A Free-Market Energy Blog

A Conservative, Biblical Case for Windpower? (a red-state, Tea Party strategy at work)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 21, 2013

“Jeff Clark and the Austin-based Wind Coalition are working the red states hard to convince citizens, voters, and legislators that Big Wind is not only green but also red, white, and blue.

Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, fiscally concerned Democrats beware! Wind power is a solution looking for a problem and has nothing to do with the free market and limited, constitutional government.”

At a panel discussion of the future of windpower in Texas last week, hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Jeff Clark of the Wind Coalition made a “conservative” case for continuing government mandates and tax preferences for his industry.

The sold-out event was mostly attended by those favoring smaller government—and ready for a comeuppance for government-dependent windpower. The event was held in Austin, the home of TPPF and the Wind Coalition, an advocacy group focused on the south-central United States.

Continue Reading

$0.11/kWh: Why Wind Is More Expensive than Advertised

By Michael Giberson -- October 18, 2013

“Wind, an expensive energy resource, becomes more expensive (uneconomical) when costs are added for an apples-to-apples comparison to conventional generation. With natural gas prices at $4.00/MMBtu, and long-term cheap gas contracts available to anchor new power generation, wind power projects are typically uneconomic on a variety of grounds.”

A study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the 2011 Cost of Wind Energy Review, estimated the cost of wind-generated electricity at $0.o72/kWh. This estimate is nearly 20 percent lower than the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimate of about $0.087 per kWh.

But as I argue in a new study for the Institute for Energy Research (IER), Assessing Wind Power Cost Estimates (October 2013),  adding wind power to the power grid involves a number of other costs.

Continue Reading

Road to Kyoto: Letter from Ken Lay to George Bush (April 3, 1992)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 17, 2013

“[Enron was] the company most responsible for sparking off the greenhouse civil war in the hydrocarbon business.”

– Jeremy Leggett, The Carbon War (London: Penguin Books, 1999), p. 204.

“The United States fully intends to be the world’s preeminent leader in protecting the global environment. [E]nvironmental protection makes growth sustainable…. [This] recognition … by leaders from around the world is the central accomplishment of this important [United Nations] Rio Conference.”

– George H. W. Bush, “News Conference in Rio de Janeiro, June 13, 1992.

The rise and fall of Enron Corp. is Exhibit A by government advocates for increasing regulation of what is seen as unbridled, market-failure-ridden capitalism. As one economics textbook states: “The story about Enron reminds us of a serious fact of economic life—that markets fail….”

Continue Reading

Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Mortality at Wind Farms: The Sanitized–and Rest–of the Story

By Jim Wiegand -- October 16, 2013
Continue Reading

Chambers of Commerce Falsely Promote Windpower (might be repeated in your local)

By Glenn Schleede -- October 15, 2013
Continue Reading

Fundamental Flaws Debase IPCC 5th Assessment (‘Consensus Science’ on its death bed)

By Chip Knappenberger -- October 14, 2013
Continue Reading

Political Scientists: Gerald North and Andrew Dessler Double Down on Climate Alarmism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 11, 2013
Continue Reading

Dear Big Oil: Stop Acting Like Big Tobacco

By -- October 10, 2013
Continue Reading

Windaction News Issue: October 9, 2013

By -- October 9, 2013
Continue Reading

Challenging Big Green for Human Betterment

By E. Calvin Beisner -- October 8, 2013
Continue Reading