A Free-Market Energy Blog

Democratic Platform 2024: Energy and Climate

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 10, 2024

“To tackle the climate crisis, lower energy costs, and secure energy independence….” (General Preamble)

Kamala “climate light” Harris, as a campaigner, will not say that climate change is an “existential crisis” (much less yell it as the alarmists want). Harris rebuffs the notion that she would ban hydraulic fractionation with natural gas, reversing her previous pronouncements. She also states that electric cars (EVs) will not be mandated for drivers, backing away from a Biden Administration goal. Finally, Harris speaks little about the Green New Deal in general.

She is trying to get elected in the face of energy exceptionalism, which is the opposite of the Green New Deal. But her vagueness allows the major themes of ’24 Democratic Party Platform to be controlling.

The energy/climate narrative in the 91-page document does not include energy in Chapter Three: Lowering Costs.…

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“Resilience and Adaptation”: Mitigation Demotion Ahead?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 9, 2024

“Mitigation has had far more attention than adaptation…. So thanks to various people who alerted me to a new guide to the often-ignored subject of adaptation….” (- David Shukman, below)

The failure of climate mitigation policy grows ever more obvious. It was 36 years ago (1988) that the debate began on the front pages of the New York Times and other leading newspapers, and look where we are now. A tripartite fossil fuel boomgrassroot backlash against wind and solar installations … growing federal budget deficits with Green Energy bribes … and a significant divide in regard to nuclear and geoengineering as ‘climate fixers’.

If the crisis is upon us, then the ‘climate dollar’ must go toward resilience and adaptation (R&A), not mitigation that has no effect on global climate for decades.…

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“Free Market Electricity”

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 8, 2024

“A free market in electricity would terminate the current provisions of landmark federal statutes, such as the Power Act of 1935, Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, Energy Policy Act of 1992, Energy Policy Act of 1995, and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”

My new AIER primer defines and applies the free-market classical liberal worldview to electricity. This is particularly important because this sound perspective has been both forgotten and misapplied.

Forgotten regarding the criticisms of traditional public utility regulation that emerged in the 1960s; misapplied regarding the current mandatory open access era involving central planning at the wholesale level with ISOs/RTOs.

My major points with quotations follow:

1. Electricity is a free-market product with a clear free market, classical liberal meaning: the separation of government and electricity in all phases and in the whole.

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Lynne Kiesling: All in with the ‘Virtual Power Plant’ (Biden/Harris policy vs. free markets)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 7, 2024
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“Affordable, Reliable and Clean Energy Security Act” (ALEC blueprint for state legislatures)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 4, 2024
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U.S. Offshore Wind: GE Vernova’s Big Problems

By Kennedy Maize -- October 3, 2024
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Rule of Law vs. Eco-obstruction

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 2, 2024
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Eco Complaints at Climate Week NYC

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 1, 2024
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Energy & Environmental Review: September 30, 2024

By -- September 30, 2024
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Jail Time for ‘Just Stop Oil’ Destruction (Van Gogh protected)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 27, 2024
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