“Ending government bailouts and corporate handouts will allow for huge, immediate, direct tax cuts — giving back desperately-needed money to American families — every year — to spend, save, or give away as they see fit.”

– Libertarian Party Website (below)

The Libertarian Party, the self-described “Party of Principle” advocating “minimum government, maximum liberty,” has a worthy stance on ending special government favor to business (cronyism). For energy policy, this would mean a long overdue contraction of the solar power, wind power, and ethanol industries. It would also be big trouble for Elon Musk’s Tesla and other electric vehicle companies.

The LP pledge is reproduced below, followed by a discussion of what the virus is, and why it should be ended.

The Pledge

If elected, I will sponsor and work diligently to pass legislation to end government bailouts, grants, loans, loan guarantees, and other handouts to private businesses; eliminate unnecessary government spending, which fuels crony capitalism; open up bidding of government contracts; and require all government contractors and their employees to agree to abstain from lobbying or from promoting or opposing political campaigns.

“No electric car since 1902, regardless of battery or drive train, had been able to compete effectively against its contemporary internal combustion counterpart.”

– David Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and The Burden of History (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2000), p. 203.

Energy history takes the wind out of the sails of the advocates of forced energy transformation. Proponents of government- enabled renewable energies must contend with the fact that for most of mankind’s (impoverished) history, the market share of biomass, wind, solar, and falling water was 100 percent. (The carbon-based energy era is only a couple of hundred years old.)

And proponents of government-enabled electric vehicles (not golf carts) must know that their technology was beat fair and square than a century ago.

Here are some quotations on the rise and fall of EVs (or EEVs–emission elsewhere vehicles).…

“Tesla is redefining ‘too big to fail’ as ‘politically correct, so bail’.”

I publish a monthly post at Forbes.com, Political Energy. My fellow scholars Michael Lynch and Alex Epstein also have columns at Forbes. All of our contributions offer the energy community and policy makers an alternative to the current government energy planning mentality.

My most recent post, “Investors Confront Tesla’s Energy Fantasy,” has just been published.  Some quotations follow:

“Musk’s various ventures have received almost $5 billion worth of government assistance. Nevada recently chimed in with $1.3 billion to incentivize Tesla to build its “gigafactory” — a new battery producing facility — near Reno.”

“Each car sold by Tesla receives a federal income tax credit of $7,500. And California allows an additional $2,500 rebate to its citizens.”

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 insightful articles in this issue are:

Position of Poland’s National Institute of Public on Industrial Wind

Wind Energy Sector Gets $176 Billion Worth of Crony Capitalism

Despite Huge Investments, Renewable Energy Isn’t Winning

Turbine Bat Killings Continue Unabated

Multiple Mortality Events in Bats: a Global Review

The UK’s SMR Competition

Denmark Cancels All Coastal Wind Projects

Wind Turbines Threaten Space Research

Peer-Reviewed Study: CO2 Cuts Could Impoverish the World

Peer-Reviewed Study: Positive Impact of Human CO2 Emissions

1500 Scientists Lift the Lid on Reproducibility

Global Warming Alarmists—You’re Doing it Wrong

Rebutting Climate Alarmism with Simple Facts

Science on the Verge

The Watermelons Are Coming

Greed Energy Economics:

Wind Energy Sector Gets $176 Billion Worth of Crony Capitalism

Despite Huge Investments, Renewable Energy Isn’t Winning

US Senate Finance Committee Energy Hearing Testimony

The revealing numbers on solar employment in the USA

DOE Withdraws $40 Million from VA Offshore Wind Project

Germany Moves to Slow its Out-of-Control Energiewende

Wind Energy PILOT Programs are a Shell Game

Renewable Energy Health Matters:

VT Gov vetoes wind energy bill designed to provide health protections

Position of Poland’s National Institute of Public on industrial wind

Poland Adopts 10x Setback Rule for Wind Turbines

7 Short Videos to Clear Up Myths about Air Pollution

Renewable Energy Destroying Ecosystems:

Turbine Bat Killings Continue Unabated

Multiple mortality events in bats: a global review

Turtles Topple Turbines

Open for Comments: NOAA’s Draft of Ocean Noise Rules

Miscellaneous Energy News:

Wind Turbines Threaten Space Research

The UK’s SMR Competition

Denmark Cancels All Coastal Wind Projects

Study: Empirically-constrained climate sensitivity and the social cost of carbon

Study: Solar PV is a net energy loser

Who Wants Wind Turbines?…