Wind Setbacks: Safety First (unless you’re a wind developer)

By -- July 1, 2014 3 Comments

“After years of debate there is still disagreement and uncertainty regarding appropriate safety setback distances. This uncertainty has benefited the wind industry. Thousands of turbines are erected throughout the U.S. that are dangerously close to where people live.”

Last month, Ohio infuriated wind proponents by passing Senate bill 310, a bill that delays the state’s renewable electricity standard for two years and eliminates the requirement that half of the renewables mandate be met with in-state resources.

Within days of SB310 passing, Ohio Governor John Kasich approved a change to the safety setback distances for wind turbines. Under the new law, setbacks will now be measured at the property line of the nearest adjacent property as opposed to the wall of a nearby home. In practice, this will require minimum distances of at least 1,300 feet from property lines to each turbine base.…

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Risky Argumentation: Henry Paulson (2014) Recycles Ken Lay (1997)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 30, 2014 5 Comments

“The business voices change, the decades change, but the arguments are familiar. Problem is, the global average temperature today is not appreciably higher than when Ken Lay penned his op-ed. The year 1998 would be the temperature peak, in fact, that marked the beginning of ‘the pause‘.”

Henry Paulson began his recent New York Times opinion-page editorial, “The Coming Climate Crash,” as follows:

“There is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my work in finance, government and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage.”

Ken Lay ended his Houston Chronicle opinion-page editorial of December 5, 1997, “Let’s Have an Ounce of Global-Warming Prevention,” [1] similarly:

“It’s time to stop debating the issues surrounding climate change initiatives and focus instead on simple, realistic, cost-effective solutions.

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Energy and U.S. Middle East Policy: Shaky Foundations

By Greg Rehmke -- June 25, 2014 2 Comments

“Economists have long argued that these [national security] claims are based on economic misunderstandings, yet they are still cited as political justifications for military deployment of U.S. forces in the Middle East. These policies along with past military interventions are at the root of international terrorism directed at the United States.”

Military generals are charged with managing national security, which has included ensuring access to “needed” natural resources. U.S. military goals have been further stretched to securing access to resources “needed” for economic security.

The first U.S. overseas seizure concerned bird guano, a fertilizer like no other at the time. If Peru insisted on getting a lot of money for this valuable product, the only solution was invasion. The U.S. Congress, in response to public opinion, passed the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which authorized Americans to take any guano deposits they discovered.

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Obama’s Energy Plan to Plug California Leakage (to Texas)

By Wayne Lusvardi and Charles Warren -- June 24, 2014 4 Comments

“A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top,” newspaper journalist James Reston once wrote.

There could be no more apropos example of this than Barack Obama’s new proposed rules to mothball “dirty” coal power plants; to reduce CO2 power plant emissions 30 percent from their 2005 level by 2030; and to set voluntary targets for the percentage of renewable energy in each state by 2029.

Obama’s new push is an attempt to address leakage, at least within the United States. The term is not meant to describe the leakage in a high-voltage electric transmission line that can cause fires, damage, or electrocution. Rather, it is meant to describe the migrating of jobs, industries, population, and votes to other states due to planned higher electricity rates mainly in California and other Blue states as a result of forcing a shift to inferior renewable energies.

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Ohio’s Win, AWEA’s Loss (Rep-Elect Vitale new national hero)

By Thomas Stacy II -- June 19, 2014 No Comments Continue Reading

Ex-Im Bank Cronyism: Remember Enron’s Bad Investments

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 18, 2014 2 Comments Continue Reading

AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: June 16, 2014

By -- June 16, 2014 1 Comment Continue Reading

Turbines on Trial: Animal Miscarriages in Denmark (inconvenient fact for wind cronyists?)

By Mark Duchamp -- June 13, 2014 4 Comments Continue Reading

‘Energy Independence’: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

By Pierre Desrochers -- June 12, 2014 3 Comments Continue Reading

Wind’s PTC: The Opposition Mounts (117 groups and counting)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 11, 2014 No Comments Continue Reading