Turning 70: Some Public Policy Notes

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 20, 2025 3 Comments

“My aim is to finish projects to offer a comprehensive, reliable foundation for future energy scholars to expand and improve upon. Many specific episodes can be studied in greater depth, and future events will require analysis.”

This week is a birthday of note for me. Looking back at a half-century of interest in energy history and public policy, I thank my lucky stars and celebrate a worldview–classical liberalism–that has held up very well over time. It is not how smart you are; it is the ability to discern between a false narrative and objective reality. And with a reliable framework to understand the world, blue-collar research was the wide-open opportunity for me. I have never looked back.

My odyssey began with an Ayn Rand novel in high school on individualism. That got me to free-market economics in college.…

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‘The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions’, U.S. Department of Energy Example

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 8, 2025 5 Comments

“To those who voted for this Administration … ask yourself if this is really what you voted for. I’m willing to bet that, for many of you, the answer is no.” ( Emily Rossi, former DOE employee, below)

Milton Friedman often warned that good intentions are not enough. It is results that matter. Thus, the right worldview is crucial.

I was reminded of this upon reading this farewell post by Emily Rossi, (former) Senior Advisor to the U.S. Dept. of Energy. [Note: these links do not work for me–I might have been blocked. Or she went underground.]

Yesterday was my last day as a federal employee with the U.S. Dept. of Energy [after almost three years]. I’ll have news to share soon about what comes next, but for today, I’d like to reflect on my time at the DOE under Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Deputy Secretary Dave Turk, and join the growing chorus of people lifting up the contributions of federal workers.

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The Great Texas Blackout (2021): When the Free Market Electricity Debate Began

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 24, 2025 No Comments

Ed. note: The Great Texas Blackout four years ago triggered a social media debate that reconfirmed ‘classical liberal’ Lynne Kiesling as an advocate of centrally planned, highly regulated electricity. It also revealed a cadre of electricity planners who bristled at the argument that government failed, including Eric Schubert and Robert Borlick. The exchanges began a debate that led the author to write a free-market primer, Free Market Electricity, to resurrect the 1960s tradition of such names as Harold Demsetz, George Stigler, Milton Friedman, and Walter Primeaux.

Lynne Kiesling (above) came roaring out the gate on Blackout Day February 16, 2021. But ‘the queen of power markets‘ was wrong. The Electric Reliability Commission of Texas (ERCOT) was government–and at the center of the worst electricity crisis in history.…

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Electricity Statism or Free Markets? (Kiesling shows more cards)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 19, 2024 No Comments

“Rob’s snide reference to my ‘chess pieces’ is a reference to my unwillingness to agree with his Utopian dismissal of ISO/RTO organized wholesale markets.” (Lynne Kiesling to Vernon Smith, below)

“Yes, playing with government chess pieces (on-grid solar, wind, batteries, ‘smart’ meters) and a centrally planned wholesale market is Statism writ large.” (Robert Bradley to Kiesling, below)

Electricity specialist Lynne Kiesling champions herself as a classical liberal, free-market advocate. But she is just the opposite and relies on obfuscation and charm to advocate and sell

1) government central planning of wholesale electricity and

2) government-enabled wind, solar, and batteries in place of least-cost (central-station) electricity.

It is her “synthetic regulation” or the highway, premised on a belief that there cannot be private property rights to grid electricity.

This woman of system will not forthrightly define what a free market is with electricity.…

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Industrial Wind Power: Infant Industry Not

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 12, 2024 1 Comment Continue Reading

A Permanent Subsidy? Nuclear Power’s Price-Anderson Act (5 Extensions, 89 years)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 10, 2024 4 Comments Continue Reading

Challenging a “Free-Market” Congressman in 1979 (early criticisms of public utility regulation)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 5, 2024 No Comments Continue Reading

Permanent Tax Subsidy? Solar’s 15 extensions

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 4, 2024 No Comments Continue Reading

Permanent Subsidy? Industrial Wind’s PTC (14 Extensions)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 2, 2024 2 Comments Continue Reading

Is Nuclear “Safe’? Let Price-Anderson Expire in 2025

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 6, 2024 7 Comments Continue Reading