A Free-Market Energy Blog

My One-Time, Tacit Support of Industrial Wind: A Confessional

By Walter Cudnohufsky -- January 20, 2012

[Ed. Note: This testimonial joins Michael Morgan’s last week  indicating a growing disconnect between Washington, D.C.-based BIG ENVIRONMENTALISM and in-the-pristine, grassroots, common-sense environmentalism. Mr. Cudnohufsky’s bio follows this post.]

On a regular basis, friends are surprised to learn of my recently voiced concerns about industrial wind. Enlightened, perceptive and thoughtful people, they share much of my concern for our earth and human communities.

They ask me, “Isn’t wind a good thing? What concerns you and why? Wind is a large renewable resource used for centuries! We are behind the rest of the world in the use of wind power! We need to address climate change. What is your solution?”

These friends have not incorporated wind energy investigation into their busy lives. With climate change, unemployment, a stagnant economy, health care legislation and a war all screaming for attention, there is to be expected a certain complacency and acceptance of industrial wind.

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Global Lukewarming: A Great Intellectual Year in 2011

By Chip Knappenberger -- January 19, 2012
“Mounting evidence [of lukewarming] begins to start to make you wonder whether there is some fundamental problem between climate models and reality.”
 
“To me, the most significant thing that the Climategate emails show is that the deck is stacked against the publication of research results that are critical of the established scientific consensus, and the skids are greased for papers that run in support…. Not a good situation for the advancement of science.”

“Lukewarmers” are those scientists (and others) who believe the balance of evidence is middling between “climate alarmists” (who tend to think that the global temperature rise will lie in, or even exceed, the upper half the IPCC’s 1.1°C–6.4°C range of projected temperature rise this century) and ultraskeptics, or “flatliners” (who tend to think that the addition of human-generated carbon dioxide has virtually no impact on global temperatures).…

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Killer Energy (Time to Apply Endangered Species, Wildlife Laws to Windpower?)

By -- January 18, 2012

Gleaming white wind turbines generating carbon-free electricity carpet chaparral-covered ridges and march down into valleys of Joshua trees.” Such is “the future” of American energy,  not “the oil rigs planted helter-skelter in [nearby] citrus groves.”

So reads a recent Forbes article. But Wind vs. Bird by Todd Woody also raises concern about the fate of a 300-megawatt “green” turbine project threatening California condors, a species just coming back from the edge of extinction. The project might be cancelled as a result.

Indeed, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has asked Kern County to “exercise extreme caution” in approving projects in the Tehapachi area, because of potential threats to condors. The “conundrum will force some hard choices about the balance we are willing to strike between obtaining clean energy and preserving wild things,” the article suggested.

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How Bad Science Becomes Common Knowledge: Two Case Studies (solar and climate change)

By Eric Dennis -- January 17, 2012
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Terrestrial Energy (Geothermal, Nuclear vs. Fossil Fuels and Renewables)

By William Tucker -- January 16, 2012
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Why I Turned Against 'Green' Windpower

By Michael Morgan -- January 13, 2012
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Energy Free-Market Megatrend: George Will Speaks

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 12, 2012
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‘Reconstructing Climate Policy: Beyond Kyoto’ (AEI: 2003) Revisited

By S. Fred Singer -- January 11, 2012
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On Sustainable Energy (Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 10, 2012
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On Sustainable Energy (Part I)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 9, 2012
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