Category: Renewables – Politics
Celebrating a Rare Victory in Civil Liberties
| May 22, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Every once in a while there’s good news for those of us concerned that our liberties are being subjugated, and our democracy eroded away from under our feet.
As I had written previously:
The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provides broad authority for the federal government to use the military in domestic operations in order to detain Americans indefinitely and without trial. This nullifies the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the natural rights of Americans. Read More
The Truth Is a Casualty of Political Ads — But Let’s Look Further
| May 22, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
My mother wrote me this morning, suggesting that I “Check out the N.Y. Times article by David Brooks: ‘How Change Happens.’”
Thanks, Mom. David Brooks is an articulate advocate for free-market economics, and this is a perfect example. No surprise here. He’s a very bright guy.
In terms of the content of this particular piece, is it possible that the Obama ad is grossly unfair? Of course! That’s what most political ads do: deliberately misrepresent stories so as to mislead voters by inspiring wrong-placed hatred. No surprise here either. Read More
Predicting the Future in Energy Policy — Thanks to Survey Respondents
| May 21, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
My thanks to everyone who has participated in the recent 2GreenEnergy survey. I note that Dr. David Doty, one of the greatest intellects I’ve ever run across, boldly predicted the following for the coming five years:
Oil, coal, and gas will steadily become more expensive at a mean rate of ~20%/year. EVs will have negligible impact on oil usage – for decades.
Global economic growth will still continue at a rate of ~2%/yr, and inflation in the U.S. will remain low.
The gap between the rich and the poor will continue to widen. It will take 10-12 more years of this before something close to revolution (major rioting) comes to the U.S. We will not see another period of sustained strong growth in the U.S. until several years after that happens.
We will not see serious and effective commitment to reduced CO2 emissions until after we’ve seen several years of strong economic growth.
Much of what you’ve written here is so counter to most people’s thinking — not to say that this means it’s wrong. 20% CAGR? Read More
Survey: Given Our Energy Policies, How Likely Is It…..?
| May 19, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I’d like to ask a favor, if I may. We have a quick survey up on the 2GreenEnergy website – one that, interestingly enough, calls for you to predict the future. Given our current energy policies and the rate at which they’re changing, what do you think the world will be like five years from now? What events do you believe are likely to occur between now and the year 2017? Which do you think are improbable?
As usual, we’ll tabulate the results and offer you a free copy of the report that comes as a result.
And as always, we appreciate your help.
Here’s the link:
http://2greenenergy.com/survey-what-will-happen-in-the-next-five-years/
Americans’ Apathy Towards the Environment
| May 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A reader from the San Francisco Bay Area sent me this article, which he said, “was buried within an article on other SF subjects. Thought you might be interested.”
Green vs. green: San Franciscans’ enthusiasm for going green with “clean energy” in their own homes appears to be about as flat as the economy. Read More
China’s Investing in Renewables — But Why?
| May 13, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Frequent commenter Duke Brooks writes in:
Americans who rail against U.S. polluters should probably spend a few days in the world’s most polluted city, Beijing. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say. But the lack of outrage from the American left over China’s mass particulate output would tend to expose them for what they are: A political, not ecological, movement.
I don’t think anyone argues that China’s building coal-fired power plants at the rate of one a week is anything other than an abomination; there isn’t too much controversy there — regardless of where one stands politically. Yet China is the world’s leading investor in renewable energy, and they face a far larger challenge than we do in terms of supplying energy to a skyrocketing number of energy-hungry consumers; it’s one that dwarfs ours here in the U.S.
I don’t know whether you saw this report I wrote a few months back in an attempt to make sense of this paradox: China Is Investing in Renewable Energy — But Why?
The “End Polluter Welfare Act”
| May 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
If you were tasked with crafting the worst possible energy policy, what would you do? Well, you’d say, “OK, I’m going to reward bad behavior, and penalize good behavior,” right? Then you’d send enormous sums of tax-payers’ money to the most egregious polluters you could find, while making sure that any potential competitors were ground into the pavement. Read More
The World Resents American Environmental Policy
| May 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
As a younger man, I had a business partner with whom I ran a marketing consultancy that was 200 employees strong, with clients on four continents — during which time I logged a great number of air miles. I used to joke that my seniority on American Airlines was sufficient that, not only would I be instantly upgraded to first class upon booking my ticket, but I could, had I wanted, bring a baby elephant on board with me, prompting the flight attendants to remark, “What a lovely animal, Mr. Shields. I assure you that we’ll make him quite comfortable.” Read More
What’s Your Reaction to this Advertisement from the Heartland Institute?
| May 4, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Oh my God. Please tell me this isn’t true – that it’s a bad dream. I don’t live on the same planet with people who would run an ad like this one from the Heartland Institute, do I?
For those who may not know, Heartland (an appealing name for “real Americans,” isn’t it?) is an elite group of the wealthiest, most powerful and most ruthless people on Earth. And this ad is the level of abuse they’re willing to perpetrate on “commoners” — people who lack the luxury of an education that would be necessary to recognize it for the pure garbage it is.
I’ve seen a lot of disgraceful behavior in my 56 years crawling around this sad planet, but I honestly cannot recall anything more shameful.
Lessons from Machiavelli
| May 3, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
It’s the 543rd birthday of Machiavelli who, according to the Writer’s Almanac, wrote that:
morality was irrelevant when it came to running a state, and that leaders should be willing to perform evil acts when it became necessary to hold onto their power.
Wow. Good thing we don’t have any of that garbage in our present day affairs, isn’t it? Wink, wink.
