green cronyism (page 12)

… you write a story about a business owner on a town council getting the council to support his industry, then using that success to try to get the state to underwrite the town’s decision to support his industry, and not have one word about the obvious and rather blatant…

Triangle Business Journal reports on a poll by a group calling itself “Conservatives for Clean Energy” that supposedly finds “strong support for clean energy in NC.” If you examine the poll questions, which is made rather annoying by a click-through Flash presentation, you will realize something is missing.

The Charlotte Observer reported last week that Duke Energy wants to pay North Carolina solar farm developers 15 percent less for their electricity than it now does, according to filings this week. … Duke says this year’s lower rates are a result of falling natural gas prices. Renewable energy…

To hear them tell it, solar is a powerhouse industry that would collapse like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge if any state support were removed. —11/18/13 This “extraordinary success story” apparently needs to be on the public teat longer than Pu Yi, the boy emperor of China.

A new report from the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University (BHI) shows the costs that the New Hampshire, its employees, and its ratepaying families will bear to meet the state’s ambitious renewable portfolio standard (RPS) mandate that 24.8 percent of electricity sold to consumers be from renewable energy sources…

Fuel Fix carries the following headline: Obama budget would slash oil tax breaks Good. Energy costs are highly impactful, especially on poor consumers. We need a healthy, level playing field for competing energy providers to compete for our business, not government favors. It’d be an encouraging…

That’s the real takeaway from a media-hyped Pew Charitable Trusts report, “Clean Economy Rising: Solar Shines in North Carolina.” My newsletter today explains. Here’s a snippet: There is not one page in the Pew report that does not underscore the fact that the ballyhooed “success” of solar energy in…

The earth itself is turning out to be the big mother Gaia of all “deniers” … — Yours truly, 8/27/14 A comment by David G. Victor and Charles F. Kennel in the new issue of Nature has sparked controversy. Victor and Kennel are openly calling for…