“‘Whether to do something or nothing’ is quite a retreat from the basic economic principle of realistically comparing costs and benefits. Washington States’ carbon tax proposal is all cost and no benefit. New administrative programs and higher across-the-board energy prices cannot be balanced by virtue signalling.”
“One can only hope that economists would put their game face on and do real analysis–and tell their funders that the right answer is better than the politically correct wrong answer.”
A recent letter-to-the-editor in the Wall Street Journal, “Debating Washington Carbon Tax Initiative,” made a number of points that invite further consideration. The subtitle of the piece was: “The real question in front of Washington voters is whether to do something, or nothing, about the risks of climate change.”
The letter by PhD economist Noah Kaufman of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy is parsed in red; my comments are indented.
“The significance of these two maps, especially the one utilizing current natural gas prices, is that natural gas wins in the battle to be the cheapest source of electricity in almost every region where solar and wind power are being forced into the grid via government mandates and/or subsidies.”
“A truly competitive playing field for power fuels would leave renewables with a much smaller national footprint. That might be an outcome utility customers would welcome.”
A recently updated analysis by the Energy Institute of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) shows natural gas combined cycle, wind and residential solar photovoltaic technologies to be the least-expensive ways to generate electricity across much of the United States. The interactive model uses a range of power generating technologies and ranks them based on their levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).…
Continue Reading“Despite his folky style and positioning to the contrary, [Kevin] Martis is a highly polished, fossil fuel operative with aggressive tactics. The taxpayers of Seneca County and all of Ohio deserve a more honest broker than Kevon Martis.”
– Scott Peterson, Checks and Balances Project, October 25, 2018.
“When is an environmentalist not an environmentalist? … When it comes to wind power.
– an eco-joke
In “Coal-Backed Anti-Wind Guru Barrels into Ohio’s Seneca County to Attack Wind Energy,” Scott Peterson, executive director of Checks and Balances Project, “an investigative blog that seeks to hold government officials, lobbyists and corporate management accountable to the public,” goes after one regular citizen, Kevon Martis.
Citizen Martis is very well respected here at MasterResource, as evidenced by these posts:
And recall his 2013 post “Dear Michigan: Why Wind?…
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