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on March 24, 2019
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Would You Like Some Child Labor with That Electric Car?

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Governor Walz has made expanding electric vehicle (EV) usage in Minnesota a high priority for his administration. In February, the Department of Transportation announced that transit officials want 20 percent of all cars, SUV's, and light-duty trucks to be electric by 2030, an increase of nearly 194,000 new electric vehicles on the road. We all know that EV's have serious shortcomings in the cold, losing up to 40 percent of their power output when it is 20 degrees above zero, but what will Walz's push for EVs do to the environment? It's a question that is worth examining, because despite the clean...

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on March 23, 2019
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In The Tank (ep183) – Robert Bryce, Juice the Movie, Modern Monetary Theory, and State Nullification

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Heartland’s Donald Kendal, and Justin Haskins are joined by Isaac Orr, Policy Fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, in episode #183 of the In The Tank Podcast. This weekly podcast features (as always) interviews, debates, and roundtable discussions that explore the work of think tanks across the country. The show is available for download as part of the Heartland Daily Podcast every Friday. Today’s episode features work from the Manhattan Institute, the Mises Institute, and the Foundation for Economic Education. In the first segment, Donny is joined by Robert Bryce, senior fellow from the Manhattan Institute. Robert joins the show to talk about his...

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on March 22, 2019
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Doubling Down on Failure Installment 1: Comparing the Costs of Wind and Solar, Nuclear, and Coal

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

As you probably know by now, American Experiment has released a new study entitled Doubling Down on Failure, How a 50 percent by 2030 Renewable Energy Standard Would Cost Minnesota $80.2 Billion.   The study is more than 80 pages, including appendices and citations, so I will be breaking down the key findings in more manageable bites on the website. Today, I'll break down the four main energy scenarios we examined and why we chose them....

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on March 20, 2019
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Statewide View: Skyrocketing Electricity Prices Threaten Minnesota Mining

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Renewable-energy advocates often cite increasing demand for steel, copper, nickel, and cobalt as a reason why Minnesotans on the Iron Range should support more renewable-energy mandates. There is no doubt that doubling the renewable-energy mandate would increase Minnesota's demand for these metals, but we won't be able to afford to mine them here....

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on March 19, 2019
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El Niño Has Caused a 14 Percent Drop in Wind Generation, Could Global Warming Render Wind Turbines Worthless?

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Bloomberg reports that El Niño has caused electricity generation from wind turbines to plummet by approximately 14 percent in the Midwest this year. Apparently, it is quite common that wind turbine generation falls during El Niño years. This begs the question, could a warmer world render Minnesota's wind turbines worthless? ...

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on March 18, 2019
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Doubling Down on Failure Fact Sheet

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Minnesota currently has a law mandating that 25 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, by 2025. Some lawmakers have proposed doubling the renewable energy mandate (REM), requiring that 50 percent of our electricity be generated by renewable sources by the year 2030, and Governor Walz has proposed a 100 percent carbon-dioxide-free electric grid by 2050. This report chose to calculate the impact of a 50 percent REM, rather than a 100 percent REM, because research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows using wind, solar, and batteries to achieve 100 percent of electricity...

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on March 17, 2019
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Sunday Funnies: Wind and Solar Edition

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Minnesota has spent well over $15 billion on wind, solar, transmission lines, and the profits utility companies make by putting these things in the ground, but we have no batteries capable of storing the electricity produced by wind turbines or solar panels and we're not likely to have them soon. Just 24 hours of battery storage in Minnesota would cost $133 billion, and that is not accounting for the loss in power experienced when it gets cold out, which tends to happen a lot here. In the end, we've blown billions of dollars building battery chargers when we have no batteries! ...

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on March 16, 2019
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“Darling, is the wind blowing? I want to drive my Tesla.”

Written by Kim Crockett
in Energy

I am told that at the recent CPAC 2020 gathering the President told a well-received joke aimed at the latest “Green” demands that we forgo dirty carbon-based energy and rely solely on wind and solar: “Darling, darling, is the wind blowing today? I would like to watch television, darling.” I thought about that joke when I turned on to a frontage road last Sunday. There was Tesla S blocking the road with the flashers on. It looked like it had been there all night; icicles had formed from the body down to the road and there was snow around it. When I...

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