Energy

A Post Facto Rival

By Justin Katz | July 31, 2010 |

Don’t these people realize the work that Rhode Island’s leaders have already put into handing a lucrative government contract to a particular wind farm developer? A Canadian company that says it can provide Rhode Island with renewable power at a cheaper price than Deepwater Wind is urging state regulators to stop their review of a…

A Sham of a Hot-Air Government

By Justin Katz | June 17, 2010 |

Rather than simply cut the Public Utilities Commission out of the process of approving an off-shore wind project, the General Assembly, with the enthusiastic assent of Governor Don Carcieri, has effectively permitted the commission a single stamp — a rubber one: The new law changes that measuring stick by dramatically narrowing the window for the…

Brian Bishop on Why the Deepwater Project Isn’t a Good Up-Front Alternative Energy Investment

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 8, 2010 |

I am usually willing to give the benefit of the doubt to alternative energy projects, on the grounds that I believe that the development of new energy sources which can help the United States reduce its entanglements with demented foreign governments who happen to sit above fossil fuel reserves is, in general, a good thing.…

William Felkner: The Treacherous Waters of Deepwater Wind (Part Two of Two)

By Engaged Citizen | June 8, 2010 |

Add it all up and that rounds [down] to the paltry sum of $500 million or half a billion dollars above and beyond what we could buy renewable energy for from the market (are we talking about real money yet?). The Deepwater sales pitch contains ephemeral “system benefits” and glowing statements about how we can…

William Felkner: The Treacherous Waters of Deepwater Wind (Part One of Two)

By Engaged Citizen | June 7, 2010 |

The Deepwater Wind Project will be heard in both the House and Senate on Tuesday in a last minute attempt to pass legislation that will burden Rhode Islanders with a $500 million “Windmill Tax”. Supporters of the Project (which appears to be just the Governor and Deepwater Wind) say the price, 24¢/KWH escalating to 47¢/KWH,…

When it Comes to Energy, Government Knows Best

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2010 |

The project to harness energy from trash at the Central Landfill is impossible not to like, in concept, and I’m not inclined to badmouth it. I do think, though, that state Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt (R., North Kingstown) has a worthy argument when it comes to process and oversight, saying that the just-passed legislation: Authorizes the…

Charlie Hall on the Proposed Offshore Wind Project

By Monique Chartier | June 7, 2010 |

Courtesy Ocean State Follies

Thousands of Monuments to the Fiscal Non-Feasibility of Wind Power (Even Offshore)

By Monique Chartier | June 6, 2010 |

In an American Thinker article in February, Andrew Walden points to a startling and very unpublicized fact about wind power. In the best wind spots on earth, over 14,000 turbines were simply abandoned. Spinning, post-industrial junk which generates nothing but bird kills. Now, some of the older ones would have been discarded for newer technology.…

Conversely, the Moratorium on All New and Exploratory Drilling is Well Within President Obama’s Control

By Monique Chartier | May 30, 2010 |

… unlike the continued gushing of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, Glenn Beck and Pat Gray do an excellent job breaking down how this moratorium is a wild overreaction on the part of the president and how he may not intend to “let this crisis go wasted” but use it to pass Senator Kerry’s…

The Gang Striving for Cap and Trade

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2010 |

Sometimes you get a glimpse behind the closed doors of powerful people’s decision-making rooms, and it’s interesting how familiar names keep popping up. An Investor’s Business Daily editorial on the Chicago Climate Exchange provides such an inkling. The CCX is up and running as a mechanism for trading offsets for “all six greenhouse gases.” It…