A Free-Market Energy Blog

AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: September 14, 2015

By -- September 14, 2015

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.

—————————

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

Global Warming Goes To Court

Ted Cruz on “Climate Change”

Report: Private Interest and Public Office

Settled Science is a Myth

 

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 Reading

F. A. Hayek on Resource Conservation

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 10, 2015

F. 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.

————-

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:

If 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.

Continue Reading

Enron’s Export-Import Bank (‘Smartest guys in the room’ at work)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 9, 2015

“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

Obama’s Climate Alarmism Tour (contradictory data + tuned-out public = failure)

By James Rust -- September 8, 2015
Continue Reading

The Enronization of Climate Science Revisited

By -- September 3, 2015
Continue Reading

California Plays with Cap-and-Trade Monies (Steyerland redistributionism)

By -- September 2, 2015
Continue Reading

Speech to the Australian Senate on Wind Power (Sen. Brown raises major issues)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 1, 2015
Continue Reading

AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: A Response

By Jim Wiegand -- August 31, 2015
Continue Reading

ABC’s ‘Victory’ over FWS & Big Wind: Much More Must Be Done

By Jim Wiegand -- August 27, 2015
Continue Reading

America’s 1926 Oil Glut: Drive for Mandatory Proration by Independents Begins

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 26, 2015
Continue Reading