Ever wondered why has our standard of living not been improving?

The upward-aiming line in the above chart indicates one reason: growing employment in the renewable-energy sector. That employment contributes a miniscule amount to power production, and it does so at a dreadfully high operating cost.

Here are the numbers.

As illustrated, 200,000 people work in the solar industry (Photo-voltaic and Concentrated Solar Power combined), and they enabled the generation of 3.0 GW in 2015, which comes to 15 kW per employee. The down-sloping lines, combined, represent the 400,000 employees in the fossil fuel industry.

Assuming that about a half of those are needed just to supply fuel to generate the 310 GW electricity reported for that year, then the remaining 200,000 employees were responsible for 1550 kW per employee.

In other words, one employee in the fossil fuel industry produces 1550 kW, while it takes 100 employees in the solar business to produce roughly that amount.…

“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.…