will be spared–but only because of projects that have been abandoned or delayed. But what would happen if such naked structures are built, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic Coast?…
Continue Reading“Energy policy will be on the ballot this fall, and American voters deserve meaningful answers from all candidates about how to drive production of affordable and reliable natural gas and oil for decades to come.” – American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is no better or worse than its membership. If the companies like the free market, they are on solid consumer, taxpayer grounds. If the membership tilts toward special government favor (rent-seeking), API works against consumers and taxpayers.
Oil and gas companies should work from fundamental consumer demand out rather than political correctness in. They would have avoided boondoggles like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the 1970s and hydrogen and carbon capture today. They also should have fought hard against wind and solar for on-grid electricity and for batteries to overcome intermittency.
Today, API has many free-market views, given the Biden-Harris Administration’s anti-oil-and-gas agenda, 250 actions (and counting) worth.…
Continue Reading“The Master Resource people are whores of the fossil fuel industry. (Yes, that certainly includes you.)” – David Appell to author, March 5, 2014
If temperament and dramatis personae matter, the climate alarmists lose resoundingly to their scientific critics. I have gotten to know the quite reasonable, friendly Roy Spencer, John Christy, Craig D. Idso, Richard Lindzen, and other leaders of the so-called climate realist, global lukewarming school. And Marlo Lewis et al. (CEI); James Taylor, Sterling Burnett, et al. (Heartland); Craig Rucker, Marc Morano, et al. at CFACT; and many more on the advocacy side.
All of “us” know the difference between straight analysis and advocacy versus ad hominem argumentation. Our side is polite … but tough on naked pleas for government authoritarianism or civil disruption by climate alarmists/forced energy transformationists.…
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