Gray Greenwashing: Is Regulation Next?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 13, 2022

“The Voluntary Carbon Market has produced some of the most egregious examples of #greenwashing on record and is synonymous with a lack of integrity. Voluntary Schemes do not work and are a distraction from reducing carbon to displacing responsibility for carbon emissions.” (Paul Watchman, UK, below)

Last week, three posts at MasterResource documented the problem of carbon offsets as a partial solution to the alleged problem of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions:

This post shares a recent plea form ESG architect/proponent Paul Watchman for regulating the gray green market. His post follows:

The Voluntary Carbon Market has produced some of the most egregious examples of #greenwashing on record and is synonymous with a lack of integrity.…

‘Deep Optimism Manifesto’ (David Siegel’s cure for ‘climate anxiety’)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 12, 2022

David Siegel is a man with a message. His Deep Optimism Manifesto spells out a new approach to viewing the world that is at once realistic and optimistic. Written last year, its message is timeless and timely. His opening quotation comes from Julian Simon’s essay in The State of Humanity, p. 642.

I am writing this in response to the Ecomodernism manifesto. It’s a group of smart people doing very important work to help improve the future for humanity and nature.

I think if they looked more into the science of climate change and the economics of abundance, they would arrive at Deep Optimism, a term coined by Matt Ridley, the rational optimist.

People who understand the economics of abundance don’t apply enough critical thinking to understanding climate and the natural world (Hans Rosling, Bjorn Lomborg, Peter Diamandis, Tyler Cowen, Steven Pinker).…

Gas Furnaces: Big Brother Says No

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 11, 2022

“[The DOE exercise] is egregiously biased due to its reliance on overheated climate models, inflated emission scenarios, and pessimistic adaptation assumptions. Using biased [social cost of carbon] SC-GHG estimates to estimate net benefits is arbitrary and capricious..”
“Reasonable alternative assumptions about climate sensitivity and CO2 fertilization substantially drive down SC-GHG estimates, even pushing social cost values into negative territory.”

The climate road to serfdom is one step at a time on different paths. One path is decarbonization, one step is government policy prohibiting or discouraging homeowners from using gas furnaces of their liking. The simple answer, which Milton Friedman popularized a half-century ago, is: free to choose.

An activist U.S. Department of Energy seeks to regulate/prohibit gas furnaces on a pure physical efficiency standard, demoting up-front cost considerations, as well as back-end reliability issues (such as when the power goes out).…