13 May 2013

AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: May 13, 2013

By jdroz The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by...
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10 May 2013

The Perils of Energy Technocracy

By dnorman “There is no evidence that government scientists and engineers are better at forecasting the future and know how the future will play out better than the scientists and engineers in private companies. Technocrats ignore the fact that private companies also hire...
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09 May 2013

Ontario’s Green Energy Act: Ill Wind All Around

By rmckitrick “The claim that Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act of 2009 would create 50,000 jobs was a guess without any basis in formal analysis. The Province has since admitted both that the vast majority of these jobs will be temporary, and that the...
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08 May 2013

Keystone XL and Climate Change: Much Ado About 0.00001°C/yr. (May 7th Testimony before Congress)

By cknappenberger “No matter whose carbon dioxide emissions estimate is used, the climate impact of the oil transported by the pipeline is too small to measure or carry any physical significance. In deciding the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, it is important not to let...
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07 May 2013

Bait-and-Switch Carbon Tax Act of 2013

By rpeltier “The ‘bait’ for legislators is each gets to ‘bring home the bacon’ in the form of rebate checks to voters and huge new tax revenues for the federal government…. The ‘switch’ … is to propose baby steps for the first...
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06 May 2013

“Wind Power: A Turning Point” (Revisiting Worldwatch Institute Paper #45 from 1981)

By rbradley “From all signs, the wind-energy field has reached that all-important turning point.” - C. Flavin, Wind Power: A Turning Point (Worldwatch Institute: July 1981), p. 47. Christopher Flavin, long associated with the Washington, DC-based Worldwatch Institute...
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03 May 2013

The Five Circles of Carbon Tax Hell

By jdelong “The tax will not be implemented in the politically aseptic world of academic modelers, but in the real world of intense  political pressures. Its assumed purity will not survive the onslaught [as demonstrated by] … Sanders-Boxer [where] the carbon tax is...
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02 May 2013

Ignorant Arrogance: Energy “Market Failure” Revisited

By pgrossman [Ed. note: Dr. Grossman is author of the just-released U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure, an important and sobering tome with much insight about today's debate.] The U.S. government has claimed over the years one and one reason only for government...
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01 May 2013

Right Stuff: NASA Scientists Weigh In to Undo Hansen Damage with Balance-of-Evidence Summation

By rbradley “We were motivated by the public and political controversy fostered by alarming predictions of impending catastrophic anthropogenic global warming [at] NASA …. Many of us felt these alarming and premature predictions … would eventually damage...
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30 Apr 2013

U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement: A Rare Victory for Oil and Gas in the Obama Era

By dsimmons “The energy and economic welfare of the United States and Mexico are intertwined by our shared geography, geology, and peoples. The Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreement will help to tie our countries together and grow our economies.” - Daniel Simmons,...
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