“Mounting evidence suggests that the United States is approaching (if not beyond) the level where further energy growth costs more than it is worth.”
– John Holdren. “Too Much Energy, Too Soon, a Hazard.” Windsor Star, August 11, 1975.
John Holdren in 1975 was assistant professor of energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Forty years later, he is in his seventh year as the science advisor to President Obama.
What has not changed is an his anti-energy philosophy, as evidenced by this long-forgotten 1975 essay. It is reproduced in its entirely to add to the Holdren record, one that he has chosen not to renounce or demote in his present capacity.
The United States is threatened far more by the hazards of too much energy, too soon, than by the hazards of too little, too late.…
“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face — not acting.”
– President Obama, “Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline,” November 6, 2015.
” … if Keystone had been in operation it would have lowered Koch Industries’ overall profits by $260 million per year.”
– Charles Koch, Good Profit (New York: Crown Business, 2015), p. 46.
In 1959, Fred Koch purchased an interest in Great Northern Refinery in Minnesota to turn Canadian crude oil into refined products for the Midwest. At the beginning (1955), the facility refined 25,000 daily barrels. Full control by Koch Industries came in 1959. Today, the renamed Pine Bend Refinery has a daily capacity of 339,000 barrels of crude oil that can be turned into 14 million gallons of petroleum products.…
“As an idealistic man in my twenties, I became passionate about the urgency of finding freedom-fueled solutions to human problems, even if the solutions were radical.” (p. 11)
“My readings covered the entire philosophical spectrum…. I discovered my own political orientation was much more nuanced than simply ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal,’ in the contemporary use of those words.” (p. 13)
– Charles Koch, Good Profit (New York: Crown Business, 2015)
Charles Koch’s Good Profit: How Creating Profit for Others Built One of the World’s Most Successful Companies defends the free and prosperous commonwealth against cronyism (aka ‘bad profit’). But more than that, the author presents insights about economic freedom to set up his business management ideal, Principled Entrepreneurship.
A baker’s dozen of quotations from Koch’s new book, and one more for good measure, follow.…