“This is the doleful legacy of Reaganism. We have become a nation that believes that you can get something for nothing. We thought that the energy crisis would be solved . . . somehow, and that no one would have to suffer….”

“Somewhere in his peripatetic travels, the much-maligned Jimmy Carter — an artless politician, to be sure — must scratch his head at the reverence still accorded Reagan. The way things are going, the Gipper’s visage will be added to Mount Rushmore. Not that anyone will notice. It’ll be too expensive to drive there.”

– Richard Cohen, “Wish Upon A Pump.” Washington Post, July 8, 2008. Quoted in Joe Romm, “Who Got Us in this Energy Mess? Start with Ronald Reagan.” Climate Progress.

A feature of MasterResource is chronicling the failed analyses and prognostications of the Energy Statist School, those who subscribe to chronic, global market failure and forced transformation away from consumer-chosen energies.…

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:

Wind Energy Economic Lessons From Denmark

Wind and Solar Power Simply Don’t Work

ABC’s Good Comments to US F&WS re Eagle Killings

Wind Energy — One of the Greatest Swindles Ever

EPA’s Proposed “Clean Power” Plan: Missing Benefits, Hidden Costs

The Energy Absurdity of the Paris Climate Agreement

Despite Solar and Wind, We Still Need Nuclear Power

Official Democrat Platform (note energy and AGW items)

The Death Cult of Environmentalism

Dr.…

“[The Fish and Wildlife Service] recognizes that: ‘Golden Eagle populations in the United States may not be able to sustain any additional, unmitigated mortality and the threshold for this species is zero.’ Yet, remarkably, FWS has still concluded that ‘some take [of Golden Eagles east of the 100th meridian] can be permitted with implementation of offsetting mitigation’.”

“FWS’s mission is to protect our native wildlife, particularly Threatened, Endangered and other imperiled species, not to promote and ensure the development of wind energy projects, particularly if they are poorly-sited from the perspective of wildlife conservation.”

ABC remains seriously concerned about the fate of the Golden Eagle population under the FWS’s proposed rule. Uncertainty about Golden Eagle populations, especially the small eastern population, and lack of knowledge about their behavior, migratory movements, and habitat use are the biggest weakness of this rule.…

“A dispassionate observer might be forgiven for concluding that FWS’s new proposal, which never even acknowledges the rationale for its earlier 30-year rule, is still designed actually to accommodate the wind energy industry, rather than to protect eagles.”

“ABC questions whether the sacrifice of millions of our Nation’s ecologically important birds and bats justifies building any large, commercial wind energy facility in an area with high concentrations of birds and bats.”

“Individuals who kill federally protected eagles or possess their parts can be fined as much as $250,000 per bird and spend up to two years in jail. The FWS’s revised rule, however, gives the wind industry a free pass to kill thousands of eagles with little or no consequence. What’s more, the public is not going to be able to find out how many eagles are actually being killed.”