A Free-Market Energy Blog

“Killing Wildlife In the Name of Climate Change” (Part I: The Double Standard)

By Robert Bryce -- March 19, 2014

[Editor note: Robert Bryce, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, is a leading researcher and disseminator of the problems of ‘green’ energy. His February 25, 2014, testimony before the Senate Committee on the Environmental and Public Works follows today and tomorrow.]

The focus of this hearing is on the economic benefits of ecosystems and wildlife and how they “are valuable to a wide range of industries,” including tourism. The purpose is also to examine “how the Administration is preparing to protect” ecosystems “in a changing climate.” The facts show that federally subsidized efforts that are being undertaken to, in theory, address climate change, are damaging America’s wildlife.

Furthermore, those same efforts have, for years, been allowing an entire industry to avoid federal prosecution under some of America’s oldest wildlife laws.

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James Hansen: Still More Good Energy Realism (just ignore his climate alarmism, world fee-and-dividend fix)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 18, 2014

“Hansen has distain for all-hat, no-cattle renewables, was the subject of two recent MasterResource posts: Is the Environmental Movement Net CO2 Positive? (James Hansen wants to know) and Energy Realism Amid Climate Alarmism: James Hansen Rides Again. It is nuclear or bust, if it is not already bust, according to Hansen’s energy math.” – Robert Bradley, “Game, Set, Match Fossil Fuels? James Hansen Sleepless in Ningbo,” March 13, 2014.

James Hansen continues to speak energy truth to Environmental Power about the primary of fossil fuels; the need for affordable, plentiful, reliable energy;  and the dead-end, the distraction, of renewable-energy forcing and mandated energy conservation. Here are some contributions to the energy reality debate from his March 13th testimony at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, Keystone XL and the National Interest Determination:

“I am sorry that we scientists have not done an adequate job of communicating energy facts.”

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Curtailed Hydro from Wanapum Dam Crack: An ‘Unpredicted Change in the Wind’?

By -- March 17, 2014

“Projections show that wind generation will increase rapidly to approximately 6,250 MW by 2013.  This vast amount of wind power interconnected to the Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission grid will likely overwhelm the existing federal hydropower system’s ability to provide sufficient integration services in the future….

As the percentage of wind generation grows, the risk of having a major system event from an unpredicted change of the wind energy level increases.”

– Technical Analysis of Pumped Storage Integration with Wind Power in the Pacific Northwest – Final Report, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (August 2009).

The magnitude and location of the current unfolding story of a large crack in the hydro-rich Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River in Central Washington became known only a week after the Grant County Public Utility District declared a potential emergency. 

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‘The Road to Serfdom’ at 70: Hayek’s Relevance in the Age of Obama

By Richard Ebeling -- March 14, 2014
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Game, Set, Match Fossil Fuels? James Hansen Sleepless in Ningbo

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 13, 2014
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Obama’s 2015 Budget: Wish List Climate Spending ($10.8 billion for what?)

By Megan Toombs -- March 12, 2014
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Ad Hominem against MasterResource: Climate Alarmism at Wit’s End?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 11, 2014
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Charles Koch on Cronyism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 10, 2014
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Kenneth P. Green: 20 Years in the Energy/Environmental Movement (Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 7, 2014
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Kenneth P. Green: 20 Years in the Energy/Environmental Movement (Part I)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 6, 2014
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