This has the makings of a real trip down memory lane…  If any of you were around to see the WPPSS financing debacle in the 1980s, and you have been wishing your younger colleagues and children could understand what went wrong… why so many people lost all their money financing “urgently needed” nuclear power plants…you are in luck.  We are about to do it again…with gusto. (more…)

How should we finance the transition to a low-carbon economy; and why in the name of Pete would we do it this way? (more…)

We have discussed here the values and virtues of nuclear energy as a part of the energy mix going forward.  Thorium reactors have been articulated here as superior to current fission reactors.  Breeders and magnetic bottle fusion reactors, like the ITER, have also been propped.  All it would take is a certain amount of money and guidance to kick off something like that.  So where has the Obama administration thrown its increasingly-scarce green capital?   Not there…

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When we go to make fiat legal policy which deprives certain individuals of their livelihoods, and enriches others, we are supposed to do so on firm foundation of the greater good.  Anything else is pure piracy, undeniable thuggery.  The IPCC has argued that the greater good is unequivocal, and that they are the gnostic keepers of the flame.  Much of what has been said by and about the IPCC is based upon that exalted certainty; a standard which they are failing miserably to meet. (more…)

If the IPCC were investment bankers, people would be clamoring for them to return their bonuses.   They have, of course, set their own bed on fire; but “No,” they say, “It was already on fire when I lay down on it!”.   So pundits everywhere are having a field day with them; ”Are they corrupt or merely stupid; insufferably sloppy or intellectually dishonest?”.   Fine, but really, who pays for these guys, and why?  That’s the question raised by one of our readers… (more…)

I love biodiesel.  Like a child with too many freckles, you can understand intellectually when people point to the freckles; but you still love the child.  So yes, I know there are a few freckles on biodiesel; but there are a few on petroleum, too, or even electric cars, after all.

So it breaks my heart when a biodiesel plant folds because somebody (read:  investment banker) put together project financing that built in dependence upon a subsidy; and everyone should know a subsidy is like a fickle lover…really not worth the heartbreak… (more…)

We often talk about preserving virgin forests (because most of us like to be in them, and certain unique things are lost when a forest ceases to be virgin).  As energy economists , we also talk about the human value of lifting people from poverty; of providing electricity and clean water.  So which is it you want? (more…)

The so-called climategate scandal has reignited opposition to the low-carbon economy, and it is time business leaders fought back

The Glaciergate Scandal continues to add ammunition to those who believe this was not mere sloppiness, or some minor mistake.  A money trail is surfacing. (more…)