“What we now have instead are vast centralised wind and solar power stations distributed outside of population centres, and quite distant to the eventual market for the third-rate power that is being produced. This is the exact opposite of the original proposals for distributed power located within population centres.

The public is up in arms against the great ruse “energy transformation,” predicted on climate alarmism and at odds with energy density (pushing dilute, intermittent inferiors). Here in the U.S., Robert Bryce’s databank of delayed/cancelled wind or solar projects is above 580 projects. I have personally argued that even if such a project is on private land, the taxpayer enablement gives standing to the locals who decry the project for other reasons (noise, lower property values, drainage, etc.). The fact that land and neighbors were there first means no homestead right to the rent-seeker.…

“So will Michael Giberson and Lynne Kiesling ever consider the opportunity cost of their politicized electricity ‘market’? Will they consider a real free market that was at the center of the classical liberal debate before mandatory open access (etc.) came along? How much failure–and how far on the ‘road to serfdom’ does U.S. energy policy have to go before mid-course corrections?”

Lynne Kiesling and her close associate Michael Giberson have done great damage to the simple conception of a free-market electricity market and related public policy. By the use of hidden assumptions, cloudy definitions, and disengagement (all to “raise rival’s cost”), they have misled many free-market scholars in regard to a fundamental industry.

I am documenting this as much as I can for the historical record. Kiesling counters that I am ignorant of the technical subject matter and exhibit “aggressiveness” in my quest for clarification and openness.…

Ed. Note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnighly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** Report: Six Ways Renewables Increase Electricity Bills
Solar Is Getting 302 Times More In Federal Subsidies Than Nuclear

Unreliables (General):
*** The Energy Transition is Social Vandalism
*** The electric grid needs good failure mode analysis
Kansas Republican Party Resolves to Protect Kansans from Unreliable and Foreign-Sourced ‘Renewable’ Wind and Solar Energy

Wind Energy — Offshore:
Environmentalists Seek to Save the Whales from Offshore Wind Energy
Desperate governors beg for offshore wind cost relief
Four NY offshore projects ask for almost 50% price rise

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)
*** Wind Blows
*** Windbaggery: The wind energy sector’s days are numbered
Too cute by half
Turbine graveyards’ sprawled across Texas

Nuclear Energy:
Russia and China Dominating the Race for Nuclear Electricity Generation
Are Small Nuclear Reactors The Answer To Big-Tech’s Energy Crisis?…

“Much of the generation named by ERCOT as qualified under their latest RFP is generation units that were recently retired, many because they could not compete with the artificially low prices that heavily subsidized wind and solar can offer, so they are still operational.”

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the planning agency for 90% of the state’s grid, has a wind/solar tiger by the tail. As the agency does not exchange power with its out-of-state neighbors to avoid federal (FERC) jurisdiction, it is looking at home for able, firm generation that wind and solar unfairly (via government intervention) put out of operation.

Background

ERCOT is (in)famous because its grid almost collapsed during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. The Texas electricity grid had lost so many generators due to the storm that it was only 4 minutes and 37 seconds from collapsing, which would have required a restart from a “black start.”…