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Reasonable Energy Abundant and Affordable Energy for Cascadia

Report

The Crippling Costs

of Electrification and
Net Zero Energy Policies
in the Pacific Northwest

September 2024

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Report

All Pain, No Gain

The Economic and Social
Consequences of Green
Energy Policies in the PNW

October 2023

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Articles

Staggering Cost of a Wind and Solar Future in the Pacific Northwest

Jonathan Lesser and Mitchell Rolling
October 25, 2024
4
Environmentalism
Some academics claim that the U.S. can end reliance on fossil fuels by electrifying most everything — cars, trucks, space and water heat, etc. — and supply the needed electricity solely with wind, solar and hydroelectric energy, without increasing costs. But our study of the cost of doing so just for Oregon and Washington state shows this belief to be a fantasy.

Hurricanes, Climate Change, and Statistical Sleight-of-Hand

Jonathan Lesser
October 16, 2024
4
Climate Change
Doomsayers wasted no time identifying the destruction wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton as “proof” of climate change. It is the latest example of an increasingly common phenomenon: attributing individual weather events — a flood in Vermont, a heatwave in the Pacific Northwest, a cold snap in Texas, and many others — to climate change.

Do Green Energy Subsidies Work?

Jonathan Lesser
September 11, 2024
5
Environmentalism
Like the Jeopardy! game show, green energy subsidies have been Congress’ answer to every energy policy question. The first OPEC oil embargo of 1973-74 catalyzed decades of energy policy, …

Electrification Without the Infrastructure

Jonathan Lesser
July 24, 2024
4
Environmentalism
As state and federal policies mandate the electrification of virtually all end uses to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. For example, 18 states have adopted California’s Advanced Clear Car …

Climate-Related Deaths Down 97 Percent Since 1920s

Gale Pooley
June 12, 2024
2
Climate Change
Our friend Bjorn Lomborg has updated his chart on climate-related deaths. Since the 1920s the number of deaths has fallen by more than 97 percent. As the global population quadrupled over the century, the risk per million declined from 241 in the 1920s to 1.5 in the 2020s. This is a 99.38 percent decrease.

Reasonable Energy: Pragmatic Solutions to Our Energy Needs

Mark Mills
May 21, 2024
1
Uncategorized
Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at Manhattan Institute, leads a discussion with Todd Myers, Director of the Washington Policy Center’s Center for the Environment, and Michael Shellenberger, Author of Apocalypse Never, about reasonable and pragmatic approaches to meeting future energy needs.

The (Anti) Social Cost of Carbon

Jonathan Lesser
May 7, 2024
4
Climate Change
Forty-two was the mystical number that explained “life, the universe, and everything” in Douglas Adams’ comic novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Today, another mystical number, the …

CO2 Is Historically Low — Too Low

Bill Walton
March 26, 2024
5
Climate Change
What if, rather than being at unprecedented high levels, CO2 is at one of its lowest concentrations in the long history of the Earth and that the modest warming anticipated from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will be benign?
downtown night life scene people walking

reasonable prices and policies

Energy prices in the Cascadia region are increasing. Jonathan Lesser, a Discovery Institute fellow, has researched the policies that are directly contributing to this onerous burden.

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Energy Is Essential

Civilization has been built on using energy, from the hot coals of the blacksmith to the water powered turbines of Grand Coulee Dam, and the harnessing of the atom. Today, affordable, reliable, and plentiful energy correlates with the wealth and resilience of societies. The Pacific Northwest in particular has made use of its natural advantages with regard to low-cost hydroelectric power over the last 90 years. Now, ill-conceived energy policies rooted in irrational environmental hysteria are causing prices to increase rapidly. If that trend continues unabated, more will be driven into energy poverty, as energy becomes unaffordable, businesses will shutter, and jobs will be lost.

Seattle, WA - February 27, 2017: Seattle waterfront at sunset with Great Wheel and traffic trail lights

Nature is Bountiful

We are entrusted by nature’s God and bound by each other and future generations with the wise use and preservation of the natural beauty and abundance in the Cascadia region. Human impact on the environment is not necessarily evil. The flourishing of humans and of our natural habitat are tightly intertwined and require wise stewardship and balance. Indeed, bountiful energy enables humans to cultivate and rejuvenate our flora and fauna.

research

Why are energy prices increasing and what are government and private parties doing in this environment? How are they debilitating human progress and increasing poverty instead of liberating people for creative work and innovation?

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Our Purpose

Discovery Institute’s Reasonable Energy initiative pursues plentiful, reliable, and environmentally responsible energy as a moral good for the benefit of all. Reasonable energy prices and policies are essential to human innovation, creativity, and well-being. In contrast to climate alarmism, which is anti-human at its core, Reasonable Energy balances human goods and goals with the natural abundance and beauty entrusted to us. To this end, we identify and evaluate unsound policies that are making energy more costly and unreliable, and propose alternative, more reasoned policies for the Cascadia region and beyond.

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