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 important articles in this issue are:

Wind & solar are always ruinously expensive

President Trump Seeking Major Cuts to Renewable Subsidies

How did  Rick Perry and DOE get into the Ditch???

Excellent Video: Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet

100% renewable energy isn’t a response to climate change — it’s a retreat

Report: Will Batteries be the Savior of Big Wind?…

“I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow, even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!”

 –  Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Climategate e-mail, July 8, 2004)

“[Climate change is] a very complex subject. I’m not sure anybody is ever going to really know…. they say they have science on one side but then they also have those horrible emails that were sent between the [Climategate] scientists…. Terrible. Where they got caught, you know. So you see that and you say, what’s this all about. I absolutely have an open mind.”

 – President-elect Donald Trump (November 23, 2016)

The assumptions and outcomes of the physical science of climate change are open for wide debate.…

“The lesson is clear. We don’t have to choose between growing our economy and caring for our environment. By embracing innovation over regulation, we can benefit both. And THAT is the heart of our New Energy Realism.”

“… our successes refute old myths, debunk false choices, and transcend limitations, pointing the way to global energy security and shared prosperity. This dramatic progress is a decisive break from the 1970s, when America began pursuing a fundamentally flawed energy policy for which we paid dearly.”

At yesterday’s CERA conference, DOE Secretary Rick Perry did not quite come out and say it. But it’s a fossil-fuel world. Some bones were thrown out for the politically correct, economically incorrect energies (grid wind and solar, as well as batteries/electric vehicles), but make no mistake.…

“The highlight of the entire hearing was the testimony of DOE’s Daniel Simmons.  Everyone else pretty much played their assigned role.”

The title of last week’s hearing on the US Department of Energy’s new pro-consumer orientation toward appliance standards, “Wasted Energy: DOE’s Inaction on Efficiency Standards & Its Impact on Consumers and the Climate”, was obviously biased. But Daniel Simmons, Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, stole the show.

First up as the only Panel 1 witness was IER alumni, Daniel Simmons, who was sworn-in on January 16^th, 2019. Daniel’s five-minute allocation started at the 34-minute mark of a nearly 4-hour long hearing. Simmons was followed with five minutes of questioning from Subcommittee members; starting with Chairman Rush; who questioned a possible lifting of restrictions affecting the manufacture of certain types of incandescent light bulbs.…