A Free-Market Energy Blog

Carbon Tax: Vote and Eviscerate (depoliticize, not repoliticize, energy)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 20, 2013

“The American people and the 133 cosponsors of this concurrent resolution understand that a carbon tax is not about protecting the environment, but rather it is a cynical attempt to raise revenue for Washington’s insatiable appetite for more and more spending.”

Federal carbon-dioxide cap-and-trade legislation was defeated in 2009 with no prospect of a retry. Now, the even less popular carbon tax is being floated by non-conservatives and wannabe-be conservatives as somehow “free market” and “efficient.” This very well financed desperado push needs a reality check in Congress.

Any new qualitative tax, and certainly one as huge and far reaching as this one, is an open sesame to bigger government and politicized energy. Some argue that there is a “free market” case for a carbon levy, but there is not a “limited government’ case.

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American Lung Association’s Misguided Support for Wind Power

By -- June 19, 2013

“Obviously, nobody wants dirty air, but the American Lung Association’s knee-jerk renewables advocacy is mainly emotional and not grounded in fact.”

Last month, New Hampshire’s Site Evaluation Committee (SEC)[1] disapproved Antrim Wind, a 30-megawatt wind energy facility proposed along a remote and environmentally sensitive ridgeline in rural Antrim, NH. After eleven days of evidentiary hearings and three days of public deliberations, the Committee ruled that the ten monster turbines, each standing 492-feet tall, would pose a significant impact on aesthetics with no satisfactory means of mitigating the effect.

The Committee’s ruling surprised New England wind proponents who wasted no time calling the decision a serious setback for clean energy and urging the SEC to reconsider its decision.

Among those objecting was the American Lung Association. In a letter to the SEC, Edward Miller, Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the American Lung Association in the Northeast, wrote:

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Frac Exaggeration, Wind Blindness: Southern Environmental Law Center’s Double Standard

By Charles Battig -- June 18, 2013

“Contrast West Virginia’s ridgeline wind turbines to a single fracking site hosting a dozen or more underground wells. Those wellheads produce ’round the clock, something that wind proponents cannot honestly claim. Not even all those the  lawyers of the Southern Environmental Law Center can make the wind turbines regularly spin.”

The City of Charlottesville, VA is home to some notable landmarks, which include Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, and his university, the University of Virginia. It is also home to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), whose mission is “to use the power of the law to protect the environment of the Southeast.”

Under the Case Summary for “Fracking in the Southwest,” the SELC notes:

The drilling technique known as “fracking” is widely used around the country to extract natural gas from deep shale deposits.

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FERC’s Wellinghoff: An Energy Technocrat Steps Down

By -- June 17, 2013
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Windaction News

By -- June 15, 2013
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The Mighty Bakken (Resourceship in action: II)

By Fred Lawrence -- June 14, 2013
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Ecological Oil Drilling: Addressing Oil Seepage in California

By Greg Rehmke -- June 13, 2013
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Eternal Vigilance: Federal Energy Spending Tracker (www.energysubsidies.org)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 12, 2013
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Don’t Divest, Educate–An Open Letter to American Universities

By -- June 11, 2013
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Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Operations: EPA’s Continuing, Conscious Overestimate

By Katie Brown -- June 10, 2013
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