Category — Energy Benefits

“We love energy with conviction, while they hate it with confusion.”

- Alex Epstein

On Sunday, February 17th, 350.org and the Sierra Club hosted the “Forward on Climate” rally on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It was billed as the “largest climate rally in history.” Just like the anti-Keystone XL rally in 2011, protesters pushed the Obama administration to continue to block the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries.

But unlike the 2011 rally, Sunday’s protesters were challenged by Alex Epstein and his Light Brigade, an “educational counter-protest” whose members wore bright yellow t-shirts and shared their sincere appreciation for life-giving energy. I am proud to say I was part of that group.

Alex et al. did a great job of explaining to an adamantly anti-oil crowd just how much better their lives are because of oil. It was interesting to watch people realize that their whole day was predicated on oil – the polyester clothes they were wearing, the ibuprofen they took that morning, the computer chips in their phones, their plastic water bottles, the synthetic rubber in their shoes, not to mention the gas in the cars they drove to get there (even an abridged list is mind-boggling).

However, one key point that unfortunately never sank in with anyone we talked to is that the climate has become dramatically safer with fossil fuel-driven industrial improvements. It seemed like no one cared about that crucial fact. [Read more →]

The American Energy Alliance (AEA) and the Institute for Energy Research (IER) have created a new platform, American Products. American Power. to educate the nation about the critical role that energy plays for our economy and in our daily lives.

IER is an educational non-profit under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; AEA is an advocacy non-profit under Section 501(c)(4) of the code.  I am founder and CEO of IER.

Here is the website’s introduction to the new initiative:

Welcome to American Products. American Power. If you shaved today, brushed your teeth, or are reading this on a computer, you already know us.

You also probably know that energy makes it possible to heat our homes, cook our food, and fill our gas tanks, but it does much more. Energy protects our troops and keeps our firefighters and police officers safe. Energy from oil, natural gas, and coal is responsible for hundreds and hundreds of everyday products. Coal provides the affordable energy that powers our factories and the raw materials used to make hundreds and hundreds of products we use every day are derived from oil and natural gas. [Read more →]