The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.
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Some of the more informative articles in this issue are:
How a NC Wind Project Undermines US National Security
An Open Letter To Amazon about the NC Desert Wind project
China drastically reducing wind and solar subsidies
UK PM Cameron: “Get Rid of the Green Crap”
Video: Wind Turbines Can Cause Human Health Impacts
AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: A Response
The story behind “Renewables” and “Sustainability”
“Renewable” Energy – Powerful Words Make Us Do Stupid Things
Report: Private Interest and Public Office
Greed Energy Economics:
China drastically reducing wind and solar subsidies
GOP Presidential Hopefuls Call for Ending Energy Subsidies
UK PM Cameron: “Get Rid of the Green Crap”
Talk Is Cheap but Renewable Energy Is Not
Study: Wind Energy has Diminishing Returns
Wind Energy Profits Gone with the Wind
Wind Farm Investment Plunges With Power Prices in Nordic Region
Transparency lacking in state energy moves
Uncle Sam’s Solar Racket — A Cesspool Of Waste And Corruption
NC Shouldn’t Renew ‘Renewable’ Handouts
NC’s RPS cost = $3,800 per NC family
NC’s Energy Policy is “Morally Repugnant”
Turbine Health Matters:
Video: Wind Turbines Can Cause Human Health Impacts
New Research: Less Sleep Causes Higher Chance of Sickness
Web MD: Ten Things to Hate About Sleep Loss
Healthline: The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Body
Harvard: Consequences of Insufficient Sleep
NIH: Consequences of Sleep Loss
NHS: Why Lack of Sleep is Bad for Your Health
More deaths from relocation than from Fukushima or tsunami
Turbine Wildlife Matters:
AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: A Response
Raisin Supreme Court ruling seen as lifeline for endangered species
Is wind energy development, killing the green energy movement?…
Continue ReadingF. A. Hayek made many contributions to the social sciences in his lifetime. This post shares his thoughts about natural resources–really mineral resources–from his 1960 book, The Constitution of Liberty. His thinking is contained in the section, “Conservation of Natural Resources,” (pp. 367–71).
The question Hayek addresses is whether self-interested free-market decisions overuse important, even ‘depletable,’ resources, leaving less for posterity from an economic viewpoint. Hayek argues against what might be called conservationism, or conservation for its own sake where present-value analysis does not apply.
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Hayek employed familiar reasoning to explain how privately owned resources had a capital or salable value, which was particularly relevant to mineral deposits for which, ceteris paribus, present production meant less future production. [1] In his words:
… Continue ReadingIf the owner can get a higher return by selling to those who want to conserve than by exploiting the particular resource himself, he will do so.
“There were times when Lay’s lobbying seemed at odds with his oft-stated belief in free-market solutions. A classic example was Enron’s dependence on such government agencies as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank, which provided loans and loan guarantees for development project in the third world.”
“Like most Wall Street frenzies, the international development craze was wildly overhyped…. [S]ome of Enron International’s assets were almost comically awful, and others were fields of dreams.”
– Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, The Smartest Guys in the Room (below)
A best-selling Enron book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, The Smartest Guys in the Room (Penguin: 2003), told of Enron’s many interactions with government. Their treatment of the subject is only the beginning, however. My forthcoming book, Political Enron: A Business History (Part I: 2016), will chronicle Enron’s unprecedented rent-seeking as a warning about the perils of a mixed economy where the worst can get on top.…
Continue Reading