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 important articles in this issue are:

How Intermittent Renewables Are Harming the Grid

A Technical Expert’s Superior Wind Energy Critique

World Health Organization Investigating Industrial Wind Energy

Superior: ABC letter re Turbines, Birds and Bats

Excellent collection of short videos about energy and climate change

Study: US Cost To Cut Emissions = $5± Trillion

In New Book Scholar Peels Back Layers of Deception in Climate Change

Climate Alarmism: Probably the Greatest Hoax in History

How the World was Deceived about Global Warming and Climate Change

Worthwhile Climate Change Debate

Ocean Acidification: This Scam Exposed

25 New Papers Confirm A Remarkably Stable Modern Climate

The Polarization of Climate Debate — the Solution They All Miss

The Psychopolitics of Climate Change and Population Control

Greed Energy Economics:

How Intermittent Renewables Are Harming the Grid

A Technical Expert’s Superior Wind Energy Critique

UK Wind Constraint Payments

Study: US Cost To Cut Emissions = $5± Trillion

The More the Wind Blows, the Higher the Cost to Consumers

Wind Turbines Suck Money and Electricity in South Australia

Ontario’s Present & Future: Lashed by Electricity Bills

The outrageous cost of replacing some coal facilities in Ontario

Save Ontario $500 Million by Cancelling Wind Contract

Renewable Consultant: How Liberals Have Bungled Green Energy

Audit finds “suspicious behavior” in dozens of energy projects getting credits

Solar Project Consultant Charged With Forgery

Turbine Health Matters:

World Health Organization Investigating Industrial Wind Energy

Renewable Energy Destroying Ecosystems:

Superior: ABC letter re Turbines, Birds and Bats

Study: Wind Turbines Cause Chronic Stress to Badgers

Bat-ageddon: Turbines Slaughter Millions of Bats – all to ‘Save’ the Planet

Archive: Wind Turbine Fires are 10X what the industry admits

German Wind Turbine Burns

Canadian Wind Turbine Collapses

Miscellaneous Energy News:

Despoiling the Environment to Save the Climate

Confused by Renewable Energy Studies?…

“It is true some companies have harmed the environment by pursuing careless drilling and waste disposal practices. Nevertheless, many accounts of the negative impacts of fracking have been exaggerated. The EPA, in its recent assessment of the impact of fracking on drinking water, did not find evidence of widespread, systemic effects of fracking on water resources.”

“Evidence supports the assertion that disposal of wastewater and other fluids associated with fracking has caused some earthquakes. But these earthquakes have been comparatively mild and caused little or no damage.”

“Because of fracking, the future looks bright for northern and western Pennsylvania. Not only does fracking employ people directly and result in lower natural gas prices, but it also contributes to the growth of other industries that use or process natural gas.”

“The fact that electricity costs the average German four-to-five times as much as the average American is of no import, according to the ACEEE.”

Some organizations publish studies purporting to demonstrate why their proposals are good for America. But the proffered intellectual justification is really opinion masquerading as facts.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) recently published another study–uncritically reported on by the media in Canada and the US–claiming to document that America remained behind Germany in energy efficiency.

The ACEEE uses a methodology in their reports that include non-tangible policy issues, such as whether a government has enacted the types of legislation desired by the ACEEE. Governments adopting these policies rank highly in ACEE studies, while countries that don’t adopt their environmental policies rank poorly.

These biased studies are eagerly highlighted by the anti-free-energy-market media to show how backward the US is in developing energy programs to cut CO2 emissions.…

“Perhaps the most distressing characteristic displayed by the pushers of soft energy was the intellectual poverty of their grand designs, their impatient dismissal of all criticism, their arrogant insistence on the infallible orthodoxy of their normative visions.”

“There is little doubt about the origins and the real message of soft energy dogma: the roots are in the muddled revolts of young Americans in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, the goal is a social transformation rather than simply a provision of energy. The latter fact explains the widespread appeal of soft energy sources among zealous would-be reformers of Western ways.” 

Vaclav Smil is one of the leading energy scholars of our day. He has, time and again, tried to inject energy reality into energy fantasy. Some of his previous posts at MasterResource (see here) include ‘The Limits of Energy Innovation’: Timeless Insight from Vaclav Smil and the five-part Power Density Primer.…