A Free-Market Energy Blog

Overplaying Heat, Underplaying Adaptation (Part I)

By Chip Knappenberger -- July 11, 2011

[Editor’s Note: This is Part I of a two-part analysis examining projections of increasing human mortality to accompany projections of increases in temperature resulting from greenhouse gas emissions produced from burning fossil fuels to produce energy. Such studies typically give short shrift to the effectiveness of rather simple adaptations and the power of cheap, and reliable electricity.]

Increased use of air-conditioning, made possible by access to affordable, reliable electricity, goes a long way towards counteracting the acute effects of excessive heat events, a.k.a. heat waves, on human mortality and morbidity. Projections of rapidly rising human heat-related mortality under a warming climate, such as those made in a recent paper published by Joan Ballester and colleagues, fail to acknowledge the power and reality that this and other (even simpler) adaptations can have at protecting human life.…

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MasterResource: 2Q-2011 Activity Report

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 8, 2011

MasterResource, a premier free-market energy blog, is two-and-a-half years old. Since beginning in late 2008, we have published approximately eight hundred posts from 100 authors. Our total views will exceed the magical one million mark in the current quarter. Comments from our loyal, sophisticated readership add substance to many of the in-depth posts.

This site has covered a variety of energy issues on the state, national, and even international level. But our most active area has been the growing backlash against industrial wind turbines. MasterResource is pleased to have become a leading voice for citizens, environmentalists, and small-government  advocates who have united against this intrusive, wildly uneconomic, and government-enabled energy form.

Our concept is different from most blogs. With one in-depth post per day, we have created an open book of mini-chapters, creating a scholarly resource and a historical record for the energy and energy/environmental debates.…

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Cato Institute: Zeroing Out the Department of Energy

By Jerry Taylor -- July 7, 2011

“All Americans are involved in making energy policy. When individual choices are made with a maximum of personal understanding and a minimum of government restraints, the result is the most appropriate energy policy.”

– Reagan Administration Energy Plan (1981)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) oversees nuclear weapons sites and subsidizes conventional and alternative fuels. The department has a history of fiscal and environmental mismanagement. Further, misguided energy regulations have caused large loses to consumers and the economy over the decades.

DOE will spend about $45 billion in 2011, or about $380 per U.S. household. It employs about 17,000 workers directly and oversees 100,000 contract workers at 21 national laboratories and other facilities across the nation. The department operates 37 different subsidy programs.

Spending Cuts

Department of Energy research activities should be terminated.…

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Wind Energy: A Review of Human Health & Safety Concerns

By -- July 6, 2011
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Is Al Gore Bad for Big Environmentalism? (A shriller gone sour)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 5, 2011
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Craig Biddle: "What to Celebrate on the Fourth of July"

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 4, 2011
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Oil Exceptionalism … Houston Exceptionalism … Texas Exceptionalism … U.S. Exceptionalism: Private Oil and Gas for the Social Good (Joe Pratt's soulful message to the world)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 1, 2011
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Open-Ended Resourceship

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 30, 2011
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Shale Gas and the New York Times: The Challenge from Energy In Depth (A 'Dewey-Defeats-Truman' Energy Moment?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 29, 2011
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Shale Gas Neo-Malthusianism: Poor Journalism at the 'Newspaper of Record'

By -- June 28, 2011
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