Latest Posts

Home

Facebook

Twitter

Search
About
logo
Thinking Minnesota Archive

Education

Employee Freedom

Families

Governance

Health Care

Minnesota Economy

mobile logo
0 Comments
on April 15, 2019
Print
Sticky

Minnesota Should Keep Burning Clean, Beautiful Coal

Written by Isaac Orr
in Climate, Energy, Environment

With President Trump visiting Minnesota today, there is no better time to emphasize the fact that Minnesota would save $87.7 billion dollars through 2050 by continuing to burn clean, beautiful coal to generate electricity instead of pursuing more wind and solar. Despite claims to the contrary, coal-fired electricity is far more affordable than wind or solar. Minnesota can only reap these massive economic benefits if we implement the Trump Administration’s proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which requires coal plants to make common sense, and cost effective improvements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions....

Continue reading
0 Comments
on April 11, 2019
Print
Sticky

The Dirty Little Secret Behind Clean Energy Jobs

Written by Isaac Orr
in Climate, Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

The Clean Energy Economy Minnesota jobs report will likely draw favorable media coverage, but a deeper look at the numbers exposes the fact that these numbers are artificially inflated by including workers who are only tangentially related to energy efficiency, and that only 2.2 percent of the wind and solar jobs are non-temporary construction jobs....

Continue reading
0 Comments
on March 29, 2019
Print
Sticky

The Dirty Secret Behind “Clean Energy”

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

Renewable energy advocates often talk about wind and solar as "clean" energy resources, and talk about "dirty" fossil fuels, but how accurate is their assessment that renewables are actually clean? Not very. We've talked about the fact that wind solar, and batteries require massive amounts of copper, nickel, rare earth metals, lead, cadmium, and cobalt. Many times, these materials are mined in countries where there are few, if any, protections for the environment or workers. The Clear Energy Alliance has produced a very good video debunking the claims that fossil fuels are inherently dirty, and video shines a much-needed light on the...

Continue reading
0 Comments
on August 21, 2018
Print
Sticky

Trump Administration Releases Revised Clean Power Plan

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy, Environment

The Trump Administration has released its revised version of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which was considered to be the signature climate change regulation of the Obama Administration. The new rule, called the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, would give individual states more authority to make their own plans for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants rather than imposing a set of top-down policies from the federal government. The CPP was designed to fundamentally transform electricity markets by forcing coal plants to retire and require the use of wind and solar to replace. As we've already seen in Minnesota, this comes...

Continue reading