Big Wind Subsidies: Time to Terminate?

By -- May 8, 2012 11 Comments

Ending industrial wind subsidies is a quadruple win: it fosters real jobs, promotes economic growth, protects endangered species, and elevates environmental values over image-making.

The public is coming to this view, not only energy realists. In the face of repeated efforts to extend (seemingly perpetual) wind energy subsidies by industry lobbyists, taxpayers and grass root environmentalists have said: ENOUGH.

Informed and inspired by a loose but growing national coalition of groups opposed to more giveaways with no scientifically proven net benefits, thousands of citizens called their senators and representatives – and rounded up enough Nay votes to run four different bills aground. For once, democracy worked.

A shocked American Wind Energy Association and its allies began even more aggressive recruiting of well-connected Democrat and Republican political operatives and cosponsors – and introducing more proposals like HR 3307 to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC).…

Continue Reading

1Q–2012 Activity Report: MasterResource

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 13, 2012 2 Comments

One thousand in-depth posts, 135 different contributors, and 1.2 million views to date–MasterResource has stature as a free-market movement-wide energy blog.

With 415 categories in our index, MasterResource is a lasting research tool, not only a day-to-day contribution to energy scholarship and current political debates. And we have achieved critical mass; ‘Google’ an energy-policy-related term along with MasterResource, and there we usually are!

Our content promises to stand the test of time. Our headlines do not have Stunner or Stunning as does a rival blog selling energy/climate alarmism. Our contributors are wed to reality, not to think-it-and-make-it-is-real and wish-it-and-it-can-happen postmodernism.

Wind Power Niche

One particular niche at MasterResource has been giving voice to the growing, articulate grassroot opposition to industrial wind parks. Such turbines generate a heavy environmental footprint, not only small, unreliable bursts of electricity.…

Continue Reading

'PC' Power Is Not Sustainable (and President Obama's "all-inclusive" energy policy is anything but!)

By Mary Kay Barton -- April 12, 2012 2 Comments

“Entitlement debt is destroying our great nation. These kinds of taxpayer- and ratepayer-funded giveaways, imposed in the name of being ‘green,’ are simply not sustainable – especially if we want our children and grandchildren to live free and prosper.”

President Obama’s mantra du jour for his 2012 campaign speeches is “all-inclusive” energy. But any business touting this version of “all-inclusive” would be prosecuted for false advertising.

When the President says “all-inclusive,” he means politically correct (PC) “green” energy (wind, solar and bio-fuels), and nothing that actually provides reliable, affordable power – especially not hydrocarbons. Another PC buzzword – “sustainable” – is right out of the United Nation’s Agenda 21 Protocol and the President’s goal of “fundamentally transforming” America.

Increasing pain at the pump and the plug underscores the reality that Mr.…

Continue Reading

Dear Wind Industry: We Need Your Workers and Materials (and taxpayers need your cessation)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 6, 2012 6 Comments

“The stakes here could not be clearer. Economic studies have shown that Congressional inaction on the PTC will kill 37,000 American jobs, shutter plants and cancel billions of dollars in private investment. Congress needs to understand that, with PTC uncertainty, layoffs have already begun and further job losses and even plant closings will accelerate each month as we near expiration in December.”

– Denise Bode, quoted in American Wind Energy Association, “As Wind Manufacturing Job Losses Loom, Bipartisan Wind Extension Drive Continues (February 16, 2012).

Three cheers for market-driven resource reallocation for personal and economic betterment.

Some of us can speak from personal experience. I was part of the 4,000-person layoff from Enron Corporation on Monday December 3, 2001. The economy became a little more efficient that day, as many started getting jobs at other energy companies and elsewhere where consumer demand was stronger.…

Continue Reading

Wind Spin: Misdirection and Fluff by a Taxpayer-enabled Industry

By -- February 24, 2012 31 Comments Continue Reading

Why I Turned Against 'Green' Windpower

By Michael Morgan -- January 13, 2012 23 Comments Continue Reading

Are Wind Opponents Zealots?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 5, 2012 7 Comments Continue Reading

North Carolina Onshore Wind Development: Look Before You Leap (Part II)

By -- June 27, 2011 7 Comments Continue Reading

Wind Turbines Offshore North Carolina: Look Before You Dive (Part I)

By -- May 19, 2011 4 Comments Continue Reading

“Why They Go Green” (WSJ editorial says much in few words)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 23, 2010 10 Comments Continue Reading