Free Republic

The oldest maxim in politics is “follow the money.” That maxim also applies to electric grids. Following the billions of dollars that have been spent on the Texas grid explains why the state continues to have electricity shortages. On Monday, ERCOT, the state’s troubled grid operator, asked Texans to reduce their electricity use. That request came exactly four months after Texas residents were asked to conserve electricity due to a massive winter storm. Before going further, I’ll give you the punchline: As I explained in these pages in April, about $66 billion was spent on wind and solar in Texas...

Big Wind hides evidence of turbine bird kills and gets rewarded. Here is how they do it. In 1984 the California Energy Commission .. the primary environmental issue alluded to was the extreme hazard that wind turbines posed to raptors. ... Since the early 1980s, the industry has known there is no way its propeller-style turbines could ever be safe for raptors. With exposed blade tips spinning in open space at speeds up to 200 mph, it was impossible. Wind developers also knew they would have a public relations nightmare if people ever learned how many eagles are actually being...

The Left and the mainstream media ignore a new lawsuit against a wind-energy plant. Last month, 60 residents of New York’s Herkimer County filed a lawsuit in Albany that provides yet another example of the growing backlash against the wind-energy sector. It also exposes the double standard that exists in both the mainstream media and among environmental groups when it comes to “green” energy.The main defendant in the lawsuit is the Spanish electric utility Iberdrola, which is the second-largest wind-energy operator in the U.S. The Herkimer County residents — all of whom live within a mile or so of the...

Nov. 28) -- It's easy and sometimes even fun to pick on Al Gore. But at some point -- and that point was surely reached during Gore's Lock Box days -- the jokes exhausted themselves, though of course Rush Limbaugh still snickers at them. What we're left with these days, if we're tired of Pavement-era bon mots, is Al Gore's ideas, and because he's a politician, the effect those ideas have had on the populace. That's where Grant Jacobsen comes in. He's an assistant professor at the University of Oregon. A few years back, he read an article in Time...

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 15, 2008 02:39 PM John McCain met with T. Boone Pickens yesterday to hear the Big Wind sales pitch. Hey, why should Nancy Pelosi have all the Boone-doggly fun? Hmmmmm: T. Boone Pickens was waiting for John McCain in a small conference room at the Aspen Meadows Resort, where the two, according to Pickens, were going to be “talking about the Pickens plan.” “We’re going to have a good visit,” he added. Pickens, a famous oilman and one of America’s richest men, is now pushing a plan to drop the United States’ dependence on foreign oil...

eek, Pelosi refuses to consider GOP energy proposals that don't include massive government subsidies for so-called eco-alternatives that have never panned out. Which brings us to Madame Speaker's 2007 financial disclosure form. Schedule III lists "Assets and 'Unearned Income'" of between $100,001-$250,000 from Clean Energy Fuels Corp. -- Public Common Stock. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) is a natural gas provider founded by T. Boone Pickens. Yep, that T. Boone Pickens -- former oilman turned wind-power evangelist whose ads touting a national wind campaign are now as ubiquitous as Viagra promos. Pickens and Pelosi share the same talking points downplaying...