Koch Brothers Fund Bogus Study Bashing Offshore Wind in New Jersey

[DainBramaged]

As anyone who’s traversed the northern segment of New Jersey’s infamous Turnpike can attest, the Garden State has a bit of an image problem when it comes to clean air. And despite dramatic improvements over the past several decades, the state’s report card from the American Lung Association consisted almost entirely of Fs for ozone pollution, and counties received a cumulative 1.9 GPA for particle pollution, including 3 Fs and a D. Apparently, this suits the Koch brothers just fine.

Not content with the efforts of their group Americans For Prosperity to convince Gov. Chris Christie to derail New Jersey’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, the Koch brothers have also ramped up their efforts to ensure New Jersey’s air quality continues to live up to its historic reputation. Last month, the Koch-subsidized Beacon Hill Institute, or BHI, released the latest in a series of slanted cost-benefit analyses of offshore wind energy.

The report, proudly touted on the AFP website, misses the mark on both sides of the ledger by dramatically overstating the costs and underestimating the economic benefits of offshore wind. According to CAP Economist Adam Hersh, such accounting is “like trying to balance your checkbook without entering all the bills you pay or all the deposits you make.” Specifically:
•The study dramatically underestimates the economic savings realized from the environmental benefits by assuming a static price for the valuation of reduction of greenhouse gasses - which will inevitably rise over time - and by applying an absurdly high discount rate of 10 percent to the benefits when most economic studies use rates of 3-5 percent. The discount rate mistake alone could lead to underestimating the benefits of offshore wind by as much as 50 percent. (This Bloomberg article contains a concise description of how an excessively high discount rate dramatically undervalues future benefits.)

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/17/297394/koch-brothers-fund-bogus-study-bashing-offshore-wind-in-new-jersey/

[KansDem]

1. The Kochs again?

Can't we stick those two at a QwikTrip counter for the rest of their lives?

Make them work for a living?

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Free wind versus paying for Kochs' oil.

Which is better on several levels?

[applegrove]

3. They are just so mean. I mean nasty assed assholes.

[gratuitous]

4. How much more do these billionaires need?

Haven't they rigged the system enough for the rest of their lives? What drives such megalomaniacal behavior? Will they ever have enough? And is society required to continue to feed this bottomless maw of greed to its own detriment?

[DainBramaged]

5. These fucks think they are taking it with them, like the Pharaohs