The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has been a consistent voice for classical liberalism in energy and climate for several decades. CEI stays scholarly on the intellectual front (thank Marlo Lewis et al.) and activist on the policy front. The latest from the lean, pound-for-pound, heavy hitting think tank (letter of August 16, 2023) follows:
Dear Members of Congress:
On the first anniversary of enactment of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the undersigned organizations strongly urge you to ensure that the IRA’s Green New Deal-type policies quickly come to an end.
We recognize that in the next year complete repeal of the IRA’s harmful energy and environmental provisions is unlikely. However, clear and tangible legislative changes that make genuine progress towards that goal are realistic and expected.
IRA proponents will today be celebrating the bill’s passage.…
Continue ReadingEd. Note: The following filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission by Jim Clarkson and Resource Supply Management is reprinted below. In the Matter of: Docket No. 29849 Georgia Power Company’s Twenty Fourth Construction Monitoring Report for Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4)
It has been clear for some time this Commission will support substantial rate increases for Georgia Power. Over the next two years it is estimated that the Company will seek about a $1 billion in new revenue with even more to follow as the Vogtle unit 4 comes online.
Now that the first case of Vogtle recovery of capital and associated costs has begun, we offer our advice which has been ignored during the construction cases. There are ways to provide to least some relief to ratepayers.…
“The historic trends contradict the conventional view that fossil generation has been declining, while renewables are gaining. According to the data, ‘The share of low carbon fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP1 [the first UN conference of parties].'”
In the worldwide battle for electric generation, coal isn’t down and out. It isn’t even on the ropes. According to World Energy Data (formerly BP’s data collection report), coal is still the champ.
In 2022, coal accounted for 35.4% of global electric generation, followed by natural gas (22.7%), hydro (14.9%), nuclear (9.2%), wind (7.2%), solar (4.5%), geothermal, biomass, and other renewables (3.6%).
The historic trends contradict the conventional view that fossil generation has been declining, while renewables are gaining. According to the data, “The share of low carbon fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP1 [the first UN conference of parties].”…
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