Trump vs. the Green New Deal

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2019 5 Comments

“The golden era of American energy is now underway.” (President Donald Trump, The White House, May 14, 2019)

… under the Green New Deal, they don’t like clean, beautiful natural gas. They don’t like anything. (President Donald Trump, “Remarks on Promoting Energy Infrastructure and Economic Growth,” Hackberry, LA, May 14, 2019)

Who has been the most free-market energy President in U.S. history? In modern times, Ronald Reagan comes to mind. He decontrolled crude oil and petroleum products in his first week of office (January 1981), although Jimmy Carter’s phase-out of such regulation had just six months to go. Reagan did some other things to undo a decade of energy statism but fell short of his election goal of abolishing the US Department of Energy. [1]

Enter Donald Trump.…

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Trump on Wind Power’s Problems (cancer too)

By Sherri Lange -- April 11, 2019 37 Comments

There was shock, surprise, and humor in the media when Trump not only denounced wind “mills” for intermittency, lack of predictable value, property losses, and bird kills but also topped his discussion with

“They say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, okay?”

Is President Trump correct in his five critical points? Even the last one? Or is it possible, as Trevor Noah suggested, turbines might be the only things that don’t cause cancer.

1. Intermittency

Electricity must be consumed the moment it is produced. Storage to allow deviations is prohibitively expensive in all but the rarest of settings. And it has always been this way.

Trump said, “Honey I’d like to watch TV tonight: are the turbines working?” And then his quotation from the Washington Republican fundraiser:

“Is the wind blowing?…

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John Holdren on Trump’s Energy/Climate Armageddon (Part II: renewables, energy efficiency, carbon capture & storage, messaging, etc.)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 27, 2018 1 Comment

The Trump folks seem to believe that anything that has Obama’s fingerprints on it, no matter how sensible, they’re going to rescind, revoke and demolish, and it makes no sense at all.”

“[The climate conundrum] is scary and I’m not sure we’re gonna be able to turn it around.”

– John Holdren, December 2017.

This is Part II of a transcribed interview with John Holdren, leader of the energy/climate Malthusian school, by Climate One. Yesterday’s post critically assessed Holdren’s views on federal energy research and development, the Paris withdrawal, and China’s energy policy. Today’s post looks at his views on most other issues in the “energy sustainability” debate.

Holdren quotations are below in red, followed by my rebuttal comments indented in black (subtitles added).

Technology Boom in Renewable Energies

“… there have been huge improvement in battery technology.

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John Holdren on Trump’s Energy/Climate Armageddon (Part I: federal R&D, Paris withdrawal, China)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 26, 2018 2 Comments

“The private sector will never do the amount of fundamental research that society’s interests require because you cannot tell in advance the nature of fundamental research…. The companies can’t tell whether there’ll ever be any return.”

– John Holdren, December 2017 Interview.

Less than one year ago, John Holdren, Obama’s beginning-to-end science adviser, and now Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, spoke of his concerns about Trump energy policy in a Climate One podcast from San Francisco.

Holdren quotations are below in red, followed by my rebuttal comments indented in black (subtitles added):

Government R&D as Savior

Holdren: “Well I think the biggest damage that the Trump administration is doing is first of all reducing or proposing to reduce very drastically investments in clean and efficient energy research and development by the government.

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RFF in the Trump Era: Assume, Don’t Debate, Climate Alarmism/Forced Energy Transformation (2017 Annual Report more of the same)

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

Climate/Energy Statism: An Inside Conversation (Part I: pre-Trump plans that went awry)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 2, 2018 1 Comment Continue Reading

Alarmist Holdren on Trump’s Paris Withdrawal (no, the sky isn’t falling)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 6, 2018 1 Comment Continue Reading

Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord (one year anniversary today)

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

Trump on Regulatory Reform at Davos (January 26, 2018)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 27, 2018 No Comments Continue Reading

Trump Administration Stays on Track on Big Energy Picture

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 1, 2017 2 Comments Continue Reading