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Dow Chemical (et al) vs. LNG Exports: An Intellectual, Political Embarrassment for Business

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 25, 2013

“Some molecules are painted with a no export sign. Other molecules are painted with the OK to export sign, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why some molecules are OK and some aren’t.”

– Rusty Braziel, RBN Energy LLC, quoted inCrude export ban no match for lightest U.S. shale oil,” Fuel Fix, February 26, 2013.

“It’s not often you get to participate in a paradigm shift in an industry, and I think we are doing that now.”

– Anders Ekvall (Shell LNG), quoted in Harry Weber, “Natural Gas Industry Expects Big Things,” Houston Chronicle, April 20, 2013.

At the LNG 17 mega-conference in Houston last week, more than 5,000 industry professionals from 80+ countries, and thousands more visitors enjoying 200,000 square feet of exhibits, plotted to make natural gas a global commodity not unlike oil.

Thatcher & Global Warming: From Alarmist to Skeptic

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 11, 2013

“Government interventions are problematic, so intervene only when the case is fully proven.”

– Margaret Thatcher, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World. New York: HarperCollins, 2002, p. 453.

An Inconvenient Truth About Margaret Thatcher: She Was a Climate Hawk,” declares Will Oremus in Slate. In “The Iron Lady’s Strong Stance on Climate Change(Daily Climate, reposted at Climate Progress), author Douglas Fischer notes “how seriously [Margaret Thatcher] viewed the threat of climate change and the robustness, more than 20 years ago, of climate science and United Nations body tasked with assessing state of that science.”

True, UK Prime Minister Thatcher was the first and most important international figure to champion the cause of climate alarmism. But the above authors conveniently stop their discussion with her pronouncements in the early 1990s.

A Federal Energy Board? (Hofmeister’s Idea Is Old, Bad)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 4, 2013

“Fundamentally, what is to stop a FEB from supporting an energy rationing scheme, say a carbon tax or CO2 cap-and-trade program, to ‘save the climate’ or ‘level the playing field’ for wind, solar, and other beggar energies? Hofmeister might oppose such programs, but a FEB is ‘independent’ to do so. Anti-energy forces such as the “green lobby” and current Washington establishment will not surrender or retreat but likely become emboldened by centralized power in a federal energy board.”

John Hofmeister, formerly president of Houston-based Shell Oil (the U.S. side of Royal Dutch Shell), has been an active voice for energy policy reform. Upon retiring from Shell in 2008, he founded Citizens for Affordable Energy (CAE), an educational nonprofit advocating “sound U.S. energy security solutions for the nation, including a range of affordable energy supplies, efficiency improvements, essential infrastructure, sustainable environmental policies and public education on energy issues.”

Response to Media Matters on Wind Power Accidents (dilute or dense energy for health & safety?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 2, 2013

Cronyism on Trial: Introducing Crony Chronicles.org & Study of American Capitalism Project

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 29, 2013

Lights On! Human Achievement Hour Tomorrow Night (March 23: 8:30–9:30 pm EST)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 22, 2013

Obama 2013–or Jimmy Carter 1977?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 19, 2013

Wind Jobs at PTC Risk: Not 37,000 per AWEA but 2,525 (these million-dollar jobs displace real jobs, too)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 8, 2013

Depletionism Reconsidered: A 2004 Article Revisited

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 6, 2013

Big-Picture Policy: Talking Points for Economic Liberty (energy included)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 1, 2013