A Free-Market Energy Blog

Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 25, 2019

By -- February 25, 2019

This version of the AWED Newsletter is dedicated to a single topic: the proposed US Green New Deal (GND). The next issue will revert to our normal format about general Energy and Global Warming reports.

One reason the GND was chosen to be focused on here, is that it is a superior indication of how politicized scientific and economic matters have become.

The GND is also a relatively rare major blunder by the Progressive Left. There are at least two significant reasons why it is an enormous political mistake:

1- the GND is technically impossible (e.g., here) — so such a proposal reveals that the Left has a profound disconnect from reality, and

2- the GND would bankrupt the US — so this scheme exposes the Left’s true anti-American agenda.…

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TPPF: Fighting Back in Texas on Wind Power Subsidies

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 21, 2019

“Across the state, Texans are fighting subsidies for big renewable energy corporations. It’s an uphill battle as negotiations of these special deals under [Texas] Tax Code Chapter 312 and 313 are hidden from public view. But numerous communities are winning.”

– Texas Public Policy Foundation, “Texans Are Winning,” February 18, 2019.

The Texas wind industry has been constructed on the backs of US taxpayers, state and local taxpayers, and captive electricity ratepayers. The ruse can be traced to 1999 when an Enron-driven electricity restructuring law provided a 2,000-MW renewable-energy quota for Texas (think Enron Wind Corp.). Texas governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry were instrumental in the crony crusade, unfortunately, a story told elsewhere.

The takeoff of this politically correct, economically incorrect power source is explained by concentrated benefits, diffused costs.

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Washington Post: Another ‘Defeatist’ Climate Article

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 20, 2019

“In the daunting math of climate action, people’s choices and government policies aren’t adding up…. If it sounds downbeat, that’s because it is.”

Climate scientists and policy experts realize that they walk a fine line between jolting consumers and policymakers into action and immobilizing them with paralyzing pessimism about the world’s ability to hit climate targets…. [MIT scientist John] Sterman said the world has missed the chance to contain warming without huge disruptions.

– Stephen Mufson, A kind of dark realism’: Why the climate change problem is starting to look too big to solve.’ Washington Post, December 4, 2018.

Oh, how the free-market climate realists (science, economics, politics) feel vindicated. The mainstream press has (belatedly) announcing the Carbon Tax politically dead and a distraction for the whole climate debate.…

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T. Boone Picken’s Little Green Deal (remembering a stillborn crony scheme)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 19, 2019
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Ocean Plastic Cleanup: Unintended Consequences (artificial habitat for mahi-mahi and more)

By David Shormann -- February 18, 2019
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Dear EERE: Past Time to Debate “Deep Decarbonization” (Obama program inconsistent with America First energy policy)

By Mark Krebs and Tom Tanton -- February 14, 2019
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Derrick Hollie: Guilty as Charged (Another DeSmogBlog air ball)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 13, 2019
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“Why We Won’t Quit the Climate Fight” (the growing futility, despair of climate alarmists)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 12, 2019
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Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 11, 2019

By -- February 11, 2019
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Carbon Tax Conference in Houston: Some Critical Questions

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 7, 2019
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