A Free-Market Energy Blog

James Hansen on Cap-and-Trade: One More Time (fee-and-dividend can be politicized too)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 19, 2016

“After this Waxman/Markey bill reached 3500 pages in length I stopped counting. Every lobbyist who could raise his arm to write a paragraph got it stapled into the bill. Legislators were paying off the people who paid them off. That’s the way our Washington politics seems to work.”

– James Hansen, “Canadian Common Sense.” May 16, 2016.

As U.S. states and foreign jurisdictions contemplate or implement cap-and-trade regimes as their preferred way to price carbon dioxide (CO2), it is good to see James Hansen raise his voice–again–on the issue. One only wishes that Hansen, the father of the global warming scare twenty-six years ago, would come out for market adaptation over cap-and-trade as his second-best option.

Hansen is upset that politicians are telling him to forget his carbon tax (fee-and-dividend) idea.…

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Call for Wind Moratorium in Victoria, AU (precautionary principle invoked)

By Sherri Lange -- May 18, 2016

“This is a very simple issue. We have a new industry operating infrastructure that some people say is making them sick. There is insufficient research of the type needed to determine the validity of these claims. … [T]he precautionary principle requires that all future wind farm development should be put on hold, pending the outcome of the study.”

“At the end of the day these people don’t care if wind farms make people sick. They just want them built due to their obsession with climate change. How else to explain the deeply shameful attacks by Greens politicians and other activists on the people who say they are getting sick. Throughout the inquiry I chaired these people were relentlessly mocked, labelled ‘flat earthers’ and alien abductees, by the Greens, their activist supporters and sections of the media.”

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Offshore Wind: A Problematic Future (AWEA’s hype falls short)

By -- May 17, 2016

“The bulk of AWEA’s presentation was designed to show how many and diverse are the offshore wind projects under way. Other than Deepwater Wind and the likely dead Cape Wind projects, all the other projects or possible projects are living on government grants and/or remain little more than speculative research projects. [AWEA head Tom] Kiernan acknowledged that the problem for offshore wind is its cost, likely three to five times that of onshore wind projects.

At last month’s National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) annual meeting, the Offshore Renewables Committee hosted a breakout-session presentation by Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).  With him was research analyst Celeste Wanner who presented a rundown of the status of offshore wind projects. [1]

As one would expect, Mr. Kiernan presented all the positives for wind energy – its cost has declined to where it is now competitive with coal and natural gas generated electricity, there are no emissions since there is no fuel burned to generate electricity.…

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Trump’s NO to Climate Alarmism/Forced Energy Transformation (very good news from the campaign trail)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2016
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Climate: The Real ‘Worrisome Trend’ (Part II: Policy and Intent)

By Joe D'Aleo -- May 12, 2016
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Climate: The Real ‘Worrisome Trend’ (Part I: Faulty Science)

By Joe D'Aleo -- May 11, 2016
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IRS Overreach on Wind Power: Likely Illegal

By -- May 10, 2016
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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: May 9, 2016

By -- May 9, 2016
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Michael Brune/Sierra Club’s Non Sequitur (Letter to Koch assumes a market problem, a government solution)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 5, 2016
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From Zond to Enron Wind to GE Wind: Founder Interview (government enablement for the record)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 4, 2016
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