Utopia, you are standing in it!

California’s wind power proponents promised a clean, green future – instead, they’ve delivered a wholesale environmental disaster.

In the desert surrounding Ocotillo, locals have been putting up with wind turbines self-immolating, throwing their blades in all directions, leaking and spraying oil and collapsing to the desert floor, for years now (see our post here).

Here’s a tale of what a ‘clean’, ‘green’ energy future really looks like.

Ocotillo Wind Turbine Collapses Again
East County Magazine
Henri Migala and Miriam Raftery
20 September 2021

Residents in Ocotillo are voicing concerns after yet another wind turbine collapse at the Ocotillo Wind Energy facility. There were no injuries or damage to other structures when the 300-foot-tall turbine crashed to the desert floor at the trouble-prone facility on Thursday, September 16. But residents are raising serious questions over public safety at the site, which produces energy to SDG&E to power the San Diego…

The period of human history that we know today as the Middle Ages spanned over a thousand years, and within that time, significant progress was made into understanding our world. Inventions and discoveries were made not just in Europe but throughout the known world during this time. One area of study that saw a lot of change was medical studies and understanding the human body. How did physicians heal the sick during the Middle Ages, and how did their experiences change their field of study? These questions and more are all explored in Juliana Cummings’ latest book, “Medicine in the Middle Ages: Surviving the Times.”

I want to thank Pen and Sword Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I like learning about aspects from the past, so when I saw this title, I was interested in reading it. I am not usually curious about…

An interesting story – and for those so inclined, an amusing one – out of the United States.

How Amish Communities Became The First To Achieve Covid “Herd Immunity”.

A reporter interviewed members of the Amish communities in Pennsylvania to see how they’ve been handling Covid-19 without electricity, TV or the Internet, with limited phones and basically just being cut off from the outside world, as has been their practice since their founding in the US over a century ago.

You…

There is no market for power that cannot be delivered on demand. Which is why, in the absence of subsidies, there wouldn’t be a solar panel or wind turbine in sight. Sure, there are remote locations where a solar panel hooked up to a system of batteries and diesel generators make perfect economic sense.

Here though, we’re talking about the large-scale solar plants which are increasingly carpeting the countryside, from horizon to horizon.

The value of a power generator as a business asset ordinarily depends upon the value of the power it generates. With wind and solar, however, it’s all about the subsidies they generate.

Tom Shepstone takes a look at the sale of a large-scale solar plant in New Jersey, which reveals what an enormous scam the solar power generation business really is.

Solar Farm Sale Reveals Green Energy Sorcery
Natural Gas Now
Tom Shepstone
16 September 2021

A…

It is very hard for artists, who are part of an iconic band, to breakthrough as a solo artist. Stevie nicks was able to handle it(maybe that’s what Destiny’s child meant when they asked “Can you handle it?}

Stevie Nicks only became a singer for Fleetwood Mac by chance. The band as looking for a new guitarist after Peter Green left, and they approached Lindsey Buckingham. He agreed provided his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, could join too. The rest is Rock N Roll history.

When she went solo in earnest 40 years ago, the woman who had been integral to Fleetwood Mac’s transformation into the world’s biggest band carved out an identity as a star in her own right. She didn’t just make a chart-topping album, Bella Donna, but came up with a stunning anthem that only seems to grow more popular with age.

“Edge of Seventeen” was released as the…

Reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent was the crown jewel of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA).

• It was good for workers since a lower rate means more investment, which translates to increased productivity and higher wages.
• And it was good for U.S. competitiveness since the United States corporate tax rate no longer was the highest in the developed world.

Some critics downplayed those benefits and warned that a lower corporate tax rate would deprive the government of too much revenue.

Since I don’t want politicians to have more money, that was not a persuasive argument. Moreover, I argued during the debate in 2017 that a lower corporate tax rate would generate “revenue feedback.”

In other words, there would be a “Laffer Curve” effect as corporations responded to a lower tax rate by earning and reporting more income.

Based…

Accusations of political sleaze are on the rise again, but the concept of government insiders profiting from the system is nothing new, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 project explains…

If the Committee on Standards in Public Life had existed 400 years ago, it would have needed a rather different remit. While Jacobean politicians periodically attacked corruption and venality in government, it was taken for granted that money was an essential lubricant of the system, and that the highest offices in the land frequently went to the highest bidders. Key components of the civil administration were run as personal fiefdoms and traded as though they were private property. A prime example was the prothonotaryship, or chief clerkship, of the court of King’s Bench, which in 1603 was occupied by John Roper. This office was reckoned to generate a net annual profit of around £4,000 (roughly £1.4 million…

In this post which first appeared on the main History of Parliament blog, our research fellow Dr. Stephen Ball looks at the inaugural session of the reformed Parliament, a theme also explored in our previous blog on Harriet Grote.

When the reformed Parliament first met on Tuesday 29 January 1833 many people speculated about the way the reconfigured House of Commons would conduct its business. Fear that the Whig government would be unduly influenced by newly elected Reformers and Radicals, who might try to seize the initiative over legislation was widespread in conservative circles in the early weeks of the new parliament.

A contemporary analysis of non-Conservative MPs returned at the 1832 general election identified 145 Reformers, 40 Radicals, 33 Irish Repealers and two Liberals, who saw the Reform Act as a springboard for further constitutional change, and 194 Whigs, who could be counted on to support the 23…

Decommissioning wind turbines at the end of their economic lifespan (which is around 10 to 15 years, not the 25 years touted by the wind industry) is one of those phenomenally expensive exercises that the wind power outfit itself will never willingly pay for.

Already past their use-by date, thousands of these things around the world have just been left as rusting monuments to ‘green’ energy stupidity.

The standard corporate structures used by wind power outfits involve a parent company, usually structured as a holding company – NextTerror Ltd, say – with a subsidiary that takes on the name of the wind farm – Mount Misery Pty Ltd. The subsidiary is lumbered with all the current debts and other liabilities, which are loaded up in such a way as to exceed its assets (as long as the wind farm is operating, the parent sees that sufficient cash flushes through the…

Soaring energy  bills are a  problem for  firms,  households,  and  the  government. This  was  a  headline  in  The Economist last week – but it  can’t  happen here, can it?

After  all,  NZ has   plenty    of energy.  Unlike Europe, 80%  of  its electricity is  from renewable  sources. And  according  to oil industry  authorities, NZ is  surrounded  by a massive  continental  shelf — the fifth  largest in the  world, beneath  which  lie  vast  quantities  of  undiscovered  natural gas and, probably, some light oil.

So  surely  NZ  can face  the  future  with confidence?

Well,  no:  let’s not forget Prime Minister  Jacinda  Ardern had her “non-nuclear” moment and  placed a ban on new offshore exploration permits  for  oil  and  gas.  Since  then,  as  international oil explorers gave  up  their  offshore   exploration  licences, supplies  from existing  producing  wells have begun to  diminish for several reasons.

Higher  costs  are  starting  to  flow  into  household and  business …