CO2 Positive: Europe is Losing its Contrived War

By -- May 30, 2018 6 Comments

“The spat in Bonn highlights what many opponents of the Paris Agreement believed: the global climate crusade is really about redistributing global wealth.”

“Expect European governments to announce revised carbon reduction targets, as their inability to reach their 2020 targets becomes clear. Kicking the ball down the road and focusing on the new goals makes it easier to avoid explaining why earlier targets were missed. Next year will likely usher in an era of environmental mea culpas from Europe.”

Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, reported that the organization’s members’ carbon emissions increased last year by 1.8% compared to 2016.

The performance of the individual countries was mixed. Among the five countries accounting for 10% or more of total EU emissions, three were up significantly, one was essentially flat, and one was down materially.…

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Memorial Day: Hit the Open Road!

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 25, 2018 No Comments

“Beginning with the Memorial Day weekend and throughout the summer, Americans will spend their hard-earned dollars traveling to visit family, friends, and the great outdoors. Meanwhile, Big Oil will be making huge profits off of these travel expenditures on fuel, while at the same time fighting for decreased public health and climate-change protections.”

Center for American Progress (and Climate Progress), five years ago.

The American Automobile Association predicts that 41.5 million Americans will hit the open road this Memorial Day weekend, a two-million increase from last year.

“A strong economy and growing consumer confidence are giving Americans all the motivation they need to kick off what we expect to be a busy summer travel season with a Memorial Day getaway,” stated Bill Sutherland, senior vice president for AAA Travel and Publishing.

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Carbon Tax: Political Poison for Conservatives, Libertarians

By -- May 8, 2018 No Comments

[Editor note: This is a repost from Marlo Lewis, Jr.’s piece from last year, published at the CEI blogsite. It is particularly relevant given the increasing isolation of R Street and the Niskanen Center in the climate-change debate.]

“… it is untrue that conservatives have been trying to beat something with nothing. Our “something” is climate realism and an energy sector free to power a growing economy because government eschews all forms of market favoritism.”

“The 2016 elections have given conservatives and free marketers an unexpected and rare opportunity to help a bold president change the direction of national policy. We squander that opportunity if we instead legitimize the progressive movement’s anti-fossil fuel crusade and promote an economically-destructive tax that would actually grow government under the pretense of streamlining it.”

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Energy Realism at RFF (Krugman rebutted, decarbonization drawbacks specified)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 7, 2018 1 Comment

” … there are still numerous economic and societal barriers to rapid decarbonization.”

“And it is not like wind and solar come free of environmental concerns. The sheer size of wind and solar installations needed to underpin our electricity system is significant.”

“… lower income households will bear the largest relative burdens of the higher energy costs that are likely as a result of climate policies. While there are ways of mitigating these unequal impacts, they require difficult trade-offs.”

– Daniel Raimi and Alan Krupnick, “Decarbonization: It Ain’t That Easy, RFF Blog Post, April 20, 2018.

A recent blog post by Daniel Raimi and Alan Krupnick of Resources for the Future (RFF) is unusual, even remarkable, given the institutional history of their organization. For RFF in recent decades has gone Left, way Left, for the cause of climate alarmism/forced energy transformation (see here). 

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Josiah Neeley’s Latest CO2 Tax Argument (real conservatives, libertarians will not be persuaded)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 3, 2018 20 Comments Continue Reading

Amy Myers Jaffe: Anger at Fossil Fuel Dominance (remembering Jeffrey Sachs too)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 1, 2018 5 Comments Continue Reading

Exchange with a Climate Alarmist at R-Street: Part I

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 18, 2018 4 Comments Continue Reading

Attack on Tom Stacy: “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” (anti-wind effort smeared by crony environmentalist)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 11, 2018 4 Comments Continue Reading

ALEC on Climate Science: Where’s the Beef?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 14, 2018 1 Comment Continue Reading

Kathleen Harnett White: Common Energy/Climate Sense

By Charles Battig -- March 13, 2018 3 Comments Continue Reading