A Free-Market Energy Blog

“The Case Against a U.S. Carbon Tax” (working paper lays out the issues)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 17, 2015

“The U.N.’s own report shows that aggressive emission cutbacks—even if achieved through an ‘efficient’ carbon tax—would probably cause more harm than good.” (p. 2)

“Libertarians and conservatives in particular should not simply trust the assurances from the advocates of a carbon tax, but should instead read the relevant literature themselves. In both theory and practice, a U.S. carbon tax remains a very dubious policy proposal.” (p. 36)

–  Robert Murphy, Patrick Michaels, and Paul Knappenberger, “The Case Against a Carbon Tax,” Cato Working Paper No. 33, September 4, 2015.

Are opponents of pricing carbon dioxide (CO2) in general, and a U.S. carbon tax in particular, uninformed about the physical science of man-made climate change? Are opponents also in denial about market-failure economic analysis? 

Hardly. Serious intellectual flaws exist in the case for CO2 pricing in the peer-reviewed literature, even the mainstream scientific literature.

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GOP Candidates: Time to Defuse Climate Alarmism

By James Rust -- September 16, 2015

“Is global warming from burning fossil fuels sufficiently dangerous to stop its use and replace our vast, inexpensive energy sources with possibly expensive and environmentally challenged solar, wind, ethanol from corn, other biofuels, and biomass (predominately burning wood). The answer is absolutely not–or not in the least.”

Some GOP candidates have responded “I am not a scientist” when confronted by questions about climate change (global warming). President Barack Obama singled out the phrase in his 2015 State of the Union speech stating,

I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities.

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Free Market Energy: Comments before the Georgia Public Service Commission

By Jim Clarkson -- September 15, 2015

“Small rooftop solar is an upper-middle-class hobby paid for by general taxpayers and ratepayers. For small solar the payment can be set by Georgia Power’s hourly avoided cost, similar to the prices calculated for marginal sales under the Real-Time Pricing (RTP) family of rates.”

“By compensating distributed generation and solar according to marginal cost-based payments … this problem goes away. As with marginal cost-based sales nonparticipants are not affected.”

Notice of Inquiry and Workshop to      )

Examine Issues Related to the Value    )        Docket: 39732

of Renewable and Distributed Energy  )

Resources in Preparation for the 2016 )

Georgia Power Company Integrated      )

Resource Plan (IRP)                                     ) 

Renewable energy should receive no subsidies, no mandated purchases, no set-asides, and no special treatment whatsoever. Renewable energy’s value should be determined by letting the market decide.…

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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: September 14, 2015

By -- September 14, 2015
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F. A. Hayek on Resource Conservation

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 10, 2015
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Enron’s Export-Import Bank (‘Smartest guys in the room’ at work)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 9, 2015
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Obama’s Climate Alarmism Tour (contradictory data + tuned-out public = failure)

By James Rust -- September 8, 2015
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The Enronization of Climate Science Revisited

By -- September 3, 2015
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California Plays with Cap-and-Trade Monies (Steyerland redistributionism)

By -- September 2, 2015
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Speech to the Australian Senate on Wind Power (Sen. Brown raises major issues)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 1, 2015
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