Stagnating U.S. Wind (government addiction creates bubble symptoms)
By Lisa Linowes -- November 4, 2013“AWEA’s CEO Tom Kiernan bellyached last week that his people were exhausted by the ‘boom-bust’ behavior sparked each time the industry faced possible withdrawal of the PTC. He showed no remorse that big wind was still economically impotent despite decades of public handouts meant to stimulate self-growth.”
The U.S. wind power market has staggered this year, adding less than seventy (70) megawatts of new wind in the first three quarters. This is down from 4,743 megawatts installed during the same period in 2012.
Only three states reported wind expansions:
· California – Pattern Renewables added 42.7 MW to its controversial Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility;
· Colorado – Tri-State expanded its Colorado Highlands Wind Farm by 23.8 MW; and
· Alaska – Just 2 MW added.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) wasted no time blaming the precipitous drop in installations on uncertainty surrounding the wind production tax credit (PTC), the federal incentive most often credited for market growth in the sector.…
Continue ReadingDefeating Faux Environmentalism: Making a Moral Case for Fossil Fuel Abundance
By Alex Epstein -- November 1, 2013“Unfortunately, the fossil fuel industry has not refuted the moral case against fossil fuels. In fact, the vast majority of its communications reinforce the moral case against oil, gas, and coal.”
There is only one way to defeat the environmentalists’ moral case against fossil fuels—refute its central idea that fossil fuels destroy the planet. Because if we don’t refute that idea, we accept it. And if we accept that fossil fuels are destroying the planet, the only logical conclusion is to cease new development and slow down existing development as much as possible.
Unfortunately, the fossil fuel industry has not refuted the moral case against fossil fuels. In fact, the vast majority of its communications reinforce the moral case against oil, gas, and coal.
For example, take the common practice of publicly endorsing “renewables” as the ideal.…
Continue ReadingHalloween Thoughts from Obama’s Science Advisor
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 31, 2013“Some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the [twentieth] century.”
Doom and gloom—and falsity—hallmarks the long career of John P. Holdren, neo-Malthusian and now President Obama’s initial and still science advisor.
What else has the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy said? And can we assume that he still holds and trumpets these views to Obama?
It’s Halloween, a good time to refresh memories of the man who just might be the scariest presidential advisor in U.S. history!
Read—but don’t be frightened. The sky-is-falling gloom of Holdren, his mentor Paul Ehrlich, and others is in intellectual and empirical trouble. From Julian Simon to Bjorn Lomborg to Indur Goklany to Matt Ridley, the technological optimists have the upper hand in a debate that continues to be one-sided.…
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