Three enemies of wind and solar: nature, economics, and simple math
My newsletter today explains. Following are just the top four bullet points: The renewable energy sources (wind and solar) aren’t a one-for-one tradeoff for traditional resources (coal, gas, nuclear)....
View ArticleThe fourth enemy of renewable energy: physics
Nature, economics, math, and also physics. My newsletter discusses the importance of Mark P. Mills’ extensive discussion in Forbes of renewable energy generation and the “weird” physics of electricity....
View ArticleJust another special-interest lobby seeking plunder
There is a very active special-interest lobby in North Carolina. Dozens upon dozens of its lobbyists are a constant presence at the North Carolina General Assembly. They desire: Exorbitant, ongoing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inigo Montoya can only do so much
The president gave a speech earlier this week praising his administration’s regulations dictating energy-efficiency standards, its recently unveiled unprecedented onslaught of federal regulations...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rent-seeking, the renewable energy business model
Rent-seeking is a strange term; it’s the economists’ version of the infield fly rule. If you’re in the know about rent-seeking, it’s likely you are conversant in economics. The president is not. (Which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Without tax credits, solar survives and competes. Or it fails. Neither is a...
The state’s most hyperactive lobby has cranked its rent-seeking antics up to 11 to retain special investment tax credits and the state’s renewable energy portfolio standards (REPS) purchase mandates....
View ArticleCivitas: OK, WRAL, let’s play your game, but let’s do it completely
Civitas’ Susan Myrick shows all the reductio ad hominem that WRAL’s ridiculously Koch-obsessed report missed. Turns out, there was a bunch. Myrick’s report gives “the rest of the story: the...
View ArticleWe need state edicts to inoculate captive ratepayers against low-cost,...
From Carolina Journal this morning, a truly obtuse quotation from a Republican: “We talk about mandates. We talk about subsidies. We talk about all these other things. But polio vaccines are mandates....
View ArticleThe top ‘stakeholders’ in policy debates are the citizens, never the cronies
Energy cronyism whack-a-mole continues as the massive renewable-energy lobby continues to press for special favors from policymakers as per their proudly admitted, decades-old business model. Today’s...
View ArticleCarter Wrenn borrows a very bad argument
From the conclusion to my recent Spotlight report on renewable energy: In North Carolina, electricity consumers have no choice in their electricity provider. This fact should, first of all, never...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Hey, other energy sources get subsidies, too!” About that…
My newsletter discusses the differing federal subsidies for different electricity sources. The data come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which compiled the report earlier this year in...
View ArticleHow utterly, utterly impossible is battery storage for renewable electricity
Here is a line from this past Sunday’s issue of Fayetteville Observer, where real-world, adult concerns about the marked inefficiency of nondispatchable energy sources, the subsidies they receive, the...
View ArticlePutting inconvenient facts down the memory hole — a local example
In today’s Carolina Journal, publisher Jon Ham decries “a disturbing trend among mainstream news outlets these days”—which is “putting inconvenient news or facts ‘down the memory hole.’” Ham’s examples...
View Article‘MythBusters’ could do a whole season on renewable energy malarkey
Some takeaways from Dan Way’s Carolina Journal report yesterday: 1. Your facility can get all its electricity from traditional fuel sources and pretend they’re powered by renewable sources. (Media,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When comparing net energy subsidies…
As my colleague Roy Cordato explained in his 2013 Spotlight report on energy subsidies, the proper way to compare energy subsidies is not by looking at gross subsidies, but net subsidies. Why net...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Zero-emissions, efficient, dispatchable nuclear energy creating division...
If you’re an environmentalist terrified by the prospect of a temperature increase of a quarter-degree Fahrenheit by 2100 unless the whole world acts now (you know, America could cease doing everything...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MIT Technology Review: ‘Suddenly, the Solar Boom Is Starting to Look like a...
…it’s well known that the renewable energy industry’s business model is entirely based on and utterly dependent on capturing public subsidies. It’s all about winning government goodies.—Yours truly,...
View ArticleCarbon-tax zealots concede: renewable energy may never compete
Depend upon it: news stories, industry studies, and especially lobbyists’ materials all frame the success and future importance of solar in terms of government programs. Not consumer demand and...
View ArticleHow lobbyists and economic impact studies trick you
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Jobs are good, right? The economy needs jobs. Now, let’s draw your attention to jobs right here in my industry. If you just give my industry a subsidy, or a special tax break not...
View Article‘Renewables are incapable of replacing hydrocarbons at scale’
This isn’t news to Locker Room readers (some recent examples), but I’m glad to read this in The Hill this week from Kathleen Hartnett White. Here’s a brief snippet, with the understanding that there is...
View Article