“Niskanen’s @willwilkinson on the merits of @SenWarren. Yes people, you read that right. And I’m with him.” (Jerry Taylor, February 5, 2019)
The intellectual transformation of Jerry Taylor from libertarian (and libertarian enforcer) to shifty eclectic statist has been told elsewhere (here and here). Not surprisingly, his intellectual road to serfdom began with small steps and has grown to the point that fewer and fewer libertarians and conservatives trust his intellectual judgement.
Taylor’s statism has now attracted the gentlemanly ire of one of his advisory board members, Tyler Cowen, himself an eclectic but libertarian- leaning (he no longer describes himself as ‘classical liberal‘).
Professor Cowen recently wrote in “The Economic Policy of Elizabeth Warren” at Marginal Revolution (January 19, 2020):
…Jerry Taylor has made some positive noises about her on Twitter lately, as had Will Wilkinson in earlier times.
Being “free and green” requires just what classical liberals and conservatives want: defeat of the anti-capitalist, anti-technology, anti-energy agenda. Market pricing, not carbon taxes. Open international trade, not carbon tariffs. Avoidance of one-world government in the perilous, futile crusade to “stabilize” the planet. In short, no climate road to serfdom.
Bad incentives have created a peculiar situation in which alleged classical liberals and conservatives push climate alarm and open-ended governmental energy activism. I have called out several of my former free-market colleagues in this regard, including Jerry Taylor (here and here vs. his previous view here); Josiah Neeley (here vs. his previous view here); and Jonathan Adler (here vs. his earlier view here).
In each case, these individuals published prior analysis that can easily neuter if not refute their present views.…
“Beyond Petroleum” BP needs to own up to the facts that it is a fossil fuel company and fossil fuels are inherently good compared to dilute, intermittent, non-scalable alternatives. Instead, it takes the moral low ground and wonders why it is losing the PR war against the critics of economic growth and prosperity.
Try to find out what the global market share of oil, gas, and coal is today. It will not be easy. You have to hunt and compute it yourself in many cases. I did.
Take BP’s Annual Statistical Review for 2019. In the front summary, simple market shares for each fossil fuel are not stated, just changes in growth rates and country-by-country statistics. This hides what could be the most relevant statistic of all: the global market share of fossil fuels.…