Last Dance for IPCC Group II Report? (NYT’s Gillis, alarmism go wobbly)

By James Rust -- April 9, 2014 1 Comment

“Natural forces causing climate change such as solar sunspots, earth’s orbit changes, ocean currents, volcanoes, etc. are considered unimportant during this period of increased fossil-fuel-produced carbon dioxide (mid-20th century to the present).  This is a serious distortion of the simple meaning of the term climate change.”

On March 31, the New York Times featured an article by Justin Gillis “Panel’s Warning on Climate Risk:  Worst is Yet to Come” that reported findings in the just released UN IPCC Working Group II report “Climate Change 2014:  Impacts, Adaption, and Vulnerability”.

The 44-page Summary For Policymakers defines climate change as follows:

Note that the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as: “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.”

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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: March 24, 2014

By -- March 24, 2014 2 Comments

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science.  It’s all spelled out at WiseEnergy.org, which is a wealth of energy and environmental resources.

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every 3 weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

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Greed Energy Economics:

The Poverty of Renewables

Maine high court overrules state PUC approval of huge wind energy deal

NJ PUC rejects offshore wind project as uneconomical

Denmark ready to scrap offshore wind farms due to cost

Spanish Utility blames renewables for €2.0bn loss

German Utility blames renewables for €2.7bn loss

Wind Energy: German data shows what the Dutch found out years ago

European Governments ripping up renewable contracts

2015 US Budget Plan includes permanent PTC

Bloomberg: PTC Dead This Year

The Withering of Wind Power

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“Killing Wildlife In the Name of Climate Change” (Part II: Gas, Nuclear, Little Else)

By Robert Bryce -- March 20, 2014 No Comments

[Editor note: Robert Bryce, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, is a leading researcher and disseminator of the problems of ‘green’ energy. His February 25, 2014, testimony before the Senate Committee on the Environmental and Public Works was published yesterday and today.]

In discussing energy sources, we must cast aside the social marketing of renewable energy and discard pre-conceived notions as to what qualifies as “green.” Instead, we must focus on basic physics and math.

I am an ardent proponent of nuclear energy because of its negligible carbon dioxide emissions and its incredibly high power density. No other form of energy production can produce as much energy from such a small footprint as a nuclear reactor. This is due to basic physics. Allow me to explain this by using a common metric in physics: power density, which is a measure of the energy flow that can be harnessed from a given area, volume, or mass.…

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Charles Koch on Cronyism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 10, 2014 4 Comments

Today, many governments give special treatment to a favored few businesses that eagerly accept those favors. This is the essence of cronyism…. One obvious example of this involves wind farms. Most cannot turn a profit without the costly subsidies the government provides.”

– Charles G. Koch, “The Importance of Economic Freedom.” August 17, 2012.

William Simon, the top energy regulator in the Nixon’s Federal Energy Administration, was surprised. Oil company head after head was visiting his office to demand this or that to alleviate their shortages of oil or get more entitlements credit for their refineries. But Koch Industries had come by to just ask the federal government to leave them alone—to allow price signals to allocate crude oil and petroleum products. It was a meeting that Simon would not forget.…

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Wind2050: A Dystopian Society? (Vestas, et al. go Orwellian against anti-windpower grassroots)

By Mark Duchamp -- March 4, 2014 1 Comment Continue Reading

Is the Environmental Movement Net CO2 Positive? (James Hansen wants to know)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 24, 2014 6 Comments Continue Reading

Fidel Castro’s 1992 Earth Summit Speech: Big Red as Malthusian Green

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 19, 2014 1 Comment Continue Reading

CO2 Benefits Exceed Costs by … 50:1, more?

By Roger Bezdek and Paul Driessen -- February 11, 2014 38 Comments Continue Reading

AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 10, 2014

By -- February 10, 2014 No Comments Continue Reading

“The Triumph of Capitalism” (Socialism is Intellectually Dead, but Central Planning in the Mixed Economy Lives On)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 7, 2014 3 Comments Continue Reading