Well, my question earlier this week as to whether someone booted out of the IPA for being too offensive to Muslims could still post at Catallaxy has been answered in the affirmative, with
Alan Moran still posting there today (about renewable energy.)
Well done, Sinclair Davidson! Previously, extreme views of Islam were restricted to those visitors in threads; now we know they're held by (at least one) who posts there too.
Speaking of renewable energy, Moran points with approval to a
Leyonjhelm piece in the Australian today, which (as usual) is big on claims but short on evidence.
The Bald One apparently accepts uncritically a Deloittes report from earlier in the year that figured the RET would "cost the economy" $29 billion.
But as this article noted, this is based on some very dubious assumptions about the ongoing cost of installing renewables, when we know that they have been becoming cheaper. And besides, this way of modelling and adding up a cumulative amount over years of "costs to economy" exaggerates the effect for political purposes. And even more crucially, the Deloittes report is open about not taking into account any environment benefits of renewables
at all.
This last point is, of course, at the heart of nearly all criticism of the RET: those fighting it do not really believe there is an environmental benefit to it at all, because they don't believe in climate change.
Update: here's Leyonjhelm as apparently quoted in The Australian today:
“I have seen so much levy money being poorly spent on ridiculous fantasyland things such as climate change and sustainability; ..."
I thought he used to take a more "well I'm just being open minded" line on climate change,
saying things like:
Nobody disputes the fact that atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing,
although there is debate about what effect this is having and whether it
justifies government action.
So it's good to see that he has outed himself as a clear denialist, then.