A Free-Market Energy Blog

CO2 Benefits Exceed Costs by … 50:1, more?

By Roger Bezdek and Paul Driessen -- February 11, 2014

Cap-and-trade, carbon taxation, net social cost for carbon: all assume that increasing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases by mankind have injurious effects that are not accounted for in private activity.  But the politically incorrect is intellectually correct: CO2 emissions make life better – even possible – for people, the economy, and the ecosphere.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Weighing risks, costs and benefits is fundamental to life. We do it every day – when walking, driving, showering, heating our homes, and using stairs, ladders and tools; and when balancing the cost of new payments versus the benefits of a better home or car. The alternative is hunkering down in a bedroom or cave – until a lightning bolt, tornado, hurricane or armed burglar disturbs our false sense of security.

That is why government agencies are required to assess the benefits and costs of proposed regulations.

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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 10, 2014

By -- February 10, 2014

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science. It’s all spelled out at WiseEnergy.org, which is a wealth of energy and environmental resources.

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every 3 weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

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Greed Energy Economics:

London School of Economics: Property Values do Decline

23 Texas wind project lessors sue over noise, nuisance and property value

Noise, property values factor in wind forum discussion

Renewable Energy Goals Must Be Balanced with Economic Realities

CAP counts ‘indirect jobs’ in green energy, ignores them for oil and gas

Germany to charge renewable energy facilities for their own use of electricity

Germany’s energy revolution on verge of collapse

Europe Starts To Run, Not Walk, Away From Green Economics

DOE: Making it easier to use taxpayer funds

Governor LePage is right – wind farm subsidies are poor use of government funding

High Renewable Energy Costs Damage Vermont’s Economy

Some wind projects double-dipping on US tax benefits

Be Leery of Investing in Failing Green Solutions

Duke Energy to seek reduction in payments to NC homes with solar panels

Solar Panel Degradation

Another solar manufacturer goes under

Loss Of Production Tax Credits Brings Big Wind Chill

Fighting wind PTC expiration with Senator Wyden

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“The Triumph of Capitalism” (Socialism is Intellectually Dead, but Central Planning in the Mixed Economy Lives On)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 7, 2014

“Less than 75 years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won… Capitalism organizes the material affairs of humankind more satisfactorily than socialism.”

– Robert Heilbroner, “The Triumph of Capitalism,” The New Yorker, January 23, 1989, p. 98.

A major event in the history of political economy thought occurred in 1989 when socialist economics writer Robert Heilbroner (1919–2005) renounced his belief in central planning in the pages of the New Yorker. For anti-market liberals, this made it official: socialism was out of the mainstream. Socialism could not plan a modern economy and was an open sesame for totalitarianism. Hayek said as much in his 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom. A trusted voice on the Left confirmed it 45 years later.

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‘Theft of the Subsoil’ (Guillermo Yeatts on Latin/South America mineral-rights reform)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 6, 2014
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Flat Temperatures, Still More Ills

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 5, 2014
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Revisiting the Charter of the U.S. Department of Energy (reasons to abolish the agency)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 4, 2014
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Modern Transportation and Food: How Carbon-based Fuel Kept the ‘Third Horseman’ in Check

By Pierre Desrochers -- February 3, 2014
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‘Social Cost’ of Carbon vs. Climate Science

By Chip Knappenberger -- January 31, 2014
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California Energy Update: Part IV

By -- January 30, 2014
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The Not Given State of the Union Address (Freedom 101 over ‘the road to serfdom’)

By Richard Ebeling -- January 29, 2014
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