Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord (two-year anniversary Saturday)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 30, 2019 16 Comments

“Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country. This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which is costing the United States a vast fortune.”

“The United States, under the Trump administration, will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally friendly country on Earth…. We will be environmentally friendly, but we’re not going to put our businesses out of work and we’re not going to lose our jobs.”

On June 1, 2017, President Trump provided what is arguably the greatest political victory for anti-Malthusian, pro-market environmentalism with his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

Saturday marks the second anniversary of this historic decision.…

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Twinges of Climate Realism at the New York Times (Stephens, Douthat vs. the rest of the paper)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 7, 2019 4 Comments

Joe Romm, founder of ClimateProgress (now part of ThinkProgress) at the Center for American Progress, is the bully man against anyone daring to challenge the narrative of man-made climate peril and the affordability of government-forced transformation away from mineral (dense) energies.

His ire has included two editorialists at the New York Times who are not buying climate catastrophe–Bret Stephens and Ross Douthat. But with the losing politics of carbon dioxide (CO2) rationing, not to mention the open scientific questions of climate sensitivity, these two opinion-molders have the high ground.

Bret Stephens

Romm lambasted the Times in 2017 for hiring “extreme climate science denier” Bret Stephens, a characterization that brought rebuke from the Washington Post and other Left outlets. [1]

Most recently, Romm complained about Stephens’s interpretation of Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of the Green New Deal as incrementalism.…

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“Distorting the Wealth of Nature” (Tanton’s 2005 essay on wind subsidies pertinent today)

By Thomas Stacy II -- May 1, 2019 2 Comments

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2005) is amending its interconnection regulations to require public utilities to follow special rules to interconnect wind energy facilities. Wind energy is allowed to behave differently, while other kinds of electricity generation continue to act according to the old rules designed to protect the reliability of the electrical grid.

 – Tom Tanton, Distorting the Wealth of Nature, PERC, September 1, 2005.

Having only entered the fray over electricity system regulation and markets in 2007, I have little context or detail for the above quotation, which appears at the end of the first section of the referenced article.

But I know enough about regulation to know that “special rules” means  propping up the wind energy relative to its more concentrated, dispatchable competitors on the electricity grid.…

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“Save Earth”: Houston Chronicle Goes 1970s (Malthusian alarm getting long in the tooth)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 30, 2019 2 Comments

“All economic pain and no environmental gain is bad politics coming and going. The Democrats do not seem to want to touch it, if their vote on the Green New Deal was any indication.”

” … history will judge the climate alarm as exaggerated, CO2 as the gas of life, and carbon-based energy and modern living as heaven on earth. Governor Abbott, thank you.”

During the day, Houston, Texas, bustles as the oil and gas capital of the world. The daily business fare as reported by the hometown Houston Chronicle is a new offshore project here, new refinery or petrochemical plant there, new onshore production plays elsewhere.

And then there is a whole new industry within an industry, LNG exports from Texas and Louisiana to distant ports–and even LNG tank cars crossing into Mexico.

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Energy & Environmental Newsletter: April 29, 2019

By -- April 29, 2019 1 Comment Continue Reading

Sunnova’s Rooftop Solar: Selling a Bad Product Requires ….

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 25, 2019 5 Comments Continue Reading

2019 Pulitzer Prize Goes to an Inaccurate Anti-Fracking Book

By Nicole Jacobs -- April 18, 2019 9 Comments Continue Reading

“Green New Deal FAQ” (the infamous AOC post for posterity)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 10, 2019 15 Comments Continue Reading

“Climate Dystopia:” Tweets from a Frustrated Climatologist (Andrew Dessler)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 4, 2019 9 Comments Continue Reading

“Energy and Society” Course (Part IV: The Perennial Energy Debate)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 3, 2019 No Comments Continue Reading