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Energy and Environmental Policy (E2P) at the Independence Institute

By all measures, life is better. Because of our ability to safely, responsibly and efficiently develop natural resources, our standard of living is up, life expectancy is up, and our environment is cleaner. Individuals prosper while also enjoying a healthy planet. If we create an atmosphere where human potential flourishes and we dare to imagine, then everyone can reap the benefits of affordable, reliable, abundant, and safe power and revel in the beauty of a thriving environment.

Our Vision

Access to affordable, reliable, abundant, safe energy and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive. At E2P we envision a Colorado where every person is in control of his or her own energy and environmental destiny. Private property owners are in the best position to protect their land and environment, and the choice of energy resources and how they are utilized should come from the demands of an innovative and free market.

What is the role of government? To remain neutral, let markets work, let individuals innovate, limit regulations, and refrain from picking winners and losers.

Our Principles

People first
Celebrate prosperity
Innovation over regulation
Commonsense conservation
Primacy of private property rights
Results over rhetoric
Reject cynicism

Free Market Energy and Environmental Policy

Embraces our entrepreneurial spirit and optimism that we can have affordable power, responsible domestic energy development, and a clean environment.
Puts individuals in the driver’s seat and allows them to control their own energy future.
Lets the choice of energy resources come from the demands of the free market, and not from the preferences of policymakers, lobbyists, or special interest groups.
Champions private property rights.
Challenges the 80-year-old, monopoly utility model of electricity generation and distribution.
Puts states ahead of Washington, D.C.
Encourages limited and consistent regulations.
Rejects taxpayer funded subsidies.
Doesn’t pick winners and losers.
Welcomes transparency.

Latest Posts

Colorado: Xcel’s cash cow
- October 31, 2012
Last week Minnesota-based Xcel Energy announced that it beat market expectations with third quarter earnings increasing an impressive 18 percent. Colorado’s largest investor owned utility cited hot weather, rate hikes, and lower costs as reasons for its strong 3Q performance. Colorado (PSCo) outperformed all other Xcel subsidiaries with a 24 percent increase for the third
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Colorado: Xcel's cash cow
- October 31, 2012
Last week Minnesota-based Xcel Energy announced that it beat market expectations with third quarter earnings increasing an impressive 18 percent. Colorado’s largest investor owned utility cited hot weather, rate hikes, and lower costs as reasons for its strong 3Q performance. Colorado (PSCo) outperformed all other Xcel subsidiaries with a 24 percent increase for the third
READ MORE
No such thing as a free lunch or free energy
- October 30, 2012
The Independence Institute’s Todd Shepherd, along with this blog, have spent two years covering, and ultimately exposing, what is now the Abound Solar scandal. Understandably, much of the focus is now on Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck’s criminal investigation as well as a Congressional Oversight Committee inquiry into the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer. Recently
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Spookiness at the DOE
- October 12, 2012
Instead of figuring out what happened to your tax dollars with the bankrupt Colorado-based Abound Solar (leaving that to Congress and the Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck), the Department of Energy continues to be the PR firm for the Big Green agenda by promoting energy themed pumpkin carving patterns. Give them credit for including nuclear, but
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The Limits of Wind Power
- October 9, 2012
Environmentalists advocate wind power as one of the main alternatives to fossil fuels, claiming that it is both cost effective and low in carbon emissions. This study seeks to evaluate these claims.

Existing estimates of the life-cycle emissions from wind turbines range from 5 to 100 grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour of electricity produced. This very wide range is explained by differ- ences in what was included in each analysis, and the proportion of electricity generated by wind. The low CO2 emissions estimates are only possible at low levels of installed wind capacity, and even then they typically ignore the large proportion of associated emissions that come from the need for backup power sources (“spinning reserves”).

Wind blows at speeds that vary considerably, leading to wide variations in power output at different times and in different locations. To address this variability, power supply companies must install backup capacity, which kicks in when demand exceeds supply from the wind turbines; failure to do so will adversely affect grid reliability. The need for this backup capacity significantly increases the cost of producing power from wind. Since backup power in most cases comes from fossil fuel generators, this effectively limits the carbon-reducing potential of new wind capacity.

The extent to which CO2 emissions can be reduced by using wind power ultimately depends on the specific characteristics of an existing power grid and the amount of additional wind-induced vari- ability risk the grid operator will tolerate. A conservative grid operator can achieve CO2 emissions reduction via increased wind power of approximately 18g of CO2 equivalent/kWh, or about 3.6% of total emissions from electricity generation.

The analysis reported in this study indicates that 20% would be the extreme upper limit for wind penetration. At this level the CO2 emissions reduction is 90g of CO2 equivalent/kWh, or about 18% of total emissions from electricity generation. Using wind to reduce CO2 to this level costs $150 per metric ton (i.e. 1,000 kg, or 2,200 lbs) of CO2 reduced.
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Killer solar panels and the sobering reality of “green” energy
- September 21, 2012
More solar panels and wind turbines are not solutions to the eco-left’s obsession with global carbon emission according to a new book from University of California – Berkeley visiting scholar Ozzie Zehner titled Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism. Zehner said in an interview with the Huffington Post, ‘Alternative
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Contact

Jake Fogleman
Policy Analyst, Energy & Environmental Policy Center
Email: Jake@i2i.org

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