The world has always been dirty and risky. But it was a far dirtier and riskier place before there was an electricity grid run on  coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear.

The world would still be a dirty place if we stopped utilizing our vast combustion resources. And the competitive disadvantage in manufacturing that would impose lower standards of living (including on the already impoverished) right along with shortening, not lengthening, human lifespan relative to the “breathing as usual” case.

Yes, fossil fuels may run short in some future century. But not this one. Until they do, the U.S. should compete with the rest of the world by using them–just the way that world intends to compete with us.

Potential Flaws

On critiquing such cost analyses as conducted by the U.S.…

“If Unit 4 does slip by more than six months, the Company would not be able to collect its current forecast of $522 million in nominal PTCs over the first eight years of the Unit 4 operating life that ratepayers would have otherwise received.”

IN THE MATTER OF: GEORGIA POWER COMPANY’S TWELFTH SEMI-ANNUAL VOGTLE CONSTRUCTION MONITORING REPORT (Docket No. 29849)

Direct Testimony and Exhibits of Philip Hayet on Behalf of the Georgia Public Service Commission, Public Interest Advocacy Staff, June 10, 2015.

IV. PRODUCTION TAX CREDITS (excerpt)

Q. DOES STAFF HAVE ANY CONCERNS REGARDING THE COMPANY’S PRODUCTION TAX CREDIT ASSUMPTIONS?

A. Yes, Staff points out two concerns that relate to the Company’s Production Tax Credit Assumptions. In their joint testimony, Dr. Jacobs and Mr. Roetger note concerns regarding the Company’s ability to meet its current schedule.

“Robert Bradley, of the petro-funded and misleadingly named Institute for Energy Research (Ministry for Fossil Fuel Propaganda, perhaps, would be more precise), continues his lengthy crusade against clean energy with a tirade against subsidies in yesterday’s Washington Times.

Given that Mr. Bradley was director of public policy analysis for seven years at Enron, the natural gas giant that collapsed some years ago in a cloud of falsehoods and lawsuits, one might reasonably question whether his energy policy wisdom should guide the nation.”

– Tom Gray, American Wind Energy Association, “Bradley, IER Continue Long Crusade Against Clean Energy,’ Into the Wind: AWEA Blog, July 29, 2011.

How does one respond to such a statement as this? Mr. Gray may think he is an environmentalist and that windpower is an environmental blessing, but that does not make it so.…

“Green energy is not so green after all. It reduces the supply of food, water and energy available to all life on earth, and it often consumes large amounts of hydrocarbon energy for its manufacture, construction, maintenance and backup.”

The earth has three significant sources of energy: Geothermal, combustible hydrocarbon minerals, and radiation/gravitational pull from the sun/moon.

Geothermal energy from Earth’s molten core and decaying radioactive minerals in Earth’s crust. This energy moves continents, powers volcanoes and its heat migrates towards the crust, warming the lithosphere and the deep oceans. It can be harvested successfully in favorable locations, and radioactive minerals can be extracted to provide large amounts of reliable heat for power generation.

Energy stored in combustible hydrocarbon minerals such as coal, oil, gas, tar sands and oil shale. These all store solar and geothermal energy collected eons ago and they are the primary energy sources supporting the modern world and its large and growing populations.…