[Note this post is the most popular article ever published on Master Resource. It has been now been significantly updated. Go here to see the current version.]

Trying to pin down the arguments of wind promoters is a bit like trying to grab a greased balloon. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, it morphs into a different story and escapes your grasp. Let’s take a quick highlight review of how things have evolved with merchandising industrial wind energy.

1 – Wind energy was abandoned for most commercial and industrial applications, well over a hundred years ago. Even in the late 1800s it was totally inconsistent with our burgeoning, more modern needs for power. When we throw the switch, we expect that the lights will go on – 100% of the time.…

“Less expensive natural gas is a boon to drilling host communities because it is a boon to natural gas customers. Wind energy is a boon to local communities looking to make a buck off of forced government wealth transfers — aka ‘picking winners and losers.’ That government force comes in many forms, such as special taxpayer-funded production subsidies, local tax abatement, and state renewable energy mandates.”

Tom Stacy is, indeed, a “heroic Ohioan for affordable electricity.” Underpaid and overworked, he speaks truth to wind power at every opportunity in his state and beyond. His advice?

Protest loudly, politely, and often, and sue at every turn. Expose greed and support sound science…. Finally, always speak from a position of integrity and truth and NEVER exaggerate the way the wind industry does.

“It is no coincidence that a breakthrough in unconventional hydrocarbons (i.e., shale oil, shale gas, oil sands, and coalbed methane) should have taken place in some of the most economically free countries of the world, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. The combination of secure property rights, transparent and efficient regulation, a favorable tax regime, and minimal red tape made it possible.”

“One of the main obstacles to economic growth and social development in many resource economies is rent-seeking. It is not a unique feature of resource economies, but it does appear to have a particularly strong effect on them and to produce institutional weaknesses.”

– Peter Kaznacheev, Curse or Blessing? How Institutions Determine Success in Resource-Rich Economies, Cato Policy Analysis No. 808 (January 11, 2017)

This new study by Peter Kaznacheev, who is Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in Moscow, valuably interprets mineral resource theory in light of institutions (read: market versus government control).…

“Affordable energy brings jobs, improved living standards, and pursuit of happiness. But across the globe, nearly three billion people – almost half the world’s population – still lack regular, reliable electricity. Nearly 1.3 billion people have no access to electricity.”

[Part II and Part III of this series follow.]

For 16 years, in a scene out of pre-industrial America, Thabo Molubi and his partner made furniture in South Africa’s outback, known locally as the “veld.” Lacking even a stream to turn a water wheel and machinery, they depended solely on hand and foot power. But then an electrical line reached the area.

The two installed lights, and power saws, and drills. Their productivity increased fourfold. They hired local workers to make, sell, and ship more tables and chairs, of better quality, at higher prices, to local and far away customers.…