The statistics are startling. Johns Hopkins University scholar Nick Nichols found that in 2010, 13,716 environmental groups filed as tax-exempt 501(c)(3)’s with combined revenue of $7.4-billion. Their total assets? $20.6 billion.

Here are some specifics Nichols reports:

• 2012: Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), $112 million revenue, $173 million assets;
• 2011: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), $97 million revenue, $249 million assets;
• 2011: Three Greenpeace organizations, $39 million revenue, $21 million assets.

And just what are these organizations doing with their money? Precious little in the way of environmental restoration or protection—lots in the way of advocating for policies that will fulfill Senator Barack Obama’s promise, when he ran for President in 2007, that if he were elected electricity rates would “skyrocket.” [1]

“I wonder whether the tax-paying coal miners of West Virginia realize that they are subsidizing progressives intent on destroying their jobs?”…

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science. It’s all spelled out at WiseEnergy.org, which is a wealth of energy and environmental resources.

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every 3 weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

—————————

US Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC):

Wind industry lobbying for another extension of PTC

Dr. Michaels Testifies against the PTC in Congress

House Hearing on PTC

Wind Subsidies, déjà vu

Credits to Spur Renewable Energy Sources Seen Set to End

Several organizations protest against the wind PTC

GOP questions need for wind farm tax credit

Greed Energy Economics:

Renewables Religion is Dangerous — “it’s insanity”

Are we prepared to accept the cost of moving to renewables?

[The following is a weekly digest of California energy news excerpted from Calwatchdog.com.  This inaugural report will be followed by updates from the world’s 8th largest economy every one-to-two weeks, depending on  developments.   MasterResource welcomes Mr. Lusvardi to our team (bio below).]

California Dems pass pro-fracking bill; CPUC Blacks-Out Green Power Prices from Consumers; Rooftop Solar to Cost Other Customers $1.1 Billion per Year

A Pro-Fracking Bill Disguised as an Anti-Fracking Bill

Can you imagine California’s Democratic-controlled legislature and Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown passing a pro-fracking bill?  Neither could the mainstream media in California that reported state officials had passed an anti-fracking bill on Sept. 20 sponsored by State Senator Fran Pavley (D, Los Angeles County), the leader of the green voting block in both houses of the legislature.

State Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) was reported by green reporter Chris Clarke on his Re-Wire blog at the KCET public television website as requiring:  (1) a scientific assessment of fracking, (2) frackers to apply for permits, (3) fracking to continue while state crafts further regulations, (4) fracking permits to be provided to nearby property owners within 30 days; and (5) regulation of injecting acid into the ground, not fracking per se. …

“[P]ermanence and stability are the cardinal virtues of the legal rules that make private innovation and public progress possible. To my mind there is no doubt that a legal regime that embraced private property and freedom of contract is the only one that in practice can offer that permanence and stability.”

– Richard Epstein. Simple Rules for a Complex World,  Cambridge:  Harvard University Press, 2004, p. x1.

In U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure–and in a recent blog post at MasterResource–I have argued that for government energy policy to be effective it has to be modest—modest especially in what policy can be expected to accomplish.

But for modest policy to be effective, there must be some basic understandings about what energy policy should or should not entail.…