A Free-Market Energy Blog

Industrial Wind vs. Deep Ecology: Surface Impacts

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 16, 2024

“Our results from a large sample of wind farms revealed significant local warming effects at night, insignificant impacts during the daytime, and the mostly negative impacts on vegetation.” (Yingzuo Qin et al., Environmental Research Letters, 2022)

Deep Ecology is a philosophy that puts nature on an equal footing with humankind. It speaks in religious tones to its broad congregation of partial and total believers. “The froth and frenzy of industrial civilization mask our deep loneliness for that communion with the world that can lift our spirits and fill our senses with the richness and immediacy of life itself,” Al Gore stated in Earth in the Balance (1992), calling for “bold and unequivocal” global action where “the rescue of the environment” is “the central organizing principle for civilization.”

Applied to the Church of Climate, the often unstated assumptions are:

  1. The human influence on climate is pronounced and controlling
  2. That influence cannot be positive or benign, only problematic-catastrophic
  3. Global governance can and must solve this problem

To members of this philosophy-religion, the planet “has been delivered in perfect working condition and cannot be exchanged for a new one.”…

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Icebreaker Demise: Win for Lake Erie, Ratepayers, Taxpayers (crony loss only)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 15, 2024

“Icebreaker was a giant boondoggle, and happily the project died, because it was a folly to begin with — at electric users’ expense.” – Lawrence Bender (below)

The mainstream media is pretty quiet about setbacks regarding offshore wind power projects and other “Green New Deal” nostrums. But don’t question where their heart is. The newspapers are in the dough for “environmental reporting” from Left foundations that want to chip away at freedom and modern living. What ever happened to the traditional media check on rampant cronyism, anyway?

Icebreaker, a notorious government-subsidized initiative to machine-up the Great Lakes, is dead. Here is a recent letter-to-the-editor by a local protesting against the major newspaper’s apologetics about the demise of the project. Thank you Lawrence Bender for speaking truth to power, in this case the Cleveland Plain Dealer.…

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Statism, not Populism, is the Road to Serfdom

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 12, 2024

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“Green” Weaponization in Missouri: Ameren vs. Ratepayers, Taxpayers

By -- January 11, 2024
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Alaska Alert! “Green” Rate Case Trouble (Chugach Electric vs. ratepayers, taxpayers)

By -- January 10, 2024
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Political Realism from a Climate Alarmist (the beginning of the end?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 9, 2024
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Energy and Environmental Review: January 8, 2024

By -- January 8, 2024
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Instead of Mandatory Access

By Jim Clarkson -- January 6, 2024
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EV Struggles: Front Page News

By -- January 4, 2024
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Appreciating the Master Resource (Part II: Energy Foes Agree!)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 3, 2024
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