A Free-Market Energy Blog

Cape Wind: The Air Traffic Safety Issue of a Government-enabled Project

By -- November 8, 2011

“While of course the wind farm may be one of those projects with such overwhelming policy benefits (and political support) as to trump all other considerations, even as they relate to safety, the record expresses no such proposition.”

– Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts v. Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Court of Appeals (DC Circuit), October 28, 2011.

Earlier this year, Industrial Wind Action Group (home) wrote how turbines sited within fifty miles of U.S. radar installations are now disrupting our navigation aids and impairing U.S. national security.

FAA and military radar experts in the field are well aware of the compromises to radar resolution caused by poorly sited turbines. But with the debate surrounding energy policy dominated by politics and money, they’ve bowed to the pressure.

Last week we learned of another project that poses safety risks.…

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Are We Free Market Energy Types Just 'Bought and Paid For'? (New York Times, MasterResource weigh in on the bias question)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 7, 2011

The public editor at the New York Times, Arthur Brisbane, recently wrote in his weekly Public Editor column about the trustworthiness of Robert Bryce, the nation’s leading energy journalist who has graduated to being a top energy public policy scholar, period. (Hard work, smarts, attention to detail, and open-mindedness earns the latter designation.)

In The Times Gives Them Space, but Who Pays Them? (October 29, 2011), Brisbane laid out a controversy that is worth reviewing. The question is: Does a writer’s paid association disqualify him or her as a reliable source of public policy analysis and opinion?

Here is how Brisbane asks and answers it.

PEOPLE don’t just argue about what is written on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. They argue about who is doing the writing and why.

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William N. Niskanen: Economist, Scholar, and Foe of Political Capitalism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 4, 2011

The longtime chairman of the Cato Institute, William N. Niskanen, passed away last week at age 78. We shared the podium a few times on energy issues, and I admired his Enron project at Cato that resulted in two books, Corporate Aftershock: Lessons from the Collapse of Enron and Other Major Corporations (2003) and After Enron: Lessons for Public Policy (2005).

Like virtually everyone else who knew him, I remember Bill as a scholar and gentleman. He had one tone of voice and reliably imparted insightful logic. He was what I like to call a scholar’s scholar, role model for the rest of us.

Career

William Arthur Niskanen Jr. (1933–2011), born in Bend, Oregon, graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics in 1954. He earned his economics doctorate in 1962 from the University of Chicago.…

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Cap-and-Cry: California's Global Warming Program (avoided warming of 0.005°C by 2050 under CARB regulations)

By Chip Knappenberger -- November 3, 2011
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Shale Gas: Cornell's GHG Paper Continues to Attract Criticism

By Steve Everley -- November 2, 2011
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Peltier: Political Solar's 'Epic Fail'–With More to Come

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 1, 2011
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Is Neo-Malthusianism Halloween Crazy?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 31, 2011
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Fighting for Energy Freedom (my passion for a right, winning cause)

By Marita Noon -- October 28, 2011
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BEST as Bad: The Irrelevance of Richard Muller's Vaunted Proclamation (warming vs. catastrophe in a political atmosphere)

By E. Calvin Beisner -- October 27, 2011
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Smart Grid Wiseup: Google and Microsoft Quietly Exit (energy efficiency vs. the hassle factor)

By -- October 26, 2011
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