A Free-Market Energy Blog

Trump Administration Accomplishments (Part I: ‘American Energy Independence’)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 19, 2021

Last week, MasterResource summarized the energy- and climate-related highlights of the Trump presidency. The Trump Administration itself just released its highlight list, which is presented today for energy and tomorrow for regulation in general.

Some listed accomplishments below, however, are woke:

  • Renewable energy production and consumption both reached record highs in 2019.
  • Enacted policies that helped double the amount of electricity generated by solar and helped increase the amount of wind generation by 32 percent from 2016 through 2019.

Perfection can be the enemy of the good, and energy was no exception for Trump. In tomorrow’s list, for example, is this step back:

  • Placed a moratorium on offshore drilling off the coasts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
  • Authorized ethanol producers to sell E15 year-round and allowed higher-ethanol gasoline to be distributed from existing pumps at filling stations.
Continue Reading

MLK Day: The Wisdom of Thomas Sowell

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 18, 2021

It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader. Those who have helped the poor the most [were] … those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.

The New York Times’ long-standing motto, “All the News That’s Fit to Print” should be changed to reflect today’s reality: “Manufacturing News to Fit an Ideology.

Born a black in poverty during the early Great Depression. A Marxist at Harvard University and beyond.…

Continue Reading

COVID P&D: The Visible Hand of Oil and Gas

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 14, 2021

” … during challenging times, this fact becomes crystal clear: our energy resources make modern life possible and are absolutely critical to our health and well-being.”

The production and distribution (P&D) of the COVID vaccines is just another example of oil and gas at work in innumerable ways. Institute for Energy Research (IER) President Tom Pyle recently brought attention to the connection:

On Dec. 14th, the first approved COVID vaccine was given to a healthcare worker in New York. During the following weekend, a second vaccine was approved, shipped, and distributed. We are a long way from seeing the other side of this, but these were hopeful signs.

While drug companies like Pfizer, Moderna, and BioNtech are the face of the COVID vaccines, it’s the American energy industry that is the backbone of our fight against the virus and our efforts to develop an effective vaccine to stop its spread.

Continue Reading

Trump’s Energy/Climate Policies in Review (Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 13, 2021
Continue Reading

Trump on Energy, Environment, and Regulation (Part I)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 12, 2021
Continue Reading

More Alarmism from Alarmists

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 11, 2021
Continue Reading

Encountering–and Overcoming–Libertarian Critics

By Robert Bradley Jr. --
Continue Reading

U.S. Offshore Wind Projects: Eco-Consequences on the Firing Line (Part II: Vineyard Wind)

By Sherri Lange -- January 7, 2021
Continue Reading

U.S. Offshore Wind Projects: Eco-Consequences on the Firing Line (Part I: Icebreaker, Cape Wind, Block Island)

By Sherri Lange -- January 6, 2021
Continue Reading

Taming Climate Change: Capitalism at Work (market adaptation, not government mitigation)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 5, 2021
Continue Reading