Institute for Energy Research

Wind Turbines Against Nature

Studies have found that wind turbines are a dangerous threat to bats, high-conservation value birds, and insect populations that are a major supply of food to bats and birds. Insects, birds, bats, and wind farm developers are attracted to the same thing--high wind speeds. Wind farms in Europe and the United States are being built in the path of migration trails that have been used by insects and birds for millions of years. Researchers found that wind turbines in Germany resulted in a loss of about 1.2 trillion insects of different species each year. Researchers in India found almost four times fewer buzzards, hawks, and kites in areas with wind farms--a loss of about 75 percent. They found that wind turbines are akin to adding a top predator to the ecosystem, killing off birds, but allowing small animals to increase their populations resulting in a trickle effect throughout the ecosystem.

Is Fracking Bad for Drillers and Investors?

A recent feature at the anti-fossil-fuel Desmog Blog reported the "stunning admission" of a former shale CEO that fracking was a fool's errand for industry. "The shale gas revolution has frankly been an unmitigated disaster for any buy-and-hold investor in the shale gas industry with very few limited exceptions," stated Steve Schlotterbeck, formerly of EQT. "In fact, I'm not aware of another case of a disruptive technological change that has done so much harm to the industry that created the change." He closed: "The technological advancements developed by the industry have been the weapon of its own suicide."

Cost of Transitioning to 100-Percent Renewable Energy

There are several studies that indicate it would cost the United States trillions of dollars to transition to an electric system that is 100-percent renewable. Costs range from $4.5 trillion by 2030 or even 2040 to $5.7 trillion in 2030--about a quarter of the U.S. debt. The lower estimate results in a cost per household of almost $2,000 per year through 2040. The $4.5 trillion cost does not include the stranded cost of the oil, natural gas, and coal technologies that would be disrupted. Costs can be greatly reduced by allowing nuclear as part of the non-carbon emitting mix and allowing natural gas to generate 20 percent of the electricity. Allowing existing nuclear plants to operate would save about $500 billion. Also, moving the goal to 2045 or 2050 would help to reduce costs by allowing advanced technologies to be developed and commercialized.

Atlantic Coast States Plan Expensive Offshore Wind Farms

Despite its high cost, states along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Virginia are planning to invest in offshore wind. Massachusetts is preparing to obtain power from more than a score of huge wind turbines off its coast, carried to the mainland by underwater cables, with the cost passed through to households and businesses. New Jersey regulators just selected Ørsted, a Danish energy company, to build giant wind turbines 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City that will generate 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind. Connecticut is set to start its initial offshore wind solicitation with the aim of getting 2,000 megawatts by 2030. Maryland has plans for two wind farms off the coast of Ocean City with a 328-foot meteorological tower to be installed in July about 17 miles off the coast in advance of the US Wind offshore wind farm project. New York has plans for wind farms off the coast of Long Island.

EPA Finalizes the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, Replacing Clean Power Plan

The Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE) provides a plan for states to make realistic assessments and upgrade their power plants with clean technologies so that they can operate in a more environmentally friendly manner. ACE refocuses the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on sound science, transparency, supply diversity, and the rule of law, rather than bureaucratic overreach and politics. Obama's Clean Power Plan, which ACE replaces, was never implemented. The United States Supreme Court stopped the rule, partly due to claims from over half the states that they would suffer "irreparable injury" without intervention. The stay on implementation was an extraordinary step for the Supreme Court, which many Court-watchers at the time said indicated displeasure with a vast rule with enormous consequences.

Grill with Gusto this Independence Day

Fourth of July, the national celebration of combustion, presents an opportunity for atonement.... Maybe an Independence Day meal of pan-fried potatoes and grilled peaches seems un-American. But the tradition of backyard grilling isn't exactly Jeffersonian in pedigree. Brian Palmer, "Fire Up the Grill, Not the Atmosphere." New York Times, June 29, 2011. That was the New York Times then. Here is the latest:

Scaring the Public on Climate Change

An Earth scientist's recent article making the rounds on social media highlights a terrifying conversation he had with "a very senior member" of the IPCC, which is the UN's body devoted to studying climate science. The upshot of their conversation was that millions of people will die from climate change, a conclusion that leads the author to lament that humans have created a consumption-driven civilization that is "hell bent on destroying itself."

The U.S. Is Awash in Oil

Source: Wall Street Journal The United States became the world's largest producer of oil last year and the world's largest producer of natural gas in 2009. Texas, North Dakota, and Wyoming are setting oil production records, along other U.S. states due to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that allow shale basins to be drilled and the oil released into production. Most of the wells producing oil today are being drilled horizontally in shale basins rather than vertically, as the first oil wells were drilled.

GAO Finds No Real Benefit to the Renewable Fuel Standard

According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the renewable fuel standard (RFS), a federal program requiring the use of biofuels in gasoline supplies, has not lowered gasoline prices at the pump nor significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the biofuels meeting the standard are composed of corn-based ethanol, which has few environmental advantages compared to gasoline. Further, gasoline prices outside of the Midwest, where most of the corn is grown, likely increased by a few pennies a gallon because of the Renewable Fuel Standard, while declining slightly in areas with ethanol plants. GAO indicates that those price effects diminished over time as refiners installed equipment to meet the fuel-blending requirement of the RFS "that, over time, reduced refining costs for gasoline."

Electric Vehicles in Germany Emit More Carbon Dioxide Than Diesel Vehicles

A study by the IFO think tank in Munich found that electric vehicles in Germany emit 11 percent to 28 percent more carbon dioxide than their diesel counterparts. The study considered the production of batteries as well as the German electricity mix in making this determination. Germany spent thousands of euros on electric car subsidies per vehicle to put a million electric vehicles on the road, but those subsidies have done nothing to reach the country's greenhouse gas emission targets. This is just the latest example of government programs expecting one outcome and getting quite another, instead. To some it is ironic; to others it is funny. At IER, we believe it to be sad, as it is a waste of time and money that could be better put to use solving real problems.

The Levelized Cost of Electricity from Existing Generation Resources

In this report, the authors analyze publicly available data to estimate the average levelized cost of electricity from existing generation resources (LCOE-Existing), as compared to the levelized cost of electricity from new generation resources (LCOE-New) that might replace them. The additional information provided by LCOE-Existing presents a more complete picture of the generation choices available to the electric utility industry, policymakers, regulators and consumers.

Study Finds Wind and Solar 2 to 3 Times More Expensive Than Existing Generation Resources

WASHINGTON -- Today the Institute for Energy Research and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy released a new study evaluating the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from new and existing generation resources.

Existing Generating Resources Are Less Costly Than New Generating Resources

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) released a report today that finds that building new electrical generating facilities to replace perfectly good existing plants ahead of their optimal retirement time increases electricity prices to consumers.

Forget Paris: On the Second Anniversary of Trump's Pullout

Two years ago, President Trump announced he would begin the formal process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. At the time, the media and climate alarmists went ballistic--for example, famed physicist Stephen Hawking said Trump's action would push Earth "over the brink." And yet, as I'll show in this article, the Paris Agreement has always been a giant exercise in symbolism over substance; it wouldn't come close to solving the climate "problem," even on the terms of the alarmists. Whether one thinks climate change is a minor issue to watch, or a full-blown existential crisis, either way Trump's action should be welcomed. By challenging the reverence for the Paris Agreement, Trump's pullout gave permission for scientists and others to think about alternative approaches rather than globally-coordinated political control over energy and transportation.

Hitting the Open Road

"Nearly 43 million Americans will start their summers on a high note with a Memorial Day weekend getaway," the American Automobile Association reports. "This long holiday weekend, marking the unofficial start of summer vacation season, will see the second-highest travel volume on record since AAA began tracking holiday travel volumes dating back to 2000, trailing only the bar set in 2005." Compared to last year, 1.5 million additional people will drive, fly, or rail. Higher fuel prices (averaging $2.85/gallon for regular nationwide) are being offset by lower hotel and rental-car expenses, according to AAA.

Economists Have Been "Useful Idiots" for the Green Socialists

In the old Soviet Union, the Communists allegedly used the term "useful idiot"¹ to describe Westerners whose naïve political views furthered the Soviet agenda, even though these Westerners didn't realize that they were being exploited in such fashion. It is in this context that I confidently declare that American economists have been useful idiots for the green socialists pushing extreme climate change policies. The radical environmentalists were quite happy to embrace the economic concepts of "Pigovian negative externalities" and a carbon tax in the past, but now that it is impossible for economic science to endorse their desired agenda, the activists have discarded the entire field as hopelessly out of touch. Economists who still support a carbon tax and other climate "mitigation policies" should be aware of the bigger picture.

Driving Through Gas Taxes

The driving season is upon us. With this, motorists of all political persuasions should be aware of proposals small and large to increase the federal gasoline tax. Whether it is several cents per gallon to fund infrastructure, or a nearly $0.50/gallon carbon tax under new legislation, drivers beware!

Climate Lawsuits Have Cities Seeing Green

In my last article I discussed atmospheric trust litigation (ATL), the latest crusade among radical environmentalists to impose through the courts what they could not pass through the ballot box. This coordinated campaign includes using child plaintiffs to sue the federal government to adopt their desired climate change regulations and a press strategy including what would become the youth climate strikes. Increasingly prominent components of the ATL campaign are investigations by state attorneys general into ExxonMobil (ongoing in New York, Massachusetts, and being picked up in Washington, DC) and public nuisance lawsuits by cities, counties, and states against Exxon and a few other chosen oil companies (starting or ongoing in Rhode Island and more than a dozen cities and counties across North America). These investigations and climate lawsuits are desperate and misguided attempts to smear providers of conventional fuels and extract rents free of political consequence.

Do We Really Have a Decade Left to Solve Climate Change?

Wise alecks on social media noted with amusement how Beto O'Rourke recently claimed humans had only ten years to act on climate change, thus one-upping Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who had previously gone out on a limb by putting the deadline at twelve years. Snark aside, it's important to point out that the "consensus science" as codified, for example, in the periodic reports from the United Nations do not support such a cliff-hanger mentality at all.

Environmental Activism by Court Order: The Dangerous and Faulty Approach of Atmospheric Trust Litigation

Americans are blessed to live in a democratic republic. Individuals and organizations that seek to effect political change must garner votes by making their cases to elected officials or the people themselves. But radical environmentalists have discovered that when votes on legislative proposals and referenda do not turn out in their favor, there is a backdoor to political power. Litigation is indispensable for resolving disputes, compensating injured parties, and keeping watch over government actions. Yet for decades this tool has been abused by climate activists seeking to shut down all energy development and transportation by suing each individual project. In a more recent development, the green left has embarked on a reckless crusade to enact sweeping societal changes through court order in a coordinated campaign called atmospheric trust litigation.