The Discovery Channel is teasing a show called Earth 2050: Powering the Future. One of the primary sponsors of the show is the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. Here is a brief teaser about future energy supplies from “renewable” sources of power. On the one hand, it was interesting to note that Discovery had classified [...]
Selfish Shell Oil Energy Efficiency Ad
Have you noticed this refreshingly honest ad about the real purpose behind much of the push to implement taxpayer subsidized energy efficiency programs? Let me translate how I read the words in the ads that are popping up all over the place (on line, in the DC metro, in Union Station, and on street corners [...]
How fast can offshore wind be deployed? What are infrastructure requirements?
Guest post by Andy Dawson One anti-nuclear argument that’s frequently made is that nuclear is slow to deploy – that renewables can make inroads into carbon production rather faster than can building new nuclear stations. I was recently provoked into taking a look at this, in the context of the UK’s 2020 and 2030 CO2 [...]
95% disagree with “Beyond Nuclear”. Let’s make it 99%
One of the more powerful concepts that I studied in college was called “groupthink.” The curriculum developers in the history department at the US Naval Academy thought it was important for people in training to become leaders in the US Navy learn to seek counsel and advice from as broad a range of sources as [...]
Unreliables cannot provide energy security or enhance natural environment
My new word for the energy sources popularly known as “renewables” is “unreliables”. Though there may be some tiny exceptions, the general characteristic is that they are all diffuse sources that cannot actually be controlled by humans or automated control systems. One of the main reasons that energy has been a huge political topic since [...]
Wind & solar are not “intermittent”; they are unreliable, unpredictable, uncontrollable and worthless
While driving home after a great Labor Day weekend with friends and family, we ran into scattered showers. My wife helped me figure out the switches that control the timing of the intermittent windshield wipers for both the front and rear windows. (She is the primary driver for our recently purchased family vehicle; I had [...]
Soft hearts should not be accompanied by soft heads
Yesterday, Vermont Governor Peter Shumulin appeared on Democracy Now to talk about the effect of Hurricane Irene on his Green Mountain State. Twice in the interview, he used the words irrational, but throughout the interview he and his interviewer were remarkably illogical. Though many parts of his state were being washed away by raging floods [...]
Industrial wind energy benefits wealthy at expense of many
Guest Post by Willem Post The Green Mountain Power (GMP)-instigated 63 MW Lowell wind turbine facility with (21) 3 MW Danish wind turbines stretched along 4 miles of ridge lines has nothing to do with community-scale wind, everything with utility-scale wind. GMP is using blatant PR to soft-soap/deceive Vermonters. It is a capital intensive (63 [...]
Thoughtful TV discussion about nuclear energy in Colorado post Fukushima
Watch the full episode. See more Colorado State of Mind. On Friday, June 24, 2011, the Colorado State of Mind program aired a discussion about nuclear energy that featured respectful conversation from several different points of view. The impetus for the discussion was to reflect on the implications of the recent Associated Press portrayal of [...]
Are major “environmental” groups paid to help oil and gas interests make more money?
I deliberately chose a provocative title to discuss a theory that surprises nearly everyone. Though full of many sincere and hard working people who are trying to make the world a cleaner and more human friendly place, I believe that most of the really big and well-funded non-profit organizations that claim to be working for [...]