Ed. note: The loss of impartial intellectual inquiry and scholarship at Harvard University continues, as indicated by an upcoming article in Harvard Environmental Law Review, Vol. 48, No. 1, 2024, “Climate Homicide: Prosecuting Big Oil For Climate Deaths.” Given this trend, the contributions of a pioneering Harvard business historian, who also broke through the ranks of a male-only faculty, are worth revisiting.

“What we have done is … to put business in its broader political and cultural setting…. We are not out to defend business, but to try to do an impartial, scholarly investigation of an important American institution.”

 – Henrietta Larson (1894–1983), Harvard business historian

For many decades, corporate histories were dominated by simplistic notions of big-is-bad and capitalist exploitation. Ida Tarbell documented many innovations and economies from John D.…

“Last year, every offshore wind equipment manufacturer reported substantial financial losses as raw material costs, order delays, labor problems, and antiquated manufacturing plants overwhelmed their revenue gains. Correcting these problems necessitates higher equipment prices, reduced manufacturing capacity, and/or relocating to lower-cost countries. These steps can set back delivery times and delay project start-up dates. Developers are also finding that building Jones Act-compliant installation and support vessels are taking longer and costing more, further challenging their projects’ economics.”

On Day One, Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline construction permit issued by the Trump administration, costing union jobs. He rejoined the Paris Agreement on Climate Change so John Kerry could have a job.  It was no secret where this administration was heading. 

Days later, Biden issued an Executive Order calling for the nation to build “a new American infrastructure and clean energy economy that will create millions of new jobs.”…

“That all of these claims can be debunked with readily available data is a testament to the frailty of the current narrative on climate change. It’s a shame that so many journalists are willing to ignore the facts, fearmongering about climate change for political reasons, when in reality the data reveal there is more to fear from fear itself, not from climate change.”

A year ago, a Texas Tribune “Brief” listed seven alleged ways climate change is already impacting the state of Texas and its residents. When not outright false, the listed claims are extremely misleading. Yet María Méndez and Erin Douglas’s “Seven ways climate change is already hitting Texans” is not the first and will not be the last Tribune article piece which runs the gamut of common alarmist lines.…

“NuScale’s estimated ‘levelized cost of energy’ (LCOE) … jumped by one-half last December (to $89/MWh from $58/WMh). The total cost for the project is estimated at a bit over $9 billion, but $1.4 billion is offset by DOE funding, which could increase in the future.”

More news, more problems regarding the live projects being counted on as the beginning of a new era of nuclear power. Back in the 1950s/1960s, the expectation was that learning-by-doing and scale economies would bring parity with fossil-fuel plants. Today, that same goal seems distant.

NuScale

NuScale Power’s small modular reactor project, designed to provide electricity to Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, a joint action agency serving 50 municipal utilities in Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming, has survived another near-death experience. Facing a vote by the participants in its project for six light-water pressurized reactors, totaling 462-MW on the grounds of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls.…