Former DOE Secretary Granholm’s Goodbye

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 25, 2025

“The opportunity now is to dismantle the US Department of Energy department by department, with the military nuclear functions transferred away. And the dissolution should be done in such a way as to not have the agency reappear. Reagan promised to do so but did not. Secretary Wright should do so.”

Spending other people’s money like a drunken sailor. Touting inferior energies as if they were good for consumers, investors and the environment. Creating artificial, wasteful political jobs in light of the $36 trillion deficit. And in the end, throwing gold bricks off the Titanic. In short, creating the mess that your successor has to now clean up, and hurting numerous people in the process.

But Jennifer Granholm, the former Secretary of Energy, is sad. She recently wrote on LinkedIn:

To my DOE colleagues:
Like many of you, I’ve been sick about the news of the past month.…

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

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 24, 2025

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.…

Zwolinski Doubles Down (Left-libertarian in action)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 21, 2025

“Global energy means a great deal to me. And climate change denialism is a major problem in both the libertarian and Republican parties.” (- M. Zwolinski)

Yesterday’s post, “Denialism? Zwolinski Punts on Climate Science, Policy (statism on parade),” raised the wrath of its subject, whose emotions and temper (and statism!) are now on display. In an open social media post, he intellectually cheated and got caught. And now he has made it worse.

“Global energy means a great deal to me” he stated to one and all. “And climate change denialism is a major problem in both the libertarian and Republican parties.” Wrong and wrong. Matt Zwolinski does not know much about energy or about the climate debate, it turns out. Yet he smeared a vast section of intellectuals and the public with a statement that is anything but free market, classical liberal, or intellectually respectful (he is an academic in pursuit of the truth, remember).…