Retire the Phony ‘Social Cost of Carbon’

By Roger Bezdek and Paul Driessen -- February 13, 2017 39 Comments

“As a first priority, the Trump Administration must review, revise, reject or even rescind the SCC, and reduce its values well below what Obama used – perhaps even to zero or negative numbers. Doing so will destroy the justification for many expensive, intrusive, punitive, useless, counterproductive regulations.”

“The benefit estimates … will remain orders of magnitude larger than any reasonable SCC estimates, which means the B-C ratios will also remain very high.”

The Obama Administration aggressively used a Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) scheme to justify federal regulations pertaining to carbon-based fuels, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, coal mine and pipeline permit denials, energy development foreign aid, and many other actions.

While “SCC” may sound esoteric or academic, it is a critical concept. Without the artificial and inflated SCC estimates, many recent energy and environmental regulations could not have been justified or promulgated.…

‘America First Energy Plan’ (climate-change histrionics demoted)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 23, 2017 3 Comments

As observed by the anti-fossil-fuel Left, minutes after becoming President Trump, the White House’s climate webpage was deleted and a new page inserted. As it turned out, Obama’s White House (per John Holdren) did not have an energy page.

ThinkProgress (Center for American Prosperity) ominously reported the above substitution:

On January 20, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Minutes later, the White House website switched hands — and previous pages detailing President Obama’s climate change plans went dark. The new website features, instead, a page dedicated to “An American First Energy Plan,” which details the new administration’s stance towards energy and (a lack of) climate policy.

The new White House home page under ‘ISSUES: Top Issues’ leads with “America First Energy Plan.”…

Alex Epstein: Ready to Make 2017 the Year of Fossil Fuels (energy education for the moral high ground)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 3, 2017 No Comments

“I have found that if we reframe the conversation to always focus on the full context of human flourishing, many people will be won over.” (Alex Epstein)

Fasten your seatbelts. This is the year of energy realism and elevating the politically incorrect, economically correct into the mainstream. Donald Trump energy policy promises to be free-market-oriented in a way that has been absent through recent Republican and Democratic administrations.

A leading voice for an energy/climate realism is Alex Epstein, a one-man dynamo for clear thinking in a field dominated by want it, think it, emote it … and it is.

In writing and by lecture, Epstein is ready to convince a Rotary Club or Prime Time America on the benefits of consumer-chosen, taxpayer neutral, economical, reliable energies. He will debate anyone anywhere–and should get more chances than ever in this new policy era.…

Energy & Environmental Newsletter: January 2, 2017

By John Droz, Jr. -- January 2, 2017 No Comments

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Irish High Court Finds Wind Turbine Maker Liable for Noise Nuisance – Seven Irish Families to Get Millions in Punitive Damages

Outstanding podcast on Energy and Climate Change

Excellent Study: Energy Deregulation

Per Capita Energy Productivity for Primary Sources of Electrical Energy

China Closer to Harnessing Clean, Limitless Energy from Nuclear Fusion

Trump Has Better Ideas on Energy

Cutting the Crap at DOE (See new Newsletter section on Trump & Energy)

Sweden Denies Permit for World’s Largest Wind Project, Due to its Military Interference

Obsolete Calculations of Cost of Carbon

The Social Cost of Carbon

Southern Baptist leaders defend Trump’s pick to lead EPA (See new Newsletter section on Trump & AGW)