“With a clean electricity system comes opportunities to reduce fossil fuel usage in these sectors: for example, electric vehicles displace petroleum use and electric heat pumps avoid the use of natural gas and oil for space and water heating in buildings.”

–  The While House, United States Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization, (November 2016)

“Assuming we all want to avoid an American repeat of the French “Mouvement des gilets jaunes” (yellow vest movement) the economic realities of ‘deep decarbonization’ through ‘electrification’ must be a priority for public debate and discussion.” (below)

As Senator Everett Dirksen is credited with saying: “A million here, a million there, and pretty soon we’re talking real money.” Not much has changed, except for inflation. Now it’s more like $40 million here and $50 million there.…

“Energy is the lifeblood our society. It doesn’t just fuel our cars and power our homes, but it connects us to one another and makes our lives healthier, safer, and more fulfilling. However, recent policies are leading to rising energy costs – and African Americans are disproportionately hurt. Low income families pay a greater share of their income on utilities in some cases as much as 35%.”

 – Derrick Hollie, Reaching America. Quoted in DeSmogBlog, “Derrick Hollie.” (February 2019)

“DeSmogBlog believes that by simply tying a person to fossil fuels makes him or her suspect. That might work with its donors and Green New Deal base, but to most Americans, Derrick Hollie is guilty as charged–and a scholar and Great American to boot.” (below)

DeSmogBlog is a Left-funded website intended to expose proponents of consumer-chosen, taxpayer-neutral, dense, reliable energies.…

“Efforts to sell Republicans on the idea that [a CO2 price] is the most market-friendly approach to the emissions problem have failed miserably, and will continue to fail.”

– Justin Gillis, Forget the Carbon Tax for Now, New York Times, December 27, 2018.

Oh, how the free-market climate realists (science, economics, politics) feel vindicated. The mainstream press has (belatedly) announcing the Carbon Tax politically dead and a distraction for the whole climate debate.

The article by veteran New York Times writer Justin Gillis was one of (at least) three remarkable reality pieces inspired by the year-end UN climate conference (COP 24) in Katowice, Poland. The others were:

• Politico‘s Why Greens Are Turning Away from a Carbon Tax,”(December 9, 2018) and
• FT’s Trump Has Officially Ruined Climate Change Diplomacy for Everyone (December 12, 2018).

If Texas A&M scientists calculated that an asteroid was heading our way, we would likely head for the hills with a lot of pills. But when this university’s climatology department warns of dangerous man-induced global warming and calls for government action (think new taxes and regulation), roll your eyes and watch the wallet. [But] we live in a postmodern world where emotion and desire substitute for humility and scholarship. 

 – Robert Bradley, “Political Scientists: Gerald North and Andrew Dessler Double Down on Climate Alarmism,” October 11, 2013.

Andrew Dessler is an alarmist/activist climate scientist. He is very certain of his positions on the hard science questions (what Judith Curry warns is really an uncertainty monster). Dessler also veers outside of his expertise to confidently assess the prospects for (government) forced energy transformation away from fossil fuels, the area of political economy. …