Energy & Environmental Newsletter: March 4, 2019

By John Droz, Jr. -- March 4, 2019 2 Comments

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Trump’s new climate committee could welcome the world’s smartest global-warming skeptics

Mueller’s ‘Foreign Agent’ Prosecutions May Lead To Probes Of Green Groups

Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet

Grassley, Wyden introduce tax extenders bill (including PTC?)…

Rent-Seeking under Public Utility Regulation: Who Protects Ratepayers?

By Kenneth Costello -- February 28, 2019 4 Comments

“Veering from this original intent of regulation — driven by overreaching politics — risks regulators’ ability to achieve their core objective of protecting consumers…. Unfulfilling these core obligations constitutes what I and others consider regulatory failure that raises doubts on the social desirability of public utility regulation.”

“… subsidies — often the result of increased politicization — can be unfair to funding parties (namely, ratepayers), economically inefficient, and unfair to competing energy sources. One common bizarre practice is for electric utilities to subsidize their customers to use less of their service via energy efficiency initiatives….”

Public utility regulation falls within the lexicon economic regulation with its main objective to protect consumers from the monopoly power of a utility. The presumption is that public utilities provide essential services that require strong service obligations and price controls.…

Ocean Plastic Cleanup: Unintended Consequences (artificial habitat for mahi-mahi and more)

By David Shormann -- February 18, 2019 6 Comments

“Earth stewardship isn’t easy. Sometimes we make the wrong decisions. Sometimes whatever we do has both positive and negative consequences. One wrong decision is The Ocean Cleanup (TOC) project.”

“TOC’s plan … is not manual plastic removal, which allows most creatures to escape. It will instead use purse seines with a minimum mesh size of ⅛ inch (3 mm), capable of trapping microplastics—but also an untold number and variety of sea creatures.”

On a recent boating adventure in the open Pacific, my friends and I came across a section of abandoned fishing net. My first thought was, “Let’s remove it.”

But as I started to pull the net in, I saw a huge mahi-mahi resting in its shade. Also known as dorado or dolphinfish, the mahi-mahi (spooked by my activity) disappeared in a flash.…

Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 11, 2019

By John Droz, Jr. -- February 11, 2019 2 Comments

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Bill Gates about the foolishness of renewables

Short Anti-wind video by Ohio citizens

Study: The $2.5 trillion reason we can’t rely on batteries to clean up the grid

Evolution of Electricity Rates

New Huge Study: Wind Turbines Devalue nearby Homes

Abstracts for upcoming 8^th International Meeting on Wind Turbine Noise

PhD Letter re Turbine Health Impacts

German citizen anti-wind effort results in installations slump

Electoral Platitudes = Energy Trauma for Citizens

Goodbye to a misguided war on coal

Hot Day in Australia results in massive blackouts