Wind Power Unclothed: ‘Economics in One Lesson’ Applied (Hazlitt in 1946 versus AWEA today)

By -- December 16, 2013 4 Comments

“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousand fold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine – the special pleading of selfish interests.”

– Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson (1946)

A year ago, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) was desperately fighting against the scheduled expiration of its most prized federal subsidy, the wind production tax credit (PTC). As I wrote at that time, AWEA’s argument–please government, keep our activity going for job creation and other economic gain–rested on a basic, long-debunked fallacy of economics.

AWEA believes that wind’s “is” equals “ought”–that recorded activity is a per se good.…

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Linowes: Negative Pricing Distortions of Windpower

By -- December 12, 2013 6 Comments

“The combination of the federal PTC and state RPS policies has shielded wind developers from the basic supply and demand forces present in a healthy competitive market. As a result, we are fast-tracking the construction of expensive renewable resources that are variable, operating largely off-peak, off-season and located long distances from where the energy is needed.”

As IER’s recent study found, the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) disproportionately benefits States with renewable energy mandates by distributing the high cost of their policies to taxpayers at large. And the benefit is enormous — at $23/MWh, the PTC’s pre-tax value of $35/MWh equals or exceeds the wholesale price of electricity in many parts of the country.

No traditional source of electric generation receives a federal subsidy as generous and condition-free as the PTC.

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Privileged Tax Treatment of Industrial Wind Generation: Time to End

By Kevon Martis -- December 11, 2013 2 Comments

“It makes absolutely no sense to claim that we need an ‘all of the above’ energy policy to wean us from ‘climate damaging’ fossil fuel plants by subsidizing a source of energy that can only replace a small fraction of that fossil generation but at a snail’s pace and very high price.”

My name is Kevon Martis. I am the volunteer director of the Interstate Informed Citizen’s Coalition, Inc. We are a bipartisan non-profit based in southeast Michigan.

I speak today at the IER/AEA Wind Policy Luncheon on behalf of citizens living on the front lines of Production Tax Credit (PTC)-driven industrial wind development in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

I will get right to the point: Why do we preferentially subsidize wind energy?

1. Is it to free the U.S. from Middle Eastern oil?

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Wind Power as ‘Misfit Technology’: Comments of Tom Stacy at IER Seminar

By Thomas Stacy II -- December 10, 2013 4 Comments

“The wind PTC is not a financial leg-up to an equivalent quality source to make it price competitive with conventional sources. The wind PTC rewards a misfit technology for its lack of control over its fuel source – a fuel that will continue to behave badly no matter how ‘price competitive’ our subsidies make it.”

This post reproduces my extemporaneous and prepared comments given at the Institute for Energy Research Panel on Wind Electricity, December 3, 2013.

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There are basic things about the electricity system that everyone needs to know as a starting point.  For those who may not, let me retrace a simple concept: Electricity supply sources are of two basic types – those designed to be used nearly all the time and at a fairly steady and high percentage of their capabilities (base load sources), and those with greater flexibility, designed to be used less because at every instant year round there is a need for the sum of all electricity produced to precisely match demand fluctuations. 

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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: December 9, 2013

By -- December 9, 2013 4 Comments Continue Reading

Nuclear Power: Our High Costs Benefits! (Bastiat, call your office)

By Roy Cordato -- December 4, 2013 4 Comments Continue Reading

Ohio’s Blue Creek Wind Farm: Predictable Underperformance

By Jerry Graf -- December 3, 2013 6 Comments Continue Reading

“Julian Simon and the Triumph of Energy Sustainability” Revisited: Part II

By Sandy Liddy Bourne -- November 27, 2013 No Comments Continue Reading

Avian Mortality: Union of Concerned Scientists’ Negin Debunked in Real Time

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 25, 2013 10 Comments Continue Reading

‘The Limits of Energy Innovation’: Timeless Insight from Vaclav Smil

By Vaclav Smil -- November 22, 2013 5 Comments Continue Reading