“When President Reagan decontrolled prices in January 1981, the regulatory arbitrage was over…. The strangest regulatory episode in US history was done.”
Economist Robert Murphy has summarized what I believe is the most unique, confounding, consequential regulatory episode in American history in his piece: “The Crazy Crude Oil Price Controls of the 1970s.” [1]
Yes, it happened some decades ago. But if you want to know why no economist in recent history has espoused price controls for crude oil and petroleum products, this experience rings loud today.
Basically, a large group of opportunistic middlemen seized profits that federal price and allocation regulation kept from the rightful industry parties (wellhead producers, in particular). It is the story of the unintended consequences of government intervention. Or entrepreneurial gaming in the face of regulatory constraints (with positive social outcomes in this case)–what Israel Kirzner called superfluous entrepreneurship.
…“Thousands of years of climate adaptation by untold numbers of biological species is now viewed by climate alarmists as an obsolete process, as they assume that the global climate environment has reached its ultimate optimum state of ‘now’.”
The most recent rebuttal by Rob Bradley to a “Climate Alarmist at R Street” included reference to “change” as a primal fear among the environmental alarmists. Stasis, indeed, is a defining characteristic of the Malthusian, deep ecology worldview held by many natural scientists working in academia.
Inherent in our earthly existence is change. Change characterizes all physical entities on some time scale. Order succumbs to disorder, unless work is expended to mitigate it, at least according to the law of entropy. Yet climate is held to a pseudo-spiritual standard of enduring timelessness and unchanging behavior.
…The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.
Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
Why some rural communities are fighting back against wind development
Wind turbines delivering next to nothing to grid despite hysteria
Environmental activists ignore energy security realities
Short video: Overcoming Bias in Energy Conversations
The World Bank’s anti-energy policy betrays its core development mission
Wind Projects Worry Federal Meteorologist
Environmental justice and the expanding geography of wind power conflicts
Duke Energy Considering Extending Nuclear Plant Life to 80 years
Study: Wind turbines impact bat activity, leading to high losses of habitat
Study: Gone with the Wind – Wind Development and Raptors
All wind energy avian mortality research and reporting is just deception
Solar panels could be a source of GenX and other perflourinated contaminants
Study: Model falsifiability and climate slow modes
IPCC report deleted uncertainties about human caused climate change
Climate Change, Catastrophe, Regulation and the Social Cost of Carbon
Climate Change Wackos Exposed in California Court
Four Questions on Climate Change
DDP: Ten Key Questions about Climate Change
A Challenge to the American Planning Association (re Sustainability)
Startling New Discovery Could Destroy Global Warming Doomsday Forecasts
Scott Pruitt – Warrior for Science
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