The hidden agendas of sustainability illusions

Like “dangerous manmade climate change,” sustainability reflects poor understanding of basic energy, economic, resource extraction, and manufacturing principles – and a tendency to emphasize tautologies and theoretical models as an alternative to readily observable evidence in the Real World. It also involves well-intended but ill-informed people being led by ill-intended but well-informed activists who use the concept to gain greater government control over people’s lives, livelihoods, and living standards.

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|2017-02-10T05:56:21-05:00February 9th, 2017|47 Comments

Corporations cashing in on climate at UN conference in Morocco

As world leaders attempt to implement the Paris Climate Agreement signed last year, crony capitalists are gathering, eager to take a bite out of the giant heap of cash allotted for the UN Green Climate Fund, and massive national grants and subsidies.

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|2016-11-17T19:43:06-05:00November 17th, 2016|4 Comments

Report details collapse of “Green energy” in Europe

The amount of money flowing into European green energy from governments and the private sector collapsed from $132 billion in 2011 to $58 billion last year.

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|2016-05-13T22:13:48-04:00May 13th, 2016|23 Comments

Rooftop solar companies will only play if the game is stacked in their favor

The past couple of weeks have highlighted the folly of the energy policies favored by left-leaning advocacy agencies that, rather than allowing consumers and markets to choose, require government mandates and subsidies. Three major, but very different, solar entities—none of which would exist without such political preference—are now facing their demise.  Even with the benefit of tax credits, low-interest loans, and cash grants that state and federal governments have bestowed on them, the solar industry is struggling. We’ve seen Abengoa—which I’ve followed for years—file for bankruptcy. Ivanpah, the world’s biggest solar power tower project in the California desert, is threatened with [...]

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|2016-04-04T18:36:48-04:00April 4th, 2016|10 Comments

Progressive budget would tax everything to slightly slow global warming

The CPC budget features taxes on carbon dioxide (CO2), huge increases in green energy subsidies and new cash to enforce Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. It would add another $9.9 trillion to the national debt by 2026.

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|2016-03-04T08:14:16-05:00March 4th, 2016|2 Comments

Obama-backed energy company ditches green assets

An energy company that received billions of dollars in green subsidies reported Monday it lost $6.4 billion this fiscal quarter, forcing the company to drop its renewable energy projects.

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|2016-03-01T09:07:14-05:00March 1st, 2016|2 Comments

Electric cars: Another failed Obama campaign promise

President Obama promised a million electric cars by the end of 2015, but got less than half that number, and many of those are being leased. Studies show that EVs, because they run on whatever is generating the local electricity, are often in effect more polluting than gasoline vehicles -- and a lot more expensive and less convenient. Without massive subsidies and arm twisting, there would likely be very little market at all for these overpriced, underperforming vehicles.

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|2016-02-02T14:57:47-05:00February 2nd, 2016|6 Comments

Billionaires Musk and Buffett go to war over solar subsidies

Solar power receives 326 times more subsidies than conventional energy sources.

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|2016-01-29T12:55:41-05:00January 28th, 2016|Comments Off on Billionaires Musk and Buffett go to war over solar subsidies

Spain’s Green energy crippled without subsidy crutch

The Spanish Wind Energy Association admitted Tuesday the country did not install any wind power last year after Spain effectively eliminated costly green energy subsidies in 2014.

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|2016-01-26T18:06:26-05:00January 26th, 2016|1 Comment

SolarCity and the Silver Spoon

Companies like Solar City need politicians to keep them afloat. The best solution would be to rid ourselves of politicians who play favorites with other people's money (like Andrew Cuomo), but barring that, we should cancel all subsidies that enable rich people to profit from policies that make energy more expensive for the poor -- via political means.

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|2016-01-04T15:41:53-05:00January 4th, 2016|11 Comments

Aussies cancel wind subsidies

Australia's government has ordered its "Clean Energy Finance Corporation" to provide no future subsidies for wind farms.

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|2015-07-13T15:02:39-04:00July 13th, 2015|Comments Off on Aussies cancel wind subsidies

Solar tax credits are not “conservative” or “free market”

With Louisiana looking to trim a budget deficit (partly caused by Obama energy policies), the state legislature is considering a dramatic cutback in subsidies for rooftop solar installations -- subsidies that in one documented case amounted to $33,000 of the cost of a $40,000 system. The customer was quite happy, noting that after a 5-year amortization for his $7,000 investment, his energy is now free. But who is amortizing the $33,000 that taxpayers paid for? If it took 5 years to amortize $7,000, then it must take nearly 30 years to amortize the true cost of the solar installation -- longer than the lifespan of the solar units.

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|2015-04-21T12:04:12-04:00April 21st, 2015|5 Comments

Solar panel companies deceive homeowners

Fueled by subsidies and mandates, the new rooftop solar-leasing market industry has engaged in “deceptive marketing strategies” to sucker unsuspecting homeowners into misleading zero-money-down teaser loan deals. Many customers are unaware they must include these units in their homeowners insurance policies, the units may stop working long before the 20- to 30-year lease expires (and they are liable for maintenance and replacement of defective parts), and the solar companies may place a lien on the entire property, not just the solar equipment, making it more difficult to transfer ownership via sale. There are numerous other pitfalls, including a serious fire hazard from defective units.

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|2015-03-31T12:15:52-04:00March 31st, 2015|254 Comments

Parasitic power: Solar energy’s five fatal flaws

Solar energy has five fatal flaws for supplying 24/7 grid power.

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|2014-08-21T06:47:16-04:00August 21st, 2014|28 Comments

The 2014 state of wind energy

Ever since the wind power Production Tax Credit expired last year, the lobbying to restore the costly, wasteful tax credit has been intense. Recently, 26 Senators and 118 House members signed a letter urgning its restoration -- but whether they will succeed is an entirely different matter. As a result, even GE's Jeffrey Immelt is talking about "a world that's unsubsidized."

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|2014-04-21T20:33:36-04:00April 21st, 2014|2 Comments
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