Renewable Energy

California

Are California’s Poor Losing Out In State’s Drive For Clean Energy Future?

California policymakers have been on overdrive in recent years pursuing a clean energy future for the Golden State. State policymakers have enacted scores of government mandates and programs to push employers and individuals to reduce emissions, including unrealistic renewable energy mandates, cap-and-trade, and its embrace of high-speed rail. Many of ...
California

Is Cap-and-Trade Really A Free Market Solution To Climate Change?

The mood was reportedly celebratory on the evening of July 17 after legislators approved a decade-long extension of the state’s carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program. But that’s not to say everyone was happy, or should be. Assembly Bill 398 will continue the current cap-and-trade system through 2030. It places a cap ...
California

Unless Legislature Embraces Free Market Energy Future, California Faces Next Solyndra

California’s solar power system generated such a glut of electricity for two weeks in March that some of it had to be sent out of state. Supporters of solar energy might believe this is evidence that it works. But it actually highlights solar energy’s biggest flaw. In late June, the ...
Commentary

Now they tell us

California has to be a leader, the progressives tell us, by which they mean that ordinary people should just shut up and eat their spinach. The spinach is necessary for the good of mankind, ordinary people included, and, anyway, it tastes good, fills you up, and costs next to nothing. ...
Commentary

AB 32: Cost now, benefits later … maybe

During the recent election, the spin on Proposition 23 became drearily familiar. Voters who favored it were backing “greedy oil companies,” as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put it, out to protect their own financial interests. Those who opposed the measure, on the other hand, supported Clean Energy, The Environment and, of ...
Environment

Inherit the Wind – the Reality Show

Investor-owned utility company National Grid agreed to a 15-year purchasing contract with Cape Wind, where the utility would purchase the project’s wind energy at 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour beginning in 2013, and increasing at 3.5 percent annually thereafter. Contrast this with the current average wholesale energy rate of 6 ...
Commentary

Power: Commentary: How Myths Distort Energy Policy

Congress and various states are considering a fundamental restructuring and regulation of our energy policy. Any such effort should be based on facts, but legislators, unfortunately, incline to myths, such as the notion that most of our energy comes from oil. Myth: Foreign Oil Provides Most of Our Energy According ...
Commentary

2010-2020, An Energy Odyssey

With the advent of 2010 California stands only a decade away from 2020 when, according to plan, the state should be producing a full 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. That unrealistic goal will be tough to achieve by any standard but a new proposal by Sen. Dianne ...
Energy Costs

The Costs and Uncertainties of Carbon Reduction Schemes

Earlier this month, a bill to implement a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions passed the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The Boxer-Kerry bill now moves on to the full Senate for consideration, where it will likely be combined with other climate bills. The House narrowly passed a similar ...
Climate Change

Oregon Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Subsidy Cut

The Oregon state legislature passed a bill reducing runaway renewable energy subsidies in an effort to help balance the state budget, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) killed the bill with a veto. Now Oregon, which already faced a budget shortfall, may have to find an additional $50 million in its ...
California

Are California’s Poor Losing Out In State’s Drive For Clean Energy Future?

California policymakers have been on overdrive in recent years pursuing a clean energy future for the Golden State. State policymakers have enacted scores of government mandates and programs to push employers and individuals to reduce emissions, including unrealistic renewable energy mandates, cap-and-trade, and its embrace of high-speed rail. Many of ...
California

Is Cap-and-Trade Really A Free Market Solution To Climate Change?

The mood was reportedly celebratory on the evening of July 17 after legislators approved a decade-long extension of the state’s carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program. But that’s not to say everyone was happy, or should be. Assembly Bill 398 will continue the current cap-and-trade system through 2030. It places a cap ...
California

Unless Legislature Embraces Free Market Energy Future, California Faces Next Solyndra

California’s solar power system generated such a glut of electricity for two weeks in March that some of it had to be sent out of state. Supporters of solar energy might believe this is evidence that it works. But it actually highlights solar energy’s biggest flaw. In late June, the ...
Commentary

Now they tell us

California has to be a leader, the progressives tell us, by which they mean that ordinary people should just shut up and eat their spinach. The spinach is necessary for the good of mankind, ordinary people included, and, anyway, it tastes good, fills you up, and costs next to nothing. ...
Commentary

AB 32: Cost now, benefits later … maybe

During the recent election, the spin on Proposition 23 became drearily familiar. Voters who favored it were backing “greedy oil companies,” as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put it, out to protect their own financial interests. Those who opposed the measure, on the other hand, supported Clean Energy, The Environment and, of ...
Environment

Inherit the Wind – the Reality Show

Investor-owned utility company National Grid agreed to a 15-year purchasing contract with Cape Wind, where the utility would purchase the project’s wind energy at 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour beginning in 2013, and increasing at 3.5 percent annually thereafter. Contrast this with the current average wholesale energy rate of 6 ...
Commentary

Power: Commentary: How Myths Distort Energy Policy

Congress and various states are considering a fundamental restructuring and regulation of our energy policy. Any such effort should be based on facts, but legislators, unfortunately, incline to myths, such as the notion that most of our energy comes from oil. Myth: Foreign Oil Provides Most of Our Energy According ...
Commentary

2010-2020, An Energy Odyssey

With the advent of 2010 California stands only a decade away from 2020 when, according to plan, the state should be producing a full 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. That unrealistic goal will be tough to achieve by any standard but a new proposal by Sen. Dianne ...
Energy Costs

The Costs and Uncertainties of Carbon Reduction Schemes

Earlier this month, a bill to implement a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions passed the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The Boxer-Kerry bill now moves on to the full Senate for consideration, where it will likely be combined with other climate bills. The House narrowly passed a similar ...
Climate Change

Oregon Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Subsidy Cut

The Oregon state legislature passed a bill reducing runaway renewable energy subsidies in an effort to help balance the state budget, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) killed the bill with a veto. Now Oregon, which already faced a budget shortfall, may have to find an additional $50 million in its ...
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