“I am fearful that electricity will be turned from an affordable, thoughtless necessity into the opposite.”

“Electricity would/should be inexpensive enough where folks don’t want to hassle with saving a dollar here or there [via a ‘smart’ meter] if it requires any sort of thought or potential inconvenience.”

The wolf is at the door with electricity–and it has virtually nothing to do with the free market but a lot to do with government intervention guided by experts/regulators, and planners. Call it analytic failure and government failure, not market failure.

Background: Forcing intermittent renewable energy on the grid has compromised reliability directly and indirectly. Directly, wind and solar disappear at the peak. Indirectly, renewables with the lowest marginal cost (but highest average cost) displace the reliables, natural gas but also coal and ruin profitability margins otherwise.…

“Since 2015, nearly 300 government entities from Vermont to Hawaii have moved to reject or restrict wind projects. Local governments are implementing a panoply of regulations to restrict the growth of wind projects including strict limits on noise, minimum setback distances, and even seeking licenses for heliports. A thorough review of the studies [has] documented the deleterious health impacts of noise from wind turbines.” (Robert Bryce, below)

MasterResource has followed the growing issue of negative health effects of industrial wind turbines. The latest was an update (March 18, 2021) from acoustical engineer Stephen Cooper regarding vibrations and infrasound (low frequency noise) from wind turbines on nearby residents.

Cooper, part of the wind power debate since his pioneering study of the Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm in southwest Victoria in Australia in 2014 (also see here), is a scientist to watch.…

“‘Unintended consequences of government intervention?’ Are you f***in’ kidding me? What just happened is a direct consequence of insufficient government intervention!” (Robert Borlick, energy consultant)

“No, with due respect. When the system loaded up on renewables, who would have known that low-to-negative marginal-cost pricing would have ruined the economics of baseload generators and natural gas peakers, existing and prospective. I was an adamant critic of windpower in the old days (1997) and just did not foresee this.” (Bradley, retort)

Many planners and regulators involved involved in the Great Texas Electricity Blackout have resigned or been fired. But their brethren, the experts behind the fallen PUCT/ERCOT model, are emotionally defending central planning and renewable energies by blaming the natural gas industry. “The CEOs of those gas companies should be criminally charged,” exclaims Robert Borlick, below).…

“It is in the national interest to promote clean and safe development of our Nation’s vast energy resources, while at the same time avoiding regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth, and prevent job creation.”

– President Trump, Executive Order (March 28, 2017)

Do you miss the prior Administration’s record on energy and climate–and push-back against environmental excesses otherwise?

With the Biden Administration scrambling to hoist an anti-consumer energy/climate agenda on Americans on short notice, it is important to keep the opportunity cost of free markets and America-first in mind.

Four years ago, President Trump signed into law one of the most libertarian, free-market executive orders in energy history, easily rivaling that of President Reagan’s oil price and allocation decontrol executive order of early 1981. Titled Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth, Executive Order 13783 began with this paragraph:

Section 1.