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| 15 Sep 2009 02:01:51 pm |
 Heritage exhumes its Calzada technique, in Denmark this time |
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In April and May of this year, the Heritage Foundation spent a lot of time and effort promoting a "study" by Prof. Gabriel Calzada and colleagues from a little-known libertarian think tank associated with King Juan Carlos University in Spain. Prof. Calzada's work purported to show that government efforts to encourage clean energy destroy more jobs than they create.
The Heritage (and allies') campaign was very successful. Heritage sponsored a forum in Washington, D.C., for Prof. Calzada. George Will wrote a column about Prof. Calzada (see our response here), and his findings were industriously circulated by every conservative and fossil-fuel-funded think tank in creation as incontrovertible fact. And since they were fascinating and counter-intuitive, they made colorful copy for many news outlets.
There was just one little problem--according to an analysis released a few weeks ago by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the conclusions of the Calzada report were not supported by its contents. In other words, the source of considerable hue and cry against government clean energy programs turned out to be ... bunk.
Far from being embarrassed by what should have been a fiasco for its credibility, Heritage is now peddling a new report attacking wind power, this time from Denmark's Centre for Political Studies (CEPOS). The CEPOS report claims that Danish wind power does not reduce carbon emissions and that it has slowed Denmark's economic growth. And further, says Heritage, "This is very similar to what we've seen in Spain. Research directed by economist Gabriel Calzada ... " blah blah blah.
We'll keep you posted on future findings concerning the CEPOS report.
For now, we can offer you this quote from a representative of DONG Energy, the major Danish energy company. We wrote to them in the fall of 2006, the last time the wind-doesn't-cut-carbon canard surfaced. Their letter said in part:
Quote : According to statistics published by the Danish Energy Authority - www.ens.dk - The total energy consumption in 2005 was 844 PJ (compared to 820 PJ in 1990) - Renewables accounted for 134 PJ in 2005 (compared to 55 PJ in 1990) - The CO2 emission in [1990] was 61 million ton (compared to 51 million ton in 2005).
The development has led to economic wealth, environmental sustainability, security of energy supply and finally high employment with Denmark as world market leader when it comes to production, demonstration and implementing wind turbines.
Those are the hard facts about Danish renewable energy. Stay tuned.
Additional information:
--The Institute for Energy Research (IER), which also promoted the Calzada report, is flogging the CEPOS report. Why? What's in it for these persistent critics?
--A possible answer is provided by the Natural Resource Defense Council's Pete Altman, who does a nice job of tracing the web of funding for IER and its allies here. NRDC also provides a response to the CEPOS report here.
--If government subsidies are indeed an issue, then permanent subsidies written into U.S. tax law for fossil fuels should also be targeted. See AWEA's energy subsidy fact sheet.
[Amendment, later on 9/15: We first encountered this information via the Heritage blog and felt it important to respond quickly. Since then, it has become clear that the Institute for Energy Research commissioned the CEPOS report and that Heritage joined in publicizing it. See the next blog posted today for additional information on the substantive errors in the report.--TG] |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Tom Gray |
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