A Free-Market Energy Blog

Resourceful Earth Day (celebrate freedom, innovation)

By Pierre Desrochers and Jasmin Guénette -- April 22, 2021

“What many environmentalists seem incapable of understanding is that resources are created. After all, crude oil is just sludge until you get it out of the ground and figure out how to use it as an energy source.”

“This Earth Day, we should all give two green thumbs up for human freedom and innovation.”

There is a certain fringe of the environmentalist movement whose members have almost nothing good to say about their fellow men and women. If not for humans, they sometimes explicitly argue, the Earth would be a wonderful place. The lion might not lie down with the lamb, but at least “nature” would be allowed to run its course unobstructed by humankind—which in their reckoning is somehow not a part of nature.

Admittedly, humans have a particular nature that sets them apart from the rest of the fauna on this planet.…

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“The Special Case of Paul Ehrlich” (Julian Simon remembered)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 21, 2021

This reprint from a collection of essays at Julian Simon.com is published as an ode to Earth Day (tomorrow). This piece was finalized in Simon’s treatise, The Ultimate Resource 2 (1996), pp. 604–607. Simon’s relative politeness to his adversary is a tribute to open, honest, and respectful debate (versus the Paul R. Ehrlich approach).

“When you launch a space shuttle you don’t trot out the flat-earthers to be commentators. They’re outside the bounds of what ought to be discourse in the media. In the field of ecology, Simon is the absolute equivalent of the flat-earthers.” (Paul Ehrlich, quoted below)

For economy of treatment of the matter of attack rhetoric, let’s focus on just one critic, Paul Ehrlich, who has directed a great deal of colorful language in my direction (see also his comments in the Afternote to Chapter 15, and my interchange with him in Simon, 1990, Selection 43).…

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Deepwater Horizon at 11: Remember “Beyond Petroleum” BP

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 20, 2021

“On the 11th anniversary of the BP blowout, the real takeaway is that oil companies that think they are ‘beyond petroleum’ are value destroyers for shareholders and for the environment.”

Every April commemorates BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill (April 10, 2010). To the anti-energy Left, Deepwater Horizon is the epitome of oil-gone-bad, coming some 21 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It was not supposed to happen again, but ….

The sad facts of Deepwater Horizon will forever remain. The multiple failures behind the accident are also well documented. But a paradox remains. Mighty BP, captained by John Browne, the leading “environmentalist” of the petroleum industry created the corporate culture that resulted in lax safety and environmental protocols. By saving about $5 million out of $100+ million in drilling costs, the company ended up paying out in excess of $60 billion.…

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Electricity Scare in Texas: Interview

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 19, 2021
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Electric Experts Wed to Regulation (continuation of prior discussions)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 15, 2021
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The Fossil Fuel Dichotomy: Biden and the East’s Contrasting Energy Approach

By Vijay Jayaraj -- April 14, 2021
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New Deal Lite: Beware of the ‘American Conservation Coalition’ (climate alarmism premise ruinous)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 13, 2021
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Raymond Niles on Liberating Electricity: 2008 Insights for Today

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 12, 2021
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PUC/ERCOT: A Classic Hayekian Planning Failure

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 11, 2021
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Electricity Markets: Contrived/Distorted vs. Real (debating the Texas Blackout)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 8, 2021
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