{"id":271511,"date":"2023-08-04T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271511"},"modified":"2023-08-04T19:00:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T17:00:42","slug":"government-and-energy-witnessing-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271511","title":{"rendered":"Government and Energy: Witnessing the Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Clarkson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed. Note<\/strong>: Jim Clarkson is a soft-spoken everyday man who has experienced first-hand the ins-and-outs of crony public-utility regulation, first as the energy manager at a large industrial user and more recently as an energy procurement\/installation consultant. Clarkson, a classical liberal, has also been instrumental in the development of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) as a free-market education and advocacy organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cA Federal employee asked what I did and why I was on the Board\u2026. I airily waved at the group and said: \u2018I\u2019m the only one here making an honest living.\u2019 That didn\u2019t go over very well. I shouldn\u2019t have said it, but after over 50 years of observing state utility regulation, it still upsets me to see smart young people devoted to limiting freedom and prosperity when they could be doing something useful.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Late in the Trump administration I was appointed to be on a U.S. Department of Energy advisory board. The State Energy Advisory Board consisted of some 20 state-level bureaucrats and one private sector person \u2013 me. The advisory board\u2019s mission was to give advice on energy efficiency (EE) and renewable state policies to an Assistant Secretary of DOE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quickly found the swamp culture is not confined to Washington. The other members of the Board were appointees of Governors, usually the state government energy manager, state consumer advocate or a public utility commissioner. All sincerely believe there are no limits on government actions, as long as the goals are politically popular. This is a whole other world; I was on Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After my first meeting I made a policy proposal for the Board to adopt and submit to the Assistant Secretary. The first sentence read: \u201cThe Department of Energy should not in any way encourage Utility EE programs, nor should any state agencies encourage utilities in their state to have such programs.\u201d This was followed by a pithy but profound list of reasons for such a recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t so surprised this proposal was overwhelmingly rejected, but the Board further adopted a recommendation saying the exact opposite of my proposal. The official recommendation was sent up the DOE hierarchy, so I sent my proposal as a dissent up the chain also.\u00a0I was told it was improper to file dissents. Oh, well. Wading in the swamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board meetings consisted mostly of presentations by various other departments in DOE. These folks are really good at Power Point. They all discussed how they \u201ctouched base\u201d and \u201cplugged in\u201d with other groups in DOE and other federal agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These people spend a lot of money. The Board recommendations to these various groups was that they should publicize their programs better. The DOE presenters said they already had their program information on line for the state level energy managers to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a social gathering of DOE people and Board members, a Federal employee asked what I did and why I was on the Board. I tried to describe what I do, but she looked confused. I airily waved at the group and said: \u201cI\u2019m the only one here making an honest living.\u201d That didn\u2019t go over very well. I shouldn\u2019t have said it. After over 50 years of observing state utility regulation, it still upsets me to see smart young people devoted to limiting freedom and prosperity when they could be doing something useful. They are not really communists or socialists\u2019 they are just \u201cgovernmentists\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand raised in the back of the room<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q.\u00a0<\/strong>What is a libertarian who is hostile to all government intervention in the economy doing on a Board that wants to expand government in the first place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>Good question. I was told the Trump transition team wanted to see new ideas on these various Boards of questionable value.\u00a0 Actually, my ideas are not new but date back to the founding of this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Clarkson is a soft-spoken everyday man who has experienced first-hand the ins-and-outs of crony public-utility regulation, first as the energy manager at a large industrial user and more recently as an energy procurement\/installation consultant. Clarkson, a classical liberal, has also been instrumental in the development of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) as a free-market education and advocacy organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":271516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820954,691821594],"class_list":{"0":"post-271511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-department-of-energy-doe","9":"tag-institute-for-energy-research-ier","11":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0friedman_governmentpower.jpg?fit=3834%2C2156&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-18Dd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":317623,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317623","url_meta":{"origin":271511,"position":0},"title":"On the History of IER (for the record)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In its 36th year, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) has a proud history that rebuts the erroneous ad hominem arguments hurled against its principles and principals. Ever since its humble beginnings, IER\u2019s rock-solid research into the economics, political economy, philosophy, and history of energy markets have stood the test\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO2)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO2)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0energy-key-visual-2019-heiafr.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0energy-key-visual-2019-heiafr.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0energy-key-visual-2019-heiafr.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0energy-key-visual-2019-heiafr.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0energy-key-visual-2019-heiafr.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":198224,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=198224","url_meta":{"origin":271511,"position":1},"title":"Jim Clarkson: Wit and Wisdom in a Sea of Utility Regulation\/Cronyism","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/05\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Robert Bradley Jr. \u201cA band of desperate terrorists has taken over the PSC building and is holding the entire staff and all the commissioners as hostages.\u00a0 The dastardly fiends are threatening to\u00a0release\u00a0one regulator every hour until their demands are met.\u201d Jim Clarkson (above) has a sense of humor (also\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0GeorgiaPower_1510673623362-null-HR.jpg?fit=1200%2C698&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0GeorgiaPower_1510673623362-null-HR.jpg?fit=1200%2C698&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0GeorgiaPower_1510673623362-null-HR.jpg?fit=1200%2C698&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0GeorgiaPower_1510673623362-null-HR.jpg?fit=1200%2C698&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0GeorgiaPower_1510673623362-null-HR.jpg?fit=1200%2C698&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":385933,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=385933","url_meta":{"origin":271511,"position":2},"title":"Wind Power\u2019s Subsidy Sham: Grumet\u2019s Plea Ignores 40 Years of Unreliability","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"30\/06\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIt is ironic that Jason Grumet of the American Clean Power Association argues for continued taxpayer subsidies for wind power\u2026. 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Andrew Griffiths\u2019 \u201cEcocide\u201d Threat","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It began with a \u201cWake Up Rishi Sunak\u201d\u00a0post\u00a0from Andrew Griffiths, director of Policy & Partnerships at PlanetMark, a climate activist organization that continually complains that the UK government never does enough to mitigate greenhouse gases. 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