A Free-Market Energy Blog

Pandora's NAAQS: CEI Comments on U.S. EPA's 'Carbon Pollution Standard'

By -- June 26, 2012

“Some good may yet come of this. A policy crisis over NAAQS regulation of  man-made greenhouse gas would finally make clear that Massachusetts v. EPA created a constitutional crisis by authorizing the EPA to enact policies that the people’s representatives have not approved and would reject if proposed in legislation and put to a vote.”

Yesterday, June 25, 2012, I submitted the following comment on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions for New Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units, what EPA ideologically describes as the Carbon Pollution Rule. [1]

On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit public policy group specializing in regulatory issues, I ask that EPA withdraw the Proposed Rule on the following four grounds:

1. The EPA’s proposal would effectively ban construction of new coal-fired power plants, a policy Congress has not approved and would reject if proposed in legislation and put to a vote.

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Postmodern Climatology: Paltridge Weighs In

By Kenneth P. Green -- June 25, 2012

“It’s not a coincidence that activist climate scientists don’t simply stop at defining the climate system and offering up even-handed, philosophically diverse thoughts…. They virtually invariably come to the very same policy proposals that are deeply left-leaning and are basically a carbon-repacking of a dozen other pre-existing, left-liberal policy dreams.”

A guest essay at Judith Curry’s Climate Etc. by Garth Paltridge, Science Held Hostage in Climate Debate, zeros in on the problems plaguing climate science. I’ve made similar points over the years (see here and here), but Paltridge brings them together nicely. His post has attracted 500 comments to date, becoming a very hot topic among practitioners and laypersons alike in the blogosphere.

A retired Australian atmospheric physicist, Paltridge argues that the physical climate sytem is non-ergodic and inherently impossible to really understand fully.…

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'Peak Rock': The ONION Goes Neo-Malthusian (Fixity/depletion curse expands)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 22, 2012

“We are on a collision course to a world without rocks. Only take as many rocks as you absolutely need.”

        – Dr. Victoria  Merrill, author, No Stone Unturned: Methods For Modern Rock Conservation

“Think about it. When was the last time you even saw a boulder?”

         – Henry Kaiser (ge0logist and Onion expert)

The easy oil has been found. There are no more mega-fields. Costs up … prices up … economic stress … crises.

We have such certain knowledge from the smartest guys in many rooms: Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, Colin Campbell, Jean LaherrèreRichard Heinberg, Chris Skrebowski, Matthew Simmons, …. and Kenneth Deffeyes.

Oil output peaked on December 16, 2005, in case you did not know it, according to geologist Kenneth Deffeyes in his 2010 book When Oil Peaked, available at Amazon in hardcover for one penny (yes, one penny!).…

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Wimp Power: Some Quotations from Wind's Critics

By -- June 21, 2012
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New Oil & Gas Talent Needed: Students, Retirees Take Note (industry needs freed renewable-energy talent too)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 20, 2012
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"Nothing is more fungible than a good idea" (U.S. as global high-tech oil/gas leader)

By Steve Maley -- June 19, 2012
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"Wind Farms Canceled, Layoffs Starting" (government dependence is risky business)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 18, 2012
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Why We Should Love the Oil Companies (Straight talk from an industry outsider)

By -- June 15, 2012
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"Truthland:" Response to Factually Challenged "Gasland"

By Steve Everley -- June 14, 2012
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Congestion Pricing for Road Finance: Time to Replace Gasoline Taxes?

By Randal O'Toole -- June 13, 2012
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