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Carbon Offsets: Tricky Math

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 4, 2022

“… very little carbon is absorbed [by tree planting] in the early years. In fact, it will take 50 years for the carbon from this one [plane] trip to be taken up by the trees. The 20-year-old [flyer] will be 70 by the time the trip is fully ‘paid’ for in carbon terms. “

The crusade against carbon dioxide (CO2) has many here-and-now costs. And CO2 mitigation is futile given energy density in favor of oil, natural gas, and coal -and intermittency against wind, solar, even hydropower.

Carbon offsets are a tool in the mitigation toolbox. Corporations like it, but environmentalists fuss about business-as-usual emissions and “greenwashing.” Bottom line: planting somewhere to allow CO2 emissions is iffy. What about the accounting where the trade is a dud? What if the tree gets sick?…

Renewables and the Great Texas Blackout: Baker Institute Study Tip-toes to Key Causality

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 29, 2022

“… communications between different regulatory agencies as the event approached were inadequate. Transparency regarding the location of natural gas supply infrastructure was atrocious.”

“Currently Texas is #1 in the nation in terms of existing wind capacity. It is also #1 in terms of planned capacity additions for wind and solar, and #2 in the nation for planned battery capacity additions. However, there is little-to-no planned capacity addition for other forms of dispatchable generation. This could become an issue for reliability.” (Baker Institute, study, below)

There is not only government failure in the quest to address market failure. There is analytic failure in identifying market failure that government is empowered to correct. Restated, problems attributed to markets are often the result of prior government intervention on close inspection.

This is true with some classic examples in the energy field, from the origins of public utility regulation of electricity to oil overproduction under the ‘rule of capture’, stories for another day.…

James Hansen’s Latest (climate alarmism, energy realism continues)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 27, 2022

James Hansen is a mixed bag. In important areas, he speaks truth to power and is a thorn in the side of “magical thinking” wind-and-solar “environmentalists.”

But the blinders are on when it comes to climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases; market entrepreneurship for adaptation/resiliency; the benefits of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for Global Greening; and the positive effect of moderate warming for many people in many places of the world for most of the year.

Here are some examples of Hansen at his best:

  • “Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.” (here)
  • “Let’s be clear: the frequent comparison of the fossil fuel and tobacco industries is nonsense. Fossil

Big Oil, Exxon Not Guilty as Charged (a rebuttal in six parts)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 22, 2022

Stephen Schneider and Global Cooling: An Exchange

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 11, 2022

‘Post-ESG Mandate’: More Oil and Gas (Strive Asset Management letter to Chevron)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 8, 2022

Atlas Shrugged in California: “Green” Electricity vs. Human Comfort and Welfare

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 7, 2022

CPUC ‘Emergency Load Reduction Program’: Energy Statism hits Home

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 6, 2022

Happy Labor-Saving Day (thank modern energy)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 5, 2022

On the Theory of Interventionism

By Robert Bradley Jr. --