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on July 24, 2019
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11 Ways Minnesota Families Are Subsidizing Solar

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

There is a pervasive fiction that solar is somehow lower cost than other sources of electricity and that this form of energy is competing on a level playing field with sources like coal, nuclear, and natural gas. This notion is a complete fairy tale. Unfortunately, there are a host of renewable energy advocacy groups, some of them who pretend to be conservative, who further this notion and even contend that wind and solar are somehow at a disadvantage relative to more reliable forms of energy due to government intervention. Nothing could be further than the truth. Solar and wind have all...

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on July 23, 2019
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Capitalism is Saving the Planet Part 4: Ridley: Rejoice, the Earth Is Becoming Greener

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

There's something you need to know about the doom and gloom surrounding the environment: most of it has no basis in reality. In fact, it seems like people who pretend to be environmentalists are the people who are least likely to appreciate how much the empirical data shows that the environment has actually improved in the last four decades. One way the environment has improved is the amount of trees on the planet. Despite the popular notion that deforestation is ruining the planet, a new study has found that there are more trees and vegetation today than there was 30 years...

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on July 21, 2019
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What is the ‘Conservative Energy Network’ and Why is it Backed by Leftist Funders?

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

There is big money behind promoting wind and solar power. After all, the only reasons people build wind turbines and solar panels are because of government subsidies, state-level renewable energy mandates, and government-approved monopoly utility companies, like Xcel Energy, who build them because it allows them to increase their corporate profits. In essence, there would be zero market for wind and solar if the government were not involved, and this fact means that renewable energy companies are willing to spend massive amounts of money to influence public policy. It makes perfect sense, their very existence depends on government policies. Unfortunately,  some so-called...

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on July 19, 2019
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Twin Metals Dry Stack Announcement Is Great News, No Matter What The Anti-Mining Groups Say

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Yesterday, Twin Metals Minnesota announced that they were going to be storing their mine waste using a dry stack storage method, which is often hailed by environmentalists as the best way to store mine tailings. Furthermore, extensive testing of the rock shows that there will be no acid mine drainage because of the low-sulfur rock that will be mined in the Duluth Complex. One would think this would lead to celebration among environmental groups, who pretend that they would be in favor of mining if there were adequate environmental protections, but they predictably condemned the announcement because they're not pro-environment, they...

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on July 18, 2019
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BREAKING NEWS: Twin Metals Minnesota Proposes Most Technologically Advanced Mine in Minnesota History

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

The future of mining in Minnesota looks even brighter today as Twin Metals Minnesota announced they will protect Minnesota’s water resources at their planned copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota by using a method called dry stack tailings storage, which is often touted by environmental groups as the best way to store waste rock left over from the mining process. This technology eliminates the storage ponds and dams associated with conventional tailings facilities and it has been successfully used in four mines in the northern United States and Canada with similar climates to Minnesota and has been permitted at two mines in...

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on July 17, 2019
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Rebuking Renewables: Le Sueur County Places Moratorium on Solar Gardens and Solar Farms

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

It looks like the Community Solar Gardens aren't very popular with the locals  in Le Sueur County. Earlier in July, the Planning and Zone commission voted to enact a moratorium, or temporary suspension, on new solar facilities. The moratorium, which will ban applications for new solar projects for one year, comes at a time when solar facilities are being cited closer to city limits and residential properties. According to KEYC in Mankato: “Separation distances from residential properties is one thing that people are very concerned about. They don’t want to have these panels 50 feet from their house, and by taking this...

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on July 16, 2019
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Sierra Club: Stop Obsessing About Recycling

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

The Sierra Club recently published an article that will surely make waves. The crux of the argument is that recycling doesn't always make sense, and often times it is better for the environment to throw items in a landfill than it is to recycle them. Rather than maximizing recycling, we should be optimizing it, recycling items that make economic and ecological sense and landfilling items that don't. It's almost as if we should allow private companies and businesses, operating in a market, to decide which materials should be repurposed for other uses, rather than having government-run recycling initiatives that are not responsive...

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on July 15, 2019
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They Thought Battery Storage Would Be Cost Competitive With Natural Gas By 2014: 6 Years Later It’s Still Not True

Written by Mitchell Rolling
in Energy

In 2013, Steve Hellman, president of the battery storage company, Eos Energy, made a startling prediction about the cost of the company's then-new zinc-air battery system. The following is from Green Tech Media more than six years ago: The cost of battery storage is falling more rapidly than most analysts forecasted and could be competitive with gas-fired generation -- even in the U.S., where gas prices are low -- within the next eighteen months. That’s the prediction of Steve Hellman, the president of battery storage startup Eos Energy Storage, which intends to launch its zinc-air battery next year with a price of $200...

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on July 15, 2019
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Capitalism is Saving the Planet Part 3: Would You Rather Mine in Venezuela? I Didn’t Think So

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

We are often told that capitalism is destroying the planet, and that the only way we can repent from causing environmental degradation is to switch from a capitalist system to a socialist system. This thought process, however, could not be more wrong. While anti-mining activists say they don't want mining in Minnesota, what they are really saying, if they are not willing to forego the items made with these metals and minerals, is that they want mining, they just don't want it here. But if not here, where? I often write about the state of the cobalt industry, where 40,000 children have...

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