“Bad Profits, rent-seeking, resource misallocation–it’s an upside down world, turning Ayn Rand’s dis-utopian world in Atlas Shrugged into reality one step at a time.”

“Manchin-Schumer leaves no special interest unrewarded,” wrote Robert Bryce. “The legislation is so broad and has so many carve outs that it has been lauded by Exxon Mobil and the Natural Resources Defense Council.”

The new law’s “lollipops” (Bryce) go to wind, solar, EVs, ethanol, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen–all money losers on a real free market. Bad Profits, rent-seeking, resource misallocation–it’s an upside down world, turning Ayn Rand’s dis-utopian world in Atlas Shrugged into reality one step at a time.

It is a sad day when ExxonMobil, once a bastion of climate and energy realism and good business, goes all-in with the Inflation Reduction Act
of 2022.…

“It seems that the only people who could claim a $14,000 [home electrification] rebate have well above average income.  If so, like $7,500 electric vehicles (EV’s) rebates, this is an incentive that primarily will benefit the already well-to-do; except nearly twice as much as EV’s.”

“Without gas utilities to serve heating demand, electric utilities will become winter peaking, requiring massive investments of generating capacity and/or battery storage.”  

Searchable text of Inflation Reduction Act is here.

The American public has been sold out in energy and climate just when the opposite seemed to be at hand. This bill is about bigger government, more spending, greater deficits, and more monetary inflation (federal counterfeiting) to make it all work (see Concerned Economists letter).

Hidden in the Bill are innumerable special-interest government interventions, one of which is very anti-consumer that no one is talking about.…

Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** The Often Overlooked Costs of an Extended Power Outage

Renewables (General):
*** Why Pretend Green Pork Will Stop Climate Change?
*** What The Future Holds For Our Climate Leaders
*** All That Glitters Isn’t Green, or Renewable
*** Unattainable, Costly, Net Zero: the Thrill is Gone; a black/brown-out reality check
*** Wind and Solar Fail to Reduce Grid’s CO2 Emissions
*** MISO approves $10 billion in new transmission lines to subsidize wind and solar
‘Green’ Energy Myth Exposed: Subsidized Wind & Solar Scam Built on Perpetual Lies
Heatwave Demonstrates Weakness of New York’s Electric Grid
Rights Abuser China Emerging as Dubious Linchpin of Biden’s Lithium-Battery Supply Chain
Why Panos Prevedouros left Hawaii

Wind Energy (Offshore):
*** Biden announces executive actions on ‘climate crisis,’ focuses on extreme heat and boosting offshore wind
*** Offshore wind turbines have never been a good idea
*** Offshore Wind’s Turbulent Future
Five Reasons To Reject Offshore Wind Projects
The Offshore Wind Energy Problem: Government Overregulation, Disincentives, and Anti-market Policies

Wind Energy (Other):
Developer Abandons Plan to Add 30 Wind Turbines in Iowa: Residents Celebrate

Solar Energy:
*** Weather ‘too hot’ for solar panels
*** How Manchin-Schumer would change energy, from oil to solar
*** The Energy Transition Runs Into a Ditch in Rural Ohio
Farmland Be Damned: New York Will Cover Upstate with Solar!…

“… fossil fuels are a convenient, condensed source of energy that has helped raise living standards throughout much of the world.”

“We must all be aware that demands for effective policies will yield only superficial change as long as the role of special interests in government remains unaddressed.” (- James Hansen)

James Hansen speaks truth to power in a number of areas regarding energy and climate. There is a lot to like. But when it comes to public policy, he refuses to go where his sober analysis tells him. He is not ready to make a tectonic shift toward adaptation rather than mitigation, despite the latter’s impossible economic and policy math.

“Magical Thinking”

Magical thinking has plagued climate policy. Vaclav Smil has explained the problem with little pushback. Smil, in fact, is in the mainstream as shown by the NYT’s April 2022 article, “This Eminent Scientist Says Climate Activists Need to Get Real.”…