NH Government paying more for green energy

Kevin Landrigan reports in the Nashua Telegraph that Governor John Lynch has signed an agreement to pay a little bit more for the state's electricity, which will now come from wind farms:

Gov. John Lynch announced the agreement with ConEdison Solutions on Thursday. Under it, New Hampshire state government will pay an extra $21,000 for $1 million worth of power, a quarter of its overall $4 million energy bill.

In return for the extra five-10,000ths of a cent per kilowatt, ConEdison guarantees that it has purchased an equivalent amount of power from wind farms.

UL- "Fuel costs: More than meets the study"

The Union Leader editorializes about a new study from Carbon Solutions New England, a partnership of UNH and environmental groups that favor federally mandated carbon caps. The paper doesn't buy the study's results showing massive economic savings coming from proposed increases in fuel effeciency.

They acknowledge that the new standards will have a net negative economic effect in 2011 -- a cost of $180 million. But that figure is not multiplied (as dollars saved are) to account for spending and investments not made because of the higher costs. They assume that no one will keep an older car rather than by a new one that costs an extra $2,100 thanks to the higher fuel standards. And they fail to account for increased deaths and injuries that will occur when more people buy smaller, lighter cars.

Maybe New England will benefit economically from the new CAFE standards, but this study doesn't prove it.

Here's the full report. The study's conclusions are based largely on assumptions about the future price of gasoline. The study assumes that fuel prices rise slowly and steadily after inflation. Recent experience shows that such projections are little more than wild guesses.

All regulations have benefits. Even the rent-seeking and corrupt regulations have benefits. But their costs are usually much higher. We favor free-market solutions because the trade-offs tend to be lower, and the benefits more widespread. By choosing to quantify only the benefits of the CAFE regulations, and assuming away some of the highest costs, this study missed a chance to give the public some good information about the consequences of a sweeping change in federal policy.

Happy Earth Day

Save the Earth! Support the Free Market!

Deep in southern Siberia not far from Russia’s border with Mongolia is the “Blue Eye of Siberia” … the deepest and largest (by volume) fresh water lake in the world. Formed in an ancient rift valley, Lake Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plant and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world.

Despite its 25 million year age, Baikal’s life sustaining beauty almost did not survive communist rule. Russian scientists believed that Baikal’s pure water would help produce better rayon cord for airplane tires. The scientists turned out to be wrong and the aviation industry switched from rayon cord to metallic cord in tire production. In a free market system, the plant would have closed and resources would have been allocated elsewhere. But under communism, jobs were the number one priority, and the factory supported 3,500 of them. So it continued polluting the lake for decades unabated.

Big government’s failure to balance environmental quality with other economic goods is not limited to communist Russia. Throughout history big government has a well established track record of tolerating and even perpetuating environmental degradation. The left knows this, which is why they have tried so hard to drape their latest big government plans in free market rhetoric.

From the Heritage Foundation's blog, The Foundry.
Lots of great stuff up there today. Just keep scrolling.